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Date:         Wed, 21 Dec 1994 22:41:21 -0800
Reply-To: Gerald Koenig <jlk@NETCOM.COM>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Gerald Koenig <jlk@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      ago
X-To:         lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
To: Bob LeChevalier <lojbab@access.digex.net>
Status: RO
X-From-Space-Date: Thu Dec 22 01:43:09 1994
X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu

>
>>la kris cusku di'e
>>> 1) How do you say "seven years ago"?
>
>>or ca le prulamji nanca zemoi
>
>I like this the best, although they're *all* kind of wordy.  I may coin a
>lujvo...
>

djer:

Here's another version for your list. It's been a very interesting
question.
Quotes from a namcu paper:
"Similarly, you can use negative numbers to do a 'countdown'...."
"-3;17" or "li ni'uci pi'e paze" means
"three hours and seventeen minutes before...."

Extending this concept a bit, I think we can say:

lo vei ni'u ze  nanca namcu [KU]
the (-7) year number

to mean a time in years of -7; that is seven years before ...(ago).
If there is a question as to the starting point, we can say:

lo vei ni'u ze nanca namcu bi'o cabna [KU]
the ( -7) year (number before now)

Given this negative number convention we can also say:

fi li ni'u ze kancu fo le nanca
(-7) is the count by years

Then we can say things like:

le vei ni'u civo nanca namcu cu temci ije su'o prenu cu finti lo lojbo
.i ca do jamna fi lo gerna .i le di'u cipra lo renvi be le bangu

Chris, I would very much appreciate a rendering of the Gettysburg
address, I don't have near the vocabulary to attempt it.

On the wordiness question, dare I mention yet another experimental
cmavo?  Would a word for "ago" really rent the fabric of lojban? I
believe that for lojban to be more than a toy, it must equal the best
languages of the world in conciseness as well as exceeding them in
precision and consistency. It is hard for me to believe that there are
unbeatable tradeoffs here. Optimization can produce a language with the
best of both worlds. We are at the beginning. Either we do it or
another language will be spawned.

djer

  ____    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  \  /    Chris Bogart          ftp://ftp.csn.org/cbogart/html/homepage.html
>   \/     Quetzal Consulting    cbogart@quetzal.com
>          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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