Ebook: Contrast in Manchu vowel systems

Copy edited by RMD/KP, CJL/RCL 2005-085, 30 May 2006. — 67 p.We present some background information concerning Manchu languages (section 2.1), and then turn to the phonology of the Written Manchu vowel system (section 2.2). After copyedited by RMD/KP, CJL/RCL 2005-085, 30 May 2006 4 laying out an initial analysis of the active phonological features of the vowels of written Manchu—as evidenced by the processes of ATR harmony, labial harmony, and
palatalization (section 2.3)—we consider what sort of theory could provide the required active specifications (section 2.4). We suggest that the active features are those that are contrastive in the vowel system, and argue that a contrastive specification presupposes a particular ordering of features, which fixes the scope of the contrast established by particular features. This leads us to propose a particular feature hierarchy for written Manchu (section 2.5).Earlier versions of this article were presented at ICMTS 1, University of Bonn, 2000; BLS 29, 2003; ConSOLE XIII, Tromsø, 2004; the CUNY Workshop on phonological features, 2005; and invited talks at MIT, McGill, the University of Ottawa, the University of Konstanz, and the University of Maryland.