From pnewton@gmx.de Mon Nov 03 08:56:14 2003 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Mon, 03 Nov 2003 08:56:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from postman4.arcor-online.net ([151.189.0.189] helo=postman.arcor.de) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.22) id 1AGhzh-0002Bc-FW for lojban-list@lojban.org; Mon, 03 Nov 2003 08:55:57 -0800 Received: from hamwpne1 ([212.13.198.90]) (authenticated bits=0) by postman.arcor.de (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id hA3Gtq41005946 for ; Mon, 3 Nov 2003 17:55:53 +0100 (MET) From: "Philip Newton" Organization: datenrevision GmbH & Co. OHG To: lojban-list@lojban.org Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 17:55:52 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [lojban] Re: Language creation Message-ID: <3FA696A8.10162.18E796A@localhost> Priority: normal In-reply-to: X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v4.02a) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-description: Mail message body X-archive-position: 6546 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: pnewton@gmx.de Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On 3 Nov 2003 at 16:08, Mr Ekted wrote: > It seems that lojban actually consists of a relatively small core of > base words, and that the rest are "manufactured" by forming compounds > (kind of like German). Is this really true? Pretty much; there are 1342 (if I count correctly) gismu (basic "content words", as opposed to "structure words"). However, besides compounding there's also borrowing from other languages (fu'ivla), and you can also put gismu next to one another to modify one another (creating a tanru) without compounding (which would create a lujvo). lujvo have only one meaning, whereas the meaning of a tanru is derived from that of its components but can't be pinpointed; an analogy might be "courthouse" (which is where judges work) vs "court house" (which could be a house next to a court, or perhaps one belonging to a palace, or in some other way connected to a court). > Like maybe there's no word for computer, just some compound word like > box-with-buttons-and-lights. Probably more like "calculating-machine". Though Lojban does have a gismu for "computer": {skami}. mu'o mi'i .filip. -- filip.niutyn.