Re: GENERAL: Lojban etymologies and Chinese (was shi...)

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

la lojbab. cusku di'e

> >To give you an idea of how "homonymic" Chinese can be, the following
> >short yet complete story (by Zhao4 Yuan2-Ren4, a famous Chinese liguist)
> >was written with just one "sound" -- "shi":

Of course, the story isn't in modern Chinese at all.  It's in Classical
Chinese, and probably would be totally intelligible if spoken using
(reconstructed) Middle Chinese sound values.  There are French texts not
unlike it, and even the English text "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's
sick" is similar in its unintelligibility when spoken.

> He are all of the gismu with that letter combination.  Note that "ci" in
> Lojban can also arise from Pinyin "chi" and "qi" syllables.

Also "xi", which is to "qi" as "shi" is to "chi".

--
John Cowan              sharing account <lojbab@access.digex.net> for now
                e'osai ko sarji la lojban.