[lojban-beginners] Re: A learning idea..... and my own attempt to do it.

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

Betsemes wrote:
li'o
> "Around two weeks ago, I got my eighth sponsored child; a filipino
> little girl who lives on Manila city."
>
> lojban translation:
> zi lo jeftu be li re mi [pu] co'a pidversra lo mi bimoi be lo'i verba
> be'o ne lo se natmrfilipino ke cmalu. nixli poi xabju lo tcadu pe me'e
> la'o py. Manila .py.
>
> pidversra: x1=s1 helps/donates to/supports poor child x2=s2=v1=p1 by
> means x3=s4, child is of age x4=v2 and lacking in
> possessions/properties x5=p2

Where did s3 go? It's lo ka pindi, I surmise.

> So there is no type 4 fu'ivla for "Filipino". I think there should be
> one. I also wrote each pause explicitly, please, tell me whether they
> are OK and whether there should be another one. I think the "pu" is
> not necesary from the Lojban standpoint, but I inserted it on brackets
> to state where I think it should be.

{pu} isn't necessary grammatically, but without it, the sentence could 
just as easily mean "About two weeks from now, I will...".

The translation is wordy. I'd say something more like this:
zi lo jeftu be li re mi pu co'a pidversra le mi bimoi verba no'u le 
cmalu ke filpino nixli poi xabju la mainilyd. poi tcadu

* {le} both times because you know who the child is.
* {filpino} and {pilpino} are, as xorxes said, both well-formed fu'ivla. 
Which is better is subject to discussion. Tagalog is poor in fricatives 
and has no "f", but foreign words in Filipino may have it. Currently the 
name of the islands is "Pilipinas", but that of the language is "Filipino".
* Is the child small for a child or for a Philippine child?
* "d" in {mainilyd} because it's named for the nilad flower.
* {no'u} the first time because otherwise she would be your eighth 
Filipina. {poi} the second to distinguish the city from the bay, though 
humans don't normally inhabit bays.

Pierre