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Subject: Re: "which?" (was: RE: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component
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From: Robin <robin@BILKENT.EDU.TR>
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la .and. cusku di'e
 
> A: mi na jimpe le nanmu se mamta ku (goi ko'a poi ke'a vi jufra)
>    [I don't understand the son, i.e. this here sentence]
> B: le nanmu se mamta be ma
>    [son of what?]
> A: lo ninmu zei gerku
>    [a bitch]
> 
> ? [I can't remember the words for 'male' and 'female'.]

"lo ninmu zei gerku" would be a female humanoid dog. Female is {fetsi}
(I remember it by thinking of "feisty"), so "bitch" would be {fe'igerku}
or {fetyge'u}, I presume.  Of course if you use it in the derogatory
sense, it's terribly malglico ;-)

Speaking of which, in the cyberpunk RPG I'm running (where Lojban is the
language of choice for geeks and academics) a player asked me for a
Lojban way to insult someone, and I replied off the top of my head: "le
do mamta cu gerku".  Is this

(a) impermissable culturally specific metaphor (i.e. malglico)?
(b) not really malglico (because in virtually no culture would someone
appreciate being called a dog) but meaningless if talking to a human and
tautological if talking to a dog?
(c) not exactly "high Lojban" but permissable given the communicative
context (i.e. the listener would automatically fill in the missing
{pe'a} or read the sentence as "le do mamta cu simla lo'e gerku")?


co'o mi'e robin.