I’ve listened to it again and you’re right, he’s definitely not saying “怎么样”. My Mongolian colleague and I were both convinced yesterday that that’s what it was but having now listened to it on a good pair of headphones I can clearly distinguish what sounds like ‘mutembinio’. I still can’t make out the last one or two syllables though. Can you tell me anything about how the interrogative ending is supposed to sound in spoken Manchu?

Excellent site, by the way!

Shi Junguang is definitely not saying “怎么样”. If he were, I would have definitely caught that the first time he said it. We had been speaking in Chinese and he suddenly popped this question in Manchu. If he had said “怎么样”, the final vowel would have been an open back vowel, but it decidedly wasn’t. See these posts for more information on the importance of vowel quality in understanding syllables:

http://www.sinoglot.com/blog/category/phonetics/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shagai

si manju gisuni gisurembi 怎么样？

As in, he’s literally translating 你满语说得怎么样？into Manchu, but retaining the Chinese for 怎么样? In which case the accusative ‘be’ would not be needed – is that right?