On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 3:50 PM, spermwhale.warrior
<guerrier.cachalot@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone !
I'm not fluent in lojban at all, but I like study its linguistic
properties.
I wondered something ... With such an high syllables's rate (I ask the
rather fluent speakers/writers among us), comparing two short text,
with typical constructs we use every day, such as : comparatives,
conditionnals, vocatives, citations from someone else, simples logical
links between otherwise independent sentences.
One in lojban ... and one in english, or any langage you are the most
fluent in.
The two text written with the same look towards semantic details,
except when (whatever is considered as) evidents inferences from
context can be made.
My question is the following : are you able, to read the lojban piece
of text speedier than or as speedily as the chosen natlang piece of
text ?
Or not ?
Does lojban's preciseness and accuracy towards semantic content of its
constructs make it inherently long-winded ?
ps: I am fluent only in French, and as you know French guys are the
worst students in foreign languages of the EU. If you wince in reading
me, please remember it !
Thank you, Mehdi
In general, lojban translations of English sentences into lojban that carry the same amount of semantic information have about twice as many syllables as the English. (But not always -- take for example the song from the musical Rent called "Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes". In lojban it's mentu li muremuxanono -- 13 syllables in English, 9 in lojban) On the other hand, translating from lojban to English ALSO adds syllables in general. And the same is true, in general, for any translation of one language to another. Idioms and ways of speaking have been crafted in one language specifically because those languages make it easier to say that particular thing, which may not be true for a different langauge.
--gejyspa