Subject: Re: [lojban] Lojbanizing my (nick)name

From: Brook Conner <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 12:59:58 -0400

ls daniel. cusku di'e

> I think laylun is illegal, so that would leave you with "lylu?"
> (replace ? with any consonant you are comfortable with). Also,
> I would stress Lalo as LAlo and not laLO, so should this be
> the case with your name, writing it as LYlun may be
> preferable since "y" doesn't take stress by default.

It's also possible to prefix a consonant to "hide" the "la", e.g., la
slalon. la mlalon. etc.

> > I'd also like to have a lojbanized version of my IRC nickname -
> > Bastet - but not literally (cmene-ly). In the context I use it,
> > it means "cat person" (like a werewolf, but with a cat instead
> > of wolf). Anyone wants to suggest a lujvo for that?
> cat person
> mlatu/lat + prenu/pre
> 
> mix and stir, add spices according to taste. ;-)
> 
> My mind keeps on suggesting "la mlatupren." as a lujvo-based name
> but I haven't yet worked through the lujvo-making rules to see if
> this is correct. Anyone?

No, I think you can only use the complete gismu for the last part of a
lujvo. And the final consonant is for a semantic-less name, I believe,
like "brukcr" or "daniel" - la by itself indicates that the following
selbri is in fact being used nominatively in the current sumti.

So:

la latprenu
la latpre

but not *la mlatupre or *la mlatuprenu or *la latpren.

Otherwise, it breaks into "la mlatu *pren." which I think doesn't parse
- there can't be anything between "la" and the name - otherwise you'd
start getting lexical ambiguities (like whether you meant "*la mlatu
pren." - the cat named pren, or "la mlatupren." - "Mlatupren" the name).
If what Lalo wants is a sematically meaningful name, then I think it is
"la latpre" or "la latprenu" or perhaps a reversal: "la premlatu",
depending on whether Lalo preferes to be named a "cat-kind-of person" -
"la latpre" or a "person-kind-of cat" - "la premlatu". Note that "*la
prelat" is incorrect - it would have to be "la prelat.", which would
simply be the name "Prelat" with no particular semantics involved.

This is related to a question of my own - I'm writing a children's book,
and considering doing it in both English and lojban. The main character
is Max the dog. So the opening sentence goes (in English):

Max the dog loves to go for walks.

which I've translated as follows when maintaining word order:

la maks. gerku cu se pluka lo nu cadzu

or as follows when following a more "native" lojban order:

lo nu cadzu cu pluka la maks. gerku

So does the "la" extend to cover the "gerku"? I know that without the
"cu", this second would parse as so:

x1 ( lo nu cadzu pluka ) x2 (la maks.) selbri (gerku)

or "The event of walking-kind-of-love/enjoyment is a dog of breed Max."

So is "la maks. gerku" a legit sumti? Or does the "gerku" part need to
become a sub-bridi, i.e., "Max, who is a dog," or "la maks. poi gerku"? Or

la maks. poi gerku cu se pluka lo nu cadzu

Hmm. Think I just answered my own question :-)

Brook