Message-Id: <9107311748.AA04080@relay2.UU.NET>
From: cbmvax!uunet!ctr.columbia.edu!shoulson
Date: Wed Jul 31 17:35:51 1991
To: jimc@math.ucla.edu
Cc: lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com
In-Reply-To: jimc@math.ucla.edu's message of Wed, 31 Jul 91 08:30:36 -0700 <9107311530.AA01443@luna.math.ucla.edu>
Subject: Going to the bathroom 
Status: RO

I think even just a tanru {lumci kumfa} suffices for "washroom."  You
needn't postulate the third place in kumfa, though I admit it would
certainly make sense.  Similarly, {vikmi kumfa} "shitting room" works for
how I'd translate the American usage of "bathroom," so far as I am
concerned.  Maybe a "nu" or "nun" in there to indicate the act of shitting.
(note: it's not "shit room" as that would be {se vikmi kumfa}) As was
pointed out, the Berlitz-ish exercise ("where is the bathroom?")  really
shouldn't be translated into a sentence meaning "I want to shit" or some
such.  Faced with such a statement, I'd likely say, "Hey, if you don't know
how to do that, that's not *my* problem, buddy."  What's needed is a
request for directions to the necessary (yet another euphemism).  I'd go
for either of these:

le vikmi kumfa cu zvati ma
the shitting-room is-at what?  (i.e. where).

mi [ka'e] klama le vikmi kumfa fo ma
I [am-able-to] go to the shitting room by-route what?
(i.e. how do I get there?)

It may be best to specify that you want a nearby one.  Directions to the
one in my house several hundred miles away won't be really helpful, unless
you're just being extremely foresighted.

~mark