Lesson 2
remoi seltadni (/REH,moy sehl,TAHD,nee/)
Lojban Pronunciation
lojbo bacru tadji (/LOHZH,boh BAH,shroo TAH,jee/)
We will discuss Lojban pronunciation rules in the context of Lojban
names, which will be our first application of those rules.
In Lojban, names are known as "cmene" (/SHMEH,neh/). Lojban cmene
have one major difficulty in recognition, compared to English: a cmene
which is imported from another language (Lojbanized) often does not
look like or sound exactly like its original language form. Thus
"djan." is the Lojbanized form of "John", even though the two do not
appear much alike.
There are three good reasons why this is so, but first it needs to be
pointed out that Lojban is not alone in requiring names to be adapted
into the language. For example, in English, while it is currently
acceptable to retain a native non-English name, especially a surname,
first names are usually Anglicized from the native tongue.
Anglicization is done in order to make it easier for others to
identify you and to pronounce your name correctly. It is also done to
eliminate the stigma commonly associated with 'foreigners'. Thus a
German immigrant will often Anglicize "Heinrich" to "Henry", or an
Italian will Anglicize "Giuseppe" to "Joseph".
In Lojban, everyone is an immigrant, and therefore a 'foreigner'.
There are no natives in 'Lojbanistan'. So Lojbanization is a practice
that everyone should follow equally. But there is a better reason
than this for Lojbanization, which is tied to the basic nature of
Lojban as a language:
ALL LOJBAN TEXT IS WRITTEN PHONETICALLY
Without exception. Whether name or sentence, any Lojban text
corresponds exactly to its spoken form. This feature is called
'audiovisual isomorphism'. Audiovisual isomorphism is carried to the
extreme in Lojban, so that:
FOR ANY VALID LOJBAN UTTERANCE, THERE IS ONLY ONE VALID WAY TO
TRANSCRIBE IT.
Furthermore:
FOR ANY WRITTEN LOJBAN TEXT, THERE IS ONLY ONE CORRECT WAY TO READ
IT VERBALLY
subject to small variations in human pronunciation. Each letter
corresponds to one simple sound, and each simple sound corresponds to
one letter. This is not true for English, or "Theodore" and "Johnson"
would be pronounced much differently than they are.
Another reason for Lojbanization relates to the rules for Lojban
cmene: non-Lojban names might not end in a consonant, but Lojban cmene
must end in a consonant. This has an advantage related to the above:
LOJBAN RULES FOR WORD FORMATION ALLOW EVERY STREAM OF SPEECH TO BE
UNIQUELY BROKEN DOWN INTO COMPONENT WORDS.
Lojban has nothing corresponding to the verbal confusion possible in
English from such sound- alikes as "I scream" and "ice cream". In
fact, Lojban is specifically designed to reduce as much confusion as
possible from the language, so that people can communicate what they
mean, which is what language is for. Specifically, Lojban attempts to
reduce the type of confusion called ambiguity, which refers to the
existence of a choice with insufficient information to make that
choice. The result is either a guess on the part of the listener, or
confusion.
If you know that a Lojban utterance or text contains a name, you can
easily identify it. You can also identify, without ambiguity, what
the words surrounding the name are. And then, also without ambiguity,
you can figure out how those words go together (again uniquely), to
form a sentence.
Lojban removes ambiguity from pronunciation and grammar, making
communication easier. Lojban is thus often described as unambiguous.
But a critical source of ambiguity remains, best exemplified by names.
You may be able to identify the sentence pattern with no difficulty,
but can you identify who djan. or .atlstan. or noras. are. Ambiguity
in meaning still exists in Lojban, but without other ambiguities to
distract, the speaker can work on phrasing an utterance to convey only
the intended meaning, and the listener can work on determining the
meaning of that utterance knowing that guesswork has been minimized.
You will see throughout this text how much of Lojban's design is
centered around the removal of ambiguity, and the resulting
enhancement of communications. You will also come to recognize the
way ambiguity pervades other languages including your native one, and
will be able to use that knowledge to learn to communicate better in
those languages.
