[lojban-beginners] Difficulties and frustrations

[Thomas White <winterwhite9257@gmail.com>]

hello all,

I've been looking over the baselined gismu list, typing them into (at
last!) my Mac flashcard program (iFlash from Loopware if interested...
quite good I hafta say - it handles multi-sided flashcards, say one
for the gismu, one for its (choose your language)-equivalent, and one
for the gismu's rafsi), and have come to realise that not all the
gismu set have their own rafsi...

I suppose it isn't statistically possible, but it's still frustrating
if one is to try to combine two gismu into a lujvo that have no rafsi.
Does this mean that certain combinations are 'doomed' to their
long-winded tanru only?

I've also noticed that spoken lojban doesn't quite have a semantic
rhythm that makes any sense (granted, this is coming from a
glinanmu)... Take the sentence:

.i mi do rinsa mu'i le nu do co'a tcidu le mi samclupa sezyskinoi
(sound-byte heard from Nick Nicholas's webpage)

I you welcome because the-event you [initiative] read my
computer-type-of-loop-type-of-homepage

Using square brackets and re-typing it to break it into his spoken
rhythm, it comes out like this:

[.imido rinsa]*pause*[mu'ilenudoco'atcidu]*pause*[lemisamclupa]*pause*[sezyskinoi]

Yes, lojban is 'audiovisually isomorphic', but I had to write it down,
break it up, and re-read it to separate it into understandable
concepts.

One that particularly loses me is [mu'ilenudoco'atcidu].

There are many distinctive and important parts to that, which IMHO
should not be said in one breath. mu'i, for instance... because. I
know, I know, it's not a 'word' per se, but it's a semantically
important bit. Certainly do co'a should be separate - the speaker
appreciates _the initiative_ taken by the reader. lenu is fine,
the-event-of. I think what bugs me is that 'do' is getting lost in the
flurry of sounds... the listener might not even know the phrase is
about them!

This email is probably rife with malglico assumptions etc. especially
since I'm not fully conditioned to the lojban way of
thinking/understanding... but has anyone come across something
similar? How many lojbanists have actually 'conversed', either
face-to-face or over the phone/skype? What seems more 'natural' to the
speakers?

I'm still in love with this language, don't get me wrong, but as with
any beginning steps, there's always the frustration of wanting to run
before we can walk the talk.

Feedback and fellow stories greatly appreciated.

Kindest regards,

mu'omi'e tomys.