The author estimates the phonetic values for the onset of the Middle Mongolian syllables represented by 延 in
The Secret History of the Mongols through examination of the use of the character.
The examples listed in (1) and (2) lead one to the conclusion that 延 represents Middle Mongolian
en. However, the non-use of 延 in the examples in (3) gives evidence in favor of the opposite conclusion. More-over, the words in (4) and (5) show that 延 is used to transcribe Middle Mongolian
yen.
Having accepted Hattori's (1987) hypothesis, the author explains this situation by sketching out the following phonetic history of Mongolian concerning the syllable having
e as a nucleus:Consonants in a weak po-sition, i. e. a position between a short vowel and a long vowel, were almost disappearing at the time of the Chinese transcription. This is why 額 is used in (1) and (2) for the syllable with no coda. But, they had not yet completely weakened, and sometimes had a value of [_??_], which was pro-nounced with a narrow constriction in the vocal tract between high or mid vowels or combinations of both, and therefore sounded like a non-syllabic vocoid. In addition, there was no suitable character for Mongolian
en in the Chinese dialect of that period on which the transcription was based. Consequently, 延 is used in (1) and (2) for the syllable containing
n as a coda. When the syllable was preceded by a high vowel,an intrusive consonant appeared in some words as an onset of the syllable. This explains the use of 耶 and 延 in (4) and (5).
The existence of the non-syllabic vocoids as an onset of the syllable is supported by the examples from the texts of Arabic transcriptions shown in (9).
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