Subject: Non-English gi'uste

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 09:52:02 EDT

Far from being just an amusement, translating the gi'uste may be one of the 
more important moves in the independence of Lojban from English. Inevitable 
differences in the semantics of different language will -- eventually -- make 
more precise the meanings of the gismu and cmavo (and hence of all the 
vocabulary of Lojban). As Lojbab reminds us, the English versions of the the 
lists are baselined. Thus, experimentation that can help us to find what 
Lojban words mean (what usage decides), if Lojban is not just odd English, 
will have to be worked out by following models provided by other languages as 
they are available to us. Not being frozen, they are open to modification as 
new insights come along. Eventually, these will have to be folded back into 
the English and all the other varieties (as far as possible -- maybe only 
examples and discussion will cover them in some cases). As Adam reminds us, 
many gismu (and cmavo as well) are still more vague than they need to be -- 
and ultimately will be. Rather than just accepting this as a necessary evil 
because of the freeze, we can do quite a bit outside English to specify these 
more precisely, using non-English vocabulary (and, hopefully, non-English 
speakers). 
So, you gismu translators (and more to come, I hope), keep up the good work!