[lojban] Re: Question about apparent inconsistency with "nixli".

[Pan Mistwood <panmistwood@gmail.com>]

You know, I had my suspicion these were generated using some
algorithm. I have to admit that while I'm still intrigued by Lojban's
syntax, I'm less thrilled about this particular aspect of the
language. Don't get me wrong; I suppose I can understand the reasoning
behind trying to generate words in that way seeing as Lojban aims at
being an international auxiliary language. Still, my interest in the
syntax will keep me encouraged to learn the language, despite several
words I'd propose for a change if I was in charge. Thank you for your
feedback!


On Nov 30, 8:02 am, Luke Bergen <lukeaber...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The gismu were created using a scoring algorithm that attempted to make them
> as much like the word for that concept in the 6 most spoken languages in the
> world at the time.
>
> So it is only by coincidence that nanmu, ninmu, and nanla seem to have this
> pattern.  I agree, it would be nice if nixli fit the accidental pattern
> though.  In fact, I kind of wish that something less arbitrary in general
> had been used for the gismu list.  Not using the metric that we used might
> have helped with other little problems as well like similar sounding gismu
> for similar concepts (which can be confusing).  :(
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:18 AM, Pan Mistwood <panmistw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Back when I first dove into learning Lojban, I noticed an apparent
> > inconsistency with four gismu. And as far as I can tell, there's no
> > reason for it, but I could be mistaken. So, after much
> > procrastination, I'm asking about it here. (And as far as I could find
> > with Google Web search and a search within this group, it hasn't been
> > brought up before, which is rather surprising to me.)
>
> > The gismu "nanmu" virtually means the English "man" or, more
> > generally, "male humanoid". The gismu "ninmu" virtually means the
> > English "woman" or "female humanoid". The gismu "nanla" virtually
> > means the English "boy". Now, I understand that they are not preferred
> > over the gismu "verba", "remna", and "prenu", but they do exist and
> > are recognised as Lojbanic gismu.
>
> > From those gismu, I can see a pattern. "nanmu" and "nanla" share "na-"
> > while "nanla" and "nanmu" share "-mu". Following this pattern, the
> > gismu virtually meaning the English "girl" would be "ninla"; "ni-" as
> > in "ninmu" and "-la" as in "nanla". However, the gismu is actually
> > "nixli". My question: as "ninla" is valid gismu syntax, is consistent
> > with "nanmu", "nanla", and "ninmu", and is not already used to mean
> > something else, why is "nixli" used instead?
>
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