> > As to the ,=' rule, I think it's a mistake. Apostrophes are always > > distinctive, whereas commas are not. {malauis} = {malau,is} <> > > {malau'is}. > > I've prooved commas must be distinctive. ,=' is a more sane rule > than the commas-don't-matter rule; it takes precedence.
You haven't proved that. To prove it, you have to exhibit two different words which differ only in commas. If indeed commas matter, then {kikui,us} and {malau,is} are not words, whereas if they don't then they are the same as {kiku,ius} and {mala,uis}, which are words, so we haven't found a comma minimal pair. Even if both the forms differing by commas are both words, and have different meanings, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are different words, as names are allowed to be polysemous.
This is a matter for the VTPFK. Nora should have some insight into the question.
III.2 PERIODS, CLOSE-COMMAS,AND CONSONANTAL BUFFERS*****
The three special characters in Lojban need special attention. They are all used as indicators of a division between syllables, but each has a different pronunciation, and each is used for different reasons:
The period (.) indicates a glottal stop (defined below) or pause. In addition to separating syllables, it indicates a separation into two words as well, since pauses are not permitted inside of a word. . inside text words thus indicates that two or more words have been written as a compound, but should be spoken separately. . may be used outside of words as an aid to readers, indicating a mandatory pause or glottal stop.
The comma (,) embedded in a word is called a closed comma. Such a comma is written to separate syllables, but indicates that there must be NO pause between them, in contrast to the period. Between two consonants or between a consonant and a vowel, this is straightforward. Between two vowels, a comma indicates some type of glide is necessary to avoid a pause that would split the two syllables into separate words. A semicolon is used instead of a comma after a word to indicate optional pauses for phrasing.
The apostrophe (') is also called the consonantal buffer. It is the preferred solution to the problem of a syllable split between vowels. Instead of using a close-comma, which forces an unspecified kind of glide that could be misheard as a letter, the ' indicates a specific sound, a rough breathing aspiration like a breathy English 'h' that is represented in pronunciation guides as /h/.
We will now discuss these three in more detail, giving some examples.
A period (.) indicates a glottal stop or pause in Lojban. A glottal stop is the catch in your throat that naturally occurs prior to the beginning of a word (and sometimes a syllable) which starts with a vowel. Try saying:
ah /.ah:/ (the ':' indicates that the preceding vowel is to be drawn
out or lengthened)
Did you feel the catch in your throat at the beginning?
A glottal stop is used in Lojban like a short pause, allowing a listener to break up an otherwise unintelligible string of syllables into its component words (parse - this term occurs often in Lojban discussions with this meaning). Sometimes a longer pause is desirable. In such a case, a writer will usually leave one or more spaces after the period. However, the length of a pause is not significant in Lojban; a glottal stop is equivalent to a longer pause, and you may insert any comfortable length pause when you see a period.
A period may be at the beginning or end of a word in print; the pause or glottal stop is mandatory. In Lojban, more so than in English, these pauses are significant in determining the meaning of a string of sounds. Thus, for example, .i is often seen as the primary indicator of the beginning of a new sentence. Without the pause, a Lojban listener may not recognize the sentence break. We will use periods to represent mandatory pauses in punctuation guides as well as in actual Lojban text.
A period also may be found embedded in a word. When this happens, the 'word' is really two or more words, usually a compound cmavo composed of smaller, related cmavo that interact in determining the grammar of a sentence. Such a period is called a close-period. Like all other periods in Lojban, it is pronounced as a glottal stop or pause, and it always indicates the end of a word. It is preferable to use the short glottal stop to a longer pause, as this conveys to the listener the interacting relationship between the two words.
When more than two vowels occur together in a cmavo compound in Lojban, the normal pronunciation pairs vowels from the left into syllables, as in:
meii /mei.ee/ where the 'ei' grouped together causes the English /ei/ sound of "base". This example would appear to be the compound of the two cmavo: mei and i. A pause (or glottal stop) must be inserted between the /ei/ diphthong and the final /ee/ to keep each sound distinct. This example could also have been written mei.i, using the close-period. Since this makes reading easier, it is in fact preferred. But, a Lojban reader who sees the cmavo compound meii knows that /mei.ee/ is the only correct pronunciation.
