Re: Lojban Accent

[Robin Turner <robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx]

la robyt. cusku di'e

>
> One of the problems with the concept of a lojbanic accent is that most
> accents are formed culturally, not muscularly. This is like asking what
> someone's opinion would be if it were different than mine. Lojban has
> no culture of its own, so it would be a blend of the speakers that
> taught it.
>

Quite - that's one of the points of Lojban. If Lojban ever takes off in a big
way {a'ocai.iaru'e}, I imagine it will move from an Anglo-American bias to a
cultural melange as more non-Anglophones use the language, then eventually
develop its own kind of meta-culture.

>
> I disagree about stress being missing from Lojban, though. People raise
> and drop their voices based on emotional content as a second nature. In
> every language I've ever had any contact with, there's plenty of
> imprecise communication that goes on regarding HOW something is said as
> opposed to WHAT is said that I doubt many people will be willing to give
> that up.

Change in volume is probably universal; change in stress and intonation is
probably not. Speakers of tonal languages often have problems speaking English
because they sound "flat" or "singsong" and thus, to English ears, unemotional.
Perhaps those comments about the "inscrutable Chinese" come from this;
Anglophones feel the lack of tonal-attitudinal cues (interestingly, Chinese,
like Lojban has attitudinal/functional particles like "a" and "ba"). Similarly,
Indian/Pakistani immigrants in the UK sometimes have problems because they sound
abrupt - this comes from their intonation tending to have a sharp downward turn
at the end of a sentence, so that, for example, "I'd like to cash a cheque"
sounds (to English ears) more like an order than a request.

If Lojban were widely used as an auxiliary languages, such intercultural
misunderstandings would probably still occur, but would be ameliorated by the
use of attitudinal indicators.

co'o mi'e robin.