[lojban-beginners] Re: towns and countries

[Penguino <spheniscine@gmail.com>]

Personally, I dislike Lojban-derived cmevla, and avoid them (except for established ones like [la lojban.]), preferring to use brivla as names. I guess I just don't like the sound of words ending with syllables like [gug] or [tixn].

I'm actually in favor of relaxing the phonotactic rules governing cmevla, allowing names like [la moskvas.], [la petalindjaias.], and [la djeimz.], even though they contain consonant clusters forbidden in other words. After all, we already allow names like [la prjevalskis.] or [la pskof.]. This would make things easier for beginners, who are often taught how to make 
cmevla first.

Another thing I find to be problematic is the [la, lai, la'i, doi] restriction. [la] is a very common syllable in Malaysian names. Although I could render Kuala Lumpur as [la kualylumpur.], names like Selangor [sylanor] prove to be more problematic, since the [la] is stressed, and would suffer if replaced by [ly]. Solutions I've considered include splitting up the name [la 
syl.anor.], or modifying the word to place a consonant before [la], [la slanor.]. On the other hand, the original name couldn't break up into [la sy la nor.], since [sy] would require a pause (However it does break up in 
la jbofi'e), so perhaps it can be left well alone, along with [la srilankas.], which also cannot break up. But that would greatly complicate the cmevla morphological rules.