From uaxuctum@yahoo.es Sat Apr 27 15:39:54 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: uaxuctum@yahoo.es X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_3_1); 27 Apr 2002 22:39:54 -0000 Received: (qmail 68766 invoked from network); 27 Apr 2002 22:39:53 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217) by m11.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 27 Apr 2002 22:39:53 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO n24.grp.scd.yahoo.com) (66.218.66.80) by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 27 Apr 2002 22:39:53 -0000 Received: from [66.218.67.131] by n24.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 27 Apr 2002 22:39:53 -0000 Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 22:39:50 -0000 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: What's the logic behind Lojban's sound system? Message-ID: User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Length: 1560 X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster From: "uaxuctum" X-Originating-IP: 62.42.236.156 X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=91493234 X-Yahoo-Profile: uaxuctum Hello, Lojban is presented as a "logical" language, but so far I haven't been able to find the logic and consistency of its sound system. Could anybody please explain me the reasons for the choice of phonemes and permitted sound sequencies? To be more specific, I'd like to know: 1) Diphthongs ai, au, ei, oi, ia, ie, ii, io, iu, ua, ue, ui, uo, uu are all allowed but not eu, ou. Why? 2) As full vowels i and u are spelled the same as their semivowel counterparts, how are diphthongs ii and uu to be pronounced, as 'yee' and 'woo' and Arabic 'yi' and 'wu', or as Arabic 'iy' and 'uw'? 3) Why is voicing used for all stops and fricatives except x? 4) Why are there so many gaps in the phoneme chart? --the labial order has two stops (p/b), two fricatives (f/v) and a nasal (m), the dentalveolar order has also two stops (t/d), two fricatives (s/z) and a nasal (n), but then the alveolopalatal order has only two fricatives (c/j) and the velar order only two stops (k/g) and one fricative (x)-- 5) Why does lojban use such a rare phonemical opposition as /h/ vs. /x/, which moreover is found in just one of the languages it takes as 'models' (only Arabic contrasts them)? 6) Why, on the other hand, doesn't it use /N/, which is a very frequent phoneme of Chinese and appears also in English and Hindi? 7) Why are clusters of the kind 'st', 'ck', 'jm'... allowed while others such as 'll', 'kn', 'nd' are not? 8) Why are liquids and nasals allowed as vowels, when of the six 'model' languages only English uses them that way? Thanks in advance, Javier