From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Tue Nov 20 07:05:58 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 20 Nov 2001 15:06:00 -0000 Received: (qmail 82832 invoked from network); 20 Nov 2001 15:06:00 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.171) by m12.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 20 Nov 2001 15:06:00 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta3.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 20 Nov 2001 15:05:57 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:41:59 +0000 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 20 Nov 2001 15:18:37 +0000 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 15:18:23 +0000 To: lojban Subject: [lojban] Re: i want my brain cells back! Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta X-Yahoo-Profile: andjamin aulun: #> I sympathize. I've always disliked learning other languages because it=20 #really does feel as though one's brain is being clogged up -- as if the=20 #knowledge #> is using limited disk quota, as it were. # #As for me, I disagree: you just have let the new language come in slowly=20 #(finally getting the special taste of each word - i.e. having a=20 #specific "picture" when thinking/pronouncing it.=20 Yes, but this is not very practical if you're aiming for communicative competence, or for the ability to read texts in the language. #(tatelebn, farvos hayst men "lokshn" lokshn? - They look like lokshn,=20 #smell like lokshn, taste like lokshn... No, farvos zol men zey nisht=20 #haysn lokshn?!) What is this language? Some weird dialect of German? Something about why salmon should or shouldn't be called salmon? =20 #> I've never made any effort to learn Lojban words. I've picked a lot up #> without trying, and that feels natural, as if it imposes no load on my #> memory. It's the same with Italian: I've tried studying it a couple of #> times over the years, but given up after an hour for the reasons I've #> described, but I picked a lot up from exposure, and that seems effortles= s. # #So did I with Lojban: which came into my mind softly (somehow reminding=20 #me of the Chinese vocabulary) was okay - other words didn't. I'm having=20 #most problems with great deal of cmavo. It's not my intention to get=20 #fluent with Lojban (because I'm not interested enough in this aspect. I=20 #like it as a means of controlling thinking. I find I know the cmavo better than the gismu, since the essence of Lojban is bound up in the cmavo. #Shame on you with regard to Italian ;-) a beautiful and very easy language= ,=20 #to which i was really dedicated during my boyhood and adolescence - but=20 #it's too old a love for still giving me thrills :( It is beautiful, and easy, at least for English speakers, but still (a)=20 studying it is an effort that requires justification for why it is worth the while, and (b) irregular morphology is an insult to the language learner. I never correct my son's morphological mistakes (in English), because although it is nobody's fault that, say, we all say _built_ rather than _builded_, it is still a perversity of nature that I wish did not have to be inflicted on him.=20 #> I can't see how Lojban is more irregular than English, even though I #> agree with you that if certain cmavo are supposed to correspond to #> certain gismu then it would have been better to tweak the gismu to #> make the correspondence regular. # #Regarding a conlang, I'd wish a still more straightforward vocabulary conc= ept,=20 #e.g. like that of Ro (I was quite impressed by it!) I agree. --And.