[lojban-beginners] Re: Whitespace in written text

[Kevin Reid <kpreid@mac.com>]

On Aug 5, 2009, at 18:22, Joshua Choi wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I'd like to ask—seeing that written cmavo are often clustered and  
> Lojban is intended to be unambiguous in speech—is whitespace  
> completely optional and ignorable in written Lojban (with the  
> exception of dipthongs)? For instance:
>
>  la mari,as. ninmu .i dunda fi la .alis. fe le cukta .i ta blota .i  
> ti cmalu be le ka canlu bei lo'e
>  ckule be'o nixli be li mu bei merko be'o bo ckule la bryklyn. loi  
> pemci la mela nu,IORK.
>  prenu la jecta. ni'o
>
>   
> lamari 
> ,as 
> .ninmu.idundafila.alis.felecukta.itablota.iticmalubelekacanlubeilo'eck
>   
> ulebe'onixlibelimubeimerkobe'obockulelabryklyn 
> .loipemcilamelanu,IORK.pren
>  ulajecta.ni'o

No. Word breaks are ambiguous (I don't have an example handy) unless  
you either use " " or "." between words, or mark the penultimate- 
syllable stress on brivla. That is:

"lamari 
,as 
.NINmu 
.iDUNdafila 
.alis 
.feleCUKta 
.itaBLOta 
.itiCMAlubelekaCANlubeilo'eCKUlebe'oNIXlibelimubeiMERkobe'oboCKUlelabryklyn 
.loiPEMcilamelanu,IORK.PREnulaJECta.ni'o"

(or with nonstandard accent stress marks:
"lamari 
,as 
.nínmu 
.idúndafila 
.alis 
.felecúkta 
.itablóta 
.iticmálubelekacánlubeilo'eckúlebe'oníxlibelimubeimérkobe'obockúlelabryklyn 
.loipémcilamelanu,íórk.prénulajécta.ni'o")

Also, you have an unnecessary "." between "jecta" and "ni'o".

>  lamari,as.ninmu.idun
>           dafila.alis.felec ukta.itabl ota.iticmalubel ekacanlub ei  
> lo'eck
>        ul eb e '  onix libelimubeim
>     erkobe'obockulelabryklyn.loipemcila  melanu,IORK.pren
>   ulajecta    .      ni'o

This is not permitted. Words may not be broken by space. It could be  
made an unambiguous but nonstandard form by including space.

--
Kevin Reid                                  <http://switchb.org/kpreid/>