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The Hills Are Alive With The Sounds Of Lojban - The Lojban Reference Grammar
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The Hills Are Alive With The Sounds Of Lojban
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The Lojban Reference Grammar
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<h3><a id="s3" name="s3">3. The Special Lojban Characters</h3>
<p>The apostrophe, period, and comma need special attention.
They are all used as indicators of a division between
syllables, but each has a different pronunciation, and each is
used for different reasons:</p>
<p>The apostrophe represents a phoneme similar to a short,
breathy English ``h'', (IPA <span class="c3">[h]</span>). The
letter ``h'' is not used to represent this sound for two
reasons: primarily in order to simplify explanations of the
morphology, but also because the sound is very common, and the
apostrophe is a visually lightweight representation of it. The
apostrophe sound is a consonant in nature, but is not treated
as either a consonant or a vowel for purposes of Lojban
morphology (word-formation), which is explained in <a
href="../c4/s1.html">Chapter 4</a>. In addition, the apostrophe
visually parallels the comma and the period, which are also
used (in different ways) to separate syllables.</p>
<p>The apostrophe is included in Lojban only to enable a smooth
separation between vowels, while joining the vowels within a
single word. In fact, one way to think of the apostrophe is as
representing a unvoiced vowel glide.</p>
<p>As a permitted variant, any unvoiced fricative other than
those already used in Lojban may be used to render the
apostrophe: IPA <span class="c3">[θ]</span> is one possibility.
The convenience of the listener should be regarded as paramount
in deciding to use a substitute for <span
class="c3">[h]</span>.</p>
<p>The period represents a mandatory pause, with no specified
length; a glottal stop (IPA <span class="c3">[ʔ]</span>) is
considered a pause of shortest length. A pause (or glottal
stop) may appear between any two words, and in certain cases --
explained in detail in <a href="../c4/s1.html">Chapter 4</a> ---
must occur. In particular, a word beginning with a vowel is
always preceded by a pause, and a word ending in a consonant is
always followed by a pause.</p>
<p>Technically, the period is an optional reminder to the
reader of a mandatory pause that is dictated by the rules of
the language; because these rules are unambiguous, a missing
period can be inferred from otherwise correct text. Periods are
included only as an aid to the reader.</p>
<p>A period also may be found apparently embedded in a word.
When this occurs, such a written string is not one word but
two, written together to indicate that the writer intends a
unitary meaning for the compound. It is not really necessary to
use a space between words if a period appears.</p>
<p>The comma is used to indicate a syllable break within a
word, generally one that is not obvious to the reader. Such a
comma is written to separate syllables, but indicates that
there must be no pause between them, in contrast to the period.
Between two vowels, a comma indicates that some type of glide
may be necessary to avoid a pause that would split the two
syllables into separate words. It is always legal to use the
apostrophe (IPA <span class="c3">[h]</span>) sound in
pronouncing a comma. However, a comma cannot be pronounced as a
pause or glottal stop between the two letters separated by the
comma, because that pronunciation would split the word into two
words.</p>
<p>Otherwise, a comma is usually only used to clarify the
presence of syllabic ``l'', ``m'', ``n'', or ``r'' (discussed
later). Commas are never required: no two Lojban words differ
solely because of the presence or placement of a comma.</p>
<p>Here is a somewhat artificial example of the difference in
pronunciation between periods, commas and apostrophes. In the
English song about Old MacDonald's Farm, the vowel string which
is pronounced ``ee-i-ee-i-o'' in English could be Lojbanized
with periods as:</p>
<p></p>
<pre>
<a id="e3d1" name="e3d1">3.1)</a> .i.ai.i.ai.o
<span class="c3">[ʔi ʔaj ʔi ʔaj ʔo]</span>
Ee! Eye! Ee! Eye! Oh!
</pre>
<p>However, this would sound clipped, staccato, and unmusical
compared to the English. Furthermore, although <a
href="#e3d1">Example 3.1</a> is a string of meaningful Lojban
words, as a sentence it makes very little sense. (Note the use
of periods embedded within the written word.)</p>
<p>If commas were used instead of periods, we could represent
the English string as a Lojbanized name, ending in a
consonant:</p>
<p></p>
<pre>
<a id="e3d2" name="e3d2">3.2)</a> .i,ai,i,ai,on.
<span class="c3">[ʔi jaj ji jaj jonʔ]</span>
</pre>
<p>The commas represent new syllable breaks, but prohibit the
use of pauses or glottal stop. The pronunciation shown is just
one possibility, but closely parallels the intended English
pronunciation.</p>
<p>However, the use of commas in this way is risky to
unambiguous interpretation, since the glides might be heard by
some listeners as diphthongs, producing something like</p>
<pre>
<a id="e3d3" name="e3d3">3.3)</a> .i,iai,ii,iai,ion.
</pre>
which is technically a different Lojban name. Since the intent
with Lojbanized names is to allow them to be pronounced more
like their native counterparts, the comma is allowed to
represent vowel glides or some non-Lojbanic sound. Such an
exception affects only spelling accuracy and the ability of a
reader to replicate the desired pronunciation exactly; it will
not affect the recognition of word boundaries.
<p>Still, it is better if Lojbanized names are always distinct.
Therefore, the apostrophe is preferred in regular Lojbanized
names that are not attempting to simulate a non-Lojban
pronunciation perfectly. (Perfection, in any event, is not
really achievable, because some sounds simply lack reasonable
Lojbanic counterparts.)</p>
<p>If apostrophes were used instead of commas in <a
href="#e3d2">Example 3.2</a>, it would appear as:</p>
<p></p>
<pre>
<a id="e3d4" name="e3d4">3.4)</a> .i'ai'i'ai'on.
<span class="c3">[ʔi hai hi hai honʔ]</span>
</pre>
which preserves the rhythm and length, if not the exact sounds,
of the original English.
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The Hills Are Alive With The Sounds Of Lojban
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The Lojban Reference Grammar
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