Because Lojban is written phonetically, things that we ignore in
English are also noted. Thus, in writing Lojban names, which require
a pause after the final consonant, we WRITE THE PAUSE, as in: bab. and
noras.
Since pauses are sometimes required at the beginning, we also write
the pauses there when they are required, as in: .atlstan.
The period in Lojban represents a pause, specifically a mandatory
pause. It is always possible to throw in extra pauses for phrasing or
even to stop and think of the next word you plan to say (you must not,
however, pause in the middle of a word). These extra pauses mean
nothing; they cause no ambiguity. The mandatory pauses, if omitted,
might cause ambiguity.
We will always write the pauses with periods in this text, and suggest
that you do the same. It is technically optional whether to write the
pauses in Lojban text - a skilled Lojban reader can always identify
where a mandatory pause is required by the rules of the language. But
you are not a skilled reader (yet); nor are most people you know. In
any case, it is a courtesy to the reader to include the periods and
make the text easier to read. If your reader doesn't have to spend
part of her/his mind figuring out the pauses, he/she can concentrate
on understanding what you are saying, thus enhancing communications.
In addition to pause, stress is also often written in Lojban. Stress
is the relative emphasis of one syllable over another to give rhythm
to the language and to make words more recognizable. To avoid
confusion with other English meanings of the word "stress", and to
ensure that the word "accent", which means something else entirely,
does not get misused, we will use the Lojban word "terbasna"
(/tehr,BAHS,nah/) for the concept of "stress" to which we refer.
In Lojban, the terbasna is usually placed on the next-to-last or
penultimate syllable of a word. The short word "da'amoi"
(/dah,HAH,moi/) approximates to the meaning of "penultimate". Thus,
Lojban generally uses da'amoi terbasna (/dah,HAH,moi,tehr,BAHS,nah/).
Read the pronunciation guide aloud:
/dah,HAH,moy,tehr,BAHS,nah/
Note that you are permitted to run the words together in
pronunciation. Given da'amoi terbasna, a Lojbanist can identify the
end of each word with little difficulty. (Note: cmavo and their
compounds do not generally need to follow da'amoi terbasna. "da'amoi"
is such a compound, and would be resolvable even if we had not used
da'amoi terbasna in the pronunciation.)
In cmene, you are permitted to vary from da'amoi terbasna. It does
not affect recognizing the word in spoken speech to do so (although
da'amoi terbasna is needed in other instances to ensure this
recognition). But, if you wish the terbasna to apply to another
syllable, you must mark it in the text, so that the reader knows how
you want the cmene pronounced. This abnormal terbasna is marked with
capitalization.
In Lojban, we do not capitalize the beginning of a cmene. We don't
need to. There is the consonant (and the period if it is used) at the
end of the word to flag it as a cmene. We also, incidentally, do not
capitalize the beginning of a sentence. Such a beginning is made
obvious by the ".i" that starts every sentence except the first in a
text, in which case the beginning is obvious.
Capitalization is used only for the terbasna in Lojban. It is
optional in words that follow da'amoi terbasna. You could add
capitalization in these words to aid readers, but it can prove as
distracting as it is helpful to capitalize the terbasna in every word.
For example, "da'Amoi terBASna" looks strange to speakers of other
languages, conveys little useful information, and is more difficult to
type. Lojbanized names which do not follow da'amoi terbasna are
abnormal words, and it IS useful to call attention to the abnormality.
Having discussed the basis for Lojban pronunciation, let us learn the
Lojban speech sounds.
2.1
Writing Lojban
ciska la lojban. (/SHEE,skah lah,LOHZH,bahn./)
Lojban uses a Roman alphabet, consisting of the letters and symbols:
' , . a b c d e f g i j k l m n o p r s t u v x y z
omitting the letters 'h', 'q', and 'w'. The three special characters
are NOT punctuation. The apostrophe represents a specific sound,
similar to the English /h/. The period is a optional reminder to the
reader representing a mandatory pause dictated by the rules of the
language. Such pauses can be of any duration, and are part of the
morphology, or word formation rules, and not the grammar. The comma
is used to indicate a syllable break within a word, generally one that
is not obvious to the reader. The alphabet order given above is that
of the ASCII symbol set, most widely used in computers for sorting and
searching. The Lojban word lerfu is used for symbols of an alphabet
or character set and their grammar, including their usage in
mathematical expressions, acronyms, and spelling.
