7. Initial Consonant Pairs

The set of consonant pairs that may appear at the beginning of a word (excluding Lojbanized names) is far more restricted than the fairly large group of permissible consonant pairs described in Section 6. Even so, it is more than English allows, although hopefully not more than English-speakers (and others) can learn to pronounce.

There are just 48 such permissible initial consonant pairs, as follows:

bl br cf ck cl cm cn cp cr ct dj dr dz fl fr gl gr jb jd jg jm jv kl kr ml mr pl pr sf sk sl sm sn sp sr st tc tr ts vl vr xl xr zb zd zg zm zv

Lest this list seem almost random, a pairing of voiced and unvoiced equivalent vowels will show significant patterns which may help in learning:

   pl pr           fl fr
    bl br           vl vr

    cp cf   ct ck cm cn cl cr
    jb jv   jd jg jm
    sp sf   st sk sm sn sl sr
    zb zv   zd zg zm

    tc tr   ts      kl kr
    dj dr   dz      gl gr

    ml mr           xl xr

Consonant triples can occur medially in Lojban words. They are subject to the following rules:

1)

The first two consonants must constitute a permissible consonant pair;

2)

The last two consonants must constitute a permissible initial consonant pair;

3)

The triples ``ndj'', ``ndz'', ``ntc'', and ``nts'' are forbidden.