[lojban-beginners] Re: More phonology: voiced/unvoiced and fricative/fricative

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

On Saturday 23 June 2007 11:56, Klaus Schmirler wrote:
> Now there's a whole bunch of xr words:
>
> xrabo Arabic
> xrani injure
> xriso Christian
> xruba buckwheat
> xruki turkey
> xrula flower
> xruti return

and some with {xr} in the middle: maxri, pixra, juxre, mixre.

> They taste best to my German palate when I pronounce them with an
> initial ach sound and then just add voicing. And I think one of the
> design principles (which admittedly I haven't found, or I'd have cited
> it above) was that sounds should be maximally distinct. So does [xR]
> count as maximally distinct - if so, I rest my case - or is the uvular
> r forbidden in this context?

I came up with a tonguetwister {le xruki le ginxre xrixruba xu xrula cu 
xrani?}. I pronounce {xr} as a single sound, a simultaneous uvular and 
alveolar trill (i.e. ach-Laut and Spanish r at the same time). {rx} I 
pronounce as two sounds. Some months ago we came up with some words with long 
{xr} sequences in them: {rirxrxrone}, the river Hron, and {rirxrxrazdani}, 
the river Hrazdan. The latter forms a minimal pair with {rirxyxrazdani}. In 
{rxrxr}, I pronounce the first /r/ as an alveolar trill, the second as a 
vocalic alveolar trill, and the third as a trill simultaneous with the 
second /r/.

Pierre