[lojban-beginners] Re: la blupinxe nunjamna

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Efrain Caro <betsemes@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ci'iroi kukte cai fado du'i lo cevni doi lomi melbi cai mensi iu
> (Eternally most tasty you are, like a goddess, my lovely dear sister.)

I think "ze'e kukte" or "vitno kukte" would work better than "ci'iroi"
for "eternally". "ci'iroi" is "an infinite number of times", so if she
tastes good every third time for example, she could still be tasty an
infinite number of times. "ci'iroi" might still be a compliment, but I
don't know that being tasted so many times wouldn't be perceived as a
measure of easy virtue in vampire culture. :)

As for "du'i", the most straightforward way of making comparisons in
Lojban is to use the comparison predicate as the main selbri:

  do dunli lo cevni lo ka kukte

The problem with "do kukte (mi) du'i ko'a" is that it has (at least)
three different interpretations:

(1)  ko'a dunli lo nu do kukte (mi) (lo ka ce'u carmi)

(2)  ko'a dunli do lo ka ce'u kukte (mi)

(3)  ko'a dunli (mi) lo ka do kukte ce'u

Now, you could argue that, in this context, (1) can be excluded
because "ko'a"="lo cevni", and comparing an event with a deity
wouldn't make much sense, and (3) can be excluded because "mi" (or
whatever else goes in x2 of kukte) is elided, so that leaves (2) as
the only sensible interpretation. I would buy that argument, but just
be aware that using comparative shortcuts like that is usually
dispreferred in Lojban.

> coi se lanzu i co'a sligau (Hello clannies. About to spin.)

I would say "pu'o cargau". "co'a" is the actual start, "pu'o" is the
"about to" state, And what a wheel usually does is rotate rather than
oscilate, but I guess it can oscilate too.

mu'o mi'e xorxes