[jbovlaste] Re: Emperor

[Eitan Postavsky <eitanp32@gmail.com>]

I'm also for making our own precisely defined (but general) terms, rather than following those of any one language. I might even go so far as to say I don't want the taint of English in my Lojban.

We can have a general word just meaning a bunch of countries considered together, and then use tanru (or lujvo if we really want) to distinguish between the different types such as the EU and the Roman Empire. Say, gu'egunma for the first one, rolmeitru gu'egunma for the second, pavmeitru gu'egunma. Dunno. I just like the idea of having a general term which is then (if needed at all) disambiguated by adding to it.

If you don't like the previous paragraph, we could just go with Wikipedia's definition (not that Wikipedia thinks "empire" only means one thing):
"An empire is a state with politico-military dominion of populations who
are culturally and ethnically distinct from the imperial (ruling)
ethnic group and its culture[3] — unlike a federation, an extensive state voluntarily composed of autonomous states and peoples."
Sounds like sornaije'a.

So how do we translate "empire"? If the source text is loose enough with the term, it's appropriate to use {le} and {voi}. If not, our words simply won't match up with the source text, which is fine in my books.

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 5:20 PM, John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org> wrote:

Nathaniel Krause scripsit:

> I think the main question is whether you are trying to come up with a
> gloss of an English (or other naljbo) word or whether you are describing
> something in your own words.

Quite so, which is why the question "What is the Lojban word for X?" is
misconceived.  Even the question "What is the German word for 'hard'?"
has something like 40 different answers, appropriate in different senses
and contexts of use.

> So, it seems like natmi means nation in the more
> specific sense of a largish imagined community,

Basically, although a natmi can be pretty small.  There are only about
800 Havasupai, for example (a natmi that lives inside the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado).  The essence of nu gugde is sovereignty, though;
most natmi don't have that.

--
John Cowan   cowan@ccil.org    http://ccil.org/~cowan
You cannot enter here.  Go back to the abyss prepared for you!  Go back!
Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master.  Go! --Gandalf