[lojban-beginners] Re: Hungary??

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 8/23/05, Newton, Philip <Philip.Newton@gedas-onsite.de> wrote:
> la xorxes cu cusku di'e
> > cultural gismu all end in "o"
> 
> I noticed this, too -- but is this a rule, a tradition, or merely
> coincidence?

It's not a coincidence, they were made that way on purpose.
Not sure what the difference between rule and tradition 
would be in this case.

> Do new cultural gismu also have to end in "o", or could they have a
> different vowel if the original word lends itself to that?

Some people would say that there can be no new gismu,
and since there is no official rule for adding new gismu, there 
is no specific rule about the last vowel. I don't have a problem
with new cultural gismu, and I prefer to maintain the rule/tradition
of final "o". It's a good hint that the new word is a cultural word.
"o" is the least frequent final vowel in gismu, BTW. 

> For example, could there be a cultural gismu {malta} related to Malta? (Or
> {malti}, which is Maltese for the adjective "Maltese"?) Or would it have to
> be {malto}, if anything?

I'd go with {malto}.

mu'o mi'e xorxes