Re: A challenge

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

>.i lu mi'a      visydonborka'ogei .i  ku'i    ko   smajo'ukemvizyzva li'u
>    "  We  seeing-(you-well)-glad.  However, you! quiet-and-(here-at)  "
>
>I don't see how to make this into a single word (except using "zei") and to
>make any sense.  There are two distinct subjects the "we" and the "you!".
>Obviously, lojbab. has something up his sleeve.


Not much.  I didn't post it because I wanted to encourage others and because
I ONLY translated the blat:

selpukno'exaiselzgakemnaltavra'itifyzvaselmi'e

which if I made no typos means

pleasingly-non-injured-observed ke quiet-and-here-at-commanded
(observative, making this the description of the person being observed).

For a while I had nalxai instead of no'exai, and I could actually say the thing
smoothly, but I decided that my limited understanding of the context did
not support na'e so much as no'e.  (The degree of injury or potential injury
isn;t stated.)

If I did not say it last time, the concept of two aliens using attitudinal-only
speech when the attuitudinals were defined strictly for human emotions seemed
incredibly and moind-bogglingly wrong.  If I were to do it with attitudinals,
I would include a few experimental cmavo that seemed likely to be attitudinals
in the string just to capture the alienness of the presumed emotion.

I like aliens to indeed be alien.  (Now whether Brin's aliens are this kind
of alien, only someone who has read the book can tell.)

lojbab