It is not the issue of difficulties. I only learn what I need and/or what I want of which, I do not have any desires as of yet to acquire a valid understanding of the IPA.



I must apologise that, I still fail to understand the sounds you try to explain. Basically, the word 【ᠴᠣᠣᠰᡳᠶᠠᠨ】coosiyan sounds similar to the chinese mandarin words of "超鮮".

To saiyvn or not to saiyvn, 'tis sain question:

Amongst the present-day Manchurians, one immediate issue is how would one greet another in the manchu language. Besides the popular 【ᠰᡳ ᡥᠣᠵᠣ ᠨᡳᠣ】si hojo nio?, we also use 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠶᡡᠨ】si saiyvn?. There are also those who would use 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】si sain instead of 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠶᡡᠨ】si saiyvn.

There are much debates upon the usage of 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】si sain be valid or nay. Those who oppose its usage claim the phrase is grammarically incorrect and, such a claim does have a point; however, 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】si sain is a phrase-loan from the chinese language (你好). The phrase 【ᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠶᡡᠨ】si saiyvn however, is a shortened form of 【ᠰᡳᠨᡳ ᠪᡝᠶᡝ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ ᡳᠨᡠ ᠨᡳᠣ】sini beye sain inu nio?.

Out of the following possible responses to that, would any be incorrect or unidiomatic?
-【ᠪᡳ ᡠᠮᡝᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】(bi umesi sain)
-【ᡠᠮᡝᠰᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】(umesi sain)
-【ᠪᡳ ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】(bi sain)
-【ᠰᠠᡳᠨ】(sain)

They are all correct.

I think you'd find it useful to read linguistic literature on the reconstruction of Manchu pronunciation for the 17th-18th centuries, since Manchuist (?) linguists would use either IPA or some 1:1 equivalent to it, or maybe more stuff on the Tungusic family.

I study the manchu language from first-hand pronunciations of my Manchurian elders and peers. As for the pronunciation of classical Manchurian and the dialects, we have documented materials for those studies of which, are recorded in a notation based on the manchu script. That stated, the classical pronunciation of the manchu language does not need to be reconstructed, we have known for a long time how it is pronounced and, many of us still use the classical pronunciation instead of the dialectal variations.

That's quite cool!

The problem with notation in normal scripts is that the pronunciations of the letters of said notation evolve over time as well. So unless you have a notation based on linguistic principles like IPA or its ciphers are, then what you're doing is pronouncing old words with modern phones, instead of the best approximations we can get of the old phones... This is why necessarily all non-modern pronunciations must be reconstructions.

Unlike many languages of which you yourself might have encountered, the manchu language remained as it was when the spelling and letters was frozen. Thus, all the letters pronounced today are actually how they were pronounced hundreds of years ago. The sounds of the letters did not change because the purity mindset kept that intact; however, the language itself surely would change of which the pronunciation of words would also be changed.

What happened to the manchu language is a very odd case of linguistics. On one side we have a group of people who would not sway the spellings to be updated, and yet, with the pronunciation of words changing day-by-day. Those who do change the spellings went solo and departed from the main manchurian body, such as the Sibe. However, the modern manchu language is not always pronounced as it is written. We write in the spellings of yesterday but, pronounce the words as they are pronounced today.

Of course, one may argue that, the letters themselves would have been changed over time. This is linguistically true but, such rarely happen in a short time. There were records in the manchu language of the era they were written of which, documented the language of the era prior to the documents (such as classical dictionaries). These records revised themselves and then updated themselves from time to time, and thus, the old pronunciation was never lost to modern Manchurians.

Also, I am not lacking a modern liguistic notation besides the manchu script. I merely use the system popular amongst the chinese tungusic linguists, and thus, I have not yet acquired the IPA and X-Sampa. Of course, one then may remark this situation of mine is making me blind to all the western goodies. I might be missing out, then again, I might not. Nevertheless, one wishes to sway me into learning the IPA, then fine it is, I will acquire its knowledge. Thus, case closed.

What kind of word stress does Manchu have? I can't seem to find a description of the stress system for Manchu.

The stress of the manchu language usually (but not always) falls upon the first syllable.