gismu questions/suggestions...

[cbmvax!uunet!dino.ulowell.edu!gryphon (Coranth)]

coi. rodo.

"Wading through the gismu list, which I finally have really had time to do,
I have found some annoying holes, and some redundancies. There are also
some choices made by la lojbangirz. which I am curious about.

First, some missing places:

"smadi"/"sruma"/...     1 guesses/assumes/.... 2 is true

(there's a whole group of related words), add [by clues/evidence... 3]

"speni" 1 married 2     add [under law/custon/system 3]

"panzi" 1 is offspring of mom 2 and dad 3

                add [at time 4, place 5]        eliminate "jbena"

"citno" 1 is young              add [, age 2]

verba   1 is a child    add [ of species 2]

"fatci" 1 is an absolute fact - I don't understand this concept.

"benji"/"muvdu"/"bevri"  1 xfers/moves/carries 2 to 3 from 4 via path 5

        why have three different gismu for the same relation...?

"notci"  1 is a message about 2 to 3 from 4
"xatra"  1 is a letter  about 4 to 2 from 3

        same relations, different ordering

"bajra"  1 runs(/walks ?) to 2 from 3 via path 4
"klama"  1 goes           to 2 from 3 via path 4 by means 5

        these I can see as different iff "bajra" also means walk (by mean foot)

"cliva" 1 goes                 from 2 via path 3 by means 4

        they have to be coming to somewhere, which makes the relation
        the same at "klama"

"prenu" 1 is a person           add [of species/race/culture/planet 2]

"nanmu"/"fetsi"/"nanla"/"nixli"

        these are (resp.) male/female adult, male/female child

	add [of species 2], pushing the childs' place [age 3]

Personally, I think adding seperate gismu only to allow gender distinctions
is a bad idea unless necessary ("mamta"/"patfu")

In those cases where a distinction is necessary, a tanru or lujvo should
be used

	fetre'a (female human - woman)
	nakre'a (male human - man)
	feipre  (female person)
	nakpre	(male person)
	feive'a (female child)
	nakve'a (male child - boy)
	feipa'i (female offspring - daughter)
	nakpa'i (male offspring - son)

All these are examples of cases where a gismu has been given just to make
the gender distinctions simpler to translate.

BEGIN SOAPBOX

A bridi is a RELATIONSHIP. There should not be seperate bridi for the same
relationship.  Gender distictions which do not affect the relationship
should be left out by default, and expressed only if necessary.

END SOAPBOX

Another way to handle the problem is to add an additional place
to "remna","prenu","verba","cifnu","tunba", etc.  [gender .....]

Freeing up many of the redundant gismu would also allow slightly more
even distribution of rafsi for those which gismu which SHOULD get used more
(the ones listed above).

That's all I have to say at this point.
Comments/criticisms/suggestions are welcome, either posted or personal.
Flames to /dev/null."

co'o rodo.

				mi'e korant.