Message-Id: <199510230747.DAA10124@locke.ccil.org>
Date:         Mon, 23 Oct 1995 03:44:25 -0400
Reply-To: Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Subject:      Re: Incredible!
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
Status: OR

The Loglan morphology was redesigned as late as 1979-82 as the Great
Morphological Revolution, which is when unique assignment of rafsi was
introducved and the current system of making lujvo was invented.
A LOT of alternatives were considered at that point, and I have yet to
see a single idea that meets all crtieria of the current language - you
always seem to need to drop at leats one requirement as "unimportant".
The one that came closest was Nora's idea of reserving a specific letter for
ends-of-words, but we considered that as a joke even when we porposed it
- it just sounds too weird.

Ususally proposals either assume that lujvo will be longer than their tanru
by sticking some kind of glue in, that cmavo do not have to have a separate
word-space from gismu and lujvo (and rafsi), etc.  None of these have seemed
to be all that much nicer for what they give up.  But then I LIKE the current
system.

So no it has not been frozen for 25 years, just 13.

If you want a constantly evolving langauge, look at JCB's TLI Loglan.
It changes more rapidly than Lojban and yet still hasn't caught up with us.
I haven't figured out how this is possible.

lojbab