From cowan@xxxx.xxxx Thu Oct 28 06:53:34 1999 X-Digest-Num: 269 Message-ID: <44114.269.1463.959273825@eGroups.com> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:53:34 -0400 From: John Cowan But: what is actually the difference? Primarily the different vocabulary. The grammars were originally the same, but have drifted apart a bit. > What are the advantages to > learning one over another? Lojban has a larger community and (*cough*) a better reference grammar. > And: if the grammars are the same, and just the words are different > (??) ... does that mean a loglan-lojban translation program would be > fairly trivial? Mostly but not entirely. For example the word "blanu" which by chance is the same in both languages means simply "x is blue" in Lojban, but "x is more blue than y is" in Loglan; Lojban represents this more complex concept with the compound word "blamau". A truly accurate translation program would have to take this into account. Lojbanists are traditionally more careful in their writing, as well, particularly in the creation of compound words. It has been rather a Loglan tradition to make up lots of compound words without carefully determining their meanings and place structures. -- John Cowan http://www.reutershealth.com jcowan@reutershealth.com Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies / Schliess eurer Aug vor heiliger Schau Den er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)