Re: [lojban] English

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Monday 26 September 2011 17:28:59 John Smith wrote:
> I don't know about lojban.  I just don't know.  I mean, what kind of
> language isn't even capitalized?  An unimportant one, that's what, or
> at least that's what I learned in first grade.  Important things are
> capitalized.

Hebrew and Arabic aren't capitalized; both have letters which take different 
forms at the end of a word, which English doesn't. Arabic is important enough 
that much of Lojban vocabulary is derived from it, usually mixed with the 
other source languages. Georgian (kartuli, not what they speak in Atlanta) 
used to be capitalized, but the modern script is monocase.

> I think English is awesome.  All the other languages make quite a bit
> of sense, but English, no, English is like the badass language.  It
> doesn't conform to rules.  It makes no sense at all.  Like, for
> example, a while ago I discovered that an alternate spelling for
> "Medieval" is "Mediaeval."  How awesome is that?!?  Seriously, that's
> so cool, when you spell it like that, it seems like you're actually
> some mediaeval knight or something who spells things weird.

In Spanish, words ending in "-ma" of Greek origin are usually masculine. The 
Greek words are neuter, and neuter usually merged with masculine (in some 
words, like "folium", the plural was interpreted as a feminine singular). 
Exceptions and apparent exceptions are:
la paloma (dove) - not Greek
la broma - Greek means "food" but the Spanish meaning is totally different
la coma (punctuation), el coma (unconsciousness) - both from Greek neuters
la diadema (diadem) - Greek is neuter and means the same, so I have no idea 
why!

Spanish spelling has been more stable than French, though they both have 
academies, which English does not. There are ways of writing French words 
that look mediaeval, such as "fresne" (modern "frêne"). The spelling "fresne" 
is archaic, but the name "Dufrêne" is still commonly spelled "Dufresne", as 
the name "Ashe" in English still has the final e.

Lojban has less than a century of history. Don't expect mediævialitye from it. 
It does, though, have lots of words with more than one equivalent form, e.g.:
citrai=ci'onrai=citytraji=3 others
fiprgado=finprgado
There are also at least two words with variants: one is "trixexo/trixexu", and 
I forget what the other is.

Pierre
-- 
The Black Garden on the Mountain is not on the Black Mountain.

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