From cbmvax!uunet!ucl.ac.uk!ucleaar Sat Mar 6 22:47:58 2010 Return-Path: id <17928-0@sun2.nsfnet-relay.ac.uk>; Mon, 14 Oct 1991 17:57:12 +0100 To: conlang@buphy.bu.edu Subject: Re: intervocalic consonant clusters in Lojban & Vorlin In-Reply-To: (Your message of Wed, 09 Oct 91 12:56:30 MST.) <9110091856.AA00386@ nairobi.inel.gov.inel.gov > Date: Mon, 14 Oct 91 17:54:58 +0000 From: And Rosta Status: RO X-From-Space-Date: Mon Oct 14 14:01:02 1991 X-From-Space-Address: cbmvax!uunet!ucl.ac.uk!ucleaar Message-ID: Rick Morneau writes: >In a previous post, John Cowan writes: >> You are probably right. Lojban does have a device for simplifying >> difficult medial consonant clusters: the non-Lojban vowel [I] may >> be inserted into any difficult cluster, so that "mamta" can be >> pronounced [mamIta]. >Are you sure this is correct? Is [I] the same sound as the "i" in >English "hit" (close, central, unrounded)? If so, I wonder how this >can be considered a *simplification*, since the phoneme /I/ is >extremely rare. What do you gain by allowing people to break up a >difficult consonant cluster with a vowel that they don't know how to >pronounce? IPA small capital I represents a centralized front vowel three-quarters close. It may well be rare. However, I'm wondering whether both Rick and John are thinking of a nonround central halfclose or 3/4-close vowel, which would be written as barred small capital I. This vowel does *seem* rare, but it has been plausibly suggested that this is because it is habitually mistranscribed as schwa, which is just a notch lower. Those people who contrast _George's_ and _Georgia's_, or _Unix_ and _eunuchs_, may well have this vowel in the first of the pair. >By the way, I doubt if many people would have a problem with "mamta", >since the combination nasal+stop is extremely common. - even when they're not homorganic? ------------- And