RE: [lojban] Why is there so much irregularity in cmavo/gismu?

["Craig" <ragnarok@pobox.com>]

An explanation of why xu and .ui are different grammatically.

Consider a hypothetical person - we'll call him Jimbob, a good generic
lojbanist name - who comes to me to ask about lojban. First he asks how to
say "I go." I tell him you say "mi klama," not wanting to get into SE and FA
yet. But, lover of attitudinals that I am, I mention that you show your
feelings with a word that you can put anywhere in the sentence. For
instance, "I go :-)" is "mi klama .ui" He asks how to make commands. I tell
him you use a different form of the word for 'you'. He asks how to ask
yes/no questions. I say you stick 'xu' anywhere in the sentence.
So Jimbob goes off and reads the Codex Woldemar. He then asks why I didn't
tell him that the emotions and questions were the same. I explain to him
that in English, we say 'ick' to express displeasure, and we rephrase the
sentence to ask a question. "In Lojban," I say, "the two can occupy the same
grammatical space. But 'How do I ask a question' and 'how do I express
displeasure' are still very different questions, linguistically. It doesn't
matter that the answer is the same, because it doesn't have to be. That in
Lojban it is, makes no difference as to what the questions ask." And then,
Jimbob achieves enlightenment.

                             --la kreig.daniyl.

     'lonu zasti ce lonu na zasti cu finsi'u
     .i loka nandu ce loka frili cu riksi'u
     .i loka clani ce loka tordu cu mresi'u
     .i loka galtu ce loka dizlu cu bapsi'u
     .i lo voksa joi lo sance cu saxsi'u
     .i caku lo purci lo bavli cu katyje'i'
                     -la lautsyn.

xy.sy. gubmau ckiku nacycme:  0x5C3A1E74