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It hit me that an even clearer, more Loglanish way to say 'any' in the
'n'importe quoi' sense would be this.
Which do you want?
A random one.
The other answers from a previous post are still fine, of course. Now,
searching for the word 'random', I begin wondering what the difference is
between.
Tu xyen kom karn. The typical dog eats meat.
and
A random dog eats meat.
In short, what is wrong with the answer
Zi vol kwa?
Go vol tuda. I want a typical one.
Well, I see what's wrong now. A typical one is one that has the most
characteristics in common with the category as a whole. So forget that.
(waitress to guy looking at menu)
Zi vol kwa? What do you want?
Possible replies:
Zi xwa. You choose. (Anything)
Bu (matter) It doesn't matter. (What's a good word for 'matter'?) How
about "tawa" from Samoan?
Kulda bon. All are good/okay.
Kulda seym. All same.
Kulda kwalsa bon.
Tada. A one. (That's all I'm going to tell you, so you just have to
choose one yourself)
Bu coyval. Not noteworthy, not important.
Bu poseym. Not different.
Anyhow, searching dictionaries for the word 'random', I come across the
Portuguese "a toa", meaning "at random." Weirdly, "toa" has the form of a
t-word. So I begin thinking that maybe "toa" can be adopted as a the-word
that means 'a random,' but then I remember that Rob pointed out that the
answer could be "ta da" or "tada", and I can't see much difference between
my proposed *toada and that. So, again, forget that idea.
How about the word "Seren" from English "serendiptous" for "random"?
So the answer would be:
Serenda.
or
Ta serenda.
--
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> Rex F. May (Baloo)
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