To: lojban@egroups.com
Message-ID: <8erenb+klph@eGroups.com>
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From: "Evgueni Sklyanin" <sklyanin@pdmi.ras.ru>
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Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 09:08:59 -0000
Subject: [lojban] Re:  genders of language names
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--- In lojban@egroups.com, BestATN@a... wrote:
> To:  Evgenij Sklyanin
> From: Steven Lytle
> I don't usually contradict native speakers of other languages, but I
feel 
> it's warranted in this case.  Perhaps Russians actually use
masculine terms 
> for Esperanto, but every Russian dictionary I have has it listed as 
> indeclinable neuter, and not masculine.  Most of these dictionaries
are from 
> the USSR or Russia, so I trust them on this point.

Oops... mi ckeji .i le mi flira cu xunre binxo

Actually, I have managed to find in the Web the phrase
{reformirovannyi esperanto} (reformed Esperanto) where "Esperanto" is
used as a masculine noun. Being no esperantist, I do not know what the
conventional usage is. Since "Esperanto" is a defective noun having no
declension the only point where its gender could be relevant is the
agreement of adjectives. Personally, if pressed to say something like
"beautiful Esperanto" I would avoid thinking of its gender and instead
of choosing between {prekrasnyi Esperanto} and {prekrasnoe Esperanto}
which both sound suspicious to me, I would say {prekrasnyi yazyk
Esperanto} (beautiful language Esperanto) adding a categorizing noun.

Anyway, my point was that whereas "Lojban" is easily assimilated into
Russian and happily takes case endings (lojbana, lojbanu,
lojbanom,...), with "Esperanto" I feel awkward and need to _think_ how
to use it instead of deciding intuitively.

co'o mi'e .evgenis.


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