[lojban] Re: ZOI and culture neutrality

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

Since I don't quite see how cultural neutrality (if possible) is involved in this question, I
don't see why Lojban should be different from other languages in the way it treats foreign
expressions. I used a lot of them in my work, from several languages that used the Latin alphabet,
th9ough with different sounds than English, and several more that used different systems.  In
writing I just wrote them out as they were at home, if their alphabet was Latin, or in standard
transceiption if not (Well, this was before Pinyin became a standard, so I used a dumbed down
vwersion of Wade-Giles for Chinese - with the result that people kept saying "tey-o" for Dao).  In
speech I pronounced them as best I could(I flunked tones in African and Chinese Linguistics and in
music class and I never got the vowels straightened out for languages with "pure" ones).  I even
occasionally deliberately exaggerated mispronunciation for effect.  In short, I made it fairly
clear that what I was saying or writing was foreign but I accomodated it to my English ("Goethe"
is, depending on some intangible factors "Gerta" or "Gertha" or "Gayty," though I have a medal
that says I can say it in Schuldeutsch.) I do the same in quoting English in Lojban -- when I am
careful: what I quote is not quite what I ordinarily say in English, but it clearly isn't Lojban
either.  I suppose most others do similarly.  In short, while I see the point of a phonetic
auxiliary language for Lojban, I don't see the need for it.


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