From robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx Fri Feb 19 12:35:45 1999
X-Digest-Num: 65
Message-ID: <44114.65.274.959273824@eGroups.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 22:35:45 +0200
From: Robin Turner <robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx
Subject: Re: live cultures (was: Promoting Lojban)

la kris. cusku di'e

> > Things which make English difficult irrespective of this are its massive
> > vocabulary,
>
> But again, people coming from different L1 backgrounds have different
> amounts of trouble with this. If your L1 is a Romance language or a
> Germanic langauge, you have half of the vocabulary already, but if your L1
> is Algonquin, you have nothing to start with. So difficulty is not equal
> for different people.
>

{li'a}

>
> > stupid spelling
>
> No daut.
>
> > and heavy reliance on metaphor.
>
> Show me a language that *doesn't* rely heavily on metaphor, and I'll show
> you a proglang. :^)
>

{do drani .i ku'i .ru'a} some languages rely more on metaphor than others, and
English is one (a question I raised on the cogling list, with a deafeningly
silent response). Lojban relies less on metaphor and thus is less
culture-dependent. {ta'o} Whorf had a few things to say about this.

co'o mi'e robin.