Date:  Thu, 25 Dec 1997 12:28:33 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199712251728.MAA03518@locke.ccil.org>
Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: xor questions
X-To:         lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
In-Reply-To:  <199712242004.PAA01152@cs.columbia.edu> (jorge@INTERMEDIA.COM.AR)
Status: OR
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X-From-Space-Date: Thu Dec 25 12:28:33 1997
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>Date:         Tue, 23 Dec 1997 17:02:54 -0300
>From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jorge_J._Llamb=EDas?=" <jorge@INTERMEDIA.COM.AR>
>
>But you could say:
>
>    ko cuxna lo selpinxe le tcati ce le ckafi
>    Choose a beverage from {tea, coffee}.
>
>Here you're only asking that they choose one, though. You're
>not asking any question.

Oh, this is sounding familiar (as is much of this discussion).  We had a
similar hassle a while ago in Klingon, trying to work out how to translate
"which" questions, lacking a word for "which" (we had a "what").  One
suggestion, later verified to be correct by the language's inventor, was
that Klingons don't *ask* such silly questions.  If I want to know which
you want, I just say "identify the one you want!"  That lacks Lojbanic
culture-neutrality, though.

~mark