Subject: Re: lojban as a programming language [was Re: [lojban] Lojban for lay programmers]

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 23:34:03

Lee Daniel Crocker:

> > Is there any obvious deviation in Lojban from what is required
> > for a common-use language?
>
>The only major one I can think of offhand is that human languages
>overwhelmingly distinguish among nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

"Overwhelmingly" suggests that some don't, right? I thought
adjectives were not so universal. In any case, Lojban does
distinguish selbri and sumti, isn't that about the same thing?

>There
>are probably a few minor hassles, like human languages generally
>have number, especially among pronouns.

Again, "generally" suggests exceptions, and so it can't be a
strong objection. I can believe that there is something weird
about Lojban pronouns though, especially third person ones.

>Also, we don't have a gismu
>for "pink", but we do have "cyan" and "magenta", suggesting that the
>color system is designed around the physics of light rather than
>around human perception (I personally like that fact).

If it really is important that a language can't have words
for "cyan" and "magenta" unless it has one for "pink", then
cicna and nukni will drop out of use (or rather will never
get into use) or a word for "pink" will be incorporated. There
is nothing in Lojban to stop any of that from happening. It
hardly sounds like a harbinger of failure.

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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