Subject: on Lojban pronunciation

From: "Alfred W. Tueting (Tüting)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 14:25:19 -0000

coi
After giving it a try producing a Lojban audio sample of xorxes'
Lorca translation, one of our members kindly visiting my site had 
pointed out to me that the Lojban /x/ was to pronounce like German
'ch' in 'Bach' or Spanish 'jinete' etc.. This for sure is the rule 
defined. (Meanwhile I have changed the audio file.) 
Since in German the pronunciation of the 'ch'-fricative changes from
guttural (Bach=creek, Rache=vengence) to about central-
palatal (ich=I, nicht=not) over somewhat in between (echt=genuine,
schlecht=bad) depending on the accompaning vowel 
respective, I'd - for me - tend to pronounce it different for
/xance/, /xekri/ and /xirma/. 
According to Lojban rules, the different pronunciations for /r/ (and
I think - quite unexpressed and informal - /l/ too) is free for 
personal/national usage. This should be the same with /x/, because
its variations indeed having no *morphemic* functions! 
(French - and maybe Chinese - speaking Lojbanists excluded for
ambiguous /x/=/c/ (French) or /x/=/s/ (pinyin 'x'/W.-G. 
'hs'). 
What is your opinion on this?
BTW, I've been wondering anyway, how a conlang constructed by English
speaking people includes 'rough' sounds like that /x/ 
Don't they show kind of a masochist trait? ;-)

co'o mi'e .aulun: