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regularity of word formation in Lojban vs. Loglan. (Re: [ceqli] Re: Christmas

In a message dated 8/10/2005 10:52:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, rmay@hidden.email writes:


and Lojban word formation is more regular.

Interesting.  How is it more regular?



Loglan primitives could be chopped up, so to speak, and recombined to make compounds that were also five letters long, and thus indistinguishable from primitives.  
Lojban gismu (primitives) usually have short forms, known as rafsi, and shaped CVV, CV'V, CCV, or CVC, where the apostrophe ( ' ) in CV'V is pronounced (usually) as an English 'h'.  There are also long rafsi for every gismu, which is just the gismu with the final vowel replaced by 'y', pronounced as a schwa.  The rafsi must be combined such that they are vowel-final, with an internal consonant cluster near the beginning, else a hyphen-consonant, usually 'r', is inserted to form the cluster.  (If the given consonant is already an 'r', then the hyphen is 'n'.)

Rafsi, and the rules for combining them, are complex and controversial.  But they are also unambiguous, which is an improvement over Loglan compounds.

stevo