On Sunday, 14 October 2012 23:23:51 UTC+1, tsani wrote:
On 14 October 2012 14:47, m= ashers <ma...@mashley.net> wrote:

=A0

So you could do { la=A0jbovlaste ciksi zo tamgau fo zoi by.=A0g1= defines t2 into form t1 .by. }

Yes. (you missed a terminator before {ciks= i} however)

{ cu } ?
=A0

{cu} would be the most common way of terminat= ing the clause in this context, but you could alternatively use {ku}, which= terminates LE and LA clauses (except LA-cmevla clauses such as {la .klark.= })

=A0

I'd probably use la'e before the zo= i, too, but I'm not sure if a quote in itself constitutes an explanatio= n.

I don't understand the defini= tion of la'e according to the jbovlaste. Would you mind explaining it f= or me please?
=A0

la'e is the Lojban equivalent= of dereferencing a pointer in programming. A text refers to something, and= is therefore a symbol. Using the la'e qualifier marks that you aren= 9;t talking about the *text*, but rather to what that text *refers to*. It&= #39;s the distinction between {.i mi tcidu zoi gy The Moon is a Harsh Mistr= ess gy} and {.i mi tcidu la'e zoi gy The Moon is a Harsh Mistress gy}. = The former states that you read "The Moon is a Harsh mistress", w= hereas the latter states that you're reading the thing to which "T= he Moon is a Harsh Mistress" refers, and in this context, that's a= book (which iirc contains a reference to Loglan.)

=A0

=A0{by} is indeed the letter 'b'. zoi-quotes function by takin= g a user-decided delimiter after the word {zoi} itself. After the delimiter= , you put any text you like, so long as it doesn't contain the delimite= r, and then end the quote with the delimiter at the end. Formally, the stru= cture is=A0

zoi [delim] any-text [delim].

A= hh ok, thanks for clarifying.
=A0

The delimiter can be any one sin= gle lojban word. That includes full gismu, lujvo, zi'evla, cmevla, and = cmavo.

So you could just as accurate= ly say { zoi klama Hello World klama }, and {klama} would be interpreted as= the delimiter? Not that I'm saying I would actually do that, I'm j= ust working out the boundary of the flexibility in choosing a delimiter. =A0

Exactly right :)
By ext= ension, even {zoi jbojevysofkemsuzgugje'ake'eborkemfaipaltrusi'= oke'ekemgubyseltru Hi guys! jbojevysofkemsuzgugje'ake'eborkemfa= ipaltrusi'oke'ekemgubseltru} is legal.

The choice of delimiter usually reflects the contents o= f the quote however. Choosing {gy} for quoting English text comes from the = lojban gismu {glico} meaning "English". Quoting other languages i= s usually done with the first letter of that language's name in Lojban.= Beware however of languages beginning with vowels, as in Lojban the proper= way to refer to a vowel letter is with the magic compounds {a bu} {e bu} {= i bu} and {u bu} most usually written without the space. This leads to the = incorrect conclusion that these word pairs form a single word.

=A0

=A0.u'i Yes, indirect questions in Lojb= an sure are fun :p=A0

I often don= 9;t even understand them in my native language ;)
=A0

For example {mi djuno lo du'u makau klama lo zarci} -> "I = know who goes to the store." The word {ma} here isn't actually a q= uestion, but an indirect question, which must be marked with {kau}.=A0

Here, the translation is "decide what is the meani= ng of".

.i mi'e la tsani mu'o

Thanks. I need to take some time to understand th= at.

The kau is especially necessary because {.i= mi djuno lo du'u ma klama lo zarci} is actually a question, which is i= ncidentally pretty weirdly translated into English. "I know that *who*= goes the store?" is the most colloquial rendition I can think of.