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Re: [lojban] Re: Are Natlang the best case for entropy in communication ?



On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 2:02 AM, Escape Landsome <escaaape@gmail.com> wrote:
Escaping sarcastically the difficulty does not solve it either.

Who's being sarcastic?
 
I understand that lojbanists use to protect themselves against any
criticism, as in a besieged citadel, but the point still holds :  <<
if very different concepts are given very near phonological forms,
isn't this a bad move ? >>

I can think of no case where "very different concepts are given very near phonological forms". It is true that there are many cmavo which are very nearly the same, such as FA, SE, etc., but all of these groupings are very closely related to each other, differing in very minor ways.

Your own example of the so'V series is not nearly as "different" as you seem to think. Each of them is a point on the scale All-None, exclusive. The only difference is where on that scale each is, with so'a being closest to All, and so'u closest to None.
 
And : << Does not the fact natlangs do not have this problem generally
speaking imply that they are more well designed than lojban on this
particular point ? >>

I don't think so, mainly because, being NATlangs, they weren't designed at all. I highly doubt that the phonological properties of words were ever taken into account during the etymological evolution of those languages. In fact, there is ample evidence to the contrary, as there are many cases where words that are /extremely/ different concepts have /extremely/ similar phonotactics, such as the English to, too, and two. I would argue that mistaking, for example, "bow" (either the act-of or the ship-part, but not the clothing) and "now", or "to" and "too" is much more damaging to listener comprehension than mistaking "so'a" for "so'u".

--
mu'o mi'e .aionys.

.i.e'ucai ko cmima lo pilno be denpa bu .i doi.luk. mi patfu do zo'o
(Come to the Dot Side! Luke, I am your father. :D )

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