[lojban] ZOI and culture neutrality

[Hugh O'Byrne <lojban-out@lojban.org>]

Background:

Lojban has a structure, the ZOI selma'o (CLL page 477).  Within written
Lojban, it provides a means of using an alternate orthography.  This is
advantageous, in that people who are familiar with alternate
orthographies are free to use them if they wish.  Within spoken Lojban,
ZOI provides a means of distinguishing two words which not homophones,
in their native language, but that when mapped onto the Lojban phonemes,
would effectively become homophones.  This is advantageous in that
needless ambiguity is not enforced upon expressing foreign words in Lojban.

Observation:

Orthographies and phonemes are tied to culture.  Lojban is intended to 
be culture-neutral (CLL page 3).  Subtle loopholes arise.

In writing a Lojban text, a Lojbanist familiar with an alternate
orthography can choose to use it to make his job easier (e.g. by using
the text "la'o dy. Goethe .dy.").  In some cases, e.g. if he wishes to 
use a particular foreign word that either uses a sound not native to 
Lojban, or would be needlessly ambiguated as described above, the writer 
*must* use ZOI.

Loophole one:  Ideally, the writer (if he has taken enough care) should
be able to give his text to *any* other Lojbanist, even one with *no*
cultural (specifically, orthographic) knowledge outside of Lojban
itself, and that second Lojbanist should be able to read aloud the text
flawlessly.  This is not the case with the current system.

Loophole two:  The writer knows what he wrote, so imagine *he* reads it
aloud.  A third fluent Lojbanist, again, even one with *no* cultural
knowledge outside of Lojban itself, should ideally be able to transcribe
the spoken text flawlessly.  This is not the case with the current 
system (at least, not as much as it could be).

Proposal:

That the Lojban community address both of these loopholes, and attempt
to close them.

Details:

There are many solutions.  One is to change none of the fixed rules in
place, and violate the culture-neutral value, and require that all
Lojbanists who want to claim superior fluency (not superfluence!) know
the spelling and pronounciation of 'Goethe' just in case it ever comes
up.  This is the current situation, except it is not made explicit in 
CLL that a Lojbanist particularly *should* know the word 'Goethe'.

Another is to do away with the ZOI selma'o altogether.  I opine this is
suboptimal too.  It has distinct advantages; some important ones are
given above.

Perhaps the minimilist way to 'address' both of these loopholes would be
to put an addendum on Chapter 19, section 10; something along the lines
of: "There are issues with ZOI.".  Perhaps with elaborations, such as a
description of the two loopholes mentioned above.  Perhaps with
something gentle at the end too, along the lines of "Such borderline
cases should be avoided as a matter of good style", though this is not
nearly as easy an issue to overcome as the one illustrated by 10.3 and
10.4 on page 478 (where I lifted the quote).

Specific choices of orthography are not *imposed* by the current system,
and there are existing phonetic orthographies (as to the necessity of
'phonetic', see below), so _that_ option is always open.  But there is
still a choice of several of them, so even a pair of Lojbanists who
believe in the value of a culture-neutral orthography may not
communicate their most effectively if they made different choices.  A
commonly agreed-upon standard orthography would facilitate unity in the 
(admittedly small) community, and (I propose) would be a first step in 
the direction of closing the two loopholes, still without changing any 
of the fixed rules already in place.

This is the first *task* I propose, towards the overall goal of the 
proposal stated above.  The selection of one culturally-neutral phonetic 
alphabet as a 'preferred' one of the Lojban community.

The optional nature of this feature would retain all the current 
advantages of the language, and invalidate none of the existing text. 
Adopting the feature would provide common ground for 'super-fluent' 
Lojbanists to read aloud and transcribe each others' work with 
differing, or nonexistent, external cultural orthographical knowledge, 
in a way that avoids both loopholes.

Discussion on other possible solutions is open.

The recommended 'new orthography' mentioned above (in the point I
favour) *must* be phonetic - in that it must make a distinction between
any two sounds that fall into different phonemes of *any* language to be
used with ZOI.  This is the only way to entirely avoid enforcing
needless ambiguity, as described above.

Point of opinion:  Representation of features of phones, while not a
necessity, would be a desirable feature.

--
Good night, and have a rational tomorrow!

mi'e .xius.



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