Re: [lojban-beginners] Is this tongue-twister grammatical?

[Pierre Abbat <phma@bezitopo.org>]

On Friday, 6 September 2019 21.55.14 EDT Xabju wrote:
> Thank you. What kind of word (the missing subject) should appear between
> "sy." and "ckaji" if the order were kept the same?

It is perfectly grammatical in Lojban to omit the subject, but in English it 
is not. However, "ca sy", although syntactically correct, makes no sense, 
because skirts, skirt-beetles, and suck-eaters are not times. I say "ca li 
ci", and a number is not a time either, but a clock is a common device for 
assigning numbers to times.

Of course, nonsensicality is relative — lo miptera .enai lo cakcinki cu sakcti 
.iseni'ibo lu le skaci cakcinki cu sakcti li'u na rirli, but "ca sy" is more 
nonsensical than "le cakcinki cu sakcti".

> Just to be clarify, all that was needed was "sy." and "ca" switching
> places, right? That's great -- preserves the meter.

Yes.

On Friday, 6 September 2019 22.01.26 EDT Xabju wrote:
> I was also unsure if "sy." was the correct way to refer to "le skaci
> cakcinki", or if it should be "cy."

I'm not sure either, but for a tongue-twister, either is better than "ra". 
"cy" could refer to the beetle or the food, whereas "ra" could refer to the 
beetle but not the food (which would be "ri", since it's the immediately 
preceding sumti).

Pierre
-- 
Por H o por B, los campos magnéticos se difieren dentro de un imán.



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