From brion@pobox.com Wed Aug 22 17:27:01 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: brion@pobox.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_1); 23 Aug 2001 00:27:01 -0000 Received: (qmail 9659 invoked from network); 23 Aug 2001 00:26:14 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 23 Aug 2001 00:26:14 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO harrier.mail.pas.earthlink.net) (207.217.121.12) by mta3 with SMTP; 23 Aug 2001 00:26:09 -0000 Received: from there (209-162-15-78.thegrid.net [209.162.15.78]) by harrier.mail.pas.earthlink.net (EL-8_9_3_3/8.9.3) with SMTP id RAA19003 for ; Wed, 22 Aug 2001 17:26:03 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <200108230026.RAA19003@harrier.mail.pas.earthlink.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" To: Subject: Re: sts- [was: RE: [lojban] Brochure updates Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 17:28:52 -0700 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.3.1] References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit From: "Brion L. VIBBER" Craig wrote: > >Surely also the plural of any word ending in "st"? > >Beasts, feasts, fests, breasts, guests, bequests, quests, forests... > > But English and lojban do not expect STSTS, and can be typed on a normal > roman-alphabet keyboard. (Oh, this doesn't sound like an auspicious beginning... Those who are uninterested in nonsensical language flamewars may as well ignore the rest of this thread. Sigh.) Chu? Cxu? Digraphs are *always* an acceptable alternative for those without the time to use a character map or adjust their OS's keyboard layout. I'd also point out that English *does* use diacritics and punctuation not available on a standard keyboard. What standard US keyboard lets me type "fiancée" with the acute accent as it appears in a dictionary, quotes with the proper directions, or a long dash? I need to configure a special "international" keyboard, use a character map, or have software which corrects it for me. "ASCII is enough for English" is a myth. > Lojban has harder consonant clusters than Esperanto, > but one of the things that sold me on lojban is that if you > can't say them, we have buffer vowels. They don't. postscio == postascio == posta scio ("after[wards] knowledge") > And the weird letters > and absurdities were both major turn-offs about esperanto. Oh dear. Have you visited a psychiatrist about your xenophobia? > I wasn't actually looking to learn an artificial language, but lojban > seemed to offer more than even any natural languages - and esperanto seemed > like another natural language that happened not to be natural. Er, then why should you care about Esperanto enough to complain about it? Shall we compare apples and oranges next? Oranges tend to be more spherical, with an orange color and dimpled skin. Apples vary in color from red to yellow to green, or mottled, and their shape is somewhat asymmetrical, with a larger top than bottom... And that's just the surface! Below, the pulpy mass of the orange is bizarrely different from the meaty goodness of the apple... which will win the hearts and minds of the nation's fruit-eating community?? > Question for Esperantists: Is a female eunuch a neutrino? It makes an excellent pun, but a more correct and less ambiguous word would be eunukino. -- brion vibber (brion@pobox.com / vibber@usc.edu)