Subject: Re: [lojban] (from lojban-beginners) pi'e

From: Nick NICHOLAS <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 16:33:11 -0700 (PDT)

cu'u la rab.

>A while ago Xorxes made an informal grammar of PA cmavo, which was part of a
>thread about what PA in various combinations meant. It seemed to meet with
>general approval.
>(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lojban/message/5817)

I had no idea about this, because I rejoined the list just after it.

I am delighted the attempt was made. xorxes, you are a star.

It wasn't blessed by a Record, but the problem remains that, until we get
something more coherent in place, I'd have no idea to go looking for it.
(The same's true even if it was in a Record, of course.)

xorxes, could you please put this up in the Wiki, in the interim, with at
least your understanding about how digit combinations make sense? You'd be
doing a kindness. (And a great work.)

>In day-month-year, how do you refer to an event happening during a certain
>year? It seems you don't. The lessons avoid this by naming years. So this
>year is {la renonopananc.} and the next year is {la renonorenanc.} and the
>next year is {la djimbab.}, or might as well be, because cmene are not
>analyzable.

Conversely, of course, in YY-MM-DD, how do you refer to a date? ("This
happened on the 24th.") The answer is tu'o, right? Or indeed, even no
number at all. So:

This happened on the 24th. This happened in 1971.
YY-MM-DD. fasnu de'i li pi'e pi'e 24 fasnu de'i li 1971
DD-MM-YY. dasnu de'i li 24 fasnu de'i li pi'e pi'e 1971

... and it's already obvious which one would be more useful, I think.

Woah. In fact, I think {de'i li 1971} is such a big win, and {de'i li pi'e
pi'e 24} is so clean, that I'm prepared to opine here, as with {ka}, that
the existing convention is broken, long live the new convention.

This dizzies me. I thought I was conservative on this stuff. (Though on
the other hand, I have more confidence in decisions being taken now than
those taken in 1990, before *anyone* I know active in Lojban other than
The Founders became active. If it comes between Rob Speer and Sylvia
Rutiser, I'm sorry, but I vote Rob. If it comes between Ivan Derzhanski
and Rob on something else, well, then it's a different story. Or at
least, not necessarily the same story.)

Woah again. Comments welcome.

-- 
== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==
Nick Nicholas, Breathing I REJECT {gumri}
[email-masked] (Lojban Wiki, Resurrected Gismu)