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The Manchu language is a member of the Tungusic languages; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Chinese and there are less than 100 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus. However, there are about 40,000 speakers of Sibe (Xibo), which is in almost every respect identical to classical Manchu. However, Sibe speakers, who live in far western Xinjiang, are ethnically distinct from Manchus and lay claim as well to the distinctiveness of their language.

It is an agglutinizing language that demonstrates limited vowel harmony, and it has been demonstrated that it is derived in the main from the Jurchen language though there are many loan words from Mongolian and Chinese. Its script is vertically written and taken from the Mongolian alphabet (which in turn derives from AramaicAramaic was for a long time (between the later Assyrian empire and the Abbasid Caliphate) a lingua franca in the Middle East; its alphabet, though itself derived from the Phoenician alphabet, therefore superseded the Old Hebrew alphabet that had been inde via UighurThe Uighur alphabet is any of the following: Descendant of Sogdian alphabet, used for texts of Buddhist, Manichean and Christian contents for 700-800 years in East Turkestan. Last known manuscripts are dated the 18th century. Prototype for Mongolian and M and SogdianThe Sogdian alphabet is derived from Syriac, the descendant script of Aramaic alphabet. It is occasionally known as the sutra script, was similar to the script of the Ancient Letters used in writing on papyri. Many Buddhist, Manichee, Nestorian, and Zoroa).

According to the Veritable Records (manju-i yargiyan kooli, Chinese: 滿洲實錄), in 1599Events Swedish King Sigismund III Vasa is replaced by his brother Charles IX of Sweden. First reported performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in London. Births February 13 Pope Alexander VII (+ 1667) March 22 Anthony van Dyck, painter (+ 1641) April 2 the Manchu leader NurhaciNurhaci or Nurgaci ( Chinese: ) ( 1559- September 30, 1626; r. 1616- September 30, 1626) was a chieftain of a Jurchen tribe of northeastern Manchuria. He is considered to be the founding father of the Manchu state and is also credited with ordering the cr decided to convert the Mongolian alphabet to make it suitable for the Manchu people. He decried the fact that while illiterate 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 "tongki fuka aku hergen" ("script without dots and circles"). In 1632See also: 1632 (novel Events February 22 Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published July 23 300 colonists for New France depart Dieppe. November 16 Battle of Lutzen Christina becomes queen of Sweden; five regents, headed by Axe, 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 "tongki fuka sindaha hergen" ("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.

Historically, the Manchu language is important in that Europeans were exposed to and familar with Manchu before they encountered the Chinese language. Manchu began as the primary language of the Qing dynasty Imperial court, but by the 19th century even the imperial court had lost fluency in the language. Nevertheless, until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, all Imperial documents were drafted in both Manchu and Chinese. Today written Manchu can still be seen in Qing dynasty architecture such as the Forbidden City whose historical signs are written in both Manchu and Chinese characters, and Manchu records are important in the study of Qing-era China.

Very few native Manchu speakers remain; in what used to be Manchuria virtually no one speaks the language with the entire area having been completely sinicized. In fact, the modern custodians of the language are actually the Sibe who live near the Ili valley in Xinjiang and were moved there by Qianlong Emperor in 1764. Modern Sibe is very close to Manchu, although there are a few slight differences in writing and pronunciation; however, the Sibe consider themselves to be separate from the Manchus.