Lojban does not require capitalization of any word type, including
proper names, and such capitalization is discouraged. Capital letters
are used to indicate non-standard stress in pronunciation of
Lojbanized names. Thus the English name 'Josephine', as normally
pronounced, is Lojbanized as DJOsefin, pronounced /JOH,seh,feen/.
Without the capitalization, Lojban stress rules would force the /seh/
syllable to be stressed.
Lojban's alphabet and pronunciation rules cause what is called
audio-visual isomorphism. If a stream of valid Lojban speech is
uttered, there is a unique symbol to represent each sound, and a
single correct way to separate the sounds into words. Similarly, a
given string of Lojban text may be read off sound by sound using
pronunciation and stress rules forming a unique uttered expression.
Spelling in Lojban is thus trivial to learn.
2.2
The Sounds Of Lojban Letters
terlerfu la lojban. (/tehr,LEHR,foo bau,lah,LOHZH,bahn./)
Each Lojban sound is uniquely assigned to a single letter, or
combination of letters. Each letter is defined to have a particular
pronunciation, such that there is no overlap between letter sounds.
Most of the consonants are pronounced exactly as they are most
commonly pronounced in English. The following gives English and
Lojban examples for these:
f /f/ 'fall' farlu /FAHR,loo/ v /v/ 'voice' voksa /VOHK,sah/
t /t/ 'time' temci /TEHM,shee/ d /d/ 'dance' dansu /DAHN,su/
s /s/ 'soldier' sonci /SON,shee/ z /z/ 'zinc' zinki /ZEEN,kee/
k /k/ 'book' cukta /SHUK,tah/ g /g/ 'goose' gunse /GOON,seh/
Incidentally, for these examples, the Lojban example is a close
equivalent of the English example used, showing that some words in
Lojban are very similar to their English counterparts. In the
pronunciation guides, note the conventions of capitalizing stressed
syllables and of separating syllables with commas. These could
optionally be used in the Lojban words themselves, but are not
necessary.
In the above examples, the left column consonants are spoken without
voicing them with the larynx; they are called unvoiced consonants.
The consonant to the right of each unvoiced consonant is its voiced
equivalent.
When a consonant is made by touching the tongue so as to block air
passage, it is called a stop (p, b, t, d, k, g). If the blockage is
incomplete, and air rubs between the tongue and the roof of the mouth,
it is called a fricative (f, v, s, z). k is an unvoiced stop in the
back of the mouth. Its unvoiced fricative equivalent is x, which is
rarely found in English (The Scottish 'loch', as in 'Loch Ness
monster', is an example.)
x /kh/ 'loch' lalxu /LAHL,khoo/
xriso /KHREE,soh/
Two other fricatives are c and j. c is the unvoiced /sh/ sound that
is usually represented by two letters in English. j is its voiced
equivalent; rarely occurring alone in English (but see below).
c /sh/ 'shirt' creka /SHREH,kah/
'English' glico /GLEE,shoh/
j /zh/ 'measure' lojban /LOZH,bahn/
'azure'
These two fricatives occur frequently in English combined with a stop.
Lojban phonology recognizes this, and the /ch/ sound is written tc,
while the /j/ sound is written dj.
tc /tsh/=/ch/ 'much' mutce /MU,cheh/
dj /dzh/=/j/ 'jaw' xedja /KHEH,jah/
The other four Lojban consonants are also pronounced as in English.
