gismu morphology - response to Chip S.

[lojbab (Bob LeChevalier)]

Chip Salzenberg   <chip@tct.com>, <uunet!pdn!tct!chip> writes:

> John Cowan writes:
> >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.

The Lojban words were made to maximize recognition scores based on 6
major languages.  The result is words that are unfamilar but non-random.
The actual benefit of the recognition scores has not been scientifically
tested.

> 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.

The number of basic roots in most languages, comparable to the gismu
tends to average in the 500-5000 range.  This does not count compounds
and technical terminology.  e.g. BASIC ENGLISH, a simplified English
has around 1000 words.

Lojban gismu are added very slowly, and nowadays have to be justified on
the basis of their value in making new compounds.  (Indeed, and I don't
think it has been recently mentioned, our official policy is that if a
word cannot be made using the recognition score algorithm, but justifies
a gismu, then we assign it arbitrarily to a low density part of gismu
space.

Thes set of possible gismu is much smaller than 60000, because we do not
allow certain voiced/non-voiced oppositions.  There is also a very limited
set of permissible initial clusters, and a less restricted set of medials.
I think, for example, that there are 48x5x11 = 2680 possible CCVCV gismu
and a substantially larger number -but same order of magnitude CVCCV gismu

> If the trailing vowell is truly useful in distinguishing gismu, then
> isn't dropping it during lujvo formation a bad idea?

lujvo do have lower reundundancy than gismu.  But you can always use the
expanded tanru, or even longer 'unambiguous' expanasions if needed.  You can't
expand a gismu, though.

lojbab