From rob@twcny.rr.com Sun Oct 21 10:22:41 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rob@twcny.rr.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 21 Oct 2001 17:22:41 -0000 Received: (qmail 14802 invoked from network); 21 Oct 2001 17:22:40 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l8.egroups.com with QMQP; 21 Oct 2001 17:22:40 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mailout6.nyroc.rr.com) (24.92.226.177) by mta2 with SMTP; 21 Oct 2001 17:22:40 -0000 Received: from mail1.twcny.rr.com (mail1-0 [24.92.226.74]) by mailout6.nyroc.rr.com (8.11.6/Road Runner 1.12) with ESMTP id f9LHLiF01801 for ; Sun, 21 Oct 2001 13:21:44 -0400 (EDT) Received: from riff ([24.92.246.4]) by mail1.twcny.rr.com (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-59787U250000L250000S0V35) with ESMTP id com for ; Sun, 21 Oct 2001 13:21:42 -0400 Received: from rob by riff with local (Exim 3.32 #1 (Debian)) id 15vMIM-0000Ac-00 for ; Sun, 21 Oct 2001 13:21:54 -0400 Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 13:21:54 -0400 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Broken Phone, round 2 Message-ID: <20011021132154.B539@twcny.rr.com> Reply-To: rob@twcny.rr.com References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.20i X-Is-It-Not-Nifty: www.sluggy.com From: Rob Speer X-Yahoo-Profile: squeekybobo On Sun, Oct 21, 2001 at 04:38:06PM +0100, And Rosta wrote: > > ganai do djica gi ko mrilu fi le mi'a tavla > > "Either don't desire something or send mail to our talkers" Considering you're translating the idiom "if you desire...", why not just use {e'u} or {e'a}? When we say "if you desire" or "if you wish" in English, we really mean something more, since even without explicit instructions to do so, people tend to do what they wish. It's really a mild suggestion. Or, possibly, the listener would otherwise assume that you do not want them to do that, in which case the "if you wish" statement grants permission. We don't need to take the baggage of English with us - since we can translate "Could you possibly" as {ko}, we can certainly translate "If you desire" as {e'a}. -- la rab.spir noi sarji zo gumri