[lojban-beginners] Re: Just got my speakers back online...

On Wed, 2005-09-21 at 23:43 -0500, Hal Fulton wrote:
> So naturally one of the first things I did was go hear
> the podcast. :)
>
> I have no real complaints with the pronunciation. I think
> Matt's accent is fairly neutral -- believe me, I have
> heard all kinds of accents in the USA that are far heavier.
>
> I *thought* that he pronounced {gismu} a little off --
> perhaps with an English short i, but I wasn't sure.

I heard the same thing.

> I had a minor nit with {detri}, mostly because of a high
> school speech teacher I had who was perhaps a little
> overzealous.
>
> It took me a while to get what she was arguing, but in
> the end I was convinced. Most people I've mentioned it
> to are not convinced, so I won't be offended if you
> tell me I'm crazy.
>
> Say something like "tuck" to yourself. Notice how you
> manipulate your tongue on the t -- its initial position
> and its motion. In my case, it starts out hovering on
> that fleshy ridge behind the teeth, then it flicks away.
>
> Now say "truck" (as many/most Americans do). When I am
> not being careful, it's completely different. My tongue
> is curled backward, so that the tip is much farther back
> (perhaps almost an inch?). The tongue is pressed harder
> against the roof of the mouth, so that it makes much
> more contact in terms of surface area. Then the motion
> is a little slower because of the starting point and
> the curled state of the tongue.
>
> In short, the word "trot" we might render in Lojban
> as {trat} -- say it's a cmene or something. :)

As far as I can tell, my tongue tip is in the same position for all of
these, but if there's a following r, the sides are tucked in a bit in
preparation for the r.

> But what I/we really say is more like {tcrat}.

And I'm pretty sure I don't say that.

> When you say "trick" -- is the initial sound more like
> the beginning of "tick" or the beginning of "chick"?
> For many people, it's the latter.

Not for me.

> When I pronounce Lojban (which is only between me and the
> cat so far), I try to be more precise than I usually would
> in English. So I would pronounce {detri} less like {detcri}
> and more like I imagine my old Kuwaiti roommate would have
> done.
>
> My speech teacher was especially annoyed when a terminal t
> was followed by an initial y ("Don't you want to come?")
> and we would carelessly pronounce it something like "Doan
> chew want to come?" ("Stop 'chew'-ing," she would say.)

Okay, this I know I do on occaision.

> Well, enough on that. Getting back to the podcast -- yes,
> I liked it a lot. Well done, and keep them coming.
>
>
> Hal