[lojban-beginners] Re: nursery rhyme

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

On Sunday 22 February 2009 11:05:44 Luke Bergen wrote:
> So I hope to become fluent in the next few years so that I'll be able to
> teach my children lojban using the implicit method.  With this in mind I
> started toying with a nursery rhyme on my way home from work the other day.
> I need some help finishing it up though so, what do you guys think?
>
> (set to "pop goes the weasel")
>
> jersi
> jersi
> mi jersi do
> mi jersi do mu'i mo
> goi mu'i do ____ mi
> ko ....
>
> I don't know, just got it stuck in my head and it's bothering me to have it
> so incomplete.  Any ideas for a good finish for this one or other rhymes
> altogether?

The most natural Lojban rhythm is amphibrachic, whereas English is iambic, so 
fitting Lojban words to an English tune is likely to sound odd. I hummed the 
tune and came up with this:
le gerku cu jersi le ractu mo'i
ne'i le ri kevzda...
but that's as far as I got. I tried "le gerku cu jersi le takside", but it has 
too many syllables. ("takside" means "badger".)

You could try playing around with sounds in words: le kanba cu tunba le 
lanme, .i le nakni bakni cu bunre xunre, .ico'e.

Pierre