Evenki children were forced to learn Russian at Soviet residential schools, and returned with a "poor ability to speak their mother tongue...".

[9] Bulatova enumerated 14 dialects and 50 sub-dialects within Russia, spread over a wide geographical area ranging from the Yenisei River to Sakhalin.

These may be divided into three major groups primarily on the basis of phonology:[11] Evenks in China also speak several dialects.

Some works focused on individual Russia dialects include Gortsevskaya 1936 (Barguzin), Andreeva 1988 (Tommot), and Bulatova 1999 (Sakhalin).

[13][clarification needed] Below are tables of Evenki consonant phonemes, including those identified by Nedjalkov (1997) in italics.

[17][18] Below is a chart of Evenki vowels found among Russian dialects, including those identified by Nedjalkov (1997) in italics.

[22] This alphabet had the following composition: Aa Bb Çç HH Dd Ӡӡ Ee Әә Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Ŋŋ Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Ww Yy; it also included diacritical marks: a macron to indicate the longitude of the sound and a sub-letter comma to indicate palatalization.

The script has one additional letter, ӈ, to indicate /ŋ/; it is used only inconsistently in printed works, due to typographical limitations.

However orthographic decisions like these have resulted in some confusion and transfer of Russian phonetics to Evenki among younger speakers.

[31] In the "Imperial History of the National Languages of Liao, Jin, and Yuan" (Chinese: 欽定遼金元三史國語解; pinyin: Qīndìng liáo jīn yuán sān shǐ guóyǔ jiě) commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, the Manchu alphabet is used to write Evenki words.

Evenki scholars made an attempt in the 1980s to create standard written forms for their language, using both Mongolian script and a pinyin-like Latin spelling.

[33] The system uses double letters in both Mongolian and Latin to represent most long vowels; however for /ɔː/ ao is written instead of oo.

Du (2007) uses a different version of Latin script, which distinguishes certain vowels and consonants more clearly than the system of Kesingge et al.: Evenki is highly agglutinating and suffixing: Each morpheme is easily recognizable and carries only one piece of meaning.

'hute-klechild-LOCDIRhute-klechild-LOCDIR'for the child'tatkit-tuschool-DATtatkit-tuschool-DAT'at/in school'agi-tkiforest-ALLLOCagi-tkiforest-ALLLOC'(in)to the forest'd'u-lahouse-ALLd'u-lahouse-ALL'[enter] into the house'oron-ditkreindeer-ELAoron-ditkreindeer-ELA'from the reindeer'nadalla-liweek-PROnadalla-liweek-PROin a week's timesingilgen-dulisnow-PROsingilgen-dulisnow-PRO'in the snow'pektyre:vun-digun-INSpektyre:vun-digun-INS'with the gun'muri-chihorse-POSbejemanmuri-chi bejehorse-POS man'a man with a horse; a horseman'lang-ngachintrap-SEMlang-ngachintrap-SEM'like a trap'Plurals are marked with -il-, -l-, or -r- before the case marker, if any: tyge-l-vecup-PL-ACDtyge-l-vecup-PL-ACD'the cups (accusative)'Ivul-ngiIvul-GENoro-r-inreindeer-PL-3SG.POSSIvul-ngi oro-r-inIvul-GEN reindeer-PL-3SG.POSS'the reindeer (pl.)

The Manchu script was used to write Evenki (Solon) words in the "Imperial History of the National Languages of Liao, Jin, and Yuan".

[5] Ethnographer S. M. Shirokogoroff harshly criticised the "child-like" literary language, and in a 1930s monograph predicted it would quickly go extinct.

[40] However, despite its failure to gain widespread acceptance, within its dialectal base of roughly 5,000 people, it survived and continues in use up to the present.

[42] Since the 1930s, "folklore, novels, poetry, numerous translations from Russian and other languages", textbooks, and dictionaries have all been written in Evenki.

Even a decade ago Bulatova was trying to warn speakers and linguists alike: "There is widespread loss of Evenki and the language can be considered seriously endangered".

[46] Furthermore, Mongolian functioned as a lingua franca among members of all minority groups there, as they tended to do their education in Mongolian-medium schools.

[47] Janhunen predicted that all of these languages, including Mongolian, were likely to lose ground to Chinese in coming years.

[51] Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:[52] УпкатUpkatилэлilelты̄нмукирди,tyynmukirdi,урэ̄лдиureeldiмэ̄нңиmeenŋiса̄рича̄диsaaričaadiбалдыдяра.waldydjara.НуңартынNuŋartynдялитви,djalitvi,һалдяндывиhaldjandyviбиси,bisi,мэмэгӣлвэрmemegiilverаяралды̄дянаajaraldyydjanaтэдетtedjetо̄мамачитын.oomamačityn.Упкат илэл ты̄нмукирди, урэ̄лди мэ̄нңи са̄рича̄ди балдыдяра.

Нуңартын дялитви, һалдяндыви биси, мэмэгӣлвэр аяралды̄дяна тэдет о̄мамачитын.Upkat ilel tyynmukirdi, ureeldi meenŋi saaričaadi waldydjara.