Message-Id: <199511152102.QAA06420@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Wed, 15 Nov 1995 13:27:52 -0700
Reply-To: Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>
Subject:      Re: buffer vowel
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

tu'a la goran:
>... But the Chinese, on the other
>hand, could have big problems with C clusters. OK, I can understand that
>many people can't pronounce (jboselci'a) XR,vatska, and say kroeica or
>kroAti,en or something like that instead. But the poor people can't say
>even that, they actually say KXY,LUO,DI,YA (Ke4Luo2Di4Ya4), and the
>two-syllable long name of my city, Zagreb, that even the English
>speaking folk pronounce without any difficulty, Chinese translate into
>SA,GY,LY,BU (Sa4Ge4Le4Bu4), a four-syllable name. They just can't cope
>with C clusters.

Is that really true?  I think there's a big difference between the version
of a word made to fit local phononolgy, and what the speakers are actually
capable of producing when they set their minds to it.  The only time I've
heard really extreme, unintelligible vowel buffering is when a student (I
taught English in Japan) would be embarrassed about speaking a foriegn
language in front of a class and would deliberately japanesify all the
words.  But even-slightly-motivated students could make themselves quite
understandable.
                     ____
 Chris Bogart        \  /  http://www.quetzal.com
 Boulder, CO          \/   cbogart@quetzal.com