LATVIJAS - DSpace

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Manchu languages. This matter of fact proves clearly that these
peoples are strangers, who have absorbed the Palaeo-Asiatic aborigines.
This linguistic conclusion is supported by Chinese history, which states
that the Jüchens (Jučen), the predecessors of the Manchus, lived in
the tenth century A. D. only in the northwestern part
of Manchuria.
The Chinese historical work „Ch'in-ting Man-chou yüan-liu k'ao",
compiled by order of the Manchu emperor Ch'ien-lung about the year
1777, enumerates indeed many
appearance of the Jüchens,
Manchu tribes in Manchuria before the
but these tales are properly patriotic calcu-
lations of the Manchu government and remain to be proved. W. Radloff
refers with weighty reasons the Kytais and Tatabies, the eastern
neighbours of the old Turks in the eigth century A. D. to the Tungus-
Manchu group, but the boundaries of these peoples are unknown (Die
alttürkischen Inschriften der Mongolei. P. 428 —9). At all events we
have no reason to believe that the Tungus-Manchu
the Pacific Ocean aready in the tenth century.
tribes had reached
For many centuries the Negidals have been neighbours
of the
Manchurian Oroches, Goldis and Olchas, the nearest relatives of the
Goldis,
and have borrowed from them numerous words, which for the
most part are found also in the Manchu,
but are unknown in other
Tungusian dialects. Characteristic Manchu elements are the following
Negidal loan-words: kalim a whale, adzin the great sturgeon beluga,
davathe Amoor salmon,
džabdan a viper, šapki a. netting needle, kotil a
sail, kamnun fish-glue, taktu a barn, kolan a chimney, paga
a window,
dörö a table, tönku a stool, söktöun a carpet, hausan paper, hadža
the scissors, joxan wadding, hontaxa hemp, opa flour, lata groats,
töngköre a fiddle. In the Negidal, Oroche, Olcha and Goldi are found such
words as: komaka a stag, avata a black fox,
salmon, kačita the fish kasatka, xangu a carp, oksaji
ogda a boat, geol and Söul rudders,
colâîxi a polecat, okojo a
an owl, čupai all,
oton a vessel, xupen a thread.
The following words seem to be limited to the Negidal
and Oroche:
kota a seal, džukin an otter, saxanan a taimen, noxun a hen, ölbönö
a sail, coxaun a chisel, atpuxi
a besom, dodoxon and kondzoxon
vessels. Considering that these loan-words are composed
of local
zoologicai names and terms of Chinese culture, we see that the Negidals
reached the lower basin of the Amoor later than the Manchu tribes.
At the present
time the Negidals are separated from the Oroches by
the Olchas, but the loan-words of the last group
show that in former
times the Negidals
and the Oroches were neighbours. The same is
proved even by the phonetic law that the original consonant r