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

[m.kornig@sondal.net]

Selon Klaus Schmirler <KSchmir@online.de>:

> My main point against lojban is that it is letter-centric and not very
> sophisticated in the phonetic department. For instance, I would argue
> that each stop is inherently coupled with its release, and that t, ts,
> tc, tl or p and pf are one sound each. But to get on topic:
>
> Among the rules for consonant clusters, I find the following:
>
> Voiced/unvoiced pairs are forbidden except with l, m, n, r. Their
> distinction being that they can be syllabic, I guess. But so can v.
>
> Combinations among c, j, s, z are forbidden. They are fricatives, but
> so are f, v, x and voiced x, an allophone of r.
>
> Now there's a whole bunch of xr words:
>
> xrabo Arabic
> xrani injure
> xriso Christian
> xruba buckwheat
> xruki turkey
> xrula flower
> xruti return
>
> 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?
>
> Klaus
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