jezrax

Ouxo language

2009-04-13T22:13:26Z

I've just posted the definition of the Ouxu language: satirist.org/language/ouxu/, with grammar book and dictionary.

It's a fun little language designed to be good at expressing nuances of meaning. The vocabulary is especially rich in words relating to emotions and goals. There are no verbs as such, only nouns. Predicate-argument relationships are given instead by inflections that act like case markers. If you want something to happen, one of the nouns can be marked as an event or an agentive action.

jezrax @ 2003-06-11T18:27:00

2003-06-11T22:27:53Z

Yesterday's entry is grammatical. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find a context in which it makes sense.

jezrax @ 2003-06-10T20:40:00

2003-06-11T00:40:25Z

do re mi fa so la ti broda

jezrax @ 2003-05-31T17:27:00

2003-05-31T21:29:57Z

We know what LMAO means, but nobody seems to have noticed the implication: selma'o must mean that my ass is laughing me off.

jezrax @ 2003-05-29T21:20:00

2003-05-30T01:39:58Z

In my first entry, I attempted a translation of the Daily Whale of 13 April 2002:

I don't know what kind of idiot you take me for, but I'm certain
that I'm a different kind.

It's interesting. I analyzed it in detail. The tricky part is the first half. I had:

do krici le du'u mi bebna makau za'anai

I've concluded that this is dubious at best, because the Book does not define za'anai.

do krici le du'u mi bebna makau uanai

This is not hopelessly distant from the correct meaning. I might backtranslate it as "You believe I am some kind (huh?) of idiot." uanai ro'e might be a little clearer. I don't think it's close enough to what I intended. An attitudinal version will always be somewhat vague; to be precise we need a nested bridi.

mi na djuno tu'a makau poi do krici le du'u mi bebna ke'a

A cute try to make a point. Is this OK? Maybe it is, provided that (1) makau means the correct thing in this syntactic context, and (2) we can say what tu'a makau expands into. I'd say that tu'a makau expands into something like le du'u makau mokau, which sure looks funny. Spelling it out, I get

mi na djuno le du'u makau poi do krici le du'u mi bebna ke'a ku'o mokau

So, does makau mean what's intended? I don't think so. It needs to be identified as belonging to the indirect question of the inner du'u, and yet it appears in the outer du'u. The double kau was a hint that something like this was wrong.

mi na djuno tu'a da poi do krici le du'u mi bebna dakau

Here I get kau in the right place, repeating da to link the occurrences. I've never seen this mechanism used, and the Book fails to make it clear that da has the same referent in both places. The Book gives the example of la djan. kau, saying this "would suggest that it was John who I knew had gone to the store". Note the term "suggest" rather than "claim"; it's apparently legal to interpret kau as overriding the word it is attached to, so that the word has only suggestive value. Nevertheless, I think that this version with da and dakau is probably correct and is reasonably clear.

do krici le du'u mi bebna makau goi ko'a .i mi na djuno tu'a ko'a

This looks OK. It's clearer but wordier. "You believe I'm some kind of idiot. I don't know what kind."

A full translation, with my. for simplicity instead of ko'a, is

do krici le du'u mi bebna makau .i mi na djuno tu'a my. .i ju'o mi bebna le drata

This is fairly precise, perhaps unnecessarily precise, but it's still shorter than the English original. The version with da and dakau has exactly the same number of characters. I can't decide whether I like it better. It's harder to interpret, but it avoids the choppy extra sentence and the unusual use of the pro-sumti my., which people might have to think twice about.

jezrax @ 2003-05-18T16:24:00

2003-05-18T20:25:05Z

ja'o le karsnarilti pemci cu nitcu le ka ce'u barda le ni pemsle be ce'u gu'a clani gi klani .i le re pemci poi mi ba'o finti cu cmalu .i seri'abo le nu mi ganse le rilti cu nandu

ni'o mi na cinri le barda

jezrax @ 2003-05-17T16:30:00

2003-05-17T20:32:48Z

sei pu'u rarfarvi se'u

mi nelci lo nalci
voi jgina selsa'a
.i le jinga joi cunso
cu cipni joi selba'u

jezrax @ 2003-05-16T17:58:00

2003-05-16T22:01:25Z

sei pu'u runfarvi se'u

le mu'e si'ofre cu cfika
.i ku'i le pu'u sibzba
le fange vilti'a cu simsa
le nu cpare le serlindi

i e a o u

2003-05-16T03:11:34Z

me'o ibu ce'o ebu ce'o abu ce'o obu ce'o ubu porsi le ni jaike moklu crane kei lo'i lojbo ke sampu karsna lerfu .i mu'a sa'enai tu'a me'o ibu tu'a me'o ebu zmadu le ni bacru selto'a

ni'o mi pilno le karsna porsi le nu pemci termo'a .i su'anai vu'i lo'i selbasna slaka poi selpau ro le pemsle cu zenba najo jdika .i la'edi'u rinka le nu tonga rilti .i semu'ibo zo karsnarilti lujvo co skicu le pemci pe le ka go'e

ni'o loi cmavo zo'u mi piso'oroi ciska su'o re lamji cmavo secau me'o sepli bu .i ca le nu ba'usku lo pemci kei mi basna ro le da'amoi selci'a ke cmavo slaka

jezrax @ 2003-04-28T17:13:00

2003-04-28T21:14:46Z

ma zo'u le vi cmalu xarju cu klama le zarci

What is the topic of "this little piggy went to market"?

