A fairy tale

[Ivan A Derzhanski <cbmvax!uunet!COGSCI.EDINBURGH.AC.UK!iad>]

>  From: cowan%snark.thyrsus.com%cbmvax@net.UU.uunet (John Cowan)
>  Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 14:39:40 EST
>
>  The place structures confirm that "slabu" and "cnino" are the parallel
>  ones.  A better gloss of "slabu" would be "familiar".  Unfortunately,
>  Bob has said repeatedly that "ni slabu" is "age" as in "length of life".
>  I have complained about this almost as often but to no avail.

He's not entirely wrong about this (although {ni citno} would be more
correct).  See below.

>  To my way of thinking, the notion that length of life has something to do
>  with old-ness is an un-thought-out reflex of the English idiom "He
>  is six years old."

Not necessarily.  Let's see if you follow me.

A new ruler, {cnino turni}, is one who has become a ruler recently
(that is, one since whose ascension a short time has passed).  The
opposite is {to'e cnino turni}, or {slabu turni}.

A young ruler, {citno turni}, is one who has been born recently (that
is, one since whose birth a short time has passed).  The opposite is
{to'e citno turni}.

Similarly, a {cnino pendo} is a person of any age who has recently
become a friend, while {citno pendo} is a young person who is a friend
(and may have been one for a long time), and so on.

But with {remna} the two constructions mean the same.  {cnino remna}
is someone who has recently become a human being, most likely by being
born as one, and as such is synonymous to {citno remna}.

>  This is very non-logical: in what sense is a person of six said to
>  be "old" = "toe'rcitno"?

In no sense whatsoever, of course, unless the "person" is not human,
but belongs to a species for which six is a ripe old age.

>  I don't have a problem with this lujvo [sc. `shoe nose'] <...>

Yes, I reckon I was wrong about it being a bad tanru.  After all,
there is no reason to be sure that all animals use their noses for
both breathing and olfaction.

Do Lojban needles have eyes (as in English), ears (as in Slavic), or
mouths or whatever else they may have in other languages?

>  Likewise, it causes no problem to say that a clock has hands and a face.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.  If I didn't know English, I might
have serious trouble locating the hands of a clock.

>  Bob has proposed "river-anus" for what in English is called a river mouth.

Why not `river penis' or `river vulva'?  (The output is liquid.)

Ivan