On Jan 16, 2008 12:57 PM, Elmo Todurov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Vid Sintef wrote:
> > What is the problem of using the apostrophe, which is effectively a
> > consonant,
> It is not. It's special, just like y and . and ,.
Yes it is special. But nonetheless it's a consonant pronounced as
either /h/ or /θ/.
> > instead of the other consonant letters, at the end of a cmevla?
> If you make an exception to allow ' in the end of cmevla, would you also
> make an exception and allow . or , to end a cmevla?
, is not a sound itself. And . (ʔ) is not as distinct a consonant as '
is. {la meri. melbi} and {la meri, melbi}, when pronounced or heard,
are hardly different from {la meri melbi}, while {la meri' melbi} is.
I agree with Yoav that such a usage of the apostrophe, which is
pronounced, wouldn't be as absurd as that of the comma and the period
would.
Here is an example with the name Yoko Ono (many Japanese name ends in
a vowel). According to the current standard it would be either {la
.iokos.onos.} or {la .ioko,onos.}, but each {s} here doesn't really
tell whether it's original or Lojbanic, often making it hard to
recognize the extent to which the name has been modified. If we write
instead like {la .ioko.ono'}, we can minimize the degree of both the
visual and the aural modification (or confusion) caused by
lojbanization.
I believe this scheme can also help distinguish certain names which
would otherwise be rendered in an identical form, for example:
la .alis. (Ali)
la .alis. (Alice)
la .alik. (Ali)
la .alik. (Alik)
la .al. (Ali)
la .al. (Al)
etc...
With the apostrophe we can make such a distinction as:
la .ali'
la .al.
la .alis.
la .alik.
Here I'm roughly supposing that ' can function as a pause as well.
Alternatives might be:
la .ali'.
la .ali:
So that the period is (virtually) included. The colon is currently not
considered Lojbanic, but still it's in the ASCII, so...
mu'o mi'e vid
