Message-Id: <199409051040.AA09755@nfs1.digex.net>
Date:         Mon, 5 Sep 1994 12:35:32 +0200
Reply-To: rricci@axcrnc.cern.ch
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: rricci@axcrnc.cern.ch
Subject:      culture/nationality gismu
To: Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@access.digex.net>
Status: RO

Hi,
I've noticed, with my big surprise, that there's no gismu conveying the
idea of "Italianity" in the gismu list, circumstance which is to be
compared with the existence of gismu for "Lybian", "Moroccan" and
even "Anctarctic" culture/nationality! Do you really judge Italian
cultural contribution to civilization so ininfluent that it doesn't deserve
a whole gismu for its own?! :-)
Seriously speaking, which is the criterion adopted for the invention of
new gismu of this sort?
That's a major problem, I think, because there seems to be no
possible lujvo to be used to convey the precise idea

" x1 pertains to x2 culture/nationality..."

in case one lacks the corresponding gismu. Furthermore, one cannot invent
the gismu by him/her-self, the invention of gismu being fully
automatised - hence "centralised", in a sense.
There seems to be need for as much "roots" as the (virtually infinite)
number of cultures/nationalities, which is much bigger than the (already
vaste) number of Nations. This seems to put a serious limit to
expressibility. Also, even if I could use some second-level selbri to say
"I'm Italian", this very fact would be a source of cultural bias, implying
that "Italianity" is less fundamental than, say, "Germanity" for Lojban
speakers. Waiting for comments

        co'o mi'e rob.
        .i mi du la'o .ibu Roberto Ricci .ibu