Re: Pronunciation ...

[BestATN@xxx.xxx]

>I've just spoken with a linguist friend who, upon being
>told that the lojban vowels are tensed, widely spaced, 
>and not easily confused with the schwa, came up, without
>significant prompting, with

> /u/ boot, toot, flute, chute
> /o/ top, cot, motley, monster
> /i/ clean, green, machine
> /e/ bet, lens, enemy
> /a/ cat, bat, mat, dab, action

As examples of tense vowels I would agree with the linguist, but that just 
tells me that the lojban 'a' (and 'o') is not a tense vowel. Surely there is 
enough leeway in the pronunciation of these vowels as to cause no confusion 
if they aren't all identical, but I don't think the examples of 'a' given 
above are representative of the lojban 'a'.
For that matter, the examples for 'o' are more representative of the lojban 
'a' than 'o'.
This whole discussion is getting more into phonetics and idiolects and away 
from Lojban.