Re: Pronunciation in Lojban

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@GREBYN.COM>]

vowels a/e/i/o/u are basically Romance, but beware of your 'e's sounding
like the 'ei' diphthong.  'y' is a schwa.  Diphthongs are ai, au , ei, oi
and in standalone words ia/ie/ii/io/iu and ua/ue/ui/uo/uu.
In the diphthongs, the first i or u is pronounced as 'y' or 'w' respectively.

Apostrophe between two vowels indicates a devoiced glide - most English
speakers will do fine pronouncing an 'h', but it isn't really an 'h', and is
not conisdered a consonant, but rather a way of ensuring asyllable break
wiothout a word-break.

Most consonants are what you think they are, "c" is English "sh", making
"tc" English "tsh"="ch"; "j" is the voiced version of this, "zh" as in
"measure" or "azure". "r" is usually better with a bit of a trill, but
covers a wide range otherwise; "x" is the velar fricative in German "Ach",
Scottish "loch", but voicing is allowed as in Libyan leader "Ghaddafi", and
a palatal fricative like in German "ich" will be understood as long as there
is contrast with "ish".

Stress is penultimate unless marked.  Do not count syllables where the 'vowel'
is 'y' or a syllabic 'r' or 'n'.  marking is by capitalization.

A period is a pause; a glottal stop  will do for a pause in rapid speech.
You MUST pause after all names and between words that end with a vowel followed
by words that start with one, and after all vocative markers except "doi"
before names.  Abnormal stress is marked with capitalization.

lojbab