Re: x pronunciation from a french guy

[Ivan A Derzhanski <iad@math.bas.bg>]

Ben Webster wrote:
> The Modern Standard pronunciation of 'qaaf' is an uvular or back
> velar voiceless stop.  Basically a 'k', with your tongue shoved
> even further back.  It sounds a lot like a 'k' to an English speaker.

Whereas an English /k/ can sound like /k/ or /q/ to an Arabic
speaker, depending on the adjacent vowels.

> My Arabic teacher told me that it is sometimes pronounced more
> like an "h" in the middle East.

Like a glottal stop, to be precise.  Like a hamza, in other words.

> Any ideas about what to do with wierd Arabic sounds ("`ain",
> "ghain", "qaaf") when Lojbanizing?

(Weird?  I thought English had the weirdest sound system.)

I would advise following the example of Persian, Turkish etc., which
have a long and glorious tradition of borrowing from Arabic into more
European-like sound systems: <`> becomes a glottal stop, <_t> and <.s>
both become {s}, <_d>, <.d> and <.z> all become {z} (though there might
be a case for mapping <_t> to {t} and <_d> to {d}), etc.  <.g> probably
should become {g}, since nothing else has to.

-- 
`Three-quarters of what the opposition says about us is lies
 and the other half is without any foundation in truth.'
     (Sir Boyle Roche, from _The Book of Irish Bull_ by Des MacHale)
Ivan A Derzhanski                     <http://www.math.bas.bg/~iad/>
H: cplx Iztok bl 91, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria          <iad@math.bas.bg>
W: Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences