Subject: Re: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component

From: Thorild Selen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 01:38:27 +0200

Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) writes:
> Not likely if we are talking dates. If the listener only wants the century, 
> then giving the date to any greater significance is drowning him in 
> irrelevance.

This brings up another interesting question; how should you specify
a century? In English, you usually say "the 18:th century" where a
Swede would say "the 1700:s". I admit that the second version is
somewhat ambigous, since it could possibly be intended to mean only
the years 1700-1709, but, on the other hand, the n:th century style
seems kind of off by one, and therefore causes confusion among those
who aren't used to it; also, it doesn't look a bit like how you talk
about decades in any language that I know, and to be consistent with
that style you'd possibly have to consider talking about, for example,
the 171:th decade.
Does anyone have a good suggestion for how to talk about centuries
and decades in lojban?

/Thorild