From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Sun Oct 05 15:59:39 2008 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-list); Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:59:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KmcZe-0000sw-Ll for lojban-list-real@lojban.org; Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:59:39 -0700 Received: from cpe-071-075-215-096.carolina.res.rr.com ([71.75.215.96] helo=ixazon.dynip.com) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1KmcZb-0000sU-Kd for lojban-list@lojban.org; Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:59:38 -0700 Received: from chausie (chausie.ixazon.lan [192.168.7.4]) by ixazon.dynip.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 070CDD1D26 for ; Sun, 5 Oct 2008 18:59:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Pierre Abbat To: lojban-list@lojban.org Subject: [lojban] What do we call roots in other languages? Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2008 18:59:20 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200810051859.21304.phma@phma.optus.nu> X-Spam-Score: 2.2 X-Spam-Score-Int: 22 X-Spam-Bar: ++ X-archive-position: 14823 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-list-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: phma@phma.optus.nu Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-list@lojban.org X-list: lojban-list Take, for example, the word "activations". It consists of a root, "act", three derivational suffixes "ive", "ate", and "tion", and an inflectional suffix "s". The root and derivational suffixes together are called the stem. By this terminology the word "nuntolcadgau" has a root "cadgau", two derivational prefixes, and no inflectional affixes (such morphemes don't exist in Lojban). The only natlang roots I know of that seem like gismu to me are the Semitic roots, which generally, like Lojban gismu, have three consonants, and their Afro-Asiatic kin. I call them smegi'u. Unlike Lojban gismu, they do not make lots of compound words. Pierre 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.