Re: Gismu uniqueness

[cbmvax!uunet!count.tct.com!chip (Chip Salzenberg)]

John Cowan writes:
>Chip Salzenberg writes:
>> So if no gismu like "bridV" other than "bridi" can be created, then
>> why not have all gismu end with the same vowell, say "o", thus freeing
>> up "CVVCa", "CVVCe", etc. for other uses?
>
>Mostly for better recognition.  "blanu" = "blue" would be considerably
>less recognizable to English-speakers if it didn't end in "u".

I find this argument less than compelling when applied to a language
that is intended to be learnable by anyone.

>Also, what other uses?  Gismu space is really pretty big, much larger than
>the existing number of gismu, and that provides needed redundancy.

(Disclaimer: I'm a computer weenie, not a linguist, so my intuition
may be wrong.)

A common practice in computer hardware and software is to reserve
certain pins and bit combinations for future expansion.  This practice
follows from the computer science truism that no fixed-length field is
ever big enough.

I forget the total number of lojban consonants.  Assuming 18
consonants and the current rules, there are about 60,000 possible
unique gismu.

Yes, that's a lot (more than I expected, actually).  But I am still
concerned that limiting the total number of gismu will eventually
cause a real problem.  After all, we *will* run out someday.

BTW, if I can't answer the "what other uses" question, that may
indicates a failure of my imagination.  It does not necessarily
indicate that the question has no good answer.

>...already a problem with Lojban that a garbled cmavo can produce utter
>nonsense; we need a reasonable amount of separation to make the language
>humanly usable.

If the trailing vowell is truly useful in distinguishing gismu, then
isn't dropping it during lujvo formation a bad idea?
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     Chip Salzenberg   <chip@tct.com>, <uunet!pdn!tct!chip>