Subject: Re: [lojban] Punctuation

From: "seidensticker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 11:12:19 -0800

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I read somewhere about the historical progression of punctuation. As I und=
erstand it, writing was initially a string of consonants, then vowels were =
made explicit, then spaces were added between words, and so on. Quotation =
marks were in there somewhere. Certainly, adopting some trait from English=
just because English has it doesn't make any sense. But I would think tha=
t adding non-letter punctuation helps that punctuation (and, hence, the str=
ucture of the sentence) visually stand out. No? Obviously, this wouldn't =
have any effect on reading lojban.

Getting a little crazy, this thinking could be extended for other wrapper p=
airs besides lu/li'u, such as le/ku or be/be'o. Yes, the text might look a=
little LISP-like, but it still think that it would be an aid to the reader=
. Ignoring practical consideratations for a moment (like: what punctuation=
would you use or how could jbofi'e be made to understand these synonyms?),=
wouldn't this make the text easier to visually parse?
On Tue, Feb 06, 2001 at 06:36:12AM -0800, seidensticker wrote:
> The tutorials use lu/li'u to mean quote/unquote. That makes sense
> when speaking (you need to refer to them with some name), but when
> writing, wouldn't you use "/" or the French =AB/=BB ? I'm guessing tha=
t I
> haven't seen that in my limited writing because the tutorials wanted
> to emphasize the correct terms for "/".

I certainly wouldn't. I _like_ being able to run my writing through
jbofi'e as a final check-up.

-Robin