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Re: Rubin

From:Terrence Donnelly <pag000@...>
Date:Tuesday, March 16, 1999, 16:27
At 09:40 AM 3/16/99 EST, Edward Heil wrote:
>>From: Gary Shannon <reboot@...> >>My second project (Rupin) is an attempt to construct an entire language >>based on the smallest possible grammar. So far I have it down to eight >>simple rules. (I'm putting together the rules and some examples of how >to >>apply them using English vocabulary for my web page. Perhaps in the >next >>day or two I'll be able to post a URL.) The grammar has no such >concept as >>"part of speech", which is one reason it can be expressed in so few >rules. >> > >Sounds a bit like Allnoun (http://world.std.com/~tob/allnoun.faq), a >language which fascinated me. I bet I'll find Rubin interesting for the >same reason. Please post! >
It reminded me of Lojban, and to me has the same problem. I found Lojban too hard to learn because of all the extra information you had to attach to each vocabulary entry. It's not enough to learn the meaning of the term, but also all the associated arguments. As Nik Taylor suggested, it would be more natural to have several fixed patterns, and then you'd only need to learn which pattern a given word fits into. I've been working off and on for some time on a language that does just that, called Saambu. I read the recently published Lojban Grammar, and Saambu is intended to be Lojban after its been spoken as a natural language for a few generations. It may be that there are recognizable patterns in the Lojban arguments, I just never got good enough to recognize them. -- Terry Donnelly http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/2711