[jbovlaste] Re: Music terminology

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Friday 25 March 2011 12:29:10 tijlan wrote:
> If I were to Lojbanize "symphony", I would say "simfoni", which would
> more easily be recognized by speakers of non-Western languages such as
> Indonesian (simfoni) and Japanese (シンフォニー | shinfonii).

I agree with "simfoni". In many languages, including Greek where the word 
comes from, a nasal consonant assimilates to a following "f". The Japanese ン, 
though transliterated "n", is a generic nasal. Spanish writes "sinfonía", 
where the "n" is pronounced as a labiodental. Lojban does distinguish 
between "nf" and "mf", and should write "mf" in this word. (So does 
English: "unfounded" versus "dumbfounded" is an example.)

Btw, the Aramaic word סומפניה (sumponyah) in Daniel 3:5 looks like a borrowing 
from the same Greek word.

Pierre
-- 
Jews use a lunisolar calendar; Muslims use a solely lunar calendar.