Editing Manchu people (section)

====Alphabet====
{{Main|Manchu alphabet}}

The Jurchens, ancestors of the Manchus, had created Jurchen script in the Jin dynasty. After the Jin dynasty collapsed, the Jurchen script was gradually lost. In the [[Ming dynasty]], 60–70% of Jurchens used Mongolian script to write letters and 30–40% of Jurchens used Chinese characters.<ref name=fuge/> This persisted until Nurhaci revolted against the Ming Empire. Nurhaci considered it a major impediment that his people lacked a script of their own, so he commanded his scholars, Gagai and Eldeni, to create Manchu characters by reference to Mongolian scripts.<ref name=jiang1980>{{cite book |first = Liangqi |last = Jiang |script-title = zh:《东华录》 |trans-title = Donghua Record |publisher = Zhonghua Book Compary |year = 1980 |isbn = 11018-766 |url = http://book.douban.com/subject/4013873/ }}</ref>{{rp|4}} They dutifully complied with the Khan's order and created Manchu script, which is called "script without dots and circles" ({{manchu|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᡨᠣᠩᡴᡳ<br />ᡶᡠᡴᠠ<br />ᠠᡴᡡ<br />ᡥᡝᡵᡤᡝᠨ}}|v=tongki fuka akū hergen|a=tongki fuka akv hergen}}; {{zh|labels=no |s=无圈点满文}}) or "old Manchu script" ({{zh|labels=no |s=老满文}}).<ref name=liuzhaozhao/>{{rp|3 (Preface)}} Due to its hurried creation, the script has its defects. Some vowels and consonants were difficult to distinguish.<ref name=ortai1985/>{{rp|5324–5327}}<ref name=tong2009/>{{rp|11–17}} Shortly afterwards, their successor Dahai used dots and circles to distinguish vowels, aspirated and non-aspirated consonants and thus completed the script. His achievement is called "script with dots and circles" or "new Manchu script".<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Dahai |last2 = First Historical Archives of China |script-title = zh:《满文老档 译著》 |trans-title = Old Manchu Archive, Translated Version |publisher = Zhonghua Book Company |year = 1990 |isbn = 978-7101005875 |url = http://book.douban.com/subject/4106450/|pages=1196–1197}}</ref>