However, there are two English pronunciations to consider. The normal
Lojban pronunciation is shown in the first column. In names,
borrowings, and a few other situations, these consonants can occur
with no vowel in the same syllable. In this case they are called
vocalic consonants, and are pronounced as in the second column.
l 'late' lerci /LEHR,shee/ l 'bottle'
'Carl' kar,l /KAHR,l/
m 'move' muvdu /MUV,du/ m 'bottom'
'Miriam' miri,m /MEE,ree,m/
n 'nose' nazbi /NAHZ,bee/ n 'button'
'Ellen' el,n /EHL,n/
r 'rock' rokci /ROK,shee/ r 'letter'
'Burt' brt /brt/
Consonants may be found in pairs, or even in triples, in many Lojban
words; even longer clusters of consonants, often including at least
one vocalic consonant, may be found in Lojbanized names or borrowings.
Some of these clusters may appear strange to the English speaker (for
example mlatu, /MLAH,tu/), but all permitted clusters were chosen so
as to be quite pronounceable by most speakers and understandable to
most listeners. If you run across a cluster that you simply cannot
pronounce due to its unfamiliarity, it is permissible to insert a very
short non-Lojban vowel sound between them. The English /ih/ as in
'bit', is recommended for English speakers.
The basic Lojban vowels are best described as being similar to the
vowels of Spanish and Italian. These languages use pure vowels,
whereas English commonly uses vowels that are complexes of two or more
pure vowels called diphthongs (2-sounds) or triphthongs (3-sounds).
English speakers must work at keeping the sounds pure; a crisp,
clipped speech tends to help, along with keeping the lips and tongue
tensed (for example by smiling tightly) while speaking.
There are five common vowels (a, e, i, o, u), and one special purpose
vowel (y). English words that are close in pronunciation are given,
but few English speakers pronounce these words with the purity and
tension needed in Lojban pronunciation.
a /ah/ 'top', 'father' patfu /PAHT,foo/
e /eh/ 'bet', 'lens' lenjo /LEHN,zhoh/
i /ee/ 'green', 'machine' minji /MEEN,zhee/
o /oh/ 'joke', 'note' notci /NOH,chee/
u /oo/ 'boot', 'shoe' cutci /SHOO,chee/
y /uh/ 'sofa', 'above' lobypli /LOHB,uh,plee/
The sound represented by y, called 'schwa', is a totally relaxed
sound, contrasting with all the other tensed vowels. In this way, the
Lojban vowels are maximally separated among possible vowel sounds.
The English speaker must be especially careful to ensure that a final
unstressed a in a Lojban word is kept tensed, and not relaxed as in
the English 'sofa' (compare the equivalent Lojban sfofa /SFO,fah/).
Lojban has diphthongs as well, but these are always represented by the
two vowels that combine to form them:
ai /igh/ 'high' bai /bigh/ ia /yah/ 'yard'
au /ow/ 'cow' vau /vow/ ie /yeh/ 'yell'
ei /ay/ 'bay' pei /pay/ ii /yee/ 'hear ye'
oi /oy/ 'boy' coi /shoy/ io /yoh/ 'Yolanda'
iu /yoo/ 'beauty'
ua /wah/ 'wander'
ue /weh/ 'well'
ui /wee/ 'wheel'
uo /woh/ 'woe'
uu /woo/ 'woo'
The diphthongs in the right column are found in Lojban only in the
words which consist of the diphthong by itself, and also in Lojbanized
names. Those in the left column may be found anywhere.
Any other time these vowels occur together in a single word, they must
be kept separate in order to unambiguously distinguish the separate
vowels from the diphthongs. The principle has been extended to all
Lojban vowels for consistency, and all non-diphthong vowel pairs in a
word are separated in print and in sound by ' representing a short,
breathy /h/ sound. (Say 'Oh hello' quickly and without a pause
between the words to get an English equivalent, in this case of Lojban
o'e.)
When the vowels occur together, one at the end of a word and the other
at the beginning of the next word, the ' is not used to separate them
(it would attach them into a single word). Instead, a pause is
mandatory between the two vowels. The pause may be extremely short
(called a glottal stop) as in the English 'he eats', or may be longer.
The pause is mandatory and thus may be inferred without writing it,
but it is usually signalled to a reader with a period (.) before the
word starting with a vowel.
