sefi'e

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!pucc.princeton.edu!lojbab>]

Dave Cortesi asks (apparently) how sefi'e can be used as a modal when
fi'e is the rafsi for 'finpe- = 'fish'.

There is about 95% coverage of the CVV/CV'V cmavo space, so virtually every
CVV/CV'V rafsi is also a cmavo.  However, there is never any confusion
between them since rafsi are used in lujvo only, and nowhere else, and
cmavo are used only alone (or in cmavo compounds which may be broken down
into separate words).  You can identify a cmavo compound by the fact that
there is no consonant cluster - all lujvo and le'avla must have a consonant
cluster in the first 6 characters.  "sefi'e" is thus "se fi'e", while
"selfi'e" is the x1/x2 conversion of finpe, made into a lujvo.

OFTEN, we have chosen cmavo so that they are somewhat mnemonic to some
related gismu.  If possible, we chose the CVV/CV'V rafsi for that gismu as the
cmavo.  But this wasn;t possible all that often, so it shouldn't be counted
on.  Just consider it a freebie hint if it worked out that way.  Thus
"tai" is the modal for method (tadji), while "ta'i" is the modal for shape/
form/similarity (tarmi).  The latter is actually much more used than the former,
so if we were abiding purely by Zipf, they would be reversed, but "tai" is
the rafsi for "tadji" while "tarmi" has no CVV/CV'V rafsi, so we assigned them
in the more mnemonic pattern.

lojbab