Subject: Re: zoi gy. Good Morning! .gy.

From: "David Scriven" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 00:33:11 -0000

la tsali. cusku di'e 
 
> I think it was either intentionally omitted or not considered very
> important. After all, we *want* Lojban to be different from natural
> languages -- meaning that not everything can be translated to it 
with the
> same ease.

In Robin Turner's introductory essay, he suggests that one possible 
use of lojban is as

"an interlanguage for translation - it would probably be easier
and more accurate to translate from, say, Korean into Lojban
then from Lojban to German, than directly from Korean to
German."

Even though my dilemma over expression in lojban of the sentiments 
intended by the phrase "good morning" has been resolved, the 
translation of the phrase itself (and similar phrases) from English 
is still, it seems to me, problematic; especially if that translation 
is supposed to be subsequently translated into some other language.  
This is a problem for most natural languages, of course; but it 
shouldn't be a problem for lojban _if_ what Robin says is true.

Let's say I'm translating a story into lojban, and I translate "Good 
morning" as "toldapma cerni." If my lojban is then translated into 
German, it could as easily be translated "Glücklische Morgens" 
as "Guten Morgen."

co'o mi'e deiv.