Re: [lojban-beginners] Questions on the sounds chosen for Lojban

[Michael Turniansky <mturniansky@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 1:41 AM, Greendogo <pcm1123@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was wondering what criteria was chosen for the sounds used in
> Lojban.
>
> For instance, why was the German sound used for "x" used, but the
> sounds [th]ink, [th]e, b[a]t, and b[i]t were not?

Of the six source langauges of lojban the hard/soft th exists in
English and Arabic, and as a allophone to d/t in Spanish.  Hindi has
sounds that are close-ish, but not the same, and they don't exist in
Russian nor Mandarin.

  By comparison the X sound exists in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, in
Hindi loanwords, and not in English or Mandarin.

  But as Timoa says, you can voice the ' as a "th", if you wish (since
"H" similarly doesn't exist in many languages as is hard for some to
do).  Most people don't, though.

  Vowels, on the other hand, tend to drift rather dramatically by
speakers of various regions, so they were chosen to be as far apart
phonemically, as possible.

      --gejsypa

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