A pause is also required after any Lojban name, which always ends in a
consonant. (A . is written after the name to mark this, thus
distinguishing names from other words without capitalization. Every
vowel-initial Lojban word is thus preceded by a pause, and such words
may be habitually spelled with a . at the beginning. There are a
small number of other places where pauses are required to separate
words. . may be used to mark the separation in these cases as well.
Lojban words of more than one syllable are stressed on the
next-to-last, or penultimate, syllable. Syllables for which the vowel
is y are not counted in determining penultimate stress, nor are
syllables counted in which the letters l, m, n, or r occur in their
vocalic forms with no other vowel in the same syllable. In Lojbanized
names, a speaker may retain a semblance of native pronunciation of the
name by stressing a non-penultimate syllable. In this case,
capitalization is used to mark the abnormal stress, as in 'Josephine'
in the example above.
Stress and pause are not mandatory in Lojban except for word
separation per the above rules. There is no mandatory intonation, as
for example the rising tone that always accompanies an English
question. Lojban equivalents of English intonations are expressed as
spoken (and written) words, and may be adequately communicated even in
a monotone voice. Such intonation, and pauses for phrasing, are then
totally at the speaker's discretion for ease in speaking or being
understood, and carry no meaning.
Exercise 2-1
larnuntoi repi'epamoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,PAH,moy/)
Following are examples of how Lojban sounds are used in words. Words
from this lesson's vocabulary are used as examples of each of those
sounds. Either listen to your instructor/class leader(s), or to the
tape, to hear the correct pronunciation. Repeat each word as it is
spoken, or as directed by your instructor.
Lojban letter Sample Words and Pronunciations
a blanu /BLAH,noo/ birka /BEER,kah/
e merko /MEHR,koh/ jimpe /ZHEEM,peh/
i zirpu /ZEER,poo/ pinsi /PEEN,see/
o do /doh/ lojbo /LOZH,boh/
u zunle /ZOON,leh/ stizu /STEE,zoo/
b botpi /BOHT,pee/ blabi /BLAH,bee/
c carmi /SHAHR,mee/ pencu /PEHN,shoo/
d dakfu /DAHK,foo/ cidni /SHEED,nee/
f fanva /FAHN,vah/ kerfa /KEHR,fah/
g ganlo /GAHN,loh/ degji /DEHG,zhee/
j jamfu /ZHAHM,foo/ pelji /PEHL,zhee/
k kandi /KAHN,dee/ moklu /MOHK,loo/
l lujvo /LOOZH,vo/ cilre /SHEEL,reh/
m manku /MAHN,koo/ carmi /SHAHR,mee/
n nandu /NAHN,doo/ bunre /BOON,reh/
p penbi /PEHN,bee/ jimpe /ZHEEM,peh/
r rapli /RAH,plee/ srera /SREH,rah/
s sanli /SAHN,lee/ rafsi /RAHF,see/
t tamji /TAHM,zhee/ betfu /BEHT,foo/
v valsi /VAHL,see/ tavla /TAHV,lah/
x xadni /KHAHD,nee/ darxi /DAHR,khee/
z zutse /ZOOT,seh/ nazbi /NAHZ,bee/
Exercise 2-2
larnuntoi repi'eremoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,REH,moy/)
Pronunciation drills aren't generally a lot of fun. Lojban, though,
has a lot of sounds that are unfamiliar to the ear. You need to
practice both saying the sounds accurately and listening to the sounds
as others say them. (A mastery of the sounds of a language means that
you don't make mistakes when accuracy is important. It also means
that you can make errors intentionally and know their effects, as in
sound puns.) This next set will compare similar sounds.
