Animal noises

27 views
Skip to first unread message

Lindar

unread,
Sep 8, 2012, 12:56:23 PM9/8/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
This is adorable and your grammar is spot on. I think sa'ei is almost what you want, but not quite. I think you could get away with barking/quacking a UI.

Adam Milligan

unread,
Sep 8, 2012, 1:38:48 PM9/8/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
So could I get away with something like...

The little duck is lost.  Woof!  Woof!

.i .uinai lo cmalu datka ku farcri
.i sa'ei lu arf arf lu'i (for lack of a 'w' sound...my wife suggests vuf or even uif)
do I need the the lu...li'u?

And then would...
.i sa'ie lu kuak kuak li'u
work for 'Quack! Quack!'?

I have one "Splash!" as well
.i sa'ie splac

is my guess.  Thanks for the feedback!

Adam

.arpis.

unread,
Sep 8, 2012, 2:44:53 PM9/8/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
I think you need {lo'u} and {le'u} instead of {lu} and {li'u}, considering the contents are not "grammatical lojban text".

You may also choose to simplify this by omitting the quotes, since {arfarf} is as valid a cmevla as {arf} is.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Lojban Beginners" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/lojban-beginners/-/nCToQIFYiN0J.

To post to this group, send email to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lojban-beginne...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lojban-beginners?hl=en.



--
mu'o mi'e .arpis.

Cal Stepanian

unread,
Sep 8, 2012, 3:35:55 PM9/8/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
>> .i sa'ei lu arf arf lu'i (for lack of a 'w' sound...my wife suggests vuf or even uif)
Why not {uuf}?

tijlan

unread,
Sep 9, 2012, 5:27:08 AM9/9/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
"Woof!" isn't always a noise. Many non-human expressions are still
cognitive products and represent something in a non-random way. They
can have meanings and are different from non-cognitive sounds such as
"Splash!".

"Woof!" may not have a layered syntax or an argument structure, which
is analogous to Lojban's observatives (selbri-only expressions). An
observative with an avalent (zero-argument) brivla could work much as
"Woof!", in my opinion.

If we were to create a brivla for each animal exression, probably we
would have to tap into the expandability of fu'ivla, much like we did
for certain ISO codes:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai4mbIPr2PUwdENVckVaOTJLbVdGVE5SeGJ0MTBTbGc
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai4mbIPr2PUwdGNYUFhrdmV1cmpLeVVQZkNSU3dBYUE

We could have a similar list of expressional sounds using some kind of
indicative prefixes. For example:

cmo,ufu / gerku,uu (Woof!)
cmonkua / datkakua (Quack!)
cmomiau / mlatumiau (Meow!)

molxisi / sincexisi (Hiss!)

zbi,onki / xarju,onki (Oink!)

These would all be zero-argument and compatible with {lu ... li'u}.


mu'o

Adam Milligan

unread,
Sep 9, 2012, 11:13:59 AM9/9/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
Wow!  Thanks all.  Looking at these suggestions I think I like 'uuf' for my dog sound.  (I honestly wasn't even aware of 'uu' as a diphthong...I told you I was new to this language).  So now I am left with a number of option for constructing it.  Do I...

1.  Just say it.  
        .i uufuuf
2.  Call it an onomatopoeia
        .i  sa'ei uufuuf
3  Make it a quotation
        .i lu uufuuf li'u
4.  Some other option?

Again, I really appreciate all your help.

Adam 

Adam Milligan

unread,
Sep 9, 2012, 11:17:46 AM9/9/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
3  Make it a quotation
        .i lu uufuuf li'u

I meant...
. i lo'u uufuuf le'u
...per .arpis suggestion.

Lindar

unread,
Sep 9, 2012, 1:36:52 PM9/9/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
I noticed {sa'ei} is selma'o COI, so I see no reason why you can't say:

.i .uinai lo cmalu datka ku farcri sa'ei .uufuuf.

Pierre Abbat

unread,
Sep 9, 2012, 1:44:09 PM9/9/12
to lojban-b...@googlegroups.com
On Saturday, September 08, 2012 10:38:48 Adam Milligan wrote:
> *So could I get away with something like...*
> *
>
> The little duck is lost. Woof! Woof!
> .i .uinai lo cmalu datka ku farcri*
> .i sa'ei lu arf arf lu'i (for lack of a 'w' sound...my wife suggests vuf or
> even uif)
> do I need the the lu...li'u?

I'm partial to "gav", which is the Russian version, and "gavgava" for the
brivla. Different dogs speak with different accents. With "uuf" or "gav", I'd
use "sa'ei" or "lu ... li'u", but not both.

> And then would...
> .i sa'ie lu kuak kuak li'u
> work for 'Quack! Quack!'?

"quack" has a good pedigree, being found in most Germanic languages and
several others. The French is "coin", which unrelatedly also means "corner".
The Russian is "кря". The brivla could be "kuakna" or "kriaka".

> I have one "Splash!" as well
> .i sa'ie splac
>
> is my guess. Thanks for the feedback!

I think "splac" is malgli (at least the 's' at the beginning). How about
"pluf", "plusk", or "plask"? Come to think of it, English "sh" often comes
from Old English "sc", so maybe English "plash" and Russian "пласк" have a
common root.

There was a discussion some years ago about cows saying five. :)

Pierre

--
.i toljundi do .ibabo mi'afra tu'a do
.ibabo damba do .ibabo do jinga
.icu'u la ma'atman.

Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages