Subject: RE: [lojban] presentation of lojban

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 16:32:50

la kreig cusku di'e

>Did it have any novels written originally in Esperanto, or just 
>translations
>(cf laopi pelxu ku'o trajynobli)?

It had lots of novels written originally in Esperanto as well
as many translations from many different languages, yes.

>Did it have a significant body of poetry
>(cf ziryroi)?

Yes, for some reason poetry is much more prevalent proportionally
in conlangs than in natlangs.

>Did it have its own aphorisms?

Yes, the 'Proverbaro'.

>Did it have its own music (cf
>http://nuzban.wiw.org/wiki/index.php?Lojban%20Rock%20Lyrics)?

'La Espero' is kind of a national anthem of Esperanto. There
are many cd's with music in Esperanto, there are groups that
sing in Esperanto. See for example:
http://www.esperanto.org/esperante/muzik.html

>Did it have
>any practical applications aside from as an interlanguage (Lojban has
>several, and I hear that one has even been proposed)?

What do you mean, aside from an interlanguage? That's what it was
invented for! There is for example the 'Pasporta servo', esperantists
all around the world who offer a place to stay to other esperantists
travelling in their land, but I don't know whether that would be
a practical application of the language as such.

>Did it have any
>linguistic thought put into it, or just a random guy making up root words

I guess Zamenhof was as much of a random guy as anyone else, but
the roots were not so much 'made up' as borrowed from other
languages and adapted to the Esperanto morphology.

>(And tinkit, you'd better not show up to harass us with any snide comments
>about this zo'ocai)? Did anyone speak it outside of the (formerly
>Volapükist) language clubs (cf Logfest [with the jboste and the wiki as the
>analogues of the clubs, IMHO])?

Well, Logfest can hardly be compared to the Universala Kongreso
held every year in a different country with hundreds attending
and conducted entirely in Esperanto. You also forgot to ask
about magazines and radio programs in Esperanto. The Lojban
community is nowhere near the size of the Esperanto community,
Lojban is dwarfed by Esperanto in terms of numbers. But what has
that got to do with anything? If it's numbers that you want I
recommend learning English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or Russian,
or... But Lojban and Esperanto are very different creatures, they
don't really compete and they don't exclude one another. Apples
and oranges.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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