Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: weekday names

From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2000 12:32:52 +0200

Cyril Slobin wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Oct 2000, Ivan A Derzhanski wrote:
> > > i suppose we can translate our existing weekdays
> > > [...] into the lojbanic names for their traditional
> > > metal correspondences:
> >
> > Traditional but known to few these days, I'm afraid.
> 
> > Or how about the Chinese/Japanese element mapping?: Moon-Day,
> > Fire-Day, Water-Day, Wood-Day, Metal-Day, Earth-Day, Sun-Day.
> 
> Even less-known.

Even less-known? I can't imagine how that can be. The Japanese
names of the days of the week are known to all Japanese speakers,
of whom there are more than 100 mln., and the Chinese names of the
planets, which are derived from the same elements, to several times
that number. Those who are familiar with the alchemists' mapping of
metals to planets can't be that numerous.

> I see nothing wrong in the fact that tradition is not widely known now.
> Learning something that is meaningful outside lojban community is much
> more appealing than learning arbitrary made ad hoc assigments.

Of course. That's why I objected to the coloured months.

> BTW, I have known metal tradition, but color tradition is new
> for me. A piece of tasty information...

Tasty, yes. As staple, however, it's no match to the numbers.

--Ivan