From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Sat Sep 13 22:44:43 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:48:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KekPb-0001yi-A5 for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:43 -0700 Received: from wa-out-1112.google.com ([209.85.146.183]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KekPY-0001yY-5s for lojban-list@lojban.org; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:43 -0700 Received: by wa-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id k22so956135waf.20 for ; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:38 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:sender :to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references :x-google-sender-auth; bh=u9qzh7o9MKJtPsX+eEAHeVfGgqqmDVDkTHYVUsRPoPA=; b=IxLDPDHQThOLLWRwfvggaDg0OsV1TrXKZWFAWao+cArHjxlCcOoiK6bo5sxDwi5jin hlT7f99RZl4iDJD9CPC64McPjC/t0442pjcn/t82rLB2MxbILY2LiafjrqY70BKdvQAW zAPqnP2EFpKI9CLczmTZtc3Omh0goJH3QF2B0= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :references:x-google-sender-auth; b=vabhnJuDnTysuCZXCM31xwOzldarSwmoNdvBo4mVCeNVOfW+kJFnR7EDjH6VJ4GUOR 04tO4+ymBjbYqm/mqEmlq9cqodZVZ4uQn/f2ACpAjQsc8RVQEA7cZMpCAKN3c11E2mz9 mhWRRyzEt5mVDicimzpGNGNCojKB05fVgBQTY= Received: by 10.114.196.1 with SMTP id t1mr4906127waf.80.1221371078564; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.114.14.10 with HTTP; Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:38 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <975a94850809132244tdf5f00fm941ba3703635da34@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:44:38 -0700 From: joel@mentics.com To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] Re: How many fluent speakrs of Lojban are there? In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: X-Google-Sender-Auth: 26db6927ab8dfe2d X-Spam-Score: -0.0 X-Spam-Score-Int: 0 X-Spam-Bar: / X-archive-position: 14739 X-Approved-By: rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: joel@mentics.com Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list > Define "fluent". There are perhaps a few dozen people who can have a > comfortable conversation in Lojban. None of them are as fluent in Lojban as > they are in their native languages, but I don't think that's even possible-- > no one knows the Lojban words for "carburetor" or "lemon merengue pie", > for instance, because there aren't any. But could someone who was sufficiently versed in lojban, create a word on the fly for those things? It would not be "official" but in the context, would it get the point across? If I'm discussing desserts with a friend and I say, lemon-whipped-egg-round-thing, would it likely be understood? If I'm discussing with what's wrong with my car and I say air-fuel-mix-device, wouldn't the mechanic likely know what I'm referring to? To me, this type of ability for a language to create words on the fly is a fascinating part of the language. Is this really something someone could do mid-sentence? I mean, we do it in English: it's that lemon-round-sweet-thing-with-fluffy-white-stuff-on-top. We use hyphens, but lojban has something a little more sophisticated. 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.