[lojban-beginners] Re: ' vs. x and t vs. d

["Newton, Philip" <Philip.Newton@gedas-onsite.de>]

> MorphemeAddict@wmconnect.com wrote:
> > In a message dated 10/14/2006 4:22:15 AM Central Standard Time, 
> > ecartis@digitalkingdom.org writes:
> >>
> >> It's like explaining difference between [d] and [t] to a 
> 40 year old 
> >> Chinese who never heard any language except his native.
> >>
> >> mi'e .ianis.
> > 
> > There may be some similarity - in difficulty, perhaps - but 
> there is 
> > no parallel between the pairs of sounds.
> 
> I think difficulty was what he was talking about.

*nods*

Specifically, the difficulty of hearing the difference between two sounds
that are separate phonemes in another language but allophones of the same
phoneme in your language.

Or in less technical terms, to hear the difference between two sounds which
are "the same sound" in your language. (That is, using one or the other
cannot make a difference in meaning.)

An English example might be to hear the difference between aspirated and
unaspirated [p] -- if they're both voiceless, they may both sound like [p]
to you, yet they're separate in some languages. Whereas in English, they're
allophones (the "p" in "spin" is unaspirated for some speakers, while the
"p" in "pin" is aspirated).

Mu'o mi'e .filip.