From jjllambias@hotmail.com Thu Nov 29 11:32:52 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: jjllambias@hotmail.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 -0000 Received: (qmail 17218 invoked from network); 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.167) by m4.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hotmail.com) (216.33.241.83) by mta1.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 -0000 Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Thu, 29 Nov 2001 11:32:52 -0800 Received: from 200.49.74.2 by lw8fd.law8.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 GMT X-Originating-IP: [200.49.74.2] To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Bcc: Subject: Re: [lojban] To clarify... Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 29 Nov 2001 19:32:52.0488 (UTC) FILETIME=[A3084080:01C1790C] From: "Jorge Llambias" X-Yahoo-Profile: jjllambias2000 la tinkit cusku di'e >I think the grammar is >beautiful and very interesting, but the words themselves are >unsatisfactory (both in form, and what was chosen to be a gismu). I have often made the same criticism, especially about the morphology. The forms of gismu (CCVCV and CVCCV) are nice enough, but once you get into rafsi, lujvo and fu'ivla, the rules become so complicated that it's hard to believe this is a constructed language we're talking about. The reason we got to this state, as I understand it, is that the pioneers became so enamoured of the gismu forms that everything else, which was added later, had to be fixed so as to leave the gismu untouched, which means that all of the ugly patches were more or less forced. In any case, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, there is already a language community big enough that changing any of that is nearly out of the question. In my case, the beautiful and interesting grammar more than compensates for the distasteful morphology, so I put up with the latter and enjoy the former. You have to be prepared to compromise on perfection if you want a real language... mu'o mi'e xorxes _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp