From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Sat Jan 05 13:18:07 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:18:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1JBGP8-0001mk-Rg for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:18:07 -0800 Received: from web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com ([206.190.37.230]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with smtp (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1JBGP1-0001l4-BQ for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:18:06 -0800 Received: (qmail 84297 invoked by uid 60001); 5 Jan 2008 21:17:53 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=rogers.com; h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Subject:To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID; b=YbJDySs0RsG25t7aGCOyYCikSsAIathigg21tox10dYRlImSilMz3BWM8KGkPTWWrcK+GOcW4xV7IlxgPp95QaGP/0JqBRqdYJkj1zZIQxRw9+1G3mVLTLMOgaNFhfBslCZ6U1o7a0KtvQq2fxoJyo2BSDscHF9j9ED1HCE/H3s=; X-YMail-OSG: 88KPIeEVM1lMooTH.3eHiyepTpQiW4KzL5kdI2P4GGYPdyUHXXH93yHWxHmeI3oPGNPY_lpfTNbN73mTWLfyF.h4JmU7AlX7qMqm0aKrLLFwSnVztbze6z2Dl5GUvesvaAXS8sX.F.MgZw-- Received: from [99.229.12.248] by web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:17:52 PST Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2008 13:17:52 -0800 (PST) From: "A. PIEKARSKI" Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: towns and countries To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <877640.79387.qm@web88011.mail.re2.yahoo.com> X-Spam-Score: 0.0 X-Spam-Score-Int: 0 X-Spam-Bar: / X-archive-position: 165 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: totus@rogers.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners ----- Original Message ---- From: Nathaniel Krause To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Sent: Saturday, January 5, 2008 2:17:14 PM Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: towns and countries My general impression is that Lojban always (almost always?) prefers to transcribe (as closely as possible in Lojban phonology) names from the local pronunciation. Attempting to approximately transliterate the local spelling wouldn't be a crazy idea, but I don't recall noticing it done (on the other hand, maybe I have seen it but I assumed it was an error). Places with varying local names do present a problem in this scheme, which I don't have a catch-all solution for. In the case of Belgium, I use {belgik}, from the Latin root which is the common source of the French and Flemish names. In the case of Korea, I use {gorios}, from an archaic local name (therefore less controversial, I think), which is also the root of the country's "international" name. I don't have a satisfying solution for Jerusalem/al-Quds. My initial suggestion would be to look which name is more widely-used in the rest of the world, and also at which name is older; this would tend to favour a Lojbanisation based on "Jersusalem". You might also try some sort of historical or etymological name. Which brings up the problem, once again, of India which is {xingu'e} in jbovlaste (I'm only mentioning it again as someone new may bring some enlightenment). This name is based on the gismu for Hindi (the language of much of northern India and one of the two - along with English - official languages. Most people in southern India, who do not speak Hindi, would probably object to this identification. mu'o mi'e andrus