[lojban-beginners] Re: precise definition of cmene

[Travis Garris <thgarris@nc.rr.com>]

Its just an aural thing.  It may look fine on paper, but can be 
misleading when spoken.

From The Lojban Reference Grammar

Chapter 4
The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology

Names are not permitted to have the sequences ``la'', ``lai'', or 
``doi'' embedded in them, unless the sequence is immediately preceded by 
a consonant. These minor restrictions are due to the fact that all 
Lojban cmene embedded in a speech stream will be preceded by one of 
these words or by a pause. With one of these words embedded, the cmene 
might break up into valid Lojban words followed by a shorter cmene. 
However, break-up cannot happen after a consonant, because that would 
imply that the word before the ``la'', or whatever, ended in a consonant 
without pause, which is impossible.

For example, the invalid name ``laplas.'' would look like the Lojban 
words ``la plas.'', and ``ilanas.'' would be misunderstood as ``.i la 
nas.''. However, ``nederlants.'' cannot be misheard as ``neder lants.'', 
because ``neder'' with no following pause is not a possible Lojban word.

There are close alternatives to these forbidden sequences that can be 
used in Lojbanizing names, such as ``ly'', ``lei'', and ``dai'' or 
``do'i'', that do not cause these problems.

End quote.

I would assume statements such as "ko dunda la tavla mi" would take an 
extra second to understand when heard.  It just depends on how fast you 
can realize that 'la mi' doesn't make a lot of sense.

Travis Garris
Durham, NC, US