From jcowan@reutershealth.com Sat Apr 27 20:19:01 2002 Return-Path: X-Sender: jcowan@reutershealth.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_3_1); 28 Apr 2002 03:19:01 -0000 Received: (qmail 75801 invoked from network); 28 Apr 2002 03:19:00 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m4.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 28 Apr 2002 03:19:00 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail.reutershealth.com) (204.243.9.36) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Apr 2002 03:19:00 -0000 Received: from skunk.reutershealth.com (IDENT:cowan@[10.65.117.21]) by mail.reutershealth.com (Pro-8.9.3/Pro-8.9.3) with SMTP id XAA16128 for ; Sat, 27 Apr 2002 23:18:42 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200204280318.XAA16128@mail.reutershealth.com> Received: by skunk.reutershealth.com (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Sat, 27 Apr 2002 23:18:58 +4400 Subject: Re: [lojban] What's the logic behind Lojban's sound system? To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 23:18:58 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: from "Craig" at Apr 27, 2002 08:02:32 PM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: John Cowan X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=8122456 X-Yahoo-Profile: john_w_cowan Craig scripsit: > >1) Diphthongs ai, au, ei, oi, ia, ie, ii, io, iu, ua, > >ue, ui, uo, uu are all allowed but not eu, ou. Why? > > This one weirds me out, too. English-speakers (and they make up a good part of the world) have trouble keeping "o" and "ou" distinct, and pronouncing "eu" at all. > >3) Why is voicing used for all stops and fricatives > >except x? > > Because somebody went a little crazy. This is discussed on the Wiki. We want > our gh sound! The original sounds were paired; /x/ is a later addition. There was no demand for /G/ and we didn't add it. > >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)-- Alveopalatal stops are very rare. Affricates are well-known and used in Lojban, but are considered two-phoneme sequences. > >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? > > Just a guess: no convinient grapheme. If so, quite illogical. Lojban treats [N] as a variant of /n/. -- John Cowan http://www.reutershealth.com I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_