Re: [lojban] Question about lujvo-making

[Pierre Abbat <phma@webjockey.net>]

On Wednesday 12 November 2003 19:14, hfroark wrote:
> I'm having trouble making sense of rule 5 in the lujvo-making
> algorithm in
> http://www.lojban.org/publications/reference_grammar/chapter4.html#s11
>
> It says to test all forms with the pattern "CVC ... CVC + X". To be
> perfectly clear does this mean that all the rafsi in the "..."
> portion must be CVC forms?

Yes. What's going on is, a word of the form CVCCVCCVCCVCX may be lexed as CV 
CCVCCVCCVCX. If the word is of the form CVCCVCCCVCVCX, removing CV yields 
CCVCCCVCVCX, which is not a lujvo and is therefore a slinku'i; if it is of 
the form CVCCVCCVVCVCX, removing CV yields CCVCCVVCVCX, which is likewise a 
slinku'i.

> The second part says that: 'X must either be a CVCCV long rafsi that
> happens to have a permissible initial pair as the consonant cluster,
> or is something which has caused a "y"-hyphen to be installed between
> the previous CVC and itself by one of the above rules'. If X is not
> one of those does that mean the test terminates with no changes
> needed?

Yes. Examples of these are {*baklamrectu} "musk ox meat", which breaks into 
{ba klamrectu} "will teach about odometry", and therefore must be 
{bakylamrectu}, and {*ricpudyxrula} "orchard flower", which breaks into {ri 
cpudyxrula} (meaning undefined), and therefore must be {ricypudyxrula} 
(though I prefer {ricpurdyxrula}). {baklanme} (which is a translation of the 
genus name Ovibos) does not need a 'y' inserted because {nme} is not a 
possible rafsi.

> The 5c says: 'Install a "y"-hyphen at the first such joint'. Is that
> the the first from right-to-left or left-to-right? If it is the
> right-to-left then what is done if the first such joint is between
> the X portion and it's immediately preceding CVC and a "y"-hyphen is
> already at that joint?

It is inserted at the leftmost joint.

phma
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