PEG Morphology Algorithm
Do you really mean to say that only a relatively
restricted grpup of Americans say "law" with a
low mid back rounded vowel? Aside from a few
people in a narrow band across the upper south
who add an "r" and a few (I'm not quite sure what
the line is) who collapse "aw" with "ah" — but
generally say it more like "aw" — I can't
remember hearing anyone fail to get this sound
right (and even those cases get it right but
either add to it or change its role in the
overall scheme).
> John E Clifford scripsit:
>
> > Relevance? Lojban {o} is supposedly the
> > "Italian," "pure," form. since most
> Lojbanists
> > are native speakers of American English
> (which
> > doesn't differentiate much on this issue)who
> > cannot hit that tone, the best solution was
> and
> > is to match the corresponding solution for
> {e},
> > using the lower, "short," form. I see that
> CLL
> > doesn't do that, creating yet another
> asymmetry
> > in the phonology
>
> CLL definitely does permit the Italian open
> "o", also used as the Polish "o".
> However, this does not help Americans that
> much, since the short version
> of this (as in "hot", "pot", "top") has been
> basically eliminated throughout
> the U.S. (it persists in Canada), and the long
> version (as in "awl", "law")
> survives only in those born east of a certain
> line and before a certain date.
> The best option for most Americans is to use
> their native long "o" sound,
> and disallow "ou" in Lojban.
>
> —
> John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com
> www.reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan
> "It's the old, old story. Droid meets droid.
> Droid becomes chameleon.
> Droid loses chameleon, chameleon becomes blob,
> droid gets blob back
> again. It's a classic tale." --Kryten, Red
> Dwarf
>
>
>