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Re: [lojban] [lojban-announcements] Essay on the future of Lojban, with a simple poll for the community.



On Mon, 5 Apr 2010, Robin Lee Powell wrote:

http://teddyb.org/robin/tiki-index.php?page=Lojban%3A+You're+Doing+It+Wrong

Very good essay. Think French -- a long time ago Lojban Central described its function to be like the French Academy, which speaks authoritatively about how the language is defined (despite impure speakers de l'etranger debasing it). Because Lojban is a "logical language" it even more needs such an authoritative voice, and Lojban Central should return to that role.

"Let usage decide" is fine for a natural language with no pretense of being designed, but abdicating the design role -- "a consistent failure to govern", quoted from the political sphere -- serves our language poorly.

(2) agree/disagree answer to the following question, after you've read
(as much as you wish to) of the essay:

 I would like Lojban to remain as close as it possibly can to its
 current state, regardless of whether I or a group of experienced
 Lojbanists see that improvements could be made.

Disagree. If an area needs improvement we ought to improve it, and sometimes the change cannot be guaranteed to be backward-compatible in all cases. On the other hand, Lojbanists' investment in the language is a very valuable resource not to be wasted, and wholesale revisions are not welcome. The revision from Loglan to Lojban was essential for political reasons, but I hope we won't see anything like that again.

James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555
Email: jimc@math.ucla.edu  http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)

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