From iad@xxxx.xxx.xxx Tue Nov 2 10:01:44 1999 X-Digest-Num: 273 Message-ID: <44114.273.1528.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 10:01:44 -0800 From: Ivan A Derzhanski The Modern Standard pronunciation of 'qaaf' is an uvular or back > velar voiceless stop. Basically a 'k', with your tongue shoved > even further back. It sounds a lot like a 'k' to an English speaker. Whereas an English /k/ can sound like /k/ or /q/ to an Arabic speaker, depending on the adjacent vowels. > My Arabic teacher told me that it is sometimes pronounced more > like an "h" in the middle East. Like a glottal stop, to be precise. Like a hamza, in other words. > Any ideas about what to do with wierd Arabic sounds ("`ain", > "ghain", "qaaf") when Lojbanizing? (Weird? I thought English had the weirdest sound system.) I would advise following the example of Persian, Turkish etc., which have a long and glorious tradition of borrowing from Arabic into more European-like sound systems: <`> becomes a glottal stop, <_t> and <.s> both become {s}, <_d>, <.d> and <.z> all become {z} (though there might be a case for mapping <_t> to {t} and <_d> to {d}), etc. <.g> probably should become {g}, since nothing else has to. -- `Three-quarters of what the opposition says about us is lies and the other half is without any foundation in truth.' (Sir Boyle Roche, from _The Book of Irish Bull_ by Des MacHale) Ivan A Derzhanski H: cplx Iztok bl 91, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria W: Dept for Math Lx, Inst for Maths & CompSci, Bulg Acad of Sciences