From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Tue Jun 27 19:34:44 2006 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:34:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1FvPso-0007E2-D1 for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:34:26 -0700 Received: from mxsf29.cluster1.charter.net ([209.225.28.229]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1FvPsl-0007Du-JP for lojban-list@lojban.org; Tue, 27 Jun 2006 19:34:26 -0700 Received: from mxip01a.cluster1.charter.net (mxip01a.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.131]) by mxsf29.cluster1.charter.net (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k5S2YLpE031050 for ; Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:34:21 -0400 Received: from 24-247-28-251.dhcp.bycy.mi.charter.com (HELO [192.168.123.137]) ([24.247.28.251]) by mxip01a.cluster1.charter.net with ESMTP; 27 Jun 2006 22:34:21 -0400 X-IronPort-AV: i="4.06,185,1149480000"; d="scan'208"; a="188053109:sNHT37362380" Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v750) In-Reply-To: <44A1CB76.1010406@bilkent.edu.tr> References: <737b61f30606202030p74723a2dtbfbeb20fb5904002@mail.gmail.com> <737b61f30606202131m29311ab9md30f37ca320ae52c@mail.gmail.com> <737b61f30606211550i24387f0fv7dfca878dfd8e630@mail.gmail.com> <96B70796-7396-494B-B1F6-0ED1E22E3A09@umich.edu> <737b61f30606221159t50b40646r5314bdd97f933ec@mail.gmail.com> <449F7383.1070209@gmail.com> <90CBADBD-5396-40F6-BFCC-1846545BD8F9@umich.edu> <737b61f30606261749u5c1598deh4ffbeccb656df355@mail.gmail.com> <44A1CB76.1010406@bilkent.edu.tr> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <6149DD21-9743-4052-B87A-38723976F01C@umich.edu> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Alex Martini Subject: [lojban] Re: flashcards? Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 22:34:21 -0400 To: lojban-list@lojban.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.750) X-Spam-Score: -2.6 (--) X-archive-position: 11843 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: alexjm@umich.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list Chinese (Mandarin) is an interesting creature in this respect. True, they have very few phonetic combinations with only a consonant and a vowel or few, possibly followed by {n} from which to make words. Then there are the 4 tones. But the other part is that there are many homonym. The word "yi" pronounced like ee has about 40 different meanings between the four tones, if I remember an article I read on Braille Pinyin correctly. In written Chinese, this isn't a problem, since the different words have different characters. To deal with this in speech, word pairs (which my teacher called terms, though that may not be a proper name) are used. So, they have a very dense system, but they make it less dense to be more easily understood. The poem "Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" shows this; every word is pronounced the same with only changing tone. See http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den . mu'omi'e .alex. On Jun 27, 2006, at 8:21 PM, robin wrote: > Chris Capel wrote: >> On 6/26/06, Alex Martini wrote: >>> On Jun 26, 2006, at 1:41 AM, Paul Vigo wrote: >>> > With >>> > lojban I think this may be particularly useful as many of the >>> gismu >>> > are complex (place structure variations can make a familiar >>> seeming >>> > word suddenly novel again) and many look pretty much the same >>> > (cvccv / ccvcv) so are easy to confuse with other gismu when >>> > unfamiliar. >>> >>> On the topic of gismu looking simmilar, how much work would be >>> involved in making a list of gismu that only differ by vowels? I've >>> found a few pairs like {ciska} and {cusku} that I repeatedly have to >>> look up to keep apart, but I'm not sure how many there are total. >> >> Are there any natlangs that pack words more tightly into phonetic >> space than Lojban? >> > Chinese? > > robin.tr > > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.