response to and on phonology

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!GREBYN.COM!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!lojbab>]

And writes:
>I don't believe you.  You're predicting that you wouldn't understand
>either (a) or (b) below.  I'm predicting we'd all have much more trouble
>with (b).
>
>(a) She went to hear Mozart's Magic [flyt].    (flute)
>(b) She believes the Earth is [flyt].          (flat)

Only because I know of "Magic Flute" as a unit, and would thus presume
and internally correct the error.  If you chose a lesser known work
wherein the word would not be predictable from the surroundings, I would
have trouble with (a) as well.

I indeed don't consider [y] to be a non-sound in English.  It is
obviously somewhat vocalic in nature in the uses you describe, but it is
not an IDENTIFIABLE English sound.  In English the rule is - if you hear
a non-identifiable vowel, you attempt (not always successfully as you
note with (b)) to map it to some actual English vowel because we presume
that the speaker is speaking English non-nonsense.  In Lojban, the
mapping rule is that if you cannot trivially map a vowel sound to a
regular phomene, presume it to be a non-phoneme, with the added
guideline that if a speaker regularly uses the same non-Lojban vowel
sound between consonant clusters, then you can adjust your filtering
process for that speaker to assume that the sound is a trained insert of
species 'buffer'.  To the extent that you then notice this, you are
being an informed listener.

I am trying to have people be informed about how they and others speak -
part of my crusade for better linguistic awareness and education.
Identifying that cluster buffering occurs, and that, while it is
different from the norm, and not wholly 'correct', it solves a real
problem for some speakers and is 'acceptable'.

Cowan points out to me that many English speakers cannot truly end a
word with a stop on a voiced consonant (d and ng are noteworthy
examples), and may add a buffer afterwards.  This happens in many, maybe
most but not all, people's speech.  But I question that English is
defined by any formal system as always ending in a vowel which is
sometimes elided.

lojbab