[lojban-beginners] Re: POM: the Princess puts her foot down

["Adam D. Lopresto" <adam@pubcrawler.org>]

On Wed, 24 Jan 2007, Alex Martini wrote:

> I think part of the issue is that Lojban actually has 2 kinds of syllables, or
> two different ways to break a word into syllables. 

Not really.  Well, if you count {.y bu} (y), then yes, but .y'y. isn't
special at all in that way.

> As far as making words is concerned, it seems that y'y doesn't "count" as a
> consonant or a vowel. 

It is neither a consonant or a vowel, but I think you're conflating two
things together by saying it doesn't "count".  There's more in the world than
just consonants and vowels.  What about, for instance, a space (in Lojban,
but also in English).  Is it a consonant or a vowel?  Of course not, but that
doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and doesn't matter a great deal.

> This lets us have a lot more cmavo than we would otherwise have. But when
> pronouncing Lojban, y'y has to break a syllable. 

Which means that it really is breaking a syllable, in just the way that denpa
bu (.) and slaka bu (,) do.

> My confusion is around stress -- do you assign stress based on the
> morphological syllables or based on the phonemic syllables?

There is only one kind of syllable.  The fact that .y'y. is neither a
consonant nor a vowel doesn't mean it isn't a real character, or produce real
syllables.

So yes, those syllables are very much real, and are definitely counted
towards stress.  The only ones that aren't are .y bu (y) syllables.

> Or am I still thinking about y'y from the wrong angle?


-- 
Adam Lopresto
http://cec.wustl.edu/~adam/

I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAYS, said the tall biker in the helmet, I NEVER LAID A
FINGER ON HIM.
         -- Death, on Elvis (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)