Editing Manchu language (section)

==Phonology==
{{More footnotes needed|date=December 2008}}

Written Manchu was close to being called an "[[open syllable]]" language because the only consonant that came regularly at the end of native words was {{IPA|/n/}}, similar to [[Beijing dialect|Beijing Mandarin]], [[Northeastern Mandarin]], [[Jilu Mandarin]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. This resulted in almost all native words ending in a vowel. In some words, there were vowels that were separated by consonant clusters, as in the words ''ilha'' ('flower') and ''abka'' ('heaven'); however, in most words, the vowels were separated from one another by only single consonants.

This open syllable structure might not have been found in all varieties of spoken Manchu, but it was certainly found in the southern dialect that became the basis for the written language. It is also apparent that the open-syllable tendency of the Manchu language had been growing ever stronger for the several hundred years since written records of Manchu were first produced: consonant clusters that had appeared in older forms, such as ''abka'' and ''abtara-mbi'' ('to yell'), were gradually simplified, and the words began to be written as{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}} ''aga'' or ''aha'' (in this form meaning 'rain'){{Dubious|Should be separate words|date=July 2011}} and ''atara-mbi'' ('to cause a commotion').

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan="2" |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} {{angbr|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}} {{angbr|n}}
| {{IPA link|ɲ}} {{angbr|ni}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}} {{angbr|ng}}
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
! <small>unaspirated</small>
| {{IPA link|p}} {{angbr|b}}
| {{IPA link|t}} {{angbr|d}}
| {{IPA link|tʃ}} {{angbr|j}}
| {{IPA link|k}} {{angbr|g}}
|-
! <small>[[Aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]</small>
| {{IPA link|pʰ}} {{angbr|p}}
| {{IPA link|tʰ}} {{angbr|t}}
| {{IPA link|tʃʰ}} {{angbr|c}}{{efn|Or {{angbr|ch}}, {{angbr|q}}.}}
| {{IPA link|kʰ}} {{angbr|k}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|f}} {{angbr|f}}
| {{IPA link|s}} {{angbr|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{angbr|š}}{{efn|Or {{angbr|sh}}, {{angbr|ś}}, {{angbr|x}}.}}
| {{IPA link|x}} {{angbr|h}}
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}} {{angbr|r}}
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
|
| {{IPA link|l}} {{angbr|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}} {{angbr|y}}
| {{IPA link|w}} {{angbr|w}}
|}
{{notelist}}
 
Manchu has twenty consonants, shown in the table using each phoneme's representation in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]], followed by its romanization in italics. {{IPA|/pʰ/}} was rare and found mostly in loanwords and [[onomatopoeia]]e, such as ''pak pik'' ('pow pow'). Historically, {{IPA|/p/}} appears to have been common, but [[sound change|changed]] over time to {{IPA|/f/}}. {{IPA|/ŋ/}} was also found mostly in loanwords and onomatopoeiae and there was no single letter in the [[Manchu alphabet]] to represent it, but rather a digraph of the letters for {{IPA|/n/}} and {{IPA|/k/}}. {{IPA|[ɲ]}} is usually transcribed with a digraph ''ni'', and has thus often been considered a sequence of phonemes {{IPA|/nj/}} rather than a phoneme of its own, though work in Tungusic historical linguistics suggests that the Manchu palatal nasal has a very long history as a single [[segment (linguistics)|segment]], and so it is shown here as phonemic.

Early Western descriptions of Manchu phonology labeled Manchu ''b'' as "soft p", Manchu ''d'' as "soft t", and Manchu ''g'' as "soft k", whereas Manchu ''p'' was "hard p", ''t'' was "hard t", and ''k'' was "hard k". This suggests that the phonological contrast between the so-called [[Voice (phonetics)|voiced]] series (''b, d, j, g'') and the voiceless series (''p, t, c, k'') in Manchu as it was spoken during the early modern era was actually one of [[Aspirated consonant|aspiration]] (as shown here) or [[tenseness]], as in [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]].

{{IPA|/s/}} was [[affricated]] to {{IPA|[ts]}} in some or all contexts. {{IPA|/tʃʰ/}}, {{IPA|/tʃ/}}, and {{IPA|/ʃ/}} together with {{IPA|/s/}} were palatalized before /i/ or /y/ to {{IPA|[tɕʰ]}}, {{IPA|[tɕ]}}, and {{IPA|[ɕ]}}, respectively. {{IPA|/kʰ/}}, {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/x/}} were backed before /a/, /ɔ/, or /ʊ/ to {{IPA|[qʰ]}}, {{IPA|[q]}}, and {{IPA|[χ]}} respectively.<ref>Gorelova (2002: 86)</ref> Some scholars analyse these [[uvular]] realizations as belonging to phonemes separate from {{IPA|/kʰ/}} and {{IPA|/k/}}, and they were distinguished in the Manchu alphabet, but are not distinguished in the romanization.

