Re: [lojban] phonetics was: what's the deal with place tags?

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Sunday 10 April 2011 07:35:48 And Rosta wrote:
> 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.

/nts/ isn't allowed.

I don't know about how buffer vowels work in natlangs, but I do know there is 
at least one. Armenian has both a buffer vowel and a letter for schwa. From 
what I've read, they're pronounced the same.

Pierre

-- 
I believe in Yellow when I'm in Sweden and in Black when I'm in Wales.

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