From lojban-out@lojban.org Fri Sep 02 17:54:54 2005 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojban-out@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (qmail 83980 invoked from network); 3 Sep 2005 00:54:54 -0000 Received: from unknown (66.218.66.216) by m28.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 3 Sep 2005 00:54:54 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO chain.digitalkingdom.org) (64.81.49.134) by mta1.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 3 Sep 2005 00:54:53 -0000 Received: from lojban-out by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.52) id 1EBMJ1-0005Ep-Sj for lojban@yahoogroups.com; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:54:52 -0700 Received: from chain.digitalkingdom.org ([64.81.49.134]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1EBMID-0005Dh-Oy; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:54:05 -0700 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:53:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.52) id 1EBMHv-0005DV-Ux for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:53:44 -0700 Received: from zproxy.gmail.com ([64.233.162.197]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1EBMHt-0005DN-K8 for lojban-list@lojban.org; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:53:43 -0700 Received: by zproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id x7so508937nzc for ; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:53:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.36.25.14 with SMTP id 14mr1711946nzy; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 17:53:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.36.67.6 with HTTP; Fri, 2 Sep 2005 17:53:40 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <737b61f305090217532c9ef444@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2005 19:53:40 -0500 In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by Ecartis Content-Disposition: inline References: <737b61f305090214262772927d@mail.gmail.com> X-Spam-Score: -2.5 (--) X-archive-position: 10482 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: pdf23ds@gmail.com X-list: lojban-list X-Spam-Score: -2.5 (--) To: lojban@yahoogroups.com X-Originating-IP: 64.81.49.134 X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:12:0:0 X-eGroups-From: Chris Capel From: Chris Capel Reply-To: pdf23ds@gmail.com Subject: [lojban] Re: lojban as an auxiliary language X-Yahoo-Group-Post: member; u=116389790; y=_xSyYDRms2d8oObynBbbo8pAKwX8m2WvUBFjbv7zKtqairCD2g X-Yahoo-Profile: lojban_out X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 24863 On 9/2/05, Jim Carter wrote: > The Lojban dictionary does not specify colors in enough detail to be immune > to this particular misunderstanding, and the focus of the project has been > on the grammar and the structure words and the place structures, rarely on > precisely defining the concepts that specific gismu are supposed to convey. Yes, those subtle differences are interesting and instructive. But it seems to me that by far the main obstacles to communication, (which, presumably, your wife has completely overcome through long practice,) is the mastery of the grammatical forms of English, listening comprehenison, and the various ways in which idioms are used, and for those Lojban is certainly more than sufficient. (Not least because it would be a second language for both parties.) > On the original question of using Lojban as an auxiliary language, it has a > lot of advantages over natural languages (particularly English and Chinese, > which are the hardest common languages in my opinion), but a big > disadvantage is that there are few people who know it and little written > material likely to be useful in the auxiliary language role, such as maps > and city guides. You need a critical mass, which Esperanto may have, but > Lojban definitely doesn't. My question was as to the use of lojban in a circumstance where both groups have to learn another language to communicate with each other (or one group has to learn English), not as a language to be adopted widely. The number of lojban speakers doesn't seem directly relevant to this situation. The biggest difference between Lojban and Esperanto here is that Esperanto has teaching material in most other languages already. Chris Capel -- "What is it like to be a bat? What is it like to bat a bee? What is it like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a batted bee?" -- The Mind's I (Hofstadter, Dennet) To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to lojban-list-request@lojban.org with the subject unsubscribe, or go to http://www.lojban.org/lsg2/, or if you're really stuck, send mail to secretary@lojban.org for help.