[lojban] Re: lojban as an auxiliary language

[Chris Capel <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

On 9/2/05, Jim Carter <jimc@math.ucla.edu> wrote:
> The Lojban dictionary does not specify colors in enough detail to be immune
> to this particular misunderstanding, and the focus of the project has been
> on the grammar and the structure words and the place structures, rarely on
> precisely defining the concepts that specific gismu are supposed to convey.

Yes, those subtle differences are interesting and instructive. But it
seems to me that by far the main obstacles to communication, (which,
presumably, your wife has completely overcome through long practice,)
is the mastery of the grammatical forms of English, listening
comprehenison, and the various ways in which idioms are used, and for
those Lojban is certainly more than sufficient. (Not least because it
would be a second language for both parties.)

> On the original question of using Lojban as an auxiliary language, it has a
> lot of advantages over natural languages (particularly English and Chinese,
> which are the hardest common languages in my opinion), but a big
> disadvantage is that there are few people who know it and little written
> material likely to be useful in the auxiliary language role, such as maps
> and city guides.  You need a critical mass, which Esperanto may have, but
> Lojban definitely doesn't.

My question was as to the use of lojban in a circumstance where both
groups have to learn another language to communicate with each other
(or one group has to learn English), not as a language to be adopted
widely. The number of lojban speakers doesn't seem directly relevant
to this situation. The biggest difference between Lojban and Esperanto
here is that Esperanto has teaching material in most other languages
already.

Chris Capel
-- 
"What is it like to be a bat? What is it like to bat a bee? What is it
like to be a bee being batted? What is it like to be a batted bee?"
-- The Mind's I (Hofstadter, Dennet)


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