than

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Most languages I know have a word for "than" which has some ambiguity. It may be the same as the word for "as", "from", "which", or "or", or the placement in the sentence may make it ambiguous. For example, Craig asserted, "Tolkein's Black Speech is easier to translate�into lojban than English." Pierre Abbat answered, "ki'a? .i la xekri bangu cu terfilmau le glibau fo le nu fanva fi la lojban ce'u, .ije'i la lojban cu terfilmau le glibau fo le nu fanva fi ce'u la xekri bangu?"

The normal way to express a comparison in Lojban is to use zmadu or mleca or some lujvo thereof (say, rodmau) with the things being compared in x1 and x2. x3-xn+1 of rodmau are the same as x2-xn of broda (unless something drops out, like the bigness standard, which is irrelevant to which is bigger), and xn+2 is the amount by which x1 exceeds x2. Some place in x3-xn+1 may be an abstraction with ce'u.

Expressing the above with zmadu: la xekri bangu cu zmadu le glibau le ni le nu fanva fi la lojban ce'u cu frili, .ije'i la lojban cu zmadu le glibau le ni le nu fanva ce'u la xekri bangu cu frili?

Tok Pisin uses a similar method to Lojban, but it has its own ambiguity: em i winim mi long winim mambu means she plays flute better than I do, but it could also mean she blows me toward exceeding bamboo.

If you want to use a word for "than", there is one: semau. "la xekri bangu pe la tolkien. cu frili ve fanva fi la lojban. semau le glibau" is ambiguous in the same way as the English. To resolve the ambiguity, change semau to pesemau and put it after la xekri bangu pe la tolkien. ge'u or after la lojban.