Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 14:36:51 -0500
From: Robert McIvor <rmcivor@macsrule.com>
To: <loglanists@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: [loglanists] A future for Loglan...
On Jeudi, novembre 8, 2001, at 12:53 , A. R. Goldman wrote:
Greetings:
Congratulations to the new CEO... I hope that he, and the rest of the Loglan
community, will indulge a few thoughts about the future of Loglan from a
beginner...
Thank you, and welcome to all Loglan enthusiasts. I have been a bit
tardy in sending a message to Loglanists,as at this season, I move from my
Canadian address to Florida for the winter months, and I have just got
settled after the move.
I have been interested in Loglan since the first Scientific American
article, and active in the Institute since 1975. However, I will be 77
years old in a couple of weeks, and will not be able to undertake
paper publications, or much new work. This loglanist discussion
group has not been very active, but I would like it to become the
principal method of maintaining contact among us.
I have also been responsible for maintaining the grammar
and most of the computer programmes of the Institute. I have
requested and received from the Trustees, permission to release
the source code of these programmes, and I expect to post them
to the loglan.org site as soon as possible. The programmes are
mainly in C, with some in C++. There is a more-or-less generic
version which ran on DOS machines, and a version written
especially for Macintosh computers (because that is my
personal preferred brand).
A publication is being prepared with a tribute to our
late CEO Alex Leith, and as much of the text of his novel
First Visit to Loglandia, as we have. At the moment, I have
no target date for its appearance.
I would appreciate seeing some responses to AR
Goldman's queries from some of the members. I have
not the figures yet, but I believe there are about 250
Institute members. As we are rather scattered, there
are few if any fluent speakers, a dozen or so have
written publically in Loglan, and presumably most
that are interested enough to have read Loglan I
and Loglan 3 have some Loglan reading ability.
How many of us are there? How many of us speak/read/write the language? How
many of those would be interested in helping beginners? Is there a
possibility for online lessons, with exercises and corrections from the more
advanced?
I, for one, am willing to correct any Loglan text to the
best of my ability.
Would there be an interest in pursuing a more mainstream book on the
language? Teach Yourself, for example, publishes on almost every language...
I have wondered whether they might be interested in publishing a version of
Loglan 3? "Teach Yourself Loglan" would bring a number of people into the
language relatively quickly, I believe...
I think Loglan is a great idea. I would hate to see this idea disappear.
Loglan will not disappear as long as there are loyal supporters
willing to do their part in keeping it alive. The Institute has no paid
staff, nor formal headquarters since the deaths of JCB and Alex.
Most of you will know of a derivative language called Lojban.
This arose out of a dispute between JCB and a group in
Washington DC, the nature of which is of little interest to current
members. The initial result was the development of an entirely
new vocabulary for Lojban, but since then, the languages have
developed along different lines. Many of you will be aware of
the differences, and, for some reason or other, prefer the
Institute version.
However, it cannot be denied that Lojban is a Loglan and
maintaining an adversarial relationship between the two
groups does not contribute to the promotion of a logical language.
I therefore intend to encourage cooperation, where
appropriate and feasible between the Logical Language
Group and ourselves.
Jelhaisto,
Hue Bab