[lojban-beginners] Re: xelfanva

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

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Minimiscience <minimiscience@gmail.com> wrote:
> de'i li 13 pi'e 01 pi'e 2009 la'o fy. Brett Williams .fy. cusku zoi skamyxatra.

>> > "May you live in interesting times."
>> >  - .au do lifri lo cinri cedra
>>
>> ".a'o" might be more appropriate, ".au" is usually i personally want this to
>> occur, so that feels to me like "i want you to live in interesting times"
>> maybe even "ca'e" would be good
>
> I think personal desire is more fitting, given that "May you live in
> interesting times" is a curse -- the worst curse in the Agatean Empire on
> Discworld.

I too think "a'o" is better, but not for the reason given. As far as I
can tell, both a'o and au are equally personal, as they are used to
express the attitude of the speaker.

The difference I see between them is that "au" indicates the speaker
wishes something that is not the case were the case, whereas "a'o"
indicates that the speaker hopes that something that (for all they
know) may or may not be the case be the case. That's the main
difference I detect between "wish" and hope".

   I wish you would/were to live in interesting times

vs.

   I hope you (will) live in interesting times


>  I'm not sure exactly how the "eu" should be pronounced
> or Lojbanized,

Not a valid Lojban diphthong, so probably "iu" or "e'u",

> but I'm positive that eta corresponds to Lojban "ei".

A diphthong? I would have said both eta and epsilon correspond to
lojban "e", but I don't really know much about Greek.


>>  I think you need {sei [sa'a] la .iuripides. cu cusku}.
>
> True, a discursive {bridi} would have been a better choice.  Would I still need
> the "{vau}" in order to make it clear that the "{sei}" attaches to the whole
> {bridi} rather than to "{cevni}"?

I think so, yes.


>> > "This must be Thursday.  I never could get the hang of Thursdays."
>> >  - li'a .e'i ca vondei .i mi na'e pu'i kufra loi vondei
>>
>> I think this is an epistemic "must". Maybe "ju'o" or "ru'a". I don't
>> think ".e'i" works here.
>
> "{.e'i}" is there because Arthur is feeling contrained/resigned to it being
> Thursday.

The way I read it, he concludes, from the way things are going, that
it must be Thursday. So maybe "ja'o".


>> > "Reason #10DF1 to learn Lojban: No one speaks English anymore."
>> >  - lo panojauvaipa moi krinu be lonu cilre fi la lojban. zo'u
>> >   noda ca'o se bangu la gliban.
>> >  - I'm really not sure about my choice of "{ca'o}" to approximate "anymore."
>>
>> I would use "za'o".
>
> "No one continues to speak English for too long"?

"No one goes on/keeps on speaking English."

>> > "With Math, all things are possible."
>> >  - fi'o kansa la cmaci ro da cumki
>>
>> "fi'o kansa" or "se pi'o"?
>
> lo'u fi'o kansa le'u .i noda pilno la cmaci .i la cmaci cu pilno roda

xu fi'o na kansa la cmaci su'o da cumki

mu'o mi'e xorxes