Return-Path: <@FINHUTC.HUT.FI:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET> Received: from FINHUTC.hut.fi by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with smtp (Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #14) id m0pjFg7-0000PZC; Wed, 23 Mar 94 01:16 EET Message-Id: Received: from FINHUTC.HUT.FI by FINHUTC.hut.fi (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 8457; Wed, 23 Mar 94 01:15:53 EET Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (NJE origin MAILER@SEARN) by FINHUTC.HUT.FI (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 8455; Wed, 23 Mar 1994 01:15:53 +0200 Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (NJE origin LISTSERV@SEARN) by SEARN.SUNET.SE (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 7264; Wed, 23 Mar 1994 00:14:47 +0100 Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 17:32:13 -0500 Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" Sender: Lojban list From: "Mark E. Shoulson" Subject: Half baked idea... X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Veijo Vilva In-Reply-To: Matthew Faupel's message of Mon, 21 Mar 1994 18:12:31 GMT <199403211816.NAA28716@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu> Content-Length: 1528 Lines: 32 >Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 18:12:31 GMT >From: Matthew Faupel >Given the apparent success of Klingon, how about selling Paramount Studios >on the idea that if they want a totally logical language for their Vulcans, >they need look no further than Lojban? Heh. Well, at least in human experience it doesn't seem to hold all that true that "logical" cultures have logical languages. Mostly because you simply don't notice your own language's irregularities. I recently heard a well-educated person on WELSH-L say that in the expression "penblwydd hapus i chwi" the older form "chwi" is used and not "i chi" (as used all over the place) "because it sounds better". Yes, but only to a native speaker. I used to think that the Hebrew "ner" pluralized as "nerot" (feminine paradigm) instead of the masculine paradigm "*nerim" even tho it's masculine because "nerot sounds silly". Everything makes endless sense, if that's what you're used to. It takes a lot of doing to notice that your language is illogical, and then even more to transition over to a constructed one that is (I really doubt a perfectly regular language is likely to evolve by itself and stay regular for long). >Just a thought... For some reason, I always felt the Vulcans would be more at home with Volap"uk. It's odd-sounding (odder than Lojban, to my ear), has gazillions of conjugations that only a Vulcan could love... lots of consonants... I dunno, it just works for me. >Matthew ~mark