Daur (Daur: ᡩᠠᡥᡡᡵ, DAO: Dahu'r, Simplified Chinese: 达斡尔, Traditional Chinese: 達斡爾, Pinyin: Dáwò'ěr, Japanese: ダウール) is also translated as Dagur, Daguor, Dawar, Dawo’er, Tahuerh or Tahur. The Daur language is a Mongolic language primarily spoken by members of the Daur ethnic group. There is no national or international standard of Daur script till now.
In Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty, the Daur language was written in Manchu script with a supplement of long vowels. In Internet, Daur is often written in Latin letters. Daur was also written in Cyrillic letters before.
In Daicing web site, the Daur script refers to the version in Manchu script.
Mr. 恩和巴图 (Merden Enhebatu) has written some books on Daur. The following opinions are based on his book: 汉达词典 (the Chinese-Daur Dictionary).
1) Long Vowels
There are no long vowels in written or spoken Manchu. (In Manchu Ali Gali, there are long vowels.)
There are long vowels in Daur. (They are easier than Manchu Ali Gali long vowels.)
| Vowel | a | e | i | o | u | u' |
| Long Vowel | ae | ee | ii | oo | uo | [u'o] |
| Daur | ᠠᡝ | ᡝᡝ | ᡳᡳ | ᠣᠣ | ᡠᠣ | ᡡᠣ |
They can also be written as `a, `e, `i, `o, `u, and `u'. The long vowel of u' is not used.
2) Pinyin zi
Pinyin zi was written as zi (ᡯᡳ) (currently, only Daicing fonts can render Manchu zi correctly) in Manchu, but it was written as zi' (ᡯᡟ) in Daur.
3) Letter f
Daur uses Sibe f instead of Manchu one.
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