Phonological Contrast and Phonetics in Manchu Vowel Systems

0. Introduction We argue that the phonological patterning of a phoneme in a grammar is influenced by its contrastive status. A change in this status can lead to a change in its phonological behavior, with little or no outward change in its phonetics. However, the new phonological status of a phoneme may affect its phonetic realizations. Since acquisition of phonological representations is mediated through the phonetics, the proposed analysis posits a mutual interdependence between phonetics and phonology. The synchronic and diachronic patterning of Manchu vowel systems provide evidence in support of this position, as well as for a particular way of understanding contrast. We will first consider the vowel system of Written Manchu, also called Classical Manchu (Ard 1984, Li 1996) or Literary Manchu (Seong 1989). It is the language of the documents of the Qing (Ching) dynasty (1644-1911) in China. We will then look at diachronic developments that led to the later Manchu dialects, Spoken Manchu (Zhao 1989, Ji et al. 1989) and Xibe (Li and Zhong 1986).