Re: [lojban] Named multiples

[Daniel Brockman <daniel@brockman.se>]

Obviously we're never going to agree on whether {la} "removes" the
meaning from whatever comes after or if it "retains" the meaning.

In fact, there are not just two levels to this.  Already, {la irc} is vague
about whether spelling or pronunciation is important.  Already, {la donri}
can be translated literally into Swedish but not English.  Other names are
relatively "transparent": {la dansu be fi'o kansa lo labno} can be translated
into any language with an acceptable result.  Some names are strings of rafsi.
Some are brivla with dummy consonants tacked on; some are brivla with vowels
chopped off.  Some, like {daniel}, are almost completely intact and can be both
phonologically and letter-wise translated into any language with an acceptable
result; others have been mangled to fit Lojban phonology and morphology and
must be "unmangled" when translated into another language.

There are many kinds of names in Lojban, and that's okay.

So it makes sense for Lojban to simply not specify one way or the other.
We should allow both "meaningful" and "meaningless" names; both names
where spelling is important and names where pronunciation is important.
In almost all cases, this will be totally irrelevant.  In most other cases,
context will be sufficient.  For the last few cases, we could come up with a
system for indicating the level of meaning.  But {la} by itself cannot do it.

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