[lojban-beginners] Re: Preliminary chapter 1 for Lojban learners

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Michael Turniansky
<mturniansky@gmail.com> wrote:
> Unlike the two r's
> (which lojban deems allophonic) and tone (which lojban deems to be
> irrelevant), stress IS a distinct (and indeed important) phonological
> feature in lojban,

For brivla, yes, it is crucial. For cmavo, it's irrelevant.

For cmevla... Stress is not required to recognize a cmevla as a
cmevla, so it is like cmavo in that respect.

There is also the case of rafsi, which can sometimes have stress,
sometimes not, and sometimes have stress in different syllables when
they have more than one, always remaining the same rafsi. So stress
does not change the meaning of a rafsi, it only changes to adjust to
brivla form rules.

So stress in Lojban is generally used to determine word form, but not
to distinguish two otherwise identical words. It's not clear why
cmevla should be the exception to this.

mu'o mi'e xorxes