高宏亮电信资料:最后的满族人：满语，还有你吗？

最后的满族人

Et tu, Manchu?

满语，还有你吗？

The condemned in Texas can no longer choose their last meal

一百年后，以满语为母语的人所剩无几

A CENTURY ago it was the “national language” of a vast empire. Today Manchu mixes with cigarette smoke blown through the wrinkled lips of 86-year-old Zhao Lanfeng in Sanjiazi, a village in China’s north-east. The words she croaks in her thatch-roofed, mud-brick farmhouse are precious. Ms Zhao (pictured) calls herself one of only two fluent native speakers of Manchu left in the village, one of the last redoubts of a language that is verging on extinction.

一个世纪以前，它曾经是广袤帝国的“国语”。今天，满语混合着香烟，从中国东北三家子村86岁的赵兰凤（音）老人干瘪的嘴唇中吐出。她在这个泥砖修建的茅草屋中说出的每一个词都弥足珍贵。赵女士（图）说自己是村里仅存的两个能流利地使用满语的人之一，是阻止这门语言趋向消亡的最后阵地之一。

Even in 1911, when the hated Manchu rulers of China’s last imperial Qing dynasty were overthrown, the language was national only in name. Manchus formed only about 2% of the country’s population at the time. Most people spoke Chinese, the language of the majority Han people who were conquered in 1644 by the Manchus, a collection of ethnic groups from the country’s borderlands in what was once known as Manchuria. Even the last Manchu emperor, Puyi (who was six when he abdicated), was far from fluent, despite the court’s dogged efforts to keep the language alive.

即使在1911年，中国最后一个帝国——清朝的满族统治者被推翻的时候，满语也只是名义上的国语。那时候，满族只占全国人口的2%。大多数人说汉语，即汉族的语言。汉族在1644年被满洲人征服，满洲人来自该国被称作“满洲”的边境地区。即使是最后一个满族皇帝溥仪（6岁退位）的满语也远远称不上流利，尽管朝廷费尽心思想要使这门语言得以延续。

Hundreds if not thousands of Manchu civilians, many of whom lived in separate communities walled off from their Han neighbours, were massacred during the revolution by vengeful Han troops. Many more changed their names, clothing and other giveaway features of their ancestry to escape persecution. But in some remote rural areas Manchu ways held out longer. In Sanjiazi, descendants of the Manchu troops who settled the village during the Qing period outnumbered Han residents. Ms Zhao grew up speaking Manchu.

满族人居住的独立村落被围墙与汉族邻居隔离开，在革命期间，成百上千居住在那里的满族平民被复仇心切的汉族军队屠杀。更多的人更名易装，改变可能暴露他们血统的特征，以躲避迫害。但是在一些偏远农村，满族生活方式延续时间更久。在三家子，满族军队自清代就驻扎在那里，他们的后代数量超过汉族居民。赵女士从小就说满语。

Hers was the last generation to do so. In 1979 there were 50 fluent speakers left. The two remaining (the other is also 86) sometimes chat to each other in Manchu. But Ms Zhao says the last time this happened was about four months ago. A few others in Sanjiazi speak a bit of Manchu. But in all of China, there are only a handful of people like Ms Zhao.

她这一代人是最后一代从小就说满语的人。1979年时，有50个流利说满语的人。仍然健在的两位（另一位也86岁）有时会用满语聊天。但是赵女士说，上次聊天是四个月以前的事情了。三家子还有其他人能说一点满语。但是在全中国范围内，只有很少像赵女士一样的人。

Few Chinese have any interest in learning the dying language of their one-time oppressors. Wu Yuanfeng, a government archivist, says 2m out of 10m Qing documents in the country’s collection are written in Manchu. Yet he estimates there are only about 30 scholars in China who are truly expert in the language. Knowledge of the language is kept up mainly by people like him who belong to the Xibo people from China’s far north-west. The Xibo language is very close to Manchu, but Mr Wu says only about 20,000 speak it and their numbers are rapidly diminishing too.

在中国，很少有人有兴趣学习昔日压迫者这种濒临消亡的语言。吴元风（音）是一名政府档案管理员，他说国家收藏的清朝文档有20%是用满语写的。他估计，全国大概只有30名学者真正精通满语。关于这门语言的知识主要是靠向他这样来自大西北的锡伯族人来传承。锡伯语与满语接近，但是吴先生说只有约20000人说锡伯语，并且数量也在快速减少。

About six years ago Sanjiazi set up the country’s first Manchu school. But Ms Zhao does not think this will make much difference. The Manchu teachers, she says, do not understand her Manchu. A big sign outside the village proclaims it as a “living fossil” of the language. Soon it might be a dead one.

大约六年前，三家子设立了全国第一个满语学校。但是赵女士认为这并没带来什么变化。她说，满语老师听不明白她的满语。村外巨大的标语写着满语是语言的“活化石”。可能不久之后，满语就要消亡了。