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Re: [lojban] To Polish fellow lojbanists



I believe that And is right about the contrast between [ihi] and [ixi] being almost nil when being heard.  I recorded my voice to test this.  At first my [ihi] and [ixi] sounded distinct, but then I realized that I was pronouncing [ihi] with a breathy voice [h] (i.e. [ɦ], often an allophone of /h/ in English e.g. {behind}).  When I use a true voiceless [h], the contrast with [x] almost vanishes in the [i_i] position.  However, the [ɦ] v. scrapeless [x] contrast does work in my ear, though it is probably not the easiest for everyone. 
 
I'm guessing that [ɦ] is already a de_facto allophone of /'/ in Lojban as spoken by Anglophones.
 
On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:10 PM, And Rosta <and.rosta@gmail.com> wrote:
Luke Bergen, On 30/09/2010 14:26:

weird.  I didn't understand a thing that you said, and maybe I'm mispronouncing "x" but I can discern a difference between /i'i/ and /ixi/.  I judge which one I'm hearing based on whether or not I can hear that throat rattling sound.  

There'll not be any rattling in your throat, but it might be that you produce /x/ in /ixi/ with a tighter constriction than /'/ in /i'i/, and that this causes saliva to vibrate in the narrow channel, giving rise to the phonetic phenomenon called 'scrape'.

Stevo:
And: I have no problem differentiating between {i'i} and {ixi}.

With regard to differentiating in your speech, one possibility is that you might be deluded (as people often are about their own speech), and another, more likely, is that you have fixed on allophones that are reliably distinct. Perhaps you have [θ] in /i'i/; or perhaps you have a scrapey [x] in /ixi/.
With regard to differentiating in your hearing, I would wager that you can't reliably differentiate between /x/ and voiceless glide realizations of /'/ in /i_i/; afaik no language has minimal pairs contrasting voiceless approximants and fricatives.

--And.

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 4:47 AM, And Rosta <and.rosta@gmail.com <mailto:and.rosta@gmail.com>> wrote:

   It's phonetically impractical to get [h] between most vowels,
   because a criterion for [h] is that there is no aerodynamically
   significant supraglottal narrowing of stricture. So while [h] for
   /'/ in /e'e/ or /y'y/ is practicable, [h] for /'/ in, say, /o'o/ or
   /u'u/ or /i'i/ is not (because the flanking vowels create
   aerodynamically significant supraglottal stricture).

   One can easily observe that [aha] and [axa] are rather easy to
   differentiate, whereas /i'i/ and /ixi/ will be effectively
   indistinguishable (as [aça]) unless a very different allophone of
   /'/, such as [θ], is used.

   --And.

   Bob LeChevalier, President and Founder - LLG, On 30/09/2010 01:48:

       Krzysztof Sobolewski wrote:

           Dnia środa, 29 września 2010 o 19:13:54 Jorge Llambías
           napisał(a):

               2010/9/29 Krzysztof Sobolewski <jezuch@interia.pl
               <mailto:jezuch@interia.pl>>:


                   So could some confirm that using the same sound for
                   {x} and {'} does not introduce ambiguity? :)


               It introduces plenty of ambiguity. Just consider any
               CV'V cmavo for a
               start, which becomes indistinguishable from the two
               cmavo CV xV.



           Well then, I think I'll stick with silent {'}. But this is
           problematic with things like {du'u} or {zo'o}. Is there any
           hope for people who don't see (hear) any difference between
           [x] and [h] (both in IPA, according to Wikipedia)? ;)


       I haven't been following this, but "'" can be any voiceless
       glide (approximant), not necessarily IPA "h".

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximant_consonant
       discusses this, and gives several examples.  It says this about "h"

           Occasionally, the glottal "fricatives" are called
           approximants, since
           [h] typically has no more frication than voiceless
           approximants, but

        > they are often phonations of the glottis without any accompanying
        > manner or place of articulation.

       suggesting that the thing to avoid in distinguishing x and h is
       the noticeable frication.  Since I don't know Polish, I can't
       help beyond that point.  But perhaps our Russian native speakers
       have a similar problem and could comment.

       (People have at times chosen to express the rule as "any
       non-lojbanic voiceless consonant", with the most striking
       example being someone here in Virginia who used a voiceless "th"
       fricative.  As I recall, it sounded real funny, but it was
       understandable.)

       lojbab



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