北方言語研究 = Northern Language Studies;第1号

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満洲語三家子方言における母音調和の存在に関する考察

王, 海波

Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/45231

Abstract

Sanjiazi Manchu is one of the existing dialects of the Manchu language. This paper shows that the so-called vowel harmony system in Sanjiazi Manchu is far from a typical one. First, vowels of different classes (e.g. low and high vowels, front and back vowels, rounded and unrounded vowels, ATR and RTR vowels) can all coexist in the same root, and consequently it is impossible to group them into any classes. Second, although the assimilation of vowels as a result of suffixation occurs in both directions, i.e. both from the stem to the suffix and from the suffix to the stem, the scopes of the assimilation in both cases only include the suffix and the vowel in the syllable immediately before the suffix. Therefore, it does not meet the requirement of vowel harmony that the scope of vowel harmony is a morphological unit (e.g. a phonological word) which is unbounded to a specific number of syllables. In spite of the fact that the typical vowel harmony system does not exist in Sanjiazi Manchu, the coexistence of the vowels ə and o in the same root is only attested in one example. One possible explanation for this fact is that it is the result of the diachronic changes in Sanjiazi Manchu, and another explanation is the possibility that it might be the remains of an earlier stage of the language with the vowel harmony system.

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