From pycyn@aol.com Fri Aug 25 07:44:21 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 20035 invoked from network); 25 Aug 2000 14:44:21 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m1.onelist.org with QMQP; 25 Aug 2000 14:44:21 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo-r16.mx.aol.com) (152.163.225.70) by mta1 with SMTP; 25 Aug 2000 14:44:21 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo-r16.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v28.15.) id a.ce.9d13955 (4522) for ; Fri, 25 Aug 2000 10:44:05 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 10:44:04 EDT Subject: Re: [lojban] World-historical and religious figures in Lojban To: lojban@egroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 41 From: pycyn@aol.com The official line remains (for those who cannot choose their own) the native language as near as we can make it. And then there has been some debate about what constitutes "near" -- whether close sounds with lost of native contrasts is better than keeping native contrasts but using more remote sounds (Chinese n, ng => n or ng => n, n => m). There is the further question of then and now -- should we try to get the way the ancient person would have said it or the way it is said at his home now. God (well, Karlgren) only knows what K'ung Ch'iu called himself or how he would have pronounced his honorific "master teacher". Lojban has, I think, settled this one for the modern version kunfudz (but I expect to hear from aulun and ivan to the contrary instanter). As for Caesar, since we know pretty well how he would have said it and this knnowledge is pretty widely disseminated, I suspect we go with iulius kaisar. Having just read a novel in which Jesus appears in Aramaic, Greek, Latin and both P- and Q-Celtic, I find that harder, but come down on balance for iecuys. Yes, it remains a problem, to be solved, I think, case by case. tcilifudz (I made that last bit up myself)