p pandi /PAHN,dee/ tuple /TOOP,leh/
b bangu /BAHN,goo/ jubme /ZHOOB,meh/
f fanva /FAHN,vah/ kerfa /KEHR,fah/
v valsi /VAHL.see/ cliva /SHLEE,vah/
t tanru /TAHN,roo/ bartu /BAHR,too/
d danfu /DAHN,foo/ barda /BAHR,dah/
x xance /KHAHN,sheh/ tanxe /TAHN,kheh/
k kanla /KAHN,lah/ manku /MAHN,koo/
g ganlo /GAHN,loh/ bangu /BAHN,goo/
s sumti /SOOM,tee/ grusi /GROO,see/
z zunle /ZOON,leh/ stizu /STEE,zoo/
c cukta /SHOOK,tah/ ctuca /SHTOO,shah/
j jubme /ZHOOB,meh/ lujvo /LOOZH,voh/
To help learn the difference between "c" and "j", compare the English words
"pressure" and "measure".
m minde /MEEN,deh/ klama /KLAH,mah/
n ninmu /NEEN,moo/ cpana /SHPAH,nah/
Exercise 2-3
larnuntoi repi'ecimoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,SHEE,moy/)
Lojban has 48 permissible initials (combinations of two consonants
that are permitted at the beginning of a brivla), some of which are
never found in English. All of them, however, are fairly easy to say
and to recognize. Grouping is again based on linguistic similarity.
pl plipe /PLEE,peh/
bl blanu /BLAH,noo/
br bridi /BREE,dee/
pr pritu /PREE,too/
fl flira /FLEE,rah/
fr friti /FREE,tee/
tr trixe /TREE,kheh/
dr drani /DRAH,nee/
tc tcidu /CHEE,doo/
dj djuno /JOO,noh/
ts tsani /TSAH,nee/ zutse /ZOO,tseh/
/ZOOT,seh/
dz dzena /DZEH,nah/ cadzu /SHAH,dzoo/
/SHAHD,zoo/
To learn the latter two try English "pizza" and "red zebra".
sk skari /SKAH,ree/ desku /DEH,skoo/
/DEHS,koo/
ck ckule /SHKOO,leh/
jg jgari /ZHGAH,ree/
zg zgike /ZGEE,keh/
sp spuda /SPOO,dah/
cp cpedu /SHPEH,doo/
jb jbini /ZHBEE,nee/ lojbo /LOH,zhboh/
/LOHZH,boh/
zb zbani /ZBAH,nee/ nazbi /NAH,zbee/
/NAHZ,bee/
sf sfani /SFAH,nee/
cf cfari /SHFAH,ree/ cfipu /SHFEE,pu/
jv jvinu /ZHVEE,nu/ lujvo /LUU,zhvo/
/LUUZH,vo/
zv zvati /ZVAH,tee/
cl cliva /SHLEE,vah/
sl slaka /SLAH,kah/
cr crane /SHRAH,neh/
sr srera /SREH,rah/
st stizu /STEE,zoo/
ct ctuca /SHTOO,shah/
jd jdari /ZHDAH,ree/
zd zdani /ZDAH,nee/
zm zmadu /ZMAH,doo/
jm jmaji /ZHMAH,zhee/
cm cmavo /SHMAH,voh/
sm smadi /SMAH,dee/ cisma /SHEE,smah/
/SHEES,mah/
cn cnebo /SHNEH,boh/
sn snidu /SNEE,doo/ basna /BAH,snah/
/BAHS,nah/
xl xlali /KHLAH,lee/
kl klama /KLAH,mah/
gl glare /GLAH,reh/ glico /GLEE,sho/
xr xrani /KHRAH,nee/
kr krasi /KRAH,see/ xekri /KHEH,kree/
/KHEHK,ree/
gr grana /GRAH,nah/ grusi /GROO,see/
ml mlana /MLAH,nah/
mr mrilu /MREE,loo/
Note that for some of the words in the second column, we have kept the
permissible initial together in the same (final) syllable. We also
give the pronunciation in separate syllables. Say each. Can you tell
the difference when you say them? How about when listening to the
tape or another person saying them? If you hear them differently,
which pronunciation is easier to say? To recognize?
