gism
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 | This page contains discussions of experimental/scientific/philosophical/logical aspects of Lojban that are non-official and not for everyday usage. You've been warned. |
gism is the concept of removing or reusing final vowels in gismu.
The final letters of gismu remind of verb endings in other languages: they are completely arbitrary and meaningless. Lojban might as well have had all the gismu end with a. It'd be arguably easier to memorize them.
However, they are there from the gismu creation process to provide mnemonic assistance. How quickly would you learn bangu without the angu of the English (pronounced languedj)? Would a Chinese speaker learn vanju as easily without the chinese "jiu" (pronounced [dziou]) being the entire second syllable?