Message-Id: <199209040636.AA05512@munagin.ee.mu.OZ.AU>
To: David Eric Young <fred@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Re: I wonder how you'd say that in Lojban Chapter 2 
From: nsn@ee.mu.oz.au
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 92 16:36:19 +1000
Content-Length: 1477
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>I'm translating another story before the list becomes entirely
>populated by coffee-addicts :-) 

And best of luck to you, but like I said, I prefer tea, myself :)

>Anyway I'm have some problems w/ some verbs(selbri/tanru)
>"To aim"  the place structure I'd like is:
>x1 aims at x2 with x3   the closest I've come is
>farna cuxna  which roughly translates to 
>x1 directionally chooses(direction type of chooses) x2 ......
>(the x3 place about from set x3 it near totally useless in this case so ...)

Oh, this is aim as in "ready! aim! fire!", not intend (which would
probably be te mukti), right? Hm. You're aware of the transitiviser (-gau),
right? As in {mi ctigau do loi guzme} = {mi gansu lenu do citka loi
guzme}: I feed you melons = I act that you eat melons. (zukte is usually
better than gasnu, but I always use gasnu; with proper cautions, you
can also use rinka). In this case, you are acting that x3 be in the
direction x2, and *I*'d expressed it as
fargau: x1 acts that x2 be in direction x3 = x1 aims x2 at x3.
Granted, the x3 is a direction rather than a thing, but saying the thing
instead of the direction will still be understood.

I don't expect this word-choice to be uncontroversial, but it's the best
I can think of.

>I'm also trying to lojbanize a duck's "Quack" and the closest I've come is
>"kuak"  any suggestions there?

It will do. The only other spelling of it I've seen is "Kvak", and that
from languages that don't have a "Qu" :)

Good luck!