Pronunciation of "o"

[Timothy Lawrence]

How is the letter "o" pronounced in Lojban? Is it the monophthong "o", as in English "on"? Is it the diphthong "ow", as in English "own"? (It's hard to describe sounds in writing so I linked to spoken audio samples)

I ask because the pronunciation guide of the "Level 0 Booklet" seems to be indicating it is the latter, based on how I think "joke" and "note" are pronounced: http://lojban.org/publications/level0/brochure-utf/phonol.html
However, from the same page: "Lojban has diphthongs as well, but these are always represented by the two vowels that combine to form them."

I presumed the intent behind Lojban's phonetic spelling was that each letter represents a pure vowel sound and I noted that the pronunciation of "Lojban" on its Wiki article seems to indicate the pronunciation might be the former monophthong: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Jbo-lojban.ogg 

Thus I've been presuming "o" in Lojban would be pronounced as in English "on" and thus "ou" would be the Lojbanic diphthong to represent "ow" as in English "own". Is this correct?

Thanks,

Timothy

[Gleki Arxokuna]

You are right. Maybe this will also help you:

http://mw.lojban.org/images/b/b1/Lojban_interactive.swf

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[Michael Turniansky]

Timothy, I understand you are Australian.  if the link you provided is indeed how you pronounce "on", then it will probably be confused with the lojban "a".  It's closer to how that same website pronounces "north".  It should be basically be around either here: or here or in-between (always rounded lips) whereas a hangs around either here or here or in-between always with lips unrounded.

             --gejyspa

[Timothy Lawrence]

Thanks very much, that all makes sense :)

Perhaps the Level 0 Brochure should be updated as its suggested "joke" and "note" appear to be widely pronounced as that diphthong, which led to my confusion.

---

From: lojban-b...@googlegroups.com <lojban-b...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Michael Turniansky <mturn...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, 30 March 2015 11:51 PM
To: lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [lojban-beginners] Pronunciation of "o"

 

[Ian Johnson]

I think it is making some assumptions about the reader's dialect of English. In American pronunciation for instance, "joke" and "note" indeed have a sound which could only be the "o" in Lojban. It is not necessarily the preferred Lojban "o" sound, but it is too far from "a" and "au" for any confusion. (This is one of the advantages of not having very many vowels!)

mi'e la latro'a mu'o

[Pierre Abbat]

On Monday, March 30, 2015 12:03:02 Timothy Lawrence wrote:
> How is the letter "o" pronounced in Lojban? Is it the monophthong "o", as in

> English "on<http://howjsay.com/index.php?word=on&submit=Submit>"? Is it the

> diphthong "ow", as in English

> "own<http://howjsay.com/index.php?word=own&submit=Submit>"? (It's hard to

> describe sounds in writing so I linked to spoken audio samples)

Those to me sound like /ɔn/, which is not a word in my dialect of English, and
/on/, which is <own>, but in my pronunciation usually realized as [oʊn] or
[oun]. Both [ɔn] and [on] are Lojban <on> to me, but [oʊn] and [oun] are not
valid Lojban. I pronounce English <on> as /ɑn/ (not /ɒn/, which is <awn>, the
long straight projection with backward tiny teeth sticking out of some cereal
grains).

I prefer to explain Lojban vowels in terms of Spanish ones, since few accents
in Spanish vary the vowels much. The Lojban /a/,/e/,/i/,/o/,/u/ are the same
as in Spanish. The /ə/ <y> doesn't exist in Spanish, but does exist in French
and English.

> Thus I've been presuming "o" in Lojban would be pronounced as in English
> "on" and thus "ou" would be the Lojbanic diphthong to represent "ow" as in
> English "own". Is this correct?

Lojban has the diphthong "ei", but not "ou".

Pierre
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Don't buy a French car in Holland. It may be a citroen.