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From: Jorge "Llambías" <jjllambias2000@yahoo.com.ar>
Subject: [lojban] Re: y: what is it good for?
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--- Zefram <zefram@fysh.org> wrote:
> I think the cleanest way to handle "y" is to treat it as an erase word
> that erases nothing.  This means that:
> 
> * it is not necessary to explicitly erase a pause: "le y si lo broda"
>   preprocesses to "lo broda"

That's good.

> * it can be quoted with "zo"; if you want to pause before a quoted
>   word, develop the habit of pausing *before* the "zo", as in "y y y
>   zo nalselmorjyvalsi"

This is not so good, but I guess we could live with it.
"zo" in effect becomes a kind of prefix after which you can
pause but you can't hesitate. (Similarly {bu} as a suffix
in front of which you can't hesitate. And {zei} an infix
such that you can't hesitate neither before nor after it.) 

> * it can be used as a "zoi" delimiter (though I think the ability to use
>   erase words here is bad design; I'd prefer "zoi si zo" to preprocess to
>   "zo")

Right. None of si, sa, su, y, zei or bu should be allowed as 
zoi delimiters, since delimiters are not scarce so it doesn't 
make sense to block the more useful interpretation. 

> * more generally, it's not a special case, making learning easier

It would still be a special case, in its own selmaho. Its grammar
would not be identical to the grammar of SI.
 
> How does this interact with "bu" and "zei"?  Is "si bu" valid?  If not
> then "ybu" might have to be an exception to the above.

{si} acts before {bu}, so {da de si bu} reduces to {da bu}.
The same with {zei}. 

> Incidentally, why was this "bu" system devised?  Why not use, for example,
> "a'y" to "u'y" for the vowels?

{bu} allows for indefinitely many lerfu, which allegedly are useful
as arguments in MEX.

mu'o mi'e xorxes




	
		
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