Editing Manchu language (section)

===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.