Mi ranka

[Alex Leith <alexl@compuserve.com>]

Hoi Rik, fie:    (cc loglanists)
(conventional letter opening)
I guess I forgot to copy my last response to the loglanists list, but I see
that you got a response from James Jennings as well. Loglanists hasn't been
too active of late -- the other mailing list (logli) has more happening.

<<  Yes; friend, though I don't think we've met.  There's an Esperanto
 word for it: "samideano".  = "same-idea-member-(noun)".  That is,
 someone who thinks like I do, and is therefore assumed to be a
 friend or colleague, simply by being interested in this language. 
>>

That's a good word !!  In Loglan it would probably be   "samviepeu"
(samto-vidre-pernu = same-idea-person). I've never tackled Esperanto, but
several logli speak well of it.  And, oh dear, I thought your Swedish was
Norwegian, and tried to dredge up the little I used to speak.

<< I
 would have gotten the software, but although I had several
 different computers, none of them ran programs for IBM nor Mac.
>>

That is indeed a pity, as the Loglan Online Dictionary is a most excellent
resource, containing now about 10,000 Loglan words, and being regularly
added to: if you could run to a cheap old Mac to run that, and the Parser,
it would be money well spent. I think those both run on IBMs, and the
MacTeach programs that teach a repertoire of utterances, and also the
primitive predicates and affix forms, are mostly up to date, but are
currently being worked on to improve the affix learning parts. 

<< Not enough of a support community, all alone out here. 
>>
You're right. What Loglan needs now is for the speaker base to reach some
sort of critical mass where it can really take off. Who knows what the
magic figure might be? It's certain that at present every new body on board
makes a very significant difference to the whole. There is a core of a few
very active people, and a nimbus of somewhat passive 'interested parties'.

<<  Loglan made the "Ido mistake".  Ido was an attempted
 offshoot of Esperanto, but never caught on much.  (In both
 languages, "ido" means `offspring', or child).  The Ido camp spent
 several decades tinkering with perfecting it too much, and lost
 any hope of a large public caring what they were pontificating on
 this week.  The creator of Esperanto, Ludwig Zamenhof, was quoted
 as saying that there were several changes that he wanted to make,
 but (as translated): "I can't!  They'd kill me!".  It was a joke.
 Maybe.  :=)
>>

A very good point -- however in the case of Loglan all the major changes
have been made, and only some fine-tuning is going on, in order to
implement the Resolver. Stephen Rice's Primer is incorporating those recent
changes, and will then represent Standard Loglan. Further development will
then be limited to the vocabulary.

<<  One thing I've been waiting for, from the logla: books that have
 names, instead of numbers.  Then maybe you will be writing stories,
 rather than technical manuals. 
>>

Hear, hear.  When I first got involved with L, some two and a half years
ago, I very much felt the lack of reading material. Apart from the passages
at the end of L1, and the occasional Nurvia Logla in Lognet and La Logli,
there's nothing. So I've ended up producing some myself. The first episode
of "A First Visit to Loglandia" appeared in Lognet, 96, and part of the
second episode in La Logli 97/1. (those issue numbers are from memory and
may be wrong, I don't have the actual volumes with me here). The whole
thing now has 24 episodes, about 30,000 words, and will go further. The
reason it's slow in appearing is that my Loglan is by no means perfect, and
I rely on Dr Brown to fine-tooth-comb it before publication. However, when
the three issues of Understanding Loglan are out, the next few issues of La
Logli will be devoted mainly to "FVL" (or NNVLL if you use the Loglan title
"Nepo Neri Vizgoi La Loglandias")

Your description of what goes on in the Esperanto community is just the
sort of thing we'd like to see in Loglan. They have obviously passed the
critical mass point, probably ages ago.

<< I haven't gotten a single posting
 (since I got here over a week ago - which last part had been
 contained in my attempt at Loglan).
>>

As a filler, I'm reposting a couple of recent ones. We were trying at one
time to use loglanists as a place where people could try the language out,
and keep technical discussion for the logli list.  Just short items, but it
does take a bit of discipline to keep doing it regularly. (NB such items
are not guaranteed to be correct Loglan.)

Very glad to have your input. Anything I can do to help your study, don't
hesitate to ask. If we do it on loglanists, other lurkers may benefit.

Hue Aleks.

Lo tetri.  27/04/97   The weather.
Hoi Raban, fie:

Ti crina. I tio pia ckelaa nu pazda. I le nedpao po crina pa vetci na la
Tormea. I le vrici napa snikapli dracea. I, uu lo ardea ga tcicni.

Hue Aleks.

This-(place) is-rained-on. And that-situation was-being long-time
waited-for. And the next-previous event-of raining (past) happened in the
Two-month (February). And the river has almost (near-complete) dry-become.
And, oy vey, the-mass-of heron are hungry (food-need)..