Re: Dr. James Cooke Brown

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 12:03 PM 02/19/2000 -0500, Robert A. McIvor wrote:
> >We added the apostrophe, and the corresponding close-comma for the
> >syllable-dividing reasons I stated in another post.
>
>         I thought Loglan has had a syllable dividing close-comma since long
>before the split.  Lo,is is the example given.

The classical language uses it only to override leftwise vowel 
pairing.  Lojban generalized this to force any syllabification including 
between consonants.

The weakness of the close-comma in vowel pairs is that linguistically it 
introduces a semi-vowel.  (Lo,is -> /lowis/).  By devoicing the glide and 
maintaining the airflow to prevent a word-ending glottal stop or pause, 
which we mark with the apostrophe instead of the close-comma, the glide 
tends to sound more like an "h" (/lohis/), which is why I teach the two 
marks together in explaining why Lojban apostrophe is not really "h".

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 (newly updated!)