m.kornig@sondal.net schrieb:
> Why can't Lojban just identify people with
> their names (as all other languages seem to do)?
> {la} seems to be an unnecessary complication. Why
> can't we just say {pat. melbi .i klaus. prami pat.}?
I ben der Klaus unn schwätz Schwäbisch. <-> I heuß Klaus.
At least some German dialects and Portuguese like an article when
referring to a person by name. What's worse, the languages that don't
often don't offer a vocative case either to sidtinguish between
mentioning and adressing a person.
So the Lojbanic practice is not that uncommon.
Catalan sometimes uses an article for personal names non-vocatively. Latin and Ancient Greek have distinct vocative forms.
I'm pretty sure that without the gadri {la} the language breaks. E.g.
{ * .i klaus. pat. prami }.
We wouldn't know whether { * klaus. pat. } was one name or two; in other words, this could be interpreted as (in proper Lojban)
{ .i la klaus. la pat. prami } (Klaus loves Pat) or
{ .i la klaus. pat. prami } (Klaus Pat loves [someone])
mu'o mi'e komfo,amonan