From lojbab@xxxxxx.xxxx Sun Aug 29 17:49:34 1999 X-Digest-Num: 225 Message-ID: <44114.225.1244.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 20:49:34 -0400 From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" From: "Diane Burgess" > >The effort to translate the English definitions of Lojban words into Russian >has begun by Mr. Evgeny Sklyanin, and one of the first questions that >surfaced was the issue of buckwheat. To wit: > > >I am puzzled with mentioning buckwheat (гречка, гречиха) > together with > >rhubarb (ревень) and sorrel (щавель). For me rhubarb and > sorrel are > >vegetables (juicy stem/leaves) with strong sour taste. The buckwheat, > >on the contrary, is a source of grain which, in Russia, we use to > >make a sort of porridge (гречневая каша). Do you, in > America, eat > >buckwheat as a salad? > >My answer to him sounds like a defense of a malglico-ism, but I don't have >enough botanical expertise to know if it makes sense in this case to use the >same word for family, genus, and species. > > >Buckwheat in English designates both genus >_Fagopyrum_ (the grain from >which > >your porridge is made), and family > > _Polygonaceae_ (which includes rhubarb, dock, >and sorrel). > >Request some helpful explanations. > >garis You guessed the intent exactly - to stretch the Lojban words for the staples to cover the broadest possible useful meaning (in this case the family), allowing lujvo to narrow things to the genus/species when demanded. Most of the time the gismu would work just fine for all of the above - you don't make rhubarb or sorrel porridge, so if the discussion mentions porridge, then you must be referring to the staple grain. Presumably you could also make the lujvo for buckwheat-grain to specifically get the grain to the exclusion of the other possibilities. Several of the other plant and animal gismu were written up hoping to give a broad meaning to be restricted when necessary using lujvo. The word for hemp thus can be used for marijuana, and possibly for other hemp-like plants used in rope making. The word for taro root I think had similar extensions in mind, but I can't remember what they were (tapioca, maybe?) lojbab ---- lojbab ***NOTE NEW ADDRESS*** lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: see Lojban WWW Server: href=" http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/ " Order _The Complete Lojban Language_ - see our Web pages or ask me.