From lojbab@lojban.org Tue Mar 20 09:20:13 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: lojbab@lojban.org X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_0_4); 20 Mar 2001 17:20:13 -0000 Received: (qmail 60204 invoked from network); 20 Mar 2001 17:20:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 20 Mar 2001 17:20:10 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO stmpy-5.cais.net) (205.252.14.75) by mta1 with SMTP; 20 Mar 2001 17:20:10 -0000 Received: from bob.lojban.org (dynamic118.cl7.cais.net [205.177.20.118]) by stmpy-5.cais.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id f2KHK8I44515 for ; Tue, 20 Mar 2001 12:20:08 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <4.3.2.7.2.20010320121828.00bbdda0@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: vir1036/pop.cais.com@127.0.0.1 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.2 Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 12:23:55 -0500 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Ack! Numbers In-Reply-To: <20010319205141.H3953@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" At 08:51 PM 03/19/2001 -0500, Robin Lee Powell wrote: >Why, in the name of all that's holy, are the first letters of the number >cmavo not in increasing alphabetical order? That would have been _SO_ >nice for sorting. Sorting (or indeed other forms of computer processing) was not in the least a priority in the language design. Computers can be made to do whatever we want them to do - the language is designed for humans and not for computers. In this case the priority was on seeking maximum contrasts between the numbers so that no two numbers differed by only a single sound feature. Then we tried to give them a mnemonic for easy memory, for which I chose putting the vowels in alphabetical order because I could see a solution of that sort that would work. I don't think I could have gotten alphabetization to work for that many numbers, though I did make the hex digits occur in alphabetical order; too many other CV cmavo were already reserved when I was choosing the number words. lojbab -- lojbab lojbab@lojban.org Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org