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ーば、-ら、なら、と、時 naunces

#1
For anyone who's been exposed to enough native Japanese, can anyone explain the times of when ーば、-ら、なら、と is used for 'if' and ーら、時 for 'when' and the 'feeling' or 'naunce' associated to each one.

Probably because I hadn't had enough exposure, but I've been trying to feel out the naunce for them but can't really feel much difference. So far the distinct naunces are for ーないと、indicating 'If I dont do it.../I better do it...' and Personならできる... indicated 'Cause it's that person/only that person can do it...' and also a few other small cases.
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#2
I remember A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar having a good section on this. Might be a good starting point. Since the usages can overlap, I think this is one area that's pretty hazardous to leave to exposure alone.
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#3
In a very general and simple sense:

-tara is the most widely used.
-ba tends to focus on the first clause and indicate that it's *the* thing that leads to the conclusion. Negative phrases with -ba often can be translated with "unless..."
"to" indicates that the result is a natural result of the first part. The prototypical example is 春になると花が咲く。

EDIT: Also as a side note, the word is "nuance" (two syllables)
Edited: 2011-07-12, 1:35 pm
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