Subject: RE: [lojban] What's the logic behind Lojban's sound system?

From: "And Rosta" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 17:08:49 +0100

Craig:
> >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)?
> 
> It doesn't. An equally correct pronunciation of ' is as an unvoiced th
> sound.

The fact remains that Lojban DOES contrast [h] and [x], and likewise
contrasts [c,] (as an exponent of /'/) and [x].

The phonology of /'/ and /@/, where /@/ = buffer vowel is so stupid
-- so unlike anything in natlangs -- that it is simply indefensible.

The inventors of Lojban were not omniscient; they had very good ideas
about very many things, but phonology was a blind spot.

--And.