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[lojban] Re: railgun



On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 12:38:41PM -0700, John E Clifford wrote:
> So, I shouldn't answer your questions?
> 
> Getting back to the issue, then, in the long word for "gun", all
> of the places come from {cecla} and {xarci}.  The use of {jinme}
> for the bullets is either superfluous or inaccurate (if you think
> that all bullets are metal, then it is the one, if you accept,
> say, ceramic bullets, the other). 

*boggle*

jinme is in there to *distinguish* bullets that are only used to
fire metal bullets from other types, such as those that fire ceramic
or rubber bullets.  So it is neither superfluous nor inaccurate.

> If you need to distinguish from other projecting weapons, then
> guns are the ones that are 1) tubular and 2) work by explosions,
> i.e., a sudden expansion of a fluid, 

A *fluid*?

Ok, umm, you've just made it clear that you don't know how guns
work.  Unless, perhaps, you mean for the expanding gasses to be
considered a fluid?

However, what you just said does *not* distinguish "guns that fire
metal bullets" from BB guns or air guns or paint guns, and hence is
utterly useless for my needs.

Lojban allows having more than one word depending on one's needs,
you know.

> {xukmi} enters very incidentally into the picture (puffs have
> priority).  

Perhaps you have a different sense of xukmi than I do; I'm using
xukmi to refer to the explosive substance, i.e. the stuff that in
English is called "gunpowder".

-Robin

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