Re: [bpfk] official cmavo form

[John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>]

And Rosta scripsit:

> But must Lojban so specify the duration of the /i/ in /ia/? That seems
> unnecessarily pernickety, given the quite proper laxity of all other
> realization rules in Lojban. If, rather, what is settled is that /i/ in
> /ia/ is an onset, then I am asking why that must be so.

Historically, I think it rose out of the introduction of ' to simplify the
Loglan pronunciation rules.  In Loglan there is no ', and therefore only
25 VV sequences rather than Lojban's 29 (ignoring "y" in both languages).
These 25 break into four groups according to pronunciation:

ai ei oi ao are always falling diphthongs (in practice, ao is pronounced
[aw] like Lojban au).

ae au ea eo eu oa oe ou are always two syllables; when e is the first,
it is allophonically [e] rather than [E].

aa ee oo are always two syllables *and* one of the syllables is required
to bear the stress (so words like "baarsoa" are invalid, unlike the
Lojban analogue "ba'ars'oa"); ee oo are very rare.

iV and uV may be pronounced either as rising diphthongs, as in Lojban, or
as two syllables: therefore "stomia" may be either ['stomja] or [sto'mia].

> But the contrast-preserving Lojbanist should instead say [ahua],

Easily confused with "a'u ua" [ahu?wa] > [ahuwa].

> or, more realistically, [aWua] or [axua].

The latter is "a xua"; [x] cannot be used as an allophonic fortition of [h].

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan@ccil.org
Not to perambulate the corridors during the hours of repose
in the boots of ascension.       --Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel

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