Re: A (Lame) Joke in Loglan

[Nick Nicholas <nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU>]

The Seraphim surely rejoiced when John Cowan spoke thus:

I'll add my conjectured translation.

}James Jennings writes:
}> Hoi Raban, kae,
}  doi romeis. tu'e[?]
   Heeeey, everybody [noone DARE say it's Howdy Doody time :) ]

}> Hu namci lo datliamao gandia lo logli?
}  ma cmene loi denlingau galctu loi lobypli
   Whaddaya call a orthodontics[?] professor [balctu] in Loglan?

}> Lo ditka ditca.
}  .i loi batci ctuca
   A 'Teach You 'To Chew 'Teacher! ["'" indicates stress]

}> (soi punkra)
}  sei[?] kixycro
   (Ouch!)

}Now perhaps I am dense, but this joke seems to me so feeble that I don't
}get the point at all.  Can anybody elucidate it?

To quote Filthy (or was it Rich or Claptrap?) from the BBC comedy series
of the same names, "I got it; I just didn't think it was funny." {ditka
ditca}'s alliteration is the only punchline you'll get out of this. There
are similar jokes in English, pun-based, but they require a pun; this is
not a pun, but soundplay. I wouldn't sneeze at it; it's the only way I
was able to translate the puns in the Colossal Cave game (which will
come out in Lojban sometime this millenium, I presume? :) . But it needs
a proper set-up, and, as seems typical with Loglan {nu jvozba}, that's too
much to hope for here... I don't know what {denlingau} is about (braces?),
and {galctu}, for either professor or high school teacher, is... well.
Liberal, shall I say...

Nick, wondering whether his Lojban analyser should implement database
queries...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nick S. Nicholas,                      "Rode like foam on the river of pity
CogSci & CompSci student,               Turned its tide to strength
University of Melbourne, Australia.     Healed the hole that ripped in living"
nsn@{munagin.ee|mundil.cs}.mu.oz.au           - Suzanne Vega, Book Of Dreams
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