Re: The design of Lojban

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Wed, 22 Oct 1997 11:51:29 +1000
>From: HACKER G N <c9709244@ALINGA.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU>
>
>. Lojban forces a choice about whether or not to include the listener
>in the "we" pronoun, and the only group of languages I know of that force
>this same choice are the Melanesian languages of Papua New Guinea.

Surely not that rare.  Cherokee and Hawai'ian also force this.  I shouldn't
be surprised if it were quite common among Native American languages, and
other language groups.  (Frankly, I find it a little surprising it's not
more common.)

> It's
>not obvious to me at all that Lojban is a superior method of communication
>to English, especially given its appallingly small root vocabulary. And I
>don't believe for one second that it has done anything whatsoever to
>improve my thinking - but at least it hasn't hindered it!

I don't think anyone was ever claiming superiority or inferiority.  No need
to get competitive...

~mark