le fetsi lojbo [was Re: nu lojbo tavla]

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

la xorxes cusku di'e

>
> i no'i ca'a zasti fa loi fetsi tadni be la lojban i ku'i ra
> jikte'amli gi'enai sezyjarco

This applies to most e-mail lists, which tend to have a "masculine" (note
scare quotes) discourse style (for more on gender and discourse, see Robin
Lakoff and/or Deborah Tannen).  However, dialogue on the Lojban list isn't
nearly as bad in this respect as many others - at least we have no flame
wars here!

I was wondering if the overall image of Lojban might also be off-putting,
which gets us back to the "logical language" point.  There is an (illogical)
association in many cultures along the lines of logic-male / emotion-female,
which may result in Lojban having a bit of a "masculine" image, or a desexed
Mr. Spock-like one (for more of my thoughts on gender and logic, see
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/8309/malelogic.html ).  However, I
don't think the answer to this problem is to try and present Lojban in a
more "touchy-feely" way (though one could) but to challenge those ideas in
society at large.

co'o mi'e robin.