Subject: [lojban] Re: Newbie says hi

From: Theodore Reed <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 02:27:10 -0800

On Thu, 21 Nov 2002 08:36:56 +0100
"Stefan \"1of3\" Koch" <[email-masked]> wrote:

> coi me'u ctefan-kox. 

Did you mean mi'e instead of me'u? .i coi ctefan mi'e bancus. rinsa do

> mi nanmu dotco .i xabju la cnino bramalsi poi tcadu be'a la hamburg
> pe'e lu'a le pa karce cacra .i mi jbena fi le detri be li re pi'e pare
> pi'e pasobici
> 
> 
> So I hope my attempt of introduction is understandable. It leads me to
> two questions though. 
> 
> How does lojban handle names with more than one part (for example
> birth and family name)? Using hyphens seem unlojbanic to me but making
> a pause is AFAIK not allowed within a name.

I would use a , myself. as in "mi'e SIodor,rid.", but pauses may
actually be allowed in cmene. I'm not entirely sure. I swear I've seen
them being used, though.

> How can I say "I'm 18 years old." I didn't find an appropriate brivla.
> And expressing my birthdate seems unhandy.

I was told to use nanca, as in "mi nanca li paso". Although if you want 
to be a little better, you could say something like "le mi jbena ca
nanca li paso".

> Two more questions that came to my mind while reading the reference
> grammar:
> 
> When I use co-conversion of tanru within a description, do I have to
> terminate the sumti to prevent other arguments of the bridi to run
> into the description? I think they will but the gramar doesn't say so
> explicitly.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Could you illustrate?

> The last thing is more an idea:
> 
> Could "se'inai" be used with to mark somebody else's definitions,
> exspectations etc.? If so "ti'e" and "za'a" might be used to mark how
> one came to know of that person's opinions.

I don't think you can use se'inai like that. It's (afaik) supposed to
indicate that you are oriented toward something which is not yourself,
perhaps to indicate charity or something along those lines. (Which is 
a silly idea to me, I admit, but I suppose that someone might actually
be capable of charity with absolutely no self-serving intent.)

> mu'omi'e ctefan.

-- 
Theodore Reed (rizen/bancus) -==- http://www.surreality.us/
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