Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 16:20:23 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801062120.QAA08281@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Rob Zook Sender: Lojban list From: Rob Zook Subject: Re: lojban 'a' X-To: LOJBAN@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <199801062031.MAA08507@gateway.informix.com> X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1370 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jan 6 16:20:33 1998 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU At 03:17 PM 1/6/98 -0500, John Cowan wrote: >Rick Nylander wrote: > >> I'm not sure how to pronounce the lojban "a," which the book describes as >> something like the "a" in New England "park." >> >> I'm from the western U.S. (me no speakee New English). Is it something like >> halfway between the a's in "fat" and "father"? > >The "a" of "father" does fine, as long as you don't let it merge >with Lojban "y", which is the "a" of "sofa". You have to keep them >distinct even when "a" is not stressed. If you can learn to >pronounce "a" further forward in the mouth (but not so far as >"fat"), then it is less likely to be confused with Lojban "y"). While we're on the subject, does anyone have a chart showing the distingushing characteristics of the lojban phonemes? Especially the vowels. I'm also curious about a chart of minimally contrastive pairs, and what, if any, allophones exist. For example in my dialect of English, that /a/ in father seems like an unrounded open front vowel. While to me the New England park seems more like unrounded open-mid center vowel. I could be wrong, though. Or, more simply what correlation exists between the lojban orthigraphy and the IPA alphabet? Rob Z. -------------------------------------------------------- Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx