Subject: Re: open and save

From: Nick Nicholas <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 01:14:26 +1100

cu'u la solri

> In Turkish, "file" is "dosya" (a collection of papers, from French) and
> folder is "klasör" (a ring binder, again from French).

.i zdile .i bau le xelso la'ezoigy file gy cu se sinxa zoigy. arxeio 
gy. noi dunli zoigy. archive gy.
.i la'ezoigy folder gy cu se sinxa .ue zoigy. ntosie gy. noi dunli 
zoigy. binder gy. gi'e ku'i ji'a dunli zoigy dosya gy leka ce'u krasi 
zoigy dossier gy noi fraso

Anti-malglico'ism actually conceals anti-metaphoricism: a file is 
literally a record, so Lojbanists like to call it that; and metaphors 
like "ring binder" are hard to glork in general --- unless you already 
know English. (What happened with dossier going one way in Greek and 
another in Turkish, OTOH, is probably not the fault of metaphor but of 
semantic looseness.)

But if a metaphor takes over the world, there will still be a sentiment 
against it in Lojban --- we do aspire to the logical, culture-free 
language, after all. (Oh, I know the founders luuurve metaphors, and 
ended up calling tanru that. In some quarters, that's reason enough to 
avoid them. :-)

The calque is what a normal language does. (A really normal language 
just borrows the form of the word, of course.) But who told you Lojban 
was a normal language?

Dumb to pick Maori as "primitive language obviously too benighted to 
have word for file"; as my fellow Antipodean Chris pointed out, Maori 
is going through extensive language planning to ratchet up its 
prestige, since it does enjoy official status.

== == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == == ==  
==
Upon completing His outburst, God fell silent, standing quietly at the
podium for several moments. Then, witnesses reported, God's shoulders
began to shake, and He wept.
[http://www.theonion.com/onion3734/god_clarifies_dont_kill.html]

Dr Nick Nicholas. [email-masked] http://www.opoudjis.net