User:Gleki/Rule: preserve the form of names of languages

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Initially proposed by la gleki.

To make a Lojban name for a language:

  1. Start from languages that you need to use now. Write out its ISO-fuhivla name.
  2. The name of a language is to be taken from how it is pronounced by its native speakers or how scientists think it was pronounced (for dead languages).
  3. Lojbanize the form of the word turning it into cmevla or brivla. Don't insert any infix consonants except '. Vowels resulting in glides are allowed. Try not changing the original stress (if present in the source language). To make it a cmevla adding a final consonant (usually -s) is allowed. To make it a brivla adding a final vowel is allowed.
  4. In case the previous steps result in a word already taken by other Lojban words including names of languages change the Lojbanization of this language like adding a different final letter or starting from another allowed name of it. Don't change the meaning of brivla previously allocated to other languages by the process described on this page.
  5. If nothing helps try Lojbanize international name of this language or leave as in ISO-fuhivla form.
  6. Add the definition of this new word into the main Lojban dictionaries like la jbovlaste. Include reference to ISO-fuhivla of it.
  7. In case that newer studies show that the Lojbanization was done incorrectly a new name can be constructed according to this algorithm. The old name isn't removed from the language remains to be valid and just marked as "obsolete, no longer used in new texts".

Unsolved issues

There should be precise mechanisms for Lojbanizing words borrowed from Romance languages, namely, they should follow known diachronic changes in Romance language thus any borrowed word should be predictable from the viewpoint of a spekaer of almost any major Romance language (mostly, except French, probably). Obviously, hablar - falar correspondence might be unsolvable due to high phonological distance.