From lojban-beginners+bncCNCCoMTMDhDHlbTlBBoEjAUTuA@googlegroups.com Wed Oct 06 16:48:52 2010 Received: from mail-yw0-f61.google.com ([209.85.213.61]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.72) (envelope-from ) id 1P3dj7-0001Dx-QV; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:48:52 -0700 Received: by ywo7 with SMTP id 7sf78157ywo.16 for ; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:48:44 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlegroups.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:x-beenthere:received:received:received :received:received:received-spf:received:received:mime-version :received:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id:subject:to :x-original-sender:x-original-authentication-results:reply-to :precedence:mailing-list:list-id:list-post:list-help:list-archive :sender:list-subscribe:list-unsubscribe:content-type; bh=8RsJ++rRuM/tFNiA4xZ2Pi0XTKEaFk/OdYOQzXRInGQ=; b=prn7cZ+pqB9kL1AJGg/OF6/mmXeyTOKcIdKwm9Zl4OTYnfyvfpjbgEVFMToVHJoajB sdnYf0gufytLAoajsBkZHWTNgGOpVW71MxeZP3oXSx/98bOq/3u2Rv2ij/N5VAPfi+UA RL7cS3fkMP0VL8SZYQo1Z5W1ZOHmjDeRXD5Nw= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlegroups.com; s=beta; h=x-beenthere:received-spf:mime-version:in-reply-to:references:from :date:message-id:subject:to:x-original-sender :x-original-authentication-results:reply-to:precedence:mailing-list :list-id:list-post:list-help:list-archive:sender:list-subscribe :list-unsubscribe:content-type; b=NsXMzcQvT4zqd4G9070HzQGYPlK7gybuHQIc8jdEeV4sd3nprPhdtqlPjUqpIF+2Pj YnRK1j/IckzdzI1NxoVulS2BuH3HBvSO56qEBgzSwM+6lfbNitVOk+nMHW3GyYB2aJqg I4kZwuzt6YZgmnYx1Ski+gsyyUKGMLPn2wUOM= Received: by 10.150.248.4 with SMTP id v4mr6710ybh.20.1286408903798; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:48:23 -0700 (PDT) X-BeenThere: lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com Received: by 10.150.132.3 with SMTP id f3ls38224ybd.6.p; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:48:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.151.148.16 with SMTP id a16mr20668ybo.9.1286408903348; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:48:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.227.127.146 with SMTP id g18mr539334wbs.10.1286399003664; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:03:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.227.127.146 with SMTP id g18mr539333wbs.10.1286399003638; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:03:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail-ww0-f43.google.com (mail-ww0-f43.google.com [74.125.82.43]) by gmr-mx.google.com with ESMTP id x33si471862wbs.1.2010.10.06.14.03.22; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:03:22 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of selckiku@gmail.com designates 74.125.82.43 as permitted sender) client-ip=74.125.82.43; Received: by wwb22 with SMTP id 22so79235wwb.12 for ; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:03:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.227.133.7 with SMTP id d7mr11693856wbt.54.1286399002431; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:03:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.227.139.198 with HTTP; Wed, 6 Oct 2010 14:02:51 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <0920892c-cdb1-4e55-85fc-32424c1ecf92@j18g2000yqd.googlegroups.com> References: <0920892c-cdb1-4e55-85fc-32424c1ecf92@j18g2000yqd.googlegroups.com> From: Stela Selckiku Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 17:02:51 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [lojban-beginners] Obscene vocabulary To: lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com X-Original-Sender: selckiku@gmail.com X-Original-Authentication-Results: gmr-mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of selckiku@gmail.com designates 74.125.82.43 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=selckiku@gmail.com; dkim=pass (test mode) header.i=@gmail.com Reply-To: lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com Precedence: list Mailing-list: list lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com; contact lojban-beginners+owners@googlegroups.com List-ID: List-Post: , List-Help: , List-Archive: Sender: lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Ruler11 wrote: > > How can I use bad language in lojban ? The main answer to your question is a somewhat strange one! Many things in Lojban are as simple as possible in one respect, so that they can be as broad and flexible as possible from another perspective. The main way to swear in Lojban is the one root "mabla", which is the only root with an inherently offensive quality. But it also has the combining form "mal", with which you can combine it with any other root(s) to make a new offensive term. For instance "kalci" means feces, but by itself it's a neutral term, which might be best translated with a neutral word like "feces" or "excrement". To give it the negative quality of the English swear "shit" you can mix "mabla" in with it and say "malkalci". So if you said to someone "do kalci pe'a" (You're feces, metaphorically.) it's possible you could be insulting them, but you could also be saying something nice-- I'm reminded of someone sympathetically saying like "wow, they just ate you up and shat you out, huh?" If you said "do malkalci pe'a" (You're shit, metaphorically.) you would definitely be insulting them, calling them a piece of shit. Incidentally there's also the opposite root, "zabna", which describes something positive and has the combining forms "zan" and "za'a". So you could also make the word "zankalci" which would be shit with a positive connotation, perhaps something like the English phrase "that's the shit". You could say "lo do zgike cu zankalci pe'a", your music is the shit, metaphorically (meaning that it's good). If you said to someone "do zankalci pe'a" (You're the shit, metaphorically.) you would definitely NOT be insulting them, you'd be saying something nice. So since we can unambiguously make a swear out of anything in Lojban, we're not limited to the ordinary possibilities. You can just as easily call someone a "malbadna", which means "banana" except with a derogatory connotation. The way you'd have to translate it would be like "you fucking banana", but there's nothing in it about sex really, it just transforms "banana" itself into a swear word. So, one ordinary and very Lojbanic way to swear about things is to just call them what they are, but mix in some "mabla" to make clear how you feel about them. For instance you could say "lo malklaji cu dukse malclani" which would translate as something like "the damned street is too damned long" or "the fucking street is too fucking long"-- but it doesn't really have anything about damning or fucking or anything, it just makes "street" and "long" themselves into swears. mi'e la stela selckiku mu'o -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Lojban Beginners" group. To post to this group, send email to lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban-beginners+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban-beginners?hl=en.