Subject: Re: [lojban] Look! I found an error!

From: Pierre Abbat <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 19:43:48 -0400

On Sun, 13 May 2001, Arnt Richard Johansen wrote:
>In Robin and Nick's lessons
>(http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/lojbanbrochure/lessons/less1.html), it
>says that the Lojban diphthong "ua" is pronounced as the diphthong in the
>English word "quark". Now, according to my non-native English
>pronunciation, the diphthong in "quark" is the same as the one in "water".
>
>Also, I've never heard an Englishman or an American pronounce "quote" with
>the Lojban "uo". I feel that the vowel in "quote" is a triphthong that
>should be written in Lojban as "uou".
>
>Can any of you native English speakers comment on this?

I agree about "ua". The words "quark", "water", and "was" all have the same
diphthong, which is "w" followed by "aw", which is pronounced like "o" but with
the jaw lower but not so low as in "a".

Lojban "o" (at least as I understand how it should be pronounced) is not the
same as "o" in "so", but is "o" in "bold". The "o" in "so" is diphthongized, as
is the "o" in "quote". But there are no triphthongs in Lojban, so "kuout" is
pronounced with two syllables.

As to "Pierre", I say it in one syllable. I don't normally gargle the "r"
unless I'm speaking French or saying my whole name (the nasal in "Henri" puts
me in French mode).

I pronounce "but" and "butt" differently. "butt" is {bYt}; "but" rhymes with
"soot". I use both the vowel of "sit" and the vowel of "seat", or anything in
between, for {i}; for example {tinci} I say almost like "tin she" but the "t"
isn't aspirated. Similarly for {tunka}. I don't use buffer vowels.

Why don't the non-Lojban foreignphrases have their languages indicated?

phma