===Vowels===
[[File:Manchu Vowel Chart.svg|thumb|Vowels of Manchu.<ref>Tawney, Brian. "Reading Jakdan's Poetry: An Exploration of Literary Manchu Phonology". MA Thesis (Harvard, RSEA).</ref>]]

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;width:30%;text-align:center;"
|-
!
! [[Front vowel|front]]
! [[Central vowel|central]]
! [[Back vowel|back]]
|-
![[High vowel|high]]
| {{IPA link|i}} {{angbr|i}}
|
| {{IPA link|u}} {{angbr|u}}
|-
![[Near-high vowel|mid-high]]
|
|
| {{IPA link|ʊ}} {{angbr|ū}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|mid]]
|
| {{IPA link|ə}}~{{IPA link|ɤ}} {{angbr|e}}
| {{IPA link|ɔ}} {{angbr|o}}
|-
![[Low vowel|low]]
|
| {{IPA link|ɑ}} {{angbr|a}}
|
|}

The vowel ''e'' (generally pronounced like [[Standard Chinese|Mandarin]] [ɤ]) is pronounced as /e/ after ''y'', as in niyengniyeri /ɲeŋɲeri/.

Between ''n'' and ''y'', ''i'' is absorbed into both consonants as /ɲ/.

The relatively rare vowel transcribed ''ū'' (pronounced {{IPA|[ʊ]}}<ref name="Möllendorff1892">{{cite book |author=Paul Georg von Möllendorff |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924023341112 |title=A Manchu Grammar: With Analysed Texts |publisher=Printed at the American Presbyterian mission Press |year=1892 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924023341112/page/n38 1]–}}</ref>) was usually found as a [[back vowel]]; however, in some cases, it was found occurring along with the front vowel ''e''. Much disputation exists over the exact pronunciation of ''ū''. [[:de:Erich Hauer|Erich Hauer]], a German sinologist and Manchurist, proposes that it was pronounced as a front rounded vowel initially, but a back unrounded vowel medially.<ref>Li (2000), p. 17.</ref> William Austin suggests that it was a mid-central rounded vowel.<ref>Austin, William M., "The Phonemics and Morphophonemes of Manchu", in ''American Studies in Altaic Linguistics'', p. 17, [[Nicholas Poppe]] (ed.), Indiana University Publications, Vol. 13 of the Uralic and Altaic Series, Bloomington IN 1962</ref> The modern [[Xibe language|Xibe]] pronounce it identically to ''u''.

==== Diphthongs ====
There are altogether eighteen [[diphthong]]s and six triphthongs. The diphthongs are ''ai'', ''ao'', ''ei'', ''eo'', ''ia'', ''ie'', ''ii'', ''io'', ''iu'', ''oi'', ''oo'', ''ua'', ''ue'', ''ui'', ''uo'', ''ūa'', ''ūe'', ''ūi'', and ''ūo''. The triphthongs are ''ioa'', ''ioo'' (which is pronounced as {{IPA|/joː/}}), ''io(w)an'', ''io(w)en'', ''ioi'' ({{IPA|/y/}}), and ''i(y)ao'', and they exist in Chinese loanwords.<ref name="Möllendorff1892" />

The diphthong ''oo'' is pronounced as {{IPA|/oː/}}, and the diphthong ''eo'' is pronounced as {{IPA|/ɤo/}}.

==== Stress ====
[[Stress (linguistics)|Stress]] in Manchu has been described in very different ways by different scholars.<ref>Gorelova (2002: 99–102) and references therein.</ref> According to Paul Georg von Möllendorff (1892), it was always on the last syllable. In contrast, [[Ivan Zakharov]] (1879) gives numerous specific rules: on the one hand, he seems to say that every [[Phonological word|prosodic word]] lent slight prominence to the vowel of its first syllable by lengthening it, but on the other hand suffixes such as the case markers and the interrogative particles received stress, as did the perfect participle suffix and the optative suffix when these forms have future meaning. In the closely related Xibe, Jerry Norman (1974) found yet another system – stress was usually penultimate (rarely antepenultimate) in the stem and was not affected by the addition of suffixes, except for monosyllabic suffixes beginning in a voiceless sound, which were treated as part of the stem for the purposes of stress placement. Disyllabic suffixes sometimes had secondary stress of their own.

===Loanwords===
Manchu absorbed a large number of non-native sounds into the language from Chinese. There were special symbols used to represent the vowels of Chinese loanwords. These sounds are believed to have been pronounced as such, as they never occurred in native words. Among these, was the symbol for the high unrounded vowel (customarily romanized with a ''y'', /ɨ/) found in words such as ''sy'' (Buddhist temple) and ''Sycuwan'' (Sichuan); and the triphthong ''ioi'' which is used for the Chinese ''ü'' sound. Chinese [[Affricate consonant|affricates]] were also represented with consonant symbols that were only used with loanwords such as in the case of ''dzengse'' (orange) (Chinese: ''chéngzi'') and ''tsun'' (inch) (Chinese: ''cùn''). In addition to the vocabulary that was borrowed from Chinese, such as the word ''pingguri'' (apple) (Chinese: píngguǒ), the Manchu language also had a large number of loanwords from other languages such as [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], for example the words ''morin'' (horse) and ''temen'' (camel).

===Vowel harmony===
A crucial feature of the Manchu language is [[vowel harmony]]. It is described as based on the opposition between [[Back vowel|back]] and [[front vowel]]s, but these phonological [[natural class]]es differ from the actual phonetic realization. The vowels ''a, o, ū'' function as back, as expected, but the only ''phonologically'' front vowel is ''e'' (even though it is ''phonetically'' central). Finally, the vowels ''i'' and ''u'' function as "neutral" vowels for the purposes of vowel harmony. As a rule, back and front vowels cannot co-occur in a word: in other words, the lone front vowel never occurs in a word with any the regular back vowels (''a, o, ū''). (An exception is the diphthong ''eo'', which does occur in some words, i.e. ''deo'', "younger brother", ''geo'', "a mare", ''jeo'', "department", ''leole'', "to discuss", ''leose'', "building", and ''šeole'', "to embroider", "to collect".<ref name="Gorelova2002">{{cite book |author=Liliya M. Gorelova |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KHwPAAAAYAAJ |title=Manchu Grammar |date=1 January 2002 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-12307-6}}</ref>) In contrast, the neutral vowels ''i'' and ''u'' are free to occur in a word with any other vowel or vowels.

The form of suffixes often varies depending on the rules of vowel harmony. Certain suffixes have only one form and are not affected by vowel harmony (e.g. ''de''); these include the suffixes of the accusative, dative-locative and alternate ablative cases (''be'', ''de'', ''deri''), the suffix for the imperfect converb (-''me'') and the nominalizers (''-ngge'', ''-ningge'' and ''ba'').<ref>Gorelova (2002: 94)</ref> Others have two forms (''giyan/giyen'', ''hiyan/hiyen'', ''kiyan/kiyen''), one of which is added to front-vowel stems and the other to back-vowel stems. Finally, there are also suffixes with three forms, either ''a/e/o'' (e.g. ''han/hen/hon'') or ''o/ū/u'' (e.g. ''hon/hūn/hun''). These are used in accordance with the following scheme:<ref>Haenisch 1986, 33f.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
!Stem
!Suffix
!Example
|-
|a – a
| rowspan="6" |a
|''waka'''lan'''''  "guilt"
|-
|i – a
|''ciha'''lan'''''  "will"
|-
|u – a
|''tusa'''ngga'''''  "useful"
|-
|a – i
|''faksi'''kan'''''  "work of art"
|-
|a – u
|''kura'''lan'''''  "reciprocation"
|-
|o – i
|''mori'''ngga'''''  "horseman"
|-
|e – e
| rowspan="5" |e
|''helme'''hen'''''  "spider"
|-
|i – e
|''ilde'''he'''''  "tree bast"
|-
|u – e
|''tube'''he'''''  "salmon"
|-
|e – i
|esi'''he'''  "fish soup"
|-
|e – u
|''eru'''len'''''  "punishment"
|-
|o – o
| rowspan="2" |o
|''dolo'''ron'''''  "rite"
|-
|o – i
|''hoji'''hon'''''  "stepson"
|-
|a – i
|ū
|''wasi'''hūn'''''  "downwards"
|-
|e – i
|u
|''wesi'''hun'''''  "upwards"
|}
The vowel harmony was traditionally described in terms of the philosophy of the ''[[I Ching]]''. Syllables with front vowels were described as being as "[[Yin and yang|yin]]" syllables whereas syllables with back vowels were called "[[Yin and yang|yang]]" syllables. The reasoning behind this was that the language had a kind of sound symbolism where front vowels represented feminine objects or ideas and the back vowels represented masculine objects or ideas. As a result, there were a number of word pairs in the language in which changing the vowels also changed the gender of the word. For example, the difference between the words ''hehe'' (woman) and ''haha'' (man) or ''eme'' (mother) and ''ama'' (father) was essentially a contrast between the front vowel, [e], of the feminine and the back vowel, [a], of the masculine counterpart.