From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Tue Nov 14 20:40:21 1995 Received: from VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (vms.dc.lsoft.com [205.186.43.2]) by locke.ccil.org (8.6.9/8.6.10) with ESMTP id UAA26928 for ; Tue, 14 Nov 1995 20:40:19 -0500 Message-Id: <199511150140.UAA26928@locke.ccil.org> Received: from PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM (205.186.43.4) by VMS.DC.LSOFT.COM (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.0a) with SMTP id 17DBFB2C ; Tue, 14 Nov 1995 21:31:59 -0400 Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 02:29:24 MET Reply-To: Goran Topic Sender: Lojban list From: Goran Topic Subject: Re: TECH: Pitch Accent To: Lojban Listserv Status: OR > As I said on the list during the summer (this was in lojban, so it > may be noone read it), Nick's voiceless stops all sounded voiced to > me (because he doesn't aspirate them), .uanai Why should he aspirate the voiceless stops? That is typical for Chinese, and English in certain phonological contexts, (especially in British dialect, no?), I don't know about Spanish and Arabs, but Croats have no aspirates, and try to speak Hindi that way and see what happens (they have p, b, ph AND b)! There is nothing in lojban phonology that would imply that aspiration has distinctive function. If you want to aspirate your voiceless stops, that's OK, but I don't see any reason to do so myself. I admit, Nick was not very easy to understand, and I had to ask him to repeat something on occasion, but I found that his pronunciation was too English-like, especially vowels, I think (I can't remember exactly now what he sounded like); most English-speaking folk I met can't pronounce pure vowels, and there is almost always some diphthongisation, and I had to take some care not to mix up the real diphthongs from simple vowels. Like, spaji->spajei. It all depends to who you're talking to, I guess... co'o mi'e. goran. -- GAT/CS/O d?@ H s:-@ !g p1(2)@ !au(0?) a- w+(+++) (!)v-@(+) C++(++++) UU/H(+) P++>++++ L(>+) !3 E>++ N+ K(+) W--(---) M-- !V(--) -po+ Y(+) t+@(+++) !5 !j R+@ G-@(J++) tv+(++) b++@ D++ B? e+* u@ h!$ f?(+) r-- !n(+@) y+. GeekCode v2.1, modifications left to reader to puzzle out