From topaz@linkline.com Thu Nov 30 16:33:18 2000 Return-Path: X-Sender: topaz@linkline.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@egroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-6_3_1_2); 1 Dec 2000 00:33:18 -0000 Received: (qmail 46123 invoked from network); 1 Dec 2000 00:33:17 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 1 Dec 2000 00:33:17 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO hp.egroups.com) (10.1.2.220) by mta1 with SMTP; 1 Dec 2000 00:33:17 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: topaz@linkline.com Received: from [10.1.2.91] by hp.egroups.com with NNFMP; 01 Dec 2000 00:33:17 -0000 Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2000 00:33:11 -0000 To: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: zoi gy. Good Morning! .gy. Message-ID: <906rk7+4vks@eGroups.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.20001130145203.01199150@pop.stud.ntnu.no> User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Length: 1279 X-Mailer: eGroups Message Poster X-Originating-IP: 63.205.143.86 From: "David Scriven" la tsali. cusku di'e=20 =20 > I think it was either intentionally omitted or not considered very > important. After all, we *want* Lojban to be different from natural > languages -- meaning that not everything can be translated to it=20 with the > same ease. In Robin Turner's introductory essay, he suggests that one possible=20 use of lojban is as "an interlanguage for translation - it would probably be easier and more accurate to translate from, say, Korean into Lojban then from Lojban to German, than directly from Korean to German." Even though my dilemma over expression in lojban of the sentiments=20 intended by the phrase "good morning" has been resolved, the=20 translation of the phrase itself (and similar phrases) from English=20 is still, it seems to me, problematic; especially if that translation=20 is supposed to be subsequently translated into some other language.=20=20 This is a problem for most natural languages, of course; but it=20 shouldn't be a problem for lojban _if_ what Robin says is true. Let's say I'm translating a story into lojban, and I translate "Good=20 morning" as "toldapma cerni." If my lojban is then translated into=20 German, it could as easily be translated "Gl=FCcklische Morgens"=20 as "Guten Morgen." co'o mi'e deiv. =20