From - Thu May 22 11:48:10 1997 Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 06:43:12 -0400 From: Alex Leith Subject: Mi ranka To: "INTERNET:richard.ekstrom@SYSLINK.MCS.COM" , loglanists Message-ID: <199705220643_MC2-1713-A496@compuserve.com> X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 5281 Hoi Rik, fie: (cc loglanists) (conventional letter opening) I guess I forgot to copy my last response to the loglanists list, but I see that you got a response from James Jennings as well. Loglanists hasn't been too active of late -- the other mailing list (logli) has more happening. << Yes; friend, though I don't think we've met. There's an Esperanto word for it: "samideano". = "same-idea-member-(noun)". That is, someone who thinks like I do, and is therefore assumed to be a friend or colleague, simply by being interested in this language. >> That's a good word !! In Loglan it would probably be "samviepeu" (samto-vidre-pernu = same-idea-person). I've never tackled Esperanto, but several logli speak well of it. And, oh dear, I thought your Swedish was Norwegian, and tried to dredge up the little I used to speak. << I would have gotten the software, but although I had several different computers, none of them ran programs for IBM nor Mac. >> That is indeed a pity, as the Loglan Online Dictionary is a most excellent resource, containing now about 10,000 Loglan words, and being regularly added to: if you could run to a cheap old Mac to run that, and the Parser, it would be money well spent. I think those both run on IBMs, and the MacTeach programs that teach a repertoire of utterances, and also the primitive predicates and affix forms, are mostly up to date, but are currently being worked on to improve the affix learning parts. << Not enough of a support community, all alone out here. >> You're right. What Loglan needs now is for the speaker base to reach some sort of critical mass where it can really take off. Who knows what the magic figure might be? It's certain that at present every new body on board makes a very significant difference to the whole. There is a core of a few very active people, and a nimbus of somewhat passive 'interested parties'. << Loglan made the "Ido mistake". Ido was an attempted offshoot of Esperanto, but never caught on much. (In both languages, "ido" means `offspring', or child). The Ido camp spent several decades tinkering with perfecting it too much, and lost any hope of a large public caring what they were pontificating on this week. The creator of Esperanto, Ludwig Zamenhof, was quoted as saying that there were several changes that he wanted to make, but (as translated): "I can't! They'd kill me!". It was a joke. Maybe. :=) >> A very good point -- however in the case of Loglan all the major changes have been made, and only some fine-tuning is going on, in order to implement the Resolver. Stephen Rice's Primer is incorporating those recent changes, and will then represent Standard Loglan. Further development will then be limited to the vocabulary. << One thing I've been waiting for, from the logla: books that have names, instead of numbers. Then maybe you will be writing stories, rather than technical manuals. >> Hear, hear. When I first got involved with L, some two and a half years ago, I very much felt the lack of reading material. Apart from the passages at the end of L1, and the occasional Nurvia Logla in Lognet and La Logli, there's nothing. So I've ended up producing some myself. The first episode of "A First Visit to Loglandia" appeared in Lognet, 96, and part of the second episode in La Logli 97/1. (those issue numbers are from memory and may be wrong, I don't have the actual volumes with me here). The whole thing now has 24 episodes, about 30,000 words, and will go further. The reason it's slow in appearing is that my Loglan is by no means perfect, and I rely on Dr Brown to fine-tooth-comb it before publication. However, when the three issues of Understanding Loglan are out, the next few issues of La Logli will be devoted mainly to "FVL" (or NNVLL if you use the Loglan title "Nepo Neri Vizgoi La Loglandias") Your description of what goes on in the Esperanto community is just the sort of thing we'd like to see in Loglan. They have obviously passed the critical mass point, probably ages ago. << I haven't gotten a single posting (since I got here over a week ago - which last part had been contained in my attempt at Loglan). >> As a filler, I'm reposting a couple of recent ones. We were trying at one time to use loglanists as a place where people could try the language out, and keep technical discussion for the logli list. Just short items, but it does take a bit of discipline to keep doing it regularly. (NB such items are not guaranteed to be correct Loglan.) Very glad to have your input. Anything I can do to help your study, don't hesitate to ask. If we do it on loglanists, other lurkers may benefit. Hue Aleks. Lo tetri. 27/04/97 The weather. Hoi Raban, fie: Ti crina. I tio pia ckelaa nu pazda. I le nedpao po crina pa vetci na la Tormea. I le vrici napa snikapli dracea. I, uu lo ardea ga tcicni. Hue Aleks. This-(place) is-rained-on. And that-situation was-being long-time waited-for. And the next-previous event-of raining (past) happened in the Two-month (February). And the river has almost (near-complete) dry-become. And, oy vey, the-mass-of heron are hungry (food-need)..