Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 07:04:04 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801071204.HAA02868@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Re: lojban 'a' X-To: rnylander@DTSI.COM X-cc: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 993 X-From-Space-Date: Wed Jan 7 07:04:09 1998 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU >Out of curiosity, why was [A], which can be easily confused with schwa, >chosen as an >acceptable alternative, while "a as in cat" was rejected? The latter >seems more distinct. > >Rik. Because for many non-English speakers, a as in cat sounds like Lojban "e". All of the allowed allophones of "a" are fully open vowels, which schwa and "a as in cat" are not. We recommend that English speakers try to tense their mouth when making Lojban vowels other than y, which alone seems to mmake it unlikely that there will be a misunderstanding. lojbab ---- lojbab lojbab@access.digex.net Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/" Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.