Exercise 2-4
larnuntoi repi'evomoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,VOH,moy/)
This exercise will concentrate of the 'fricative' sounds of Lojban,
the words using letters 'c', 'j', 's', and 'z', and their
combinations. Practice writing the words as dictated, and practice
repeating their pronunciation. If self-teaching, try recording the
words if you have a microphone, and playing your recording to see
whether you sound like the tape. (Exchanging tapes with a
correspondent is also good here, as well.) In the following, read
columns down, then across:
narju cnino cpana
punji citno troci
tamji cnita jikca
degji frica
pajni midju xance
lamji xedja
kruji djuno srera
crane
zutse jbini lerci
cadzu jibni
casnu
ckule tcati gismu
cusku tcidu nazbi
ckafi
ckini jdice
djica
cpare
cpacu cfipu
and then the sentence:
le se jdice ku cu se cusku le sisti ku coi. salis.
Exercise 2-5
larnuntoi repi'emumoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,MOO,moy/)
In speaking Lojban, correct pronunciation of diphthongs is vital to
having your listener understand you. You need to practice your vowels
to ensure that they are not diphthongized. There is a vital
difference between "le jdini" and "lei jdini". Many English speakers,
told that the Lojban "e" is a Romance "e", assume a pronunciation
indistinguishable from "ei". The Romance "e" is a single sound, a
little more "closed" than the English "e" in "bet", but it is not the
vowel sound of English "bait". English speakers who have learned
French are more likely to see the distinction than those who have
learned Spanish; the distinction between the single vowel and the
diphthong is more likely to be significant in French. Anyone who has
heard the French pronunciation of "Les Miserables" will recognize the
first "e" as a Lojban "e".
It is also possible to confuse diphthongs with the corresponding vowel
pairs that include a consonant buffer ('). For example, the Lojban
sentences "ko'a go'i le zarci" and "ko'a goi le zarci" mean totally
different things.
While we haven't had all of the cmavo in the following practice as
vocabulary, all of them are valid Lojban words. Practice them with
the tape or with another student until you can clearly distinguish the
difference, and express each word clearly.
le lei le'i
la lai la'i
lo loi lo'i
la lu lau la'u
go goi go'i
ra rai ra'i
de dei de'i
ca cu cau ca'u
so soi so'i
ta tai ta'i
je jei je'i
pa pu pau pa'u
As a tougher exercise, here are a series of cmavo expressed as
compounds. All of these are valid words; in fact, there are 39 Lojban
words consisting of just two vowels, all of which are used to express
attitudes such as intention, desire, obligation, and so on. (This
system is discussed further in Lesson 8.) Make your pauses as short
as possible, and your consonant buffers clear.
.ai.i'a .a.i'a .ai.ia .a.ia .a'i.i'a .ai.i'a
.ai.au .a.au .a'i.au .a'i.a'u .a.a'u .ai.a'u
.ai.ii .a.ii .a'i.ii .a'i.i'i .a.i'i .ai.i'i
.ia.a'u .ia.au .a.au .i'a.au .i'a.a'u .a.a'u
.ei.o'i .e.o'i .e.oi .ei.oi .e'i.o'i .e'i.oi
.e.ei .e.e'i .u'e.e .ue.e .u'e.ei .ue.ei .u'e.e'i ue.e'i
Exercise 2-6
larnuntoi repi'examoi (/lahr,NOON,roy REH,pee,heh,KHAH,moy/)
The following words contain consonant clusters or consonants that are
frequently mispronounced by English speakers. Practice them in class
or with the tape. (The tape reads down, by columns.)
dj/jd x zm/jm
j/zd cm/sm
traji jikru pelxu nixli jmaji
xedja cidja xekri tixnu cmoni
tamji jipci xunre xrani jmive
djuno jinci xadni pixra zmadu
punji xance vasxu cmalu
midju tsiju xedja juxre cmila
rinju sidju trixe xajmi cmene
vanju tanxe caxno gismu
kruji jibni darxi lalxu kacma
djedi jbini derxi pesxu
djica jvinu binxo cfari
benji jvinu cuxna sfani
jikca claxu
jimpe jdari xlali
djacu jgari pinxe
djica fonxa
jdice zdile taxfu