From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Wed Feb 12 15:14:52 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Wed, 12 Feb 92 15:14 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA01897; Wed, 12 Feb 92 15:09:23 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA15146; Wed, 12 Feb 92 14:44:37 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA18731; Wed, 12 Feb 92 14:43:57 EST Message-Id: <9202121943.AA18731@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 4936; Wed, 12 Feb 92 14:42:06 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 5802; Wed, 12 Feb 92 14:40:13 EST Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1992 13:38:59 EST Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Subject: How Many Syllables In Lojban? X-To: Lojban List X-Cc: Mark Mandel To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO An email conversation with Mark Mandel of Dragon Systems about the possibility of computer speech recognition of Lojban sent me off on the question "How many syllables does Lojban have?" If the number is small enough, current techniques might be able to resolve each Lojban syllable in connected speech, using the morphology and grammar rules to correct errors. (Resolving each phoneme is, Mark assures me, too difficult.) Herewith the results of my investigations. Conventions: For the purpose of this document, VV only to the four regular Lojban diphthongs ai, ei, oi, au. V refers only to the main vowels a, e, i, o, u. CC refers to the 48 permissible initial consonant clusters, and C to the 17 consonants. R refers to syllabic r, l, or n. Other characters stand for themselves. "Sample" gives a syllable of the specified type; "Word" is a word in which the sample syllable appears. Lojban syllabication rules: CC attaches to the following syllable, but pairs of C's are otherwise split. Three consonants are split with the first attaching to the preceding syllable and the last two (which are always a CC) to the following syllable. Syllable types used in cmavo, gismu, and lujvo: Type Sample Word Factors Syllables CV di bridi 17 x 5 85 Cy ky dikyjvo 17 17 CCV bri bridi 48 x 5 240 CCVV grai xagrai 48 x 4 192 CVC gug gugde 17 x 5 x 17 1445 CCVC ckel mickelcre 48 x 5 x 17 4080 .V .e .e 5 5 .VV .ai .ai 4 4 .iV .ia .ia 5 5 .uV .ui .ui 5 5 .y. .y. .y. 1 1 'V 'i la'i 5 5 'VC 'ir po'irpoi 5 x 17 85 Total: 6169 syllables. The following syllable types occur only in le'avla (borrowings) and names: CVVC raig raigbu 17 x 4 x 17 1156 CCVVC kreig kreig. 48 x 4 x 17 3264 'VV 'ai ta'aino 4 4 'VVC 'ais ni'ais. 4 x 17 68 CR dr gugdrnede 17 x 3 41 iy (reserved) 1 1 uy (reserved) 1 1 Grand total: 10704 syllables. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban