[lojban] Re: bicycle noralujv quest

[John E Clifford <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

--- "jexOm." <jexOm@free.fr> wrote:
>  From lojban-beginners:
> 
> >> Broca, can you do this one next in your
> noralujv quest?
> >
> > Done.
> 
> Cool, thanks.
> I reminds me a conversation I have had with
> xorxes a while ago about 
> the translation of "bicycle".
> There's no gismu for "bicycle" (although there
> is one for car, truck, 
> train, etc), and the lujvo proposed in noralujv
> is complicated. So it 
> looks like lojban is culturally biased towards
> motor vehicles against 
> human self energy propelled vehicles...
> What is the process to create a new gismu? :-)

Basically, there isn't one, the gismu list having
been held more sacrosanct than most things in
Lojban.  However, if you really feel the need and
think you can convince others (I doubt this),
then find the word for "bicycle" in the base
languages and set about creating a gismu-form
mush from them .. If you find (as I think you
will), that the word in most languages is the
local variant on "bicycle," then you could make
up a fuhivla- form version of that word -- which
would be quicker than trying to get a fully
official gismu.  Or, of course, you can make a
new, shorter, lujvo than that in noralujv, which
I assume is analytic.  You might -- for the
novelty, if nothing else, try for a figurative
version: an exocentric compound like "two-wheels"
or a historic one like "speedy-feet" or something
novel like "wheel horse" or and so on. that is
probably your best bet.  The concept of a bicycle
doesn't seem likely to be used in a lot of
compounds, so a gismu is not really needed.