Subject: [lojban] Re: i want my brain cells back!

From: And Rosta <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 15:18:23 +0000

aulun:
#> I sympathize. I've always disliked learning other languages because it 
#really does feel as though one's brain is being clogged up -- as if the 
#knowledge
#> is using limited disk quota, as it were.
#
#As for me, I disagree: you just have let the new language come in slowly 
#(finally getting the special taste of each word - i.e. having a 
#specific "picture" when thinking/pronouncing it. 

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, 
#smell like lokshn, taste like lokshn... No, farvos zol men zey nisht 
#haysn lokshn?!)

What is this language? Some weird dialect of German? Something about
why salmon should or shouldn't be called salmon?
 
#> 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 effortless.
#
#So did I with Lojban: which came into my mind softly (somehow reminding 
#me of the Chinese vocabulary) was okay - other words didn't. I'm having 
#most problems with great deal of cmavo. It's not my intention to get 
#fluent with Lojban (because I'm not interested enough in this aspect. I 
#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, 
#to which i was really dedicated during my boyhood and adolescence - but 
#it's too old a love for still giving me thrills :(

It is beautiful, and easy, at least for English speakers, but still (a) 
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. 

#> 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 concept, 
#e.g. like that of Ro (I was quite impressed by it!)

I agree.

--And.