Allophones of zero in Lojban

[Ivan A Derzhanski <cbmvax!uunet!COGSCI.ED.AC.UK!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!iad>]

I wasn't bothered much when I read that Lojban was supposed to have a
thing called a buffer vowel, which a speaker was permitted to insert
between consonants whenever he felt like it.

I wasn't bothered much when I read that this vowel was allowed to vary
from speaker to speaker, and that English speakers were advised to use
a sound written as /I/, and to pronounce {mlatu} as /mIlatu/.

I wasn't bothered, that is, I didn't feel compelled to speak up.

Still, I have to declare, on behalf of the entire body of Slavic-
tongued people, that while we have some sympathy for those who have
trouble pronouncing word-initial /ml/ (a cluster we take for granted),
we will have to undergo some special training to learn to distinguish
/I/ from /i/.  I personally can't tell them apart, all my linguistic
training nonwithstanding.

I'm generally opposed to the idea of a buffer vowel, because I think
it would make word recognition much more difficult.  I would favour an
epenthetic schwa, say, {.ymlatu}, where the listener would naturally
delete the {.y-} as a semantically empty space filler.

Ivan