[lojban] Re: Aesthetics

["Craig" <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

>> >> Presumably And was indending to replace them with another letter?
>>
>> >Like and H or a Q, possibly pronounced like "theta"?
>>
>> This would be useful in, eg, translating Twain - it allows us to spell
out
>> alternative pronunciations. But in normal writing, it would only be
>> divisive; I dislike h for ' because [h] is not an optimal pronunciation
and
>> /h/ pronounced [T] is just crazy.

>Why is [h] not an optimal pronunciation for '?  (Yes I know the
>title of the thread is 'aesthetics', but you seem to be implying
>there's some kind of reason).

Because there is a greater phonic contrast between [T] and [f] or [s] than
between [h] and [x].

Of course, even [T] isn't optimal if you can pronounce certain other sounds.
A Welsh ll, for example, is a lateral fricative; this is an acceptable '
sound. Since Lojban has only one lateral sound, l, which does not *need* to
be pronounced laterally, the most contrasting pronunciation would be a velar
l (like in English) and a lateral '.

I use [T], but only because I can't get the ll sound.