[lojban-beginners] Re: A few lojban questions...

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

On Sunday 07 December 2008 05:46:24 jknilinux@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm new, so, well, I have a few questions related to lojban...
>
> 2: Is there a predicate-logic-oriented introduction to lojban, or at least
> something that shows exactly how predicate logic is related to lojban?
> I haven't looked at it too much but, for example, where are the
> quantifiers?

The quantifiers are number words followed by "da", "de", or "di" (if you need 
more than three variables, you can add subscripts). They can be placed in a 
prenex, which is placed at the beginning of the sentence and ends with the 
word "zo'u". (Prenexes are also used for topic-comment constructions.)

naku ro da poi remna zo'u vo de kanro ke cimoi zalde'i da
Not every human has four healthy third molars.

> 4: Finally, is there a one-to-one correlation between letters and sounds,
> and between spelling and words, and between words and sound? For example,
> are there two letters that sound the same, like k and c in english, or two
> words that sound the same or spell the same, like can and can or fish and
> phish?

As long as you don't use numerals or abbreviations, there is a one-to-one 
correspondence between letters (including y'y, but not denpa bu or slaka bu) 
and phonemes (except the glottal stop, which is written with denpa bu and 
does not occur within words). There is not a one-to-one correspondence 
between letters and allophones; the r's 
in "firxra", "pritu", "romge", "bakrto", and "mianmar" are at least four 
different allophones. (lo bakrto is some animal mentioned in the 
Bible; "bakrto" is the shortest type-3 fu'ivla.)

"mianmar" and "mian,mar" are the same word and are pronounced the 
same. "fasygug .i", "fasygug. .i", and "fasygug. i" are the same words.

There are no homonyms among brivla or cmavo, although there are some brivla 
whose breadth of meaning is (at least to me) unclear. All jbari are fruits, 
but I'm not sure whether the word means "berry" in the botanical sense (which 
includes oranges but not raspberries) or in the colloquial sense (which 
includes raspberries but not oranges). Homonyms exist among cmevla: "jan" can 
be a French name or a Chinese name, and "frans" can be the name of a country 
or a person.

Pierre