[lojban-beginners] Re: Greetings, and commands

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Sat, Feb 01, 2003 at 03:16:43AM -0500, Rob Speer wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 01, 2003 at 06:28:32AM +0200, robin wrote:
> > Or e'u, if you want to be really polite.
> 
> You've just hit on my ranting topic.
> 
> Lojban words do not have politeness levels built in (unless the word
> in question is "ga'i"). As usage of the language increases, some words
> may acquire polite or impolite connotations, but it's wrong to assume
> that "e'u" is more polite than "ei" just because their English
> translations work that way.

When used as a *command*, a suggestion seems to me to be obviously more
polite by default than a statement of obligation.  Not so in other
cases, of course.

-Robin

-- 
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