If you think about it, pony really shouldn't be a root word though. It's a baby horse. Should there is a special root word for "baby kangaroo" as well? Just because english decides that a word is important enough to warrant a two syllable word doesn't mean that it's logical.
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 10:35 PM, ComputerPsi
<vilmer88@gmail.com> wrote:
Lojban is noted to have 1,300 root words or gismu. The rest of the
words, if not cmavo (structure words), are various combinations of
gismu to describe more advanced objects.
My question is, will the number of gismu ever expand from 1,300? Who
created these root words? Possibly more fundamental root words can be
created? How was it decided, which would should be root, which should
not?
Here is an example of something that really gets to me:
The word for mouse: smacu. (gismu)
The word for rat: ratcu. (gismu)
The word for horse: xirma. (gismu)
The word for pony: cmaxi'a. (lujvo)
Why is rat allowed to have its own root word but pony isn't? Who
decides the importance of words?
Thank you,
Veniamin
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