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Also, how would you lojbanize a name beginning with "h", like "Hemingway" or "Hegel"? Is it ok to use the apostrophe at the beginning of a word? Or must we interpret the sound as "x", risking an even more phonological distortion?
I wouldn't worry about phonological distortion, which occurs when transposing most names from one language to another; I'd be willing to bet that Holsteiners say "Hegel" differently from Carinthians. As far as initial "h" goes, you can't start a word with {'}. I usually go with {x}, after poking around the etymology looking for a reason why it should be {.}. Once I used {.omeros.} for "Homer", but I don't think reading {xomeros.} would strike me as odd. Perhaps there ought to be a natlang-Lojban phoneme mapping system for names. mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan