Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: New to lojban, any suggestions?

From: Nick Nicholas <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 19:09:25 -0700

cu'u la maiky'elsym.

>>I'm surprised more people haven't jumped on this one. Lojban is
>>immensely
>>rewarding, and also immensely frustrating.

>it's only frustrating if you want to be able to say everything
>you can say in your native language, right away. that probably
>happens more often to Lojbanists than the learners of any other
>language...

I think this is endemic in planned languages; newcomers on the Klingon
mailing list routinely do the same, and are just as routinely chastised for
it. Doesn't seem to be that much of an issue for Esperantists, though;
presumably because it is so much closer to a natural language. (You won't
be surprised to hear I did it in Esperanto when I first learned it. My
Esperanto _Hamlet_ wasn't much good, though...)

Btw, it's frustrating if you want to be able to say everything you can say
in your native language after 10 years of knowing the language, too! Let's
not kid ourselves...

>i recommend breaking up your utterances into brief
>combinations of 2 to 6 words, & use anaphora, rather than attempt
>the complexly nested Proustian monstrosities that some of us are
>very adept at. no one is ever going to talk that way, except for
>speeches by the Ambassador of Lojbanistan at the United Nations
>(& the tranaslators will unplug their earphones, i assure you).

Whether noone ever will, I dunno; but Lojban certainly doesn't encourage
it, what with mental stack strain and all. But by all means, don't do
everything at once.

And Michael, you should know by now I'd never be contented with a sentence
of 2 to 6 words, even while speaking. :-) .i mi na toltugni lenu mi gunka
vi le stuna mlana be la manxatan.; gi'e tolsinma loi kerlo tutci pilno
vauzo'o...

Nick Nicholas, TLG, UCI, USA. [email-masked] www.opoudjis.net
"Most Byzantine historians felt they knew enough to use the optatives
correctly; some of them were right." --- Harry Turtledove.