jack@rlgvax.UUCP (Jack Waugh) (07/24/83)
Yes, it is difficult to pun in Loglan. The only instance of anyone's doing it of which I've heard involves naming. Names in Loglan are readily recognizable; all names end in consonants, but no other words do. There's an obligatory pause after a name. There is no other formal rule about the formation of names. Some names will surely be imitations of a person's English or other natural language name. For example, the closest Loglan can come to "Jack" is <Djek>. Some things have standard names, given in the dictionary: the sun is <la Sol>; the moon is <la Lun>. The Loglan books suggest that another way speakers will form names is from predicate words. For example, to capture the meaning of the English noun of direct address "Father" in say, "Father, please help me.", a Loglanist will use <Far>, derived from the predicate word <farfu> (X is the father of Y with mother W). Formally, <Far> is just a name, like <Djek>; however, we are to suppose that a listener will guess that the inventer of the name intended it to have some relation to <farfu>. This kind of name forming can provide a mechanism for insult. To call someone a dirty name, you *name* them with a name that sounds like a word for whatever concept you want to insultingly associate with them. James Cooke Brown, the person who initiated Loglan, says he called (named) some of his students <Stud>, which could be related to <stude> (X is a student at college/university Y in course of study W), or <studa> (X is feces of Y).