Lojbanic Qabbalah

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Once Michael Helsem assigned numerical values to the lerfu set.

A=2 B=3 C=5 D=7 E=11 F=13 G=17 '=19 I=23
J=29 K=31 L=37 M=41 N=43 O=47 P=53 R=59
S=61 T=67 U=71 V=73 X=79 Y=83 Z=89

Note that these are all primes.

E.g.

  1. tarci = 156 = dargu = basti
  2. farlu = 182 = dunra = plita

Discussion

  • Why isn't it in alphabetical order? .y'y. doesn't come between g and i.
    • Isn't the lerfu list supposed to be in ASCII order? And where's denpa bu?
  • elron:
    • There are not enough of them to allow an arithmetical rewriting of the full morphological rules. Either you must add numbers for capital consonants (stress) and the pause, or to the space (pauses implied) Let's add space=97. (But Lojban morphemes are self-isolating; you do not need to count spaces!!) You must indicate either spaces or stress (capitalization).
    • rab.spir:
      • To make the numbers all distinct, you can't use the "Qabbalah" described above and multiply the numbers - in that case, for example, dargu and gradu would be the same. I suggest space=0, A=1, ... Z=23, and then consider the result to be a base-24 number. Or even make things easier by making them pairs of digits in base 10.
      • Adam:
        • That would defeat the purpose of the qabbalisticness. In Qabbalah, letters of the Hebrew alphabet are assigned values which are then used to give every word or phrase a numerical value (called gematriya). Words and phrases with the same gematriya are considered to be metaphysically related.
      • la .kreig.daniyl.:
        • Don't you also get to play weird games with the gematriya, like subtracting and adding words and looking for what that gets you? Otherwise, wouldn't it just be a collection of anagrams?
          • Adam:
            • You get to add them. For example, av (father) = alef + bet = 1 + 2 = 3. em (mother) = alef + mem = 1 + 40 = 41. yeled (child) = yud + lamed + dalet = 10 + 30 + 4 = 44 = 3 + 41 = av + em. This obviously proves beyond any doubt that Hebrew is the holy language. ;-)
            • yeled - av = em. A child without a father is a mother.
  • la .kreig.daniyl.: