Re: [lojban] Re: Transliterations survey

[Pierre Abbat <phma@oltronics.net>]

On Tue, 07 Aug 2001, Evgueni Sklyanin wrote:
>> Fukushima, Japan
>> 
>> fukucima.
>> fikicima.
>> fykycima.
>> 
>I wonder why no one considered the variant {fukusima.}
>A few points in favor of {si} versus {ci}:

The 'f' is also an allophone; it is a variant of 'h' which is pronounced AIU as
'wh' before 'u' (compare English "who" and "hoot"; the first sound is a
different phoneme but is pronounced identically). Lojban, however, has lost 'h'
as a consonant (it merged with 'x' and the sound is now used only between
vowels as a voiceless glide). So what do we do with Japanese words beginning
with 'h'?

phma