Ivo Doko, On 10/04/2011 09:29:
On 9 April 2011 22:14, Jonathan Jones<eyeonus@gmail.com> wrote:I have trouble with the "ml" in mlatu...Well that one shouldn't be a problem. You know how to say "bl" (as in "black"). Now just instead of "black" say "mlack". I'm serious - "m" and "b" are almost the same phoneme, the trick is the same. If that doesn't work for you there's a different approach: The trick is to, before you say "m" (while your lips are closed), position your tongue as if you're going to say "L" (because you *are* going to say it). Then, as you say "m" and open up your lips, just pull off your tongue to say "L". Like I said, the same trick.
You're kind of missing the point. It doesn't matter at all if a Lojban speaker has trouble saying [zb] or [ml], because /z(%)b/ and /m(%)l/ can be realized not only as [zb] and [ml] but also as [z £ b] and [m £ l], where "£" stands for whatever the realization of % is. Furthermore, relevant considerations go beyond mere articulatory difficulty to include also acoustic distinctiveness. For example, even if [ml] is easy to say, it might be hard for either speaker or hearer to reliably distinguish /lemlatu/ [lemlatu] from /lemblatu/ [lemblatu], but much easier to distinguish /lem%latu/ [lemylatu] from /lemblatu/ [lemblatu]. Likewise for /ns/ vs /nts/ and other clusters; judicious use of the buffer vowel can mitigate some of the failings of Lojban phonology. --And. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "lojban" group. To post to this group, send email to lojban@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban?hl=en.