Re: accent

[And Rosta <a.rosta@lycos.co.uk>]

"michael helsem" <graywyvern@hotmail.com>
 
> it can be assumed that native-lojbanist english speakers would convert 
> the phonemes (h)(short a)(voiceless th)(voiced th) into lojban's 
> (x)(e)(t)(d). that's what happens with natural bilinguals.
> also, they might have trouble with some of english's voiced/unvoiced 
> consonant combinations, & i imagine would insert a schwa accordingly.

I think I'm persuaded by that. [h] and [T] (th) occur in Lojban but 
only allophonically and intervocalically.

Still, you don't *normally* spot or identify foreign accents by these 
specific segmental substitutions (though certain ones are a dead 
giveaway, such as [dz] for /dZ/ being very Greek) - it's more complex 
and subtle than that. Think of all the foreign (= not English) 
languages that lack [T] and [D], yet observe how different French, 
German, Italian accents are from each other and from Cockney or 
Mancunian (also [T]/[D]-less).

It would be interesting to know to what extent a Lojban accent has 
already evolved, e.g. in Virginia. I gather, for example, that 
Virginian Lojban /a/ is realized with a very back [A].

--And.