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a bilingual blog in Lojban and English · una bitácora bilingüe en lojban e inglés
un blog bilingue en lojban et anglais · ein zweisprachiger Blog auf Lojban und Englisch
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2007-06-01

ko ta va pojgau : You down wit' OSV?

ni'o mi fi'o jarco lo te tolmorji po'u ju'o cu'i la'o ly Blogg Marteins Sveinssonar ly cu facki fi la'o ky Kotava ky goi ko'a noi rolnai za'e djubau gi'e se finti lo pa prenu de'i li pa so ze bi i lo pa ralju ke jondatnymu'e selci'a be se ra'a ko'a cu co'e bau so'o da i je ku'i so'a lo tcila ke jondatnymu'e selci'a cu co'e bau lo fraso po'o i mi milxe certu lo ka se bangu lo fraso i se ki'u bo e'u sai do na'e mulno lacri mi lo nu mi jetnu skicu ko'a

ni'o ko'a simsa la lojban lo ka lo finti be ce'u cu djica lo nu ce'u kulnu nutli i je ku'i je'u ko'a je'a simlu lo ka ce'u ropno i za'a ro lo valsi be fo ko'a cu se finti fo no da i lo ka ko'a ropno ta'i la'e di'u cu se mipri je nai jdika

ni'o lo ka lo'e za'e frivla cu lidne lo'e za'e zu'evla kei joi ka lo'e zu'evla cu lidne lo'e za'e fauvla kei ku goi ly zy fy cu nalro'o selkai ko'a gi'e spaji mi i pe'i lo go'i cu traji lo ka spaji kei fo lo'i selkai be ko'a i to ma'i lo glibau lo'e zu'evla cu lidne lo'e fauvla i je ri lidne lo'e frivla i ma'i la lojban lo'e zu'evla simsa cu lidne lo'e fauvla simsa e lo'e frivla simsa toi i ly zy fy se rirci fi lo'i rarbau gi'e selkai ji'i pa re lo rarbau to ko catlu lo glibau liste toi
Via an unremembered portal, possibly Blogg Marteins Sveinssonar, I stumbled upon Kotava, an international auxiliary language created in 1978 by a lone toiler. The main web page is in many languages, but almost all the detail pages are only in French. My French is not great, so take my assessment with a grain of salt.

Although Kotava, like Lojban, aspires to cultural neutrality, it nonetheless has a distinctly European feel. The vocabulary seems to be completely invented, which obscures but does not diminish the fundamental Europan character of the language.

The non-European attribute which struck me -- indeed the most striking attribute of the language -- is the OSV word order. This means the object precedes the subject, which in turn precedes the verb. (English is an SVO language; Lojban is sort of SVO/SOV.) OSV is rare; about twelve natural languages feature it:

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3 Comments:

Blogger Dan Sallitt said...

You can OSV-ize a lot of English sentences, mostly to distinguish the O from other Os: "You I love."

03 June, 2007 23:39  
Blogger komfo,amonan said...

Yes. These designations of linguistic typology are used in their broad senses for the basic declarative sentence with no emphasis implied. I think that most languages actually support at least two typologies. In Spanish:
Yo bebo la cerveza (SVO)
Yo la bebo (SOV)
¿La bebes tú? (OVS) &c.

In English writing, dialogue is often OVS: "Begorrah," said Eamonn.

These categories are not always appropriate. German, Latin, Chinese, and Lojban do not really construct sentences along these lines. Kotava seems to fit snugly into OSV. It's an odd choice, and it's dying for an explanation. I suppose I should just email the designer.

04 June, 2007 00:32  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello, I invite you to ask this question and others directly in the forum Kotava www.kotava.org/phpBB2/index.php, inside the anglophone section. Speakers experienced in Kotava, more than me, will certainly answer to you precisely. Yours sincerely. Webmistusik

The same in Kotava : Kiavá, plataé da rin mo Kotava dokalixo (www.kotava.org/phpBB2/index.php) vanmia englavaf pak baton is aron bibel. Bagaliakiraf kotavusik yo, loon dam jin, pu rin elimon lanon dulzeted. Oluyon.

07 June, 2007 10:13  

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