Re: Morphology

[HACKER G N <c9709244@ALINGA.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU>]

On Fri, 19 Sep 1997, Don Wiggins wrote:

> Could someone explain to me how the following stream should be resolved:
>
>     lo-re-spa-ji-pci
>
> This could be either "lo re spajipci" (the two plant-chickens) or
> "lo respa jipci" (the reptile chicken).  I know it's not a great example, but
> how is a CV cmavo prevent from falling off a gismu that internally has a
> permissible initial consonant pair.
>

Another example I've heard is "ca dzukla ma" versus "cadzu klama". Even
I wondered at first how to disambiguate the speech stream "cabdei cerni"
from "cabdeicerni". But all of these examples can be
effectively disambiguated in the speech stream by listening to the primary
stress in the words. "lo re spajipci" is "lo re spaJIPci", whereas "lo
respa jipci" is "lo RESpa JIPci". "ca dzukla ma" is "ca DZUkla ma",
whereas "cadzu klama" is "CADzu KLAma". Finally, "cabdei cerni" is "CABdei
CERni", as opposed to "cabdeicerni", which is "cabdeiCERni".

Which is to say that there's more to disambiguating Lojban sounds than the
consonant clusters alone. :)

Geoff