Re: Lojbanized German place names

[ucleaar <ucleaar@ucl.ac.uk>]

John says:
> I have argued in the past that the correct equivalents of \"u and \"o are
> Lojban "i" and "e" respectively, because roundedness does not count in Lojban,
> only tongue position.  So "i" matches any high front vowel, and "e" any
> mid half-front vowel.  Turkish, e.g. is "natrmtirki,ie".
> You missed devoicing a few final consonants, as Standard NHG pronunciation
> demands.
> Here are my suggested revisions.  Feel free to take issue with any of them.
> > xamburg.              Hamburg
>   xamburk.

Could you explain the argument that roundedness does not count?
Couldn't the Lojban i/u & e/o distinction be one of roundedness
rather than backness?

More generally, I wd favour a Lojbanization of names that respects
*spelling* over pronunciation. Or at least spelling shd be given
equal weight.

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And