User:Kang1289/sandbox

Note: My language (Manchu) already has an extensive amount of information on the existing Wiki page. As advised by Professor Kalin, I will indicate the portions that I want to add to the existing page, rather than transferring the existing information to my sandbox.

Lead
* Already extensive, so no additional changes needed.

Phonology
Already existing information about Phonology actually contradicts my Phonology section, having different vowels/consonants charts. The author has not cited his source on the different charts/information, yet I cannot just neglect the information as Professor Kalin stated. Therefore, I will add my Phonology section after the existing one to show there are different views on the phonology of Manchu. So, what I have written below would go right after the 'Vowel Harmony' section, with an indication that this phonology information contradicts the former one.

Vowels
Literary Manchu has a total seventeen vowel phonemes, composed of six monophthongs and 11 diphthongs. There is one front vowel, /i/, and two central vowels (/ə, a/), and three back vowels (/u, ʊ, o/). Diphthongs: /ai, ei, oi, ui, ia, ie, io, ao, eo, ua, ue/

Consonants
Manchu has total 19 consonant phonemes. There are eleven voiced consonant phonemes, and eight voiceless consonant phonemes. There are five contrastive places of articulation and six contrastive manners of articulation.

Syllable Structure
The possible syllabic structures of Manchu are (C)V(C).

Stress
The stress of Manchu words has not been examined thoroughly, and scholars have not found any strict rules regarding stress in the language. However, many scholars have stated that the stress usually falls on the last syllable of a word when noun or verb morphology is added with suffixes.

Example: elhe ('slow') → elhe-kèn ('rather slow')

Dropping of Vowels
In the Manchu language, vowels are often left out in the middle part of the words, yet the meaning of the words remains the same.

Example )  butaha('hunt') → butha

Morphology
The existing Wiki page does not have a separate morphology section, having relevant information under Grammar section. Thus, I would add the following morphology information in the beginning of the Grammar section, right before the Syntax section. Manchu is one of the most analytical languages in its language family. Manchu has a very weak differentiation between parts of speech, and the language includes various morphological processes including suffixation and reduplication.

Derivational Suffixes
There are many different derivational suffixes. Some derivational suffixes are when nouns are formed by nominalization from a verb, while verbs are formed by verbalizer from a noun.

Example of Nominalizer: berile ('to drill')  →  berile-ku ('a drill')

Example of Verbalizer:    gūnin ('thought')  →  gūnin-ja ('to think over carefully')

Example of Adverbalizer: nene ('to be first') →  nene-me ('previously')

Inflectional Suffixes
Manchu also has some inflectional suffixations, which are often used to express tense of a verb and degree of an adjective.

Example of Present Tense: yobodo ('to joke')  →  yobodo-mbi  ('jokes')

Example of Intensifier: aya ('good') →  aya-kakun  ('best')

Particles
Manchu has various particles that can be divided into five main groups: predicative, negative, interrogative, exclamatory, and restrictive particles.

Predicative Particles
In Manchu, predicative particles are added after a noun or a functional analogue of nouns to indicate the actual attribute of the subject in a sentence, having a similar function to that of a copula. The most commonly used predicative particle in Manchu is 'bi. '

Example )

abka de deye-ra gasha bi, na     de  feksi-re gurgu bi

sky DAT fly-PTCP bird COP earth  DAT run-PTCP beast COP

'Those flying in the sky are birds, those running on the earth are animals.'

Negative Particles
Negative particles, which are /akū, waka, ume, unde, umai/, are used after independent words of various grammatical classes to deny the existence of an object or reject a predicate.

Example )

ubaci   goro akū

from.here far PTCL.NEG

'It is not far from here.'

Interrogative Particles
Interrogative particles, which are /na, o, ni/, could combine with nouns and all verbal forms in order to express interrogation.

Example ) sue   araki omi-rakū-na?

you(SG) wine drink-PTCL.NEG-PTCL.INT

'Don't you drink some wine?'

Exclamatory Particles
Most widely used exclamatory particles, /na, ne, no nu, jiya, jiye, ya/, are added after autonomous words with various grammatical classes to express exclamation.

Example ) inu ya

yes PTCL.EXCLAM

'exactly!'

Restrictive Particles
Manchu has a small number of restrictive particles, including /tome, dari/, to assign the totality of objects with a same trait while pointing toward one single object within that totality.

Example ) ilan niyalma tome  sargan gai-ha     bi

three men   every  wife   take-PTCP  COP

'Each of three man has chosen a wife (for himself)'

Reduplication
Reduplication is commonly used in Manchu. The purposes of this process are expressing plural form of a noun or showing intensity.

Example )  jalan ( 'generation')  →  jalan jalan ('generations')

Pairing Words
Pairing words in Manchu is a morphological process of combing two independent words that are part of the same lexical set of words. Pairing words could be used to express plural forms of a noun or to express a higher degree of certain action or feeling.

Example ) kata-me ('drying')   +   kangka-me ('being thirsty')  =   katame kangkame ('suffering from thirst very much')

Syntax
The existing Wiki page does not have a separate syntax section, having a relevant information under the Grammar section. Thus, I would add the following syntax information under the existing Grammar section. Also, there is a conflicting information on basic word orders, so I would add my sentences about the basic word orders and example of OSV after the following sentence. Thus, adjectives and adjectival phrases always precede the noun they modify, and the arguments to the verb always precede the verb. Also, as I have found that there are two basic word orders, I would delete the following sentence, which is the last sentence of the first paragraph on the existing section. As a result, Manchu sentence structure is subject–object–verb (SOV). Manchu has two basic word orders. The most common word order is when the direct object stands directly before the predicate (SOV). Another basic word order is when the direct object precedes the subject (OSV).

Example of OSV (less common) ) tere niyalma be bi akda-mbi

that man   I  ACC trust-IMPERF

'I trust that man.'