Why do PA are such?

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Question

Why PA have the consonants they have:

no pa re ci vo mu xa ze bi so

With vowels it's well known that they follow AEIOU pattern but what about consonants? Why these, not other consonants were chosen?

Answer

  • la lojbab:
    1. They had to be different from each other.
    2. They had to be strongly contrasting against other numerals with the same vowel (hence pa/xa ci/bi and not pa/ba ci/ji or pi/bi).
    3. They could not disrupt other paradigms (systems of cmavo) that had good claims to either history or practicality:
    • Once those constraints were set, there weren't all that many contrasting CV choices that also allowed the vowel pattern. Certainly not any that allowed a consonant pattern (as there is with hex digits where the consonants are contrasting and alphabetical). There is a visible trace of an attempt to make them alphabetical no/pa/re vo xa/ze but there were too few uncommitted CVs to make it work.