2007/8/5, Douglas Koller <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> I appreciate the efforts to include our Oriental brethren into an international language (heretofore not done with similar exercises), really I do. But are the contributors actually familiar with Chinese? Pinyin "zuo4" is /dzwO/, which means that the only common thread between any of these words is "d."
>
> "Shulin" is more of a glade than a forest, and I think the word is about as common as "glade" is in English. What have you got against "sen1lin2" (/sVnlin/)?
>
> Which brings us to "notebook:" "bendza." If the "e" has any value of  "e" (/E/ or /e/), then it sounds like a condition one would experience coming up too quickly from scuba diving, as spoken from an inebriated Italian. No /V/ in this lang? You might do well to incorporate it if Chinese is on the menu.
>
> Best wishes for your project,
>
> Kou
>

Chinese, or at least standard Mandarin does not have /V/, or even [V]
(the latter except as an allophone of [7]. The vowel in question in
"benzi" is a schwa, or [3] (depending on your accent, anyhow). The
standard phonetic realisation (omitting tones) would be [p3nts=].

At the same time Mandarin does not use the labial glide in finals,
only in initials as a consonant. The vowel series in "zuo4" is
actually a falling opening diphthong - i.e. the main vowel is the [u]
and the glide, if any, is [O].

Also, as John has noted, all the stops here are supposed to be
voiceless. Although I suppose for the sake of distinction with the
Roman alphabet a slight tweak to shift the contrast from aspiration to
voicing wouldn't be too drastic to be unacceptable.

Eugene