[lojban-beginners] Re: Lojban - really for beginners

[tijlan <picos.picos@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 3:47 PM, Tom Gysel <to_mu1975@yahoo.com> wrote:
> That was the problem, in the course I didn't know what the word uacintyn
> meant, written or when i spoke it aloud. Language is meant to convey
> information, and if people don't give enough of it i don't know what they
> mean. I couldn't figure out what uacintyn meant. They should give me the
> right syllable to stress, so I'm able to think of washington.

"Washington" in French is pronounced without stress. In Japanese,
"shing" is stressed (and the whole word is represented in a non-roman
writing system). Outside English, "Washington" is indeed rendered in
various patterns. Imagine you are a Japanese learner. In its course,
you might have the same interpretational problem as in Lojban with the
word "ワシントン/Washington" since it is spelled differently and pronounced
differently than in English. You may use the English stress pattern
for the word and most Japanese speakers would still recognize what it
refers to. But, to paraphrase Jorge, it is not necessary for a speaker
of Japanese or French etc. to know English and vice versa, in order to
be able to interpret their own language. English speakers pronounce
the "s" in "Paris", but French speakers don't. English speakers stress
"To" in "Tokyo", but Japanese speakers don't. Still the language works
in its own right.


tijlan