The close-period can override left-wise grouping:
me.ii /meh.yee/ where the 'ii' is now grouped and pronounced as /yee/. The word can now be seen as the compound of the two cmavo: me and ii. The close-period thus forces a syllable and word break (and a pause or glottal stop) to occur at a different point in the vowel string than would otherwise occur.
In longer strings of vowels in cmavo compounds, a Lojban reader will continue grouping vowels in pairs from the close-period. Rarely, in very complex vowel strings, more than one close-period might be found.
Close-commas are found embedded with vocalic consonants (l, m, n, and r as pronounced /l/, /m/, /n/, and /r/) in cmene (names) and in le'avla (Lojban borrowings from other languages); they serve like close-periods to indicate proper pronunciation. A comma embedded in a Lojban word indicates a syllable break, as does a close-period. However, a close-comma indicates that there should be no pause or glottal stop between the two letters separated by the comma, and therefore that the 'word' truly is one word. See III.3 below for examples and notes of this usage in normal Lojban words that have vocalic consonants. (Commas are also used in pronunciation guides to separate syllables.)
Close-commas are required in cmene instead of close-periods, since cmene are not permitted to have embedded pauses or glottal stops. In the song about Old MacDonald's Farm, the vowel string which is pronounced /eey,yai,eey,yai,ou/ in English could be Lojbanized with periods as i.ai.i.ai.o (/i.ai.i.ai.o/). However, this would sound clipped, staccato, and unmusical compared to the English. Embedded in vowels within a Lojbanized name, a close-comma must be pronounced as a vowel glide (usually similar to the /y/ or /w/ in the English pronunciation above), since no pause or glottal stop is permitted. The close-comma can be used instead of a close-period: i,ai,i,ai,on is a valid, if strange, Lojban name. The close-commas require a new syllable, but prohibit a pause or glottal stop. The pronunciation thus may be /iy,yaiy,yiy,yaiy,yon/.
The use of close-commas in this way is risky to audio-visual isomorphism, since glides can be heard by some as i and u. Some leeway is therefore given with regard to audiovisual isomorphism in Lojbanized names to allow them to be pronounced more like their native counterparts - the close-comma is allowed to represent the glides or some non-Lojbanic sound. In this special circumstance, the deviation affects only spelling accuracy and the ability of a reader to replicate the desired pronunciation; it does not affect the recognition of word boundaries. A close-comma vowel glide may be pronounced as an apostrophe or consonantal buffer (defined immediately below) as one of the options. It was this usage, in fact, that led to the consonantal buffer as the generic solution to such vowel glide problems while preserving isomorphism.*****
Close-commas may also occur between consonants in cmene and in le'avla (borrowed brivla) to indicate variant syllabication of consonant clusters. No glide or other sound is necessary in these locations.
The consonantal buffer, represented by an apostrophe, is a third way of breaking up vowel groupings into syllables, and is preferred in regular Lojban cmene that are not attempting to match a non-Lojban pronunciation. In other word forms, the consonantal buffer is the only permitted way to split vowels - the close comma is not permitted - without also causing a word break, as when the close-period is used to force a glottal stop.
The apostrophe lerfu (') is pronounced as a short, breathy, 'h' - the so-called 'rough breathing' mark of ancient Greek and other languages. English examples of this sound may be produced by saying a quick, unstressed, "aha", or by saying "Oh hello" quickly with no pause between the words. The consonantal buffer causes a speaker to aspirate (breathe out) quickly between vowels, thus preventing a glottal stop. It is thus the Lojban antithesis of the close-period, and indicates a vowel pair that does not separate logically into two words. If the consonantal buffer were used instead of a comma in the above vowel string example: i'ai'i'ai'on, it would be pronounced /i,hai,hi,hai,hon/, which preserves the rhythm and length, if not the exact sounds, of the original English. Further examples of the consonantal buffer will be found in III.3 below.
The consonantal buffer is a consonant in nature, but is not treated as a consonant or a vowel for purposes of Lojban morphology. It is included in Lojban only to enable smooth separation between vowels, while clearly joining the vowels in a single word.
As stated above, the close-comma may be pronounced as either a glide or a consonantal buffer when between vowels in cmene. When the consonantal buffer is required, such as in regular Lojban words, the apostrophe only should be used to represent the mandatory sound.*****
Hope this helps. lojbab
-- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org