[lojban-beginners] Re: A priest, a rabbi and an Indian chief walk into a bar...

["Jorge Llambías" <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 8:59 AM, Yoav Nir <yoav.nir@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I don't like xebro jdaca'i because it's rabi in all natural languages, and I
> believe that when the word is similar in most natural languages (like
> spaghetti or curry) it should be imported as a fu'ivla. No reason for lojban
> to be the single language where a rabbi is not called a rabi.

We could have a specialized word for rabbi and still use lo xebro
jdaca'i, or even plain lo jdaca'i when it's not necessary to be so
specific. In this particular case, it seems enough to contrast lo
xriso jdaca'i with lo xebro jdaca'i.

> Unfortunately, I understand that I can't use "rabi" as a type-4 fu'ivla
> because it falls apart "the think we mentioned before + 8".

Right. You need a consonant cluster to hold it together. You could try
"rabvi" or "ravbi" if you don't mind unofficial gismu.

> I could do a .gy rabi .gy (or is it .xy rabi .xy?)

"la'o xy. rabi .xy". (Or any other Lojban word instead of "xy", except
for "ra" or "bi" in this case.) Or "la'oi .rabi." using the unofficial
"la'oi".

> Shouldn't there be a single way to say things like this. It looks like I
> need to invent a word whenever I write even a simple sentence.

Yes, Lojban is still very incomplete vocabulary-wise.

mu'o mi'e xorxes