Subject: [lojban] Re: ka'enai (was: Re: A question on the new baseline policy)

From: Theodore Reed <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 21:33:56 -0800

On Sun, 1 Dec 2002 20:50:37 -0600
Jordan DeLong <[email-masked]> wrote:

> "Let usage decide" refers to a time (which we are not anywhere near)
> in the distant future when people can fluently speak lojban. It
> does not refer to mistakes people make when learning. Usage is not
> sufficient to decide anything right now, and of the usage which
> exists there's barely any ka'enai---there's only a few people who
> would rather change it to be correct than to just take a look at
> the BNF and learn what the grammar for tenses really is (CAhA is
> not just like PU, neither is ZAhO, etc).

Amen! One of the things I fear most about the future of Lojban is the
potential for "standard errors". I think even Lojbab has said that the
biggest hurdle we initial speakers of the language face is that of
bootstrapping. Letting the usage of non-fluent people decide would be,
IMO, a very bad idea.

.iesai le pu'i manri bo selsrera cu cmima le'i traji selterpa be mi bei
ca le lojbo balvi .i ti'e la lojbab pu cusku le du'u le nu cfarygau cu
traji ternabmi romi poi krasi pilno le bangu .i le nu curmi le za'i le
nunpilno pe le nalcertu prenu cu jai jdice keikei xlali 

Heh, hope I didn't hose up that translation too badly.

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