Message-Id: <9202150653.AA18546@relay1.UU.NET>
Date:         Fri, 14 Feb 1992 21:51:31 -0800
Reply-To: "F. Schulz" <cbmvax!uunet!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!fschulz>
Sender: Lojban list <cbmvax!uunet!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!LOJBAN>
From: "F. Schulz" <cbmvax!uunet!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!fschulz>
Subject:      h as buffer vowel
To: John Cowan <cowan@snark.thyrsus.com>
Status: RO

I have trouble pronouncing nasal+homoorganic clusters. I find
        dinju and rinju
impossible because of the bad -inj- cluster. I tend to convert
        inj  ->  indj
no matter how careful I am. My first solution was to map
        inj  ->  imj
as I always find nasal+nonhomoorganic easy to say.
Going thru the gismu list I find mj in some words, so this
is out. My next try is putting in a buffer vowel. This sounds
bad, since I have trouble compressing the buffer vowel to
have small duration.

My next try is to use the consonant h as a buffer. So I say
        din'ju and rin'ju
which works really well. h is forbidden except between vowels,
so no confusion results. With practice, I can make the h extremely
brief, so the listener will not hear what I am doing. The h is of
much shorter duration than the one between vowels. Also there is no
fricative component, just devoicing and a puff of air to blow away
the unwanted d. Since d is voiced, devoicing is an antagonist for the
d.

        Frank Schulz ( fschulz@pyramid.com )