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Re: [lojban] Re: Aesthetics

On Samedi, déce 7, 2002, at 15:28 US/Eastern, Craig wrote:


Presumably And was indending to replace them with another letter?



Like and H or a Q, possibly pronounced like "theta"?




This would be useful in, eg, translating Twain - it allows us to 
spell


out



alternative pronunciations. But in normal writing, it would only be

divisive; I dislike h for ' because [h] is not an optimal 
pronunciation


and



/h/ pronounced [T] is just crazy.





Why is [h] not an optimal pronunciation for '?  (Yes I know the
title of the thread is 'aesthetics', but you seem to be implying
there's some kind of reason).




Because there is a greater phonic contrast between [T] and [f] or [s] 
than

between [h] and [x].



Of course, even [T] isn't optimal if you can pronounce certain other 
sounds.

A Welsh ll, for example, is a lateral fricative; this is an acceptable 
'

sound. Since Lojban has only one lateral sound, l, which does not 
*need* to

be pronounced laterally, the most contrasting pronunciation would be a 
velar

l (like in English) and a lateral '.



I use [T], but only because I can't get the ll sound.



	Think of 'll' as an unvoiced 'l' and it comes pretty easily.  Native 
Welsh speakers

have said I am doing it correctly.



Bob McIvor