Subject: Re: zoi gy. Good Morning! .gy.

From: "David Scriven" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 16:43:05 -0000

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not introducing myself before, but I'm Dave Scriven and 
I've been playing with lojban for just over a week now. Like many 
beginners, I suppose, I'm enjoying the experience but also 
encountering a difficulty or two. 

--- In [email-masked], "michael helsem" <graywyvern@h...> wrote:
> >From: "D S" <topaz@l...>
> li'o
> >fanva zoi gy. Good Morning! .gy. la lojban la glico ma na'e coi
> 
> 
> .a'e rinsa

Here's my problem with this: the english phrase "Good morning!" 
contains more meaning than just "Greetings of the a.m." In fact, it 
is an example of a whole class of English phrases that would appear, 
to my beginner's eyes, to be very difficult to translate accurately 
into lojban, including such phrases as "Good 
afternoon/day/evening/night," "Sweet dreams," "Good luck," "Merry 
Christmas," "Gesundheit," etc.; phrases that are _very_ common in 
everyday small talk. I don't understand the omission of a brivla 
that would follow the form:

x1 [person] bids (a) good/favorable/auspicious x2 
[event/experience/state of being] to x3 [person] 

It seems to me that such a thing would be very useful. Is there such 
a brivla available that I'm missing, or was this an oversight, or was 
it intentionally omitted for some reason?

co'o mi'e deiv.