[lojban-beginners] Re: Pronunciation: a major problem in spreading lojban

[tijlan <jbotijlan@gmail.com>]

2009/6/2 Leonardo Castro <leolucas1980@gmail.com>:
>> Also, I think that languages (almost) without consonant clusters are rather
>> rare. The only famous examples I know, are Japanese and Chinese (are there
>
> If you consider semivowels and nasals as consonants, Japanese does
> have some consonant clusters.

Also,

 Mite simatta. = .u'u (mi) ba'o viska = (I) have (wrongfully) seen (this/that).

can become

 Mit's'atta. ("t's'a" would sound almost the same as "tca" in Lojban)

This kind of shortening words by leaving out vowels (thus potentially
forming consonant clusters) is pretty common in everyday Japanese. But
this is done unconsciously. Consciously pronouncing consonant clusters
still proves difficult for most native speakers of Japanese.

Another problem for them is telling "r" from "l". Like the Korean
language, the orthography doesn't distinguish between the alveolar
approximant and the alveolar *lateral* approximant, or the alveolar
trill/tap/flap and the alveolar *lateral* flap (although the
distinction is made again unconsciously to some extent in their actual
pronunciation).

tijlan