I definitely think that a word for "Native American" is necessary and
deserves gismu status. I imagine that it is sort of along the same lines
as ropno, bemro, ketco, etc. - categorizing many groups of people
who do not necessarily have too much cultural connection inherently; it
contrasts with the latter two aforementioned because it has a different
domain: not only is it geographically wider than either of them
individually, but it pertains to a temporal and/or cultural subject now
displaced from the meanings of those words in many instances (although
historically, the same cannot be said).

I am somewhat leery on the etymology of this word, which I presume to be
based on "Indian", possibly "Amerindian". I would have preferred to focus
on something somewhat more culturally neutral and politically (and
scientifically) correct, but it does not really matter. The Lojban word
need not carry such connotations or histories- it is simply a word that
might as well have sprung from nowhere but which means what we want it to
mean accurately. I do worry that its pronunciation may largely overlap
with xindo (a fact which we may take to be coincidental, again),
possibly resulting in mishearing and confusion. However, ry and xy can
sound rather different (except when an English speaker is listening to,
say, a French speaker!), so it might not be that big of a deal.

Comment #2: Re: Commentary

Curtis W Franks (Fri Jul 4 18:43:02 2014)

krtisfranks wrote: > I definitely think that a word for "Native American" is necessary and > deserves gismu status. I imagine that it is sort of along the same lines > as ropno, bemro, ketco, etc. - categorizing many groups of people > who do not necessarily have too much cultural connection inherently; it > contrasts with the latter two aforementioned because it has a different > domain: not only is it geographically wider than either of them > individually, but it pertains to a temporal and/or cultural subject now > displaced from the meanings of those words in many instances (although > historically, the same cannot be said). I have also considered this word to be more along the lines of a "race" rather than a mere culture (and thus following the definitions of tutle, kapli, maska), which would be fairer. In this case, more terbri would need to be added. To be honest, I would also advocate that xispo should likewise be considered a "race".