Re: [lojban] Bible translation style question

[pycyn@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/28/2002 7:35:51 AM Central Standard Time, ragnarok@pobox.com writes:

Lojban is already quite SAE. There is no way that you are going to tell me
that it is oligosynthetic, which if I understand Whorf right is the other
alternative. Furthermore, it distinguishes past, present, and future tenses
(as opposed to Hopi, for example, which has past+present material things
versus future+present immaterial things)

Oligosyntetic is not the only alternative, just the one that Whorf had the most experience with -- it's fairly common in American Indian languages ("oligosynthetic" presupposes "polysynthetic.").  Of course, that depends on what your definition of "SAE" is as well -- is it necessarily toward the isolating end of that particular spectrum (is Chinese, as the example of maximum isolation -- among natural languages, many artificial go beyond it -- closer to SAE than Mennominee (SP!), say)?  Is tense significant?  -- having it obligatory or optional is presumed to be, but the pattern may not be.  Ditto singular, dual, trial, plural.