Re: Well...

[Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group <lojbab@lojban.org>]

At 06:43 PM 5/29/99 -0700, you wrote:
>From: WorldMaker <world_maker@yahoo.com>
>
>Hello, I'm new here and really intrigued by Lojban.  It seems to me that
>the major problem is the lack of a sufficient vocabulary...  Has anyone
>thought about going through Abridged/Pocket Dictionary and making a list
>of needed words? 

We actually have some better standards for "needed words" based on word
frequency lists.  But wordmaking is a major time consuming job, and there
is no one-to-one correspondence of English and Lojban words, so that you
cannot simply look at an English word, pick a Lojban word, and be done with
it.

But the real backlog is in analyzing the resulting words and determining
their place structures (and then ideally getting someone else to
independently check this partially subjective process).  We have at least a
couple thousand words that have actually been used in Lojban text, but
never had a place structure analysis, and the latter would be needed to
include them in a dictionary for someone else to use them.

>What about embarking on larger translation works, for
>instance an H. G. Wells or Jules Verne novel?  (Both of which should be
>public domain).

I have been working )very occasionally) for almost 10 years now on the
first story of the Burton version of Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian
Nights - this is the Scheherezade story), and on the first chapter of
Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress (which mentions Loglan in the text).  I
know of others working on their own translations. But this again is time
consuming and we get words used, but not defined as a result.

But feel free to start translating yourself.  Don't wait for us.

lojbab
----
lojbab                     ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS***           lojbab@lojban.org
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA               703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: 
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