[lojban-beginners] Re: distinction between gismu & cmavo

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Sunday 20 May 2007 14:32, Karl Naylor wrote:
> On 20/05/07, mls1@rice.edu <mls1@rice.edu> wrote:
> > > In any case, as you probably know, you can recognise a gismu by its
> > > length and consonant/vowel composition: all gismu are of the form
> > > CVCCV or CCVCV, and no non-gismu words are.
> >
> > So it is not possible for a fu'ivla to "accidentally" have CVCCV or
> > CCVCV?
>
> Ooops, didn't consider that.  I guess a Stage 4 fu'ivla may have that
> form, I never really bothered with them much because they're so fiddly
> and arcane.  I wouldn't know to be honest.
>
> Certainly no cmavo, cmene, lujvo or Stage 3 fu'ivla can have that form.

No, a stage 4 fu'ivla may not have form CVCCV or CCVCV, nor may it have the 
form of a lujvo. It can come close, e.g. {largectremia} "crape myrtle"; 
{-mia} is not a rafsi because it has the diphthong "ia". {largectremi'a} is a 
meaningless lujvo. There are five-letter fu'ivla too, such as {jboia} "boa".

phma