From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Fri Apr 3 08:10:54 1992 Return-Path: Date: Fri Apr 3 08:10:54 1992 Message-Id: <9204031224.AA28944@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Athelstan update - good Lojbanic news! X-To: cortesi@informix.com, glenn@bessel.umd.edu, kfl@access.digex.com, lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO I saw Athelstan today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Now at the rehabilitation center, he is improving rapidly. The difference is exciting. Most significant to Lojbanists perhaps. I greeted him with "coi. .atlstan." and he erupted in a happy grin, almost a giggle, and said "'coi', I know that! coi!". He then said something I couldn't understand, but it MAY have been an attempt to say something else in Lojban, since it had a Lojbanic speech rhythm (penultimate stress). He also clearly recognized and grinned at "ko ko kurji", the first Lojban "idiom", which he invented. But he didn't respond linguistically to it, so that I don't know whether he understood it, or just recognized it as familiar. He said he did not recognize or understand ".e'osai ko sarji la lojban.", although he surprisingly understood that I was asking him whether he understood/knew it, and shook his head sadly while saying 'no'. Athelstan can't yet carry on a conversation - much of what he says sounds like slurred words but probably don't mean anything. He tends to repeat himself a lot in trying to phrase things (it took 5 minutes of muttering about a rash on his chest that he was scratching before he suddenly and clearly but slowly sounded out the word "irritation" - with no prompting). He also repeats what everyone says to him, sometimes for a couple of minutes, as he tries to understand it. lojbab