From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Wed Nov 29 11:58:38 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 LAA04653 for ; Wed, 29 Nov 1995 11:58:36 -0500 Message-Id: <199511291658.LAA04653@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 0AE26DA6 ; Wed, 29 Nov 1995 11:48:20 -0500 Date: Wed, 29 Nov 1995 11:46:00 -0000 Reply-To: BARRETO%VELAHF@ECCSA.TR.UNISYS.COM Sender: Lojban list From: Paulo Barreto Subject: Re: buffer vowel X-To: lojban%cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu@TRSVR.BITNET To: John Cowan Status: OR Lojbab(?): > True, but distinctions of only 2 central vowel sounds is not that > uncommon. And: > Could you (or anyone else) give me a sample of such vowel systems & > tell me which lgs they belong to? [...] > I'll ask a straightforwarder question: which lgs have Lojban's 7 > vowel system (taking /%/ to be centred on central [I-])? How about Rumanian? I think the Rumanian system is an answer to both questions: there is a central middle vowel /@/, written as an "a" with a brachia (sometimes with a circumflex), and a central top vowel /+/, written as an "i" with circumflex. The other vowels are /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ (I'm not sure if /E/ and /O/ are also present, but the pairs /e/ and /E/, and /o/ and /O/ constitute accepted variants of Lojban "e" and "o", anyway). BTW, the Tapirape language (a brazilian indian language) uses the same six vowels as Lojban, though they can be nasalized depending on the consonantal context (e.g. konomiryma /k~on~om~i'r~@ma/, meaning "le pu'o verba", "one about-to-be a child", with nasalized vowels due to the neighboring nasal consonants). co'o mi'e paulos. Paulo S. L. M. Barreto -- Software Analyst -- Unisys Brazil Standard disclaimer applies ("I do not speak for Unisys", etc.) e'osai ko sarji la lojban.