On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 5:35 PM, A. PIEKARSKI
<totus@rogers.com> wrote:
>
> This veljvo could equally well refer to Holy Thursday (the end of Christian
> Lent), and the aftermath of a number of fasts in Judaism. Given the specificity
> of this concept, I really think it would be better served as a fu'ivla. And
> given the importance of Arabic in Islam, it would not be a breach of cultural
> neutrality to borrow the term from Arabic.
>
You have a good point. However, I am conservative on Type 4 fu'ivla in that I believe
they should only be used for words that are internationally recognized. 'Ramadan'
is recognized virtually everywhere, whereas Eid ul Fitr is not. I'm tempted to
suggest musysezyfantyfamnunsla - but that's just too long!
I think it's best to take a hint from Moslems themselves. What do non-Arabic-speaking Moslems call these holiday? Do American Moslems call it "Eid-ul-Fitr" or do they call it "breaking the fast day"? I believe the former, so this is what Lojban should do as well.
I do undersatnd there is no consensus on this. But lojban is for everybody. 'International recognized' does not mean American Moslems. For me it means also recognition by Japanese Buddhists, Brazilian atheists, German agnostics etc.
totus
With few exceptions, we tend to let people name their stuff themselves. So to me it's far more important what American (and Iranian and Malaysian) Moslems call their holiday, then what German Agnostics call it. If they tend to leave the name in its Arabic form, then lojban should follow suit. If they translate the meaning to their respective languages, then we should have a lujvo.
This applies to all other languages as well. If Moslem Americans call it "eid al adha", it makes no sense for Christian Americans to call it "slaughter day". Similarly, Hebrew speaking Jewish Israelis call it "eid al adha" as well. OTOH, the Samaritans have a holiday with the same name, but Israeli Samaritans do translate it when they speak Hebrew. So when we talk about the Samaritan holiday, we do translate the meaning into Hebrew.