lojban's difficulty

[xah lee <xah@xahlee.org>]

from a lojban a-word-a-day list:

corrected:
mi sakci loi jisra = i suck some juice =  = 我 吸 一点 果汁
http://xahlee.org/lojban/valsi_dikni/valsi_dikni.html
loi=some of a mass.

for more on loi, see: http://xahlee.org/lojban/hrefgram2/c6-s03.html
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some thoughts about the difficulty of learning lojban:

on lojban.org site it is touted that lojban is really easy to learn, 
easier than for example any natural language, because it is artificial 
and being regular.

But I think actually lojban is probably very difficult to learn, 
because to understand lojban is tantamount to exploring the semantics 
and logic of human communication.

here for example, who's to think what juice should be a mass or not? 
All a person really want to say is some juice, but lojban forces 
certain classification of meaning. (probably as a necessary consequence 
for speaking logically) One may still argue that it is difficult only 
because human are not used to it, that for someone who have studied it 
for a while or grew up with lojban would come with ease. This may be 
right, but still i think no other natural language forces user to 
understand semantic and logic like lojban therefore makes lojban quite 
more difficult than learning any natural language.

the nature of difficulty in natural languages is basically 
irregularity. But for lojban, there's a complete different difficulty, 
in understanding logic and semantics. People without high IQ may still 
learn natural languages by rote. But mastering lojban takes quite some 
skill in reasoning.

 Xah

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On Sep 7, 2005, at 7:41 AM, HeliodoR wrote:

> mi sakci le jisra = i suck juice
In fact, the correct form of this sentence in Lojban is:
  mi sakci loi jisra = i suck [some] juice
 
The original sentence would mean "I suck the juice" which is only 
acceptable
when You're talking about a certain bottle of that drink.
 
mi'e .xili,odor.


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