Orochon
/ˈɒr.ə.tʃɒn/noun
A variant English name for the Oroqen people and their Tungusic language of northeastern China.
Did you know?Orochon is an English variant of Oroqen, while the people’s own language is generally called Oroqen or Orochen and belongs to the Tungusic language family.
Etymological Timeline
Early Tungusic
Tungusic
*oron / *oroči
“Reconstructed forms associated in scholarship with reindeer and reindeer herding; the precise derivation remains debated.”
19th Century
Russian
Orochen
“A Russian ethnonym used for a Tungusic reindeer-herding population in the Amur and northeastern Siberian region.”
19th–20th Century
Chinese
鄂伦春 (Èlúnchūn)
“The Chinese name for the Oroqen people, historically rendered through Chinese transcription rather than translated directly.”
20th Century
English
Orochon
“An English variant spelling used for the Oroqen people and, less commonly, their language.”
Modern English
English
Oroqen / Orochen
“The more common modern English forms for this Indigenous people and their Tungusic language.”