Re: [lojban] centripetality: subset vs component

[Thorild Selen <thorild@UPDATE.UU.SE>]

Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) writes:
 > Not likely if we are talking dates. If the listener only wants the century, 
 > then giving the date to any greater significance is drowning him in 
 > irrelevance.

This brings up another interesting question; how should you specify
a century? In English, you usually say "the 18:th century" where a
Swede would say "the 1700:s". I admit that the second version is
somewhat ambigous, since it could possibly be intended to mean only
the years 1700-1709, but, on the other hand, the n:th century style
seems kind of off by one, and therefore causes confusion among those
who aren't used to it; also, it doesn't look a bit like how you talk
about decades in any language that I know, and to be consistent with
that style you'd possibly have to consider talking about, for example,
the 171:th decade.
Does anyone have a good suggestion for how to talk about centuries
and decades in lojban?

/Thorild