xei

xei [PA] particle: hex digit E: because rei sucks

• la tsali:
  • Why does rei suck?
    • It's re with the vowel sound changed to a very similar one. Most of the time in Lojban, ?e and ?ei are distinguishable from context.
      • Hell, how should the two sounds be similar (unless pronounced the English/American way which is not at all standard!)! re has to be pronounced like Italian re ("king"), and rei like about English ray! No way to be mixed up. Please leave your Anglo-Saxon island!
        • I differentiate by lengthening the i longer than for most dipthongs - re-i - but it's still one syllable. BTW, I speak English and I've never been to Australia in my life.
          • nitcion:
            • .i mi ca xusra noda .u'i
              • .kreig.daniyl.:
                • .i uiru'e u'iru'e .i ku'i na di'u .i do xusra lenu do xusra noda .ija'e do xusra
                  • .i mi se krasi la kretes. noi ji'a krasi la .epimenides .i ko zgana la'ozy. [1] zy.
                    • .i xu do se krasi la kretes. .ianai .i la kretes. cu daplu .i xu do troci lenu xusra lu mi krasi la kretes. li'u .a lu la kretes. se krasi mi li'u
                    • Never mind, I was getting the x1 and x2 of krasi mixed up.
              • Much of the discussion of this comment can be found mi ca xusra noda here
      • rab.spir:
        • As an American, in order to make Ce and Cei sound different enough I need to consciously pronounce ei like a redneck.
• rab.spir:
  • I'm not sure whether I ever got around to proposing this in the thread where I griped about rei vs. re, but I intended to. xei should be used to refer to the digit for 14, and not rei, so that there's a hope of distinguishing it from re.
  • I use Lojban digits to think about the names of hexadecimal numbers, because otherwise I end up needing to remember one and thinking "Was that two-eight-zero or two-A-zero?", or maybe "Was that two-eighty or two-eight-E?". So it doesn't help if two Lojban digits are just as confusing.
  • This breaks the idea that the digits A-F are in alphabetical order, but how exactly would that help anyway, considering that the rest of the digits aren't?
• And Rosta:
  • Normally I'm opposed to the use of xV(')V forms for experimental cmavo (because they should be kept free for those that stand the test of time), but the argument for this one seems irresistible.
• tinkit:
  • .iecai zo xei zo rei cu zmadu le ka se pilno .i ju'ocu'i zo xei pamoi sepi'o la xyx. poi pamoi .iku'i zo dau bi'i zo vai cu traji vamji
• la gleki:

  Even for me, a non-English speaker re/rei seem to be too close enough, dangerous for radio communications.

  But xei is too close to fei, which is equally dangerous!