History: BPFK Section: lerfu

The selma'o BY2 is comprised principally of letterals representing consonants and contains the following cmavo:

The selma'o BY* is comprised of vowel letterals, punctuation, and other "oddball" letterals, the common theme being that they're all constructed with the lerfu-forming cmavo bu:

The purpose of these cmavo, as with all lerfu, is to enable the spelling of words and discussion referring to written characters, in which case you must either encase it in la'e lu ... li'u, or prefix it with me'o. Without this quoting, the lerfu simply acts as a prosumti, or a mekso variable.

Lojbanic Standard Roman Orthography Lerfu

These are used to represent symbols used in the writing of lojban. The following are lerfu for which the definition and keyword are obvious:

There are two more which have slightly more complex keywords:

It should be noted that the current keyword for slaka bu is "close-comma", but I don't see a need for anything more than "comma" unless someone can demonstrate a "far-comma" or an "open-comma" that's likely to cause confusion. This was terminology inherited from TLI Loglan, and is no longer needed.

Other Lerfu

These are miscellaneous lerfu. This committeeman questions their usefulness as official cmavo, even as examples, but does not suggest their removal.

Once again, it should be noted that the current definitions of .uibu and zo'obu are a bit redundant, in that they have "(letteral)" at the end.

Examples

Use as prosumti:

.i la bancus. cu mupli zbasu .i by cu certu mupli zbasu

Use to dictate spelling of a word:

.i la'e lu by .abu ny cy .ubu sy li'u cu mintu la bancus.

Use as variables in mekso:

.i fy du li cire su'i vei cy pi'i so fi'u mu ve'o

Overall Changes

This proposal entails the following changes:

• Change keyword for slaka bu to "comma symbol".
• Remove "(letteral)" from definitions for .uibu and zo'obu.

Impact

It is this committeeman's opinion that these changes are minor, and will not impact usage, current or past.