Re: [lojban] Hesitation sounds in natural langauge

[tijlan <jbotijlan@gmail.com>]

On 14 June 2011 20:05, .arpis. <rpglover64+jbobau@gmail.com> wrote:
> A friend of mine mentioned the following (with this book as a source:
> http://www.amazon.com/Most-Human-Talking-Computers-Teaches/dp/0385533063):
>
> Humans, naturally, when speaking, have two distinct hesitation sounds in
> almost all natural languages (English having uh and um), one of which is a
> short pause, during which the speaker is planning eir next words but intends
> to continue the utterance, and the other of which is a longer pause which
> invites interruption or assistance.
>
> I have never heard natural (not scripted) lojban conversations, and to the
> best of my knowledge, there is only one hesitation sound in lojban (ybu).

I don't think "y" itself should have any specific meaning apart from
its role to fill a space created by a delay in an utterance (either
spoken or written). If I wanted to communicate my intention or call to
the listener in a manner that isn't syntactically dependent on the
on-going bridi, I would consider UI / COI first. In this case, "I
intend to continue my utterance" and "hey, can you help me with this"
following a pause. "Planning-pause" and
"interruption-/assistance-pause" may be expressed compositionally:

.y. mu'onai
uh... (I'm not finished)

.y. mu'o / be'e / pe'u
um... (ok, I'm done) / (say something) / (please)

I could also use "ju'i" / "ju'inai" to call on or off the listener's
attention to my flow of utterance. For example:

mi pu viska lo nu do gasnu lo nu .y. ju'inai
I saw you doing... um... whatever, forget about it.


mu'o mi'e tijlan

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