Message-Id: <199602101539.RAA08750@xiron.pc.helsinki.fi>
Date:         Sat, 10 Feb 1996 10:37:03 -0500
Reply-To: Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Subject:      *old response on xorvo
To:         lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
Content-Length: 781
Lines: 18

Paulo:
>>[...]  I may not have the vaguest idea where
>>Croatia is, but i do know that gugdrxrvatska is a country - I do not
>>necessarily know that about xorvo.
>
>That's not fair :-( You should compare {gugdrxrvatska} to {xorvygugde}
>or {xrogu'e}, not to {xorvo} itself.  You only know that gugdrxrvatska
>is a country because of the rafsi prefix.

Ah, but then the syllable savings in using the word is much less.  Most
culture words aren't going to get short rafsi, even unofficially, since
they won't lie in the part of the alphabet that Xrvatska/Croatia does.

xorvygugde vs. gugdrxrvatska saves only one syllable, and at the cost of
significant recognizability on the part of those who MIGHT know the
Croatian word (any international stamp collector among others).

lojbab