Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: Lojban Text to Speech

From: John Cowan <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 13:49:14 -0500

Arnt Richard Johansen wrote:

> The official Lojban R is the alveolar approximant, SAMPA [\r], which is
> used in among others US English, UK English, and Swedish.
> 
> It is also possible to pronounce R as an alveolar trill, SAMPA [r], as in
> Spanish.
> 
> The preferred pronunciation, however, seems to be the apico-alveolar tap,
> "fish-hook r", as in Spanish, some dialects of Japanese, and some dialects
> of Norwegian.

Where does this "official" and "preferred" come from? The Lojban /r/
is any rhotic sound, including all of these as well as the uvular trill
of German, the uvular approximant of French (although as noted some
may have trouble pronouncing /xr/ distinctly in the last case), and
the retroflex approximant of Chinese.

Additionally, the /r/ I use in American English is by no means
alveolar; it is a lamino-palatal approximant, with the apex
depressed and retracted.

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