Re: [glosalist] roberti3-dice

At 02:21 PM 7/27/03 EDT, you wrote:

My bad mistake in “Roberti” raises interesting points.

“Roberti”, pa dice Beti. “Robert”, said Betty. If one says the English sentence, the punctuation is inaudible. We now have:- ‘Roberti said Betty’. Usual order - S V O gives ‘R said “Betty” ‘, what is required is:- ‘ “Robert” was said by Betty’. ‘ “Roberti”, pa gene/ge Beti’. If I am talking to someone with the same language and accent as mine (northern English), he/she would understand my elisions of “was” and “by” and my intonation; it is now more concise and more forceful - bad grammar but good style. However, if the listener is not English, my statement is bad international language. Glosa is meant to be an international language therefore, - ‘ “R” pa dice B’ - is BAD Glosa. plu mi penite.

We should always bear in mind that our Glosa is aimed at some person perhaps isolated in the wilds of a little visited country far from one’s own.

Karo Glosa-pe, Yes, Sid is right about the difference between local lingo and speaking to someone .. out there. We ought to watch our sentence structure when writing Glosa, remembering that inflections are not there to help us with ‘Parts-of-Speech. Also, for many people, the S-V-O structure is not necessarily as common as it is in English. ~Tegu sed epi kani.~ is clearly wrong from context and syntax. But, ~Beti dice “Roberti.”~ is spot on for a SVO sentence, and is thus more readily seen to be good Glosa. The Passive Voice is difficult for this situation:- (THE NAME) “ROBERT” WAS CALLED BY BETTY ‘Roberti,’ gene ge-voka ex beti.

My guess is that the question we should be asking ourselves is whether we are using predominantly SVO clauses, and if our phrases come in the right places for good syntax.

Saluta,

Robin