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The Manchu alphabet is the alphabet used to write the now nearly-extinct Manchu language; a similar script is used today by the Xibe people, who speak a language variably considered as either a dialect of Manchu or a closely related, mutually intelligible, language. It is written vertically from top to bottom, with columns proceeding from left to right. == History == According to the ''Veritable Records'' (; ), in 1599 the Manchu leader Nurhaci decided to convert the Mongolian alphabet to make it suitable for the Manchu people. He decried the fact that while illiterate Han Chinese and Mongolians could understand their respective languages when read aloud, that was not the case for the Manchus, whose documents were recorded by Mongolian scribes. Overriding the objections of two advisors named Erdeni and G'ag'ai, he is credited with adapting the Mongolian script to Manchu. The resulting script was known as ("script without dots and circles"). In 1632, Dahai added diacritical marks to clear up a lot of the ambiguity present in the original Mongolian script; for instance, a leading ''k'', ''g'', and ''h'' are distinguished by the placement of no diacritical mark, a dot, and a circle respectively. This revision created the Standard script, known as ("script with dots and circles"). As a result, the Manchu alphabet contains little ambiguity. Recently discovered manuscripts from the 1620s make clear, however, that the addition of dots and circles to Manchu script began before their supposed introduction by Dahai. Dahai also added ten graphemes (''tulergi hergen'': "foreign (outer) letters"), to allow Manchu to be used to write Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan loanwords. Previously, these words contained sounds that did not have corresponding letters in Manchu.〔Gorelova, L: "Manchu Grammar", page 50. Brill, 2002.〕 Sounds that were transliterated included the aspirated sounds kʰ (Chinese pinyin: k, ᠺ), k (g, ᡬ), x (h, ᡭ); ts' (c, ᡮ); ts (ci, ᡮ᠊ᡟ); sy (si, ᠰ᠊ᡟ); dz (z, ᡯ); c'y (chi, ᡱᡟ); j'y (zhi, ᡷᡟ); and ž (r, ᡰ).〔Gorelova, L: "Manchu Grammar", pages 71-72. Brill, 2002.〕 By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were three styles of writing Manchu in use: standard script (''ginggulere hergen''), semi-cursive script (''gidara hergen''), and cursive script (''lasihire hergen''). Semicursive script had less spacing between the letters, and cursive script had rounded tails.〔Gorelova, L: "Manchu Grammar", page 72. Brill, 2002.〕 The Manchu alphabet was also used to write Chinese. ''Manchu: a textbook for reading documents'', by Gertraude Roth Li, contains a list comparing a romanization of Chinese syllables written in Manchu compared to pinyin and Wade Giles. Using the Manchu script to transliterate Chinese words is a source of loanwords for the Xibe language. Several Chinese-Manchu dictionaries contain Chinese characters transliterated with Manchu script and the Manchu version of the Thousand Character Classic is actually the Manchu transcription of all the Chinese characters. Also existing as a transliteration was the Manchu version of the Hong Loumeng (紅樓夢). In the "Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation" (欽定遼金元三史國語解 Qinding Liao Jin Yuan sanshi guoyujie) commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, the Manchu alphabet is used to write Evenki words. In the Pentaglot Dictionary, also commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, the Manchu alphabet is used to transcribe Tibetan and Chagatai words. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Manchu alphabet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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