[lojban] Re: y: what is it good for?

[Robin Lee Powell <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 08:39:17PM +0100, Zefram wrote:
> I think the cleanest way to handle "y" is to treat it as an erase word
> that erases nothing.  

That's the same thing as treating it as a pause/space, isn't it?

> This means that:
> 
> * it is not necessary to explicitly erase a pause: "le y si lo broda"
> preprocesses to "lo broda"

This is currently the case in my parser.

> * it can be quoted with "zo"; if you want to pause before a quoted
> word, develop the habit of pausing *before* the "zo", as in "y y y zo
> nalselmorjyvalsi"

Same.

> * it can be used as a "zoi" delimiter (though I think the ability to
> use erase words here is bad design; I'd prefer "zoi si zo" to
> preprocess to "zo")

Fair enough.

> * more generally, it's not a special case, making learning easier

Not a special case?  How is an erase word that doesn't erase anything
not a special case?

> How does this interact with "bu" and "zei"?  Is "si bu" valid?  

Yes.

> Incidentally, why was this "bu" system devised?  Why not use, for
> example, "a'y" to "u'y" for the vowels?

"denpa bu", "slaka bu"; it's a general system for producing letterrals.

-Robin

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