Re: [lojban] And the Eskimos have 100 words for 'Snow Cone'

["Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>]

From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>

At 10:37 AM 02/10/2000 +0200, Ivan A Derzhanski wrote:
>Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) wrote:
> > My English Russian disctionary gives yeda as a translation for
> > "meal", "repast", and "food".  It may not exclusively mean "meal",
>
>Obviously not.  Why, you just noted the meaning `food'.  An even
>better gloss is `eating'.
>
>It being the case that there is no actual `meal' word in Russian,
>you have to paraphrase.  So `prepare a meal' becomes `prepare a
>breakfast/lunch/dinner' if the time of day at which the meal is
>to be had is known, or `prepare food' (Ru _eda_) otherwise.  And
>`before/during/after meals' becomes `before/during/after eating'
>(likewise Ru _eda_).  So there are some occasions in which _eda_
>appears to mean `meal', but that is never the closest English word.

Interesting.  But on the other hand, if someone asked me to define "sanmi" 
in Lojban - my first inclination would be to say "nu citka" ("event of 
eating") so that the matchup is not as bad as you make it sound.  Now of 
course, "meal" is something more than just any old act of eating.  It is 
that eating which takes place according to the customary breakdown of the 
day "ta'e nu citka".

Since you would use "eda" in expressing "before/during/after eating", I 
would ask how Russians express eating/snacking that occurs between the 
customary meals of the day.

>And then there are those cases in which _eda_ is completely out.
>It can't be pluralised, for one thing, so `have 3 meals a day'
>must become `eat 3 times a day' before it can be translated.
>And `3-course meal' has to become `3-course lunch/dinner',
>and if you don't know which one it is, you have to guess
>(you may be inaccurate, but you may never be approximate).
>
> > but certainly sounds like it would belong in a synonym list
> > along with an explicit list of meals.
>
>Something like _{sanmi}:  eda, trapeza; zavtrak, obed, uzhin_
>would probably get the point across.

Indeed. And this is of course how the English gismu are defined, with 
multiple synonyms in the "place structure text" which may or may not be 
exact equivalences of the Lojban word.

lojbab
----
lojbab                                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:  http://www.lojban.org


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