jezrax @ 2003-04-20T21:43:00

2003-04-21T01:44:14Z

na'ebo mi na'e cusku na'ebo le na'e se na'e du'u na'e nei

The last na'e does not negate the na'e in na'e cusku. It substitutes for it, so it's redundant (to undo the original na'e, you'd have to use je'a). Whaddaya think, is that too bad or does it make this trickier?

jezrax @ 2003-04-16T20:47:00

2003-04-17T00:48:16Z

ba'o le nu ze'u cilre kei mi pu'i finti le pemci simsa .i mi fanva fu'inai la'e le pemci be fi la'o xy. Emily Dickinson .xy. fu lu

le xuncutcpi su'o slaka
fo le spidja canai pleji
.i gauku fi le tego'i cmene
lei rijno ze'u vreji

li'u

ni'o .oinairo'e ko sanji le nu lo'u le tego'i le'u sinxa tu'a zo zo'e noi na selsku

ni'o mi cuxna lo'u gauku le'u .enai lo'u gau xy. le'u noi satcymau ku'o mu'i le nu tu'a le bacru denpa cu dicra tu'a le sance ka xutla

ni'o tu'a zo tu'a zo'o

jezrax @ 2003-04-02T22:12:00

2003-04-03T03:12:57Z

It's cute that to'o is away from, and fa'a is toward.

jezrax @ 2003-03-14T18:51:00

2003-03-15T00:00:40Z

sei nalseldji samnoi se'u

na'e ba'e sipna ca'o le nu do na'e ba'e citka .i le .ionai drata ke li'orbi'o selpla cu jai nupre le kusru je cizra .i u'e lai po'o cairmanci cfujdikyci'e cu snada ju'o .i ba'unai tu'a lai ciste cu ca'arcfagau le vlipa ke jercrupikta nu sakci pe'a .e le tolcando ke planysle skolafselkei pe'a skeselzba gi'e tepi'obo prane jitro le po do pavyfa'a ni dinselpo'e .e le po do slilu xabjuntydatni ca'o je ja'e le nu do fazycni joi datyju'i gi'enai sanji le zekri .i do vitno selga'i

jezrax @ 2003-03-10T16:08:00

2003-03-10T21:09:08Z

When I look back at the Lojban I wrote a year ago, I see tons of mistakes. I find errors in text that I painstakingly checked and double-checked with the word lists and with jbofi'e.

It's nice that I've improved, but I think I still have a long way to go. I expect that a year from now I'll look at my recent translations, which I have painstakingly checked and double-checked, and wonder how I could have missed such glaring blunders.

If you see one, leave a comment. I've learned a lot from my mistakes.

jezrax @ 2003-03-06T16:59:00

2003-03-06T22:00:02Z

mi co'a jimpe la'edi'e .i loi snime loi grute cu simsa le ka ce'u ganai ze'a vreta re'o lo dargu gi fusra

jezrax @ 2003-02-28T17:30:00

2003-02-28T22:31:16Z

piso'a loi runbau pu'o do'a plixau fi le'e nu casnu
.i la lojban drata .i ku'i piso'e loi troci be tu'a la lojban
cu jundi le po'o pemci ja tolfadni terpli vau oi u'anaicai
.i doi ma'a ko eidai draga'igau le ka go'i
.i bau la lojban ko virnu cusku lu'e le do bavla'i selxajmi

jezrax @ 2003-02-22T20:16:00

2003-02-23T01:18:11Z

Some jbopre say that Lojban is a bulky language, and that translated English usually ends up longer than the original. I don't. I think Lojban allows a wider range than English in the tradeoff between brevity and precision, and if you're willing to be vague (and to abuse lujvo) you can usually compress your Lojban into a tiny space. With what I consider a normal level of precision, I think Lojban is around the same size as English; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Lojban is longer if the English depends on English's large vocabulary (I dare you to make a precise translation of "we dawdled on the scree"), or if the Lojban requires many abstractors. Lojban is shorter where it can rely on compact features like attitudinals, discursives, lujvo that translate whole phrases, and the omission of zo'e.

The Whale of 26 December 1993 (http://satirist.org/whale/1993/12/26.html) is longer in Lojban, because the English relies on short, dense idioms.

u'e cmadi'a nu jamna .i paroi cfarygau gi'e paroi nondi'a cpacu

The Whale of 18 July 2001 (http://satirist.org/whale/2001/07/18.html) is shorter.

betri mi .i nabmi do .i selfri .iaru'e lei drata

jezrax @ 2003-02-13T15:34:00

2003-02-13T20:37:38Z

ca le cabdei mi co'a tersi'o la'edi'e .i fanva zoi xy. The lady or the tiger? .xy. fu lu le tixnu ji le tirxu li'u .i bau le naldra piso'oroi cusku

jezrax @ 2003-02-04T22:18:00

2003-02-05T03:18:47Z

I've been translating a lot recently, though it doesn't show on the outside. I have a file with a good dozen translations from the Daily Whale, including a couple longer ones, and someday they'll make their way to my web site. Translating tightly-written epigrams is hard work, but on the other hand I'm translating myself--I know what I meant, and writing that in Lojban is more interesting than being precisely literal. Besides, it gives me lots of opportunities to think about style.

For the Whale of 13 April 2002 (http://satirist.org/whale/2002/04/23.html), I came up with this. I can't decide whether it's a brilliant coordination of the resources of Lojban into a compact and elegant saying, or if it's incomprehensible mush. Hmm. Have to think about that some more.

do krici le du'u mi bebna makau za'anai .i ku'i ju'o drata