[lojban-beginners] pronunciation: recommandation for vowels

[m.kornig@sondal.net]

I would recommend the following:

(1) Pronounce all six Lojban vowels relatively long.
    This way vowels seem to be easier to tell apart.

    Spoken texts may become a bit longer. Okay.
    But this should not be an issue since Lojban seems
    to have more words and syllables than most other
    languages anyway. I think clarity should be more
    important than pace.

(2) Pronounce all vowels equally long (unless you
    want to stress something, dramatical effect).

(3) Don't pronounce simple vowels as diphthongs.

(4) Use Hans' "e" rather than Matt's. This corresonds
    to the French "ete" (yes, there should be an accent on
    both vowels) and the German "egal".

(5) Use Hans' and Matt's "o". This corresponds
    to the French "eau" and the German "wo". The fact that
    this vowel does not exit in English (as far as I know?)
    should not be a problem.

(6) The vowel "y" is quite common in English. This may help
    to swallow the rules (3), (4) and (5)?

    This sound also exists in German (last syllable of words
    like "eine" and "Rose"). If it is pronounced relatively
    long as suggested in (1), it's acually somewhat close to
    the French "soeur" and the German and Scandinavian
    o-Umlaut.

(7) Keep the "a" relatively high-frequency, like in
    Italian. But NOT like the Swedish "svenska a" or
    like the English words "four" and "law".

(8) There seems to be less variablility with respect to
    the pronunciation of "i" and "u" (at least
    in most European languages?).

Martin