Message-Id: <199511150140.UAA26918@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Wed, 15 Nov 1995 02:27:56 MET
Reply-To: Goran Topic <topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Goran Topic <topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR>
Subject:      Re: TECH: Pitch Accent
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

> Nick Nicholas has proposed to me that high pitch (a la Japanese or
> Serbo-Croatian) should be tolerated in Lojban as an alternative to primary
> stress.  Nora points out that there's no a priori reason why it should be
> high rather than low pitch that means "accented".  Comments?

I've never learned any Japanese, but I did pick up some Croatian
(Serbian included in the package). In that strange language, stress is
not achieved by high tone, but by extra force, like most of the SAE
languages. But, the stressed syllables, unlike most other SAE, fall
into four kinds, based on two different properties: length (no surprises
there, English has that one, too), and tone, which can be rising or
falling. So you have unstressed syllables, and long rising, long
falling, short rising and short falling ones. I think, however, that
Vedic Sanskrt has the true tonal accent (Ever heard Rg Veda? I didn't
believe my professor when he told me that Rg Veda is recited rather than
sung. I said, "But I heard melody!". He said, that's just accents. Sama
Veda is Rg Veda in song."). AFAIK.

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