From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Sat Sep 13 23:48:36 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:48:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KelPQ-0007ri-6z for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:48:36 -0700 Received: from rlpowell by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KelPP-0007ra-Un for lojban-list@lojban.org; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:48:36 -0700 Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:48:35 -0700 From: Robin Lee Powell To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: How many fluent speakrs of Lojban are there? Message-ID: <20080914064835.GB16155@digitalkingdom.org> Mail-Followup-To: lojban-list@lojban.org References: <5b0248170809132342x2a09170eufca39c1cebe2256d@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <5b0248170809132342x2a09170eufca39c1cebe2256d@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17) X-archive-position: 14742 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 03:42:57PM +0900, Seo Sanghyeon wrote: > 2008/9/14 Brett Williams : > > Define "fluent". There are perhaps a few dozen people who can > > have a comfortable conversation in Lojban. None of them are as > > fluent in Lojban as they are in their native languages, but I > > don't think that's even possible-- no one knows the Lojban words > > for "carburetor" or "lemon merengue pie", for instance, because > > there aren't any. > > What's wrong with using fu'ivla for "carburetor" for example? Many > of world's language (for example, Japanese) is full of loan words > for modern stuffs. Nothing; someone just has to define them and get other people to learn them. If you make one up in the middle of a conversation, you're unlikely to be understood in practice (see http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/double-illusion.html ; this has nothing to do with Lojban). -Robin -- Lojban Reason #17: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo Proud Supporter of the Singularity Institute - http://singinst.org/ http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/ *** http://www.lojban.org/ 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.