[lojban-beginners] Re: .i malglico cu

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Oren <get.oren@gmail.com> wrote:
> { .i'e ui xamgu gunka }
>
> i saw this posted in the lojban list today, and interpreted it like
> any good anglophone would: "Good work!"

"xamgu selgu'a" would be closer to "Good work!"

I considered that as I wrote it, but then decided that "xamgu gunka"
was fine too, "(do) gunka lo xamgu", "you work on something
beneficial"

> upon reflection, i think that "a good kind of work" doesn't really
> capture the praise of the phrase;
> after all, a high-ranking government job may be good work, or
> humanitarian work, etc.

Or working on a uikipedia article! That's something good for the lojbo
community.

For the kinds of jobs you are thinking about, "jibri" might be better.

> I think what we want to say is "you've done a good job" meaning "you
> performed well" or "good results"
>
> are these what i mean?
> { xamgu se snada }
> { xamgu te snada }

The first one seems better, since presumably in most cases it is the
accomplishment rather than the attempt that is most beneficial.

> and, is there anything different in
> { xamgu selsnada }
> { xamgu telsnada }

Not much.

> and, how about this attitudinal cocktail; "i empathize with your
> happiness and effort"
>
> { .a'i .ui dai }

Personally, I think I would use "a'i" as the work is in progress
rather than as a comment on something already done, as in "a'i dai
catke!", "push!".

"uo dai" is better for the accomplishment.

I suppose work on wikipedia is never really "done" though, so "a'i"
would work as encouragement to keep going.

mu'o mi'e xorxes