Lojban

References

• http://book.b-e-n.ru/Complete%20Lojban%20Language.pdf @ 5.6p100
  • 4.11p79 has the algorithm for constructing lujvo
• http://www.lojban.org/publications/brochures/lojex.txt
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban_grammar
• http://dag.github.io/cll/

Wave Lessons

Crash Course

Letters

abcdefgijklmnoprstuvxyz'.,

There are (basically) no capital letters.

Pronounciation

All letters have a constant sound.

bdfgklmnprstvz all sound as you would expect.

• c - sh sound (shy, ship)
• j - voiced sh like the su in measure
• x - voiced h, throaty (think Loch in Scottish)
• ' - kind of a short, breathy h
• . and , - both a pause in speech (comma is slightly shorter)
• g as in gum never as gem
• ch (as in chatter) become tc as in tcieter
• Most 'j' word become dj so "just" becomes djyst

ctuca (to teach) shtusha

punji - (to put or place) poongee

Vowels are regular.

• a - fAther
• e - bEt
• i - fEEt
• o - bOat
• u - mOOt
• y - About or sofA

O is particularly confusing. English speakers want to pronounce it like 'doe' but that has two sound. The correct form sounds to me like someone saying 'doe' with a French accent.

The word for 'sofa' sfofa. But sofa (in English) is pronounced "sofuh" which in lojban would be sofy. The word for sofa in lojban is sfofa pronounced sfof-aah.

English drops a lot of vowels (the tone goes down, particularly at the end of the word). Don't do that.

Diphthongs

• ai: bye
• ei: bay
• oi: boy
• au: bow (the gesture, not bent wood)
• ia: yard
• ie: yes
• io: yodel
• iu: beautiful
• ua: suave
• ue: wet
• ui: we
• uo: woe
• uu: woo
• iy: million (io)
• uy: was

Numbers

• 0: no
• 1: pa
• 2: re
• 3: ci
• 4: vo
• 5: mu
• 6: xa
• 7: ze
• 8: bi
• 9: so
• A: dau
• B: fei
• C: gai
• D: jau
• E: rei
• F: vai
• 1000: ki'o
• enough: rau
• all: ro
• du'e : too many
• so'a : almost all
• so'e : most
• so'i : many / a lot of
• so'o : several
• so'u : few
• su'e : at most
• su'o : at least

24 would just be revo.

Grammar

Bridi is similar to a sentence, but it's must be a statement of truth (though not necessarily true). A bridi will have a selbri and up to five sumti. The selbri is the root word of bridi. Each selbri defines a placement position, much as a function defines arguments. These arguments are the sumti.

There are also jufra, which are utterances and have no truth to them (such as "Ow, my toe"). All bridi are jufra, not all jufra are bridi.

cu and vau

"cu" can be used to separate sumti and selbri

 do cu tavla mi

but it can be safely omitted in most cases

"vau" can be used to end a bridi and can also be omitted in most cases

 do tavla mi vau

Lojban words for Lojban Grammar

brivla

Predicate words. They are multi-syllable, penultimately stressed and end in a vowel.

gismu

root brivla, contain consonant clusters (y does not count either way)

lujvo

compounds of gismu or their abbreviations

fu'ivla

borrowed words

tanru

using one brivla to modify another (see examples)

cmavo

do not contain consonant clusters.

bridi

build block of a sentence - bridi are really predicate assertions

sumti

the positional arguments of a bridi

selsku

the set of possible lojban expressions

Common Sumti

• do: you (listener)
• mi: me
• ti: this, but it is ok to use with animate and sentient objects, but it must be physical object
• ta: that, also ok to use with people and must be physical
• tu: that yonder (referring to something not present)

Words Used in Examples

• dunda: x1 gives x2 to x3
• pendo: x1 is friends with x2
• tavla: x1 talks to x2 about x3 in language x4
• blanu: x1 is blue
• zdani: x1 houses x2
• ctuca: x1 teaches x2 about x3
• xunre: x1 is red
• bitmu: x1 is a wall separating x2 and x3 in structure x4.
• merko: x1 is American in aspect x2
• pelxu: x1 is yellow

Examples

 .i mi dunda ti do
 I give this to you.

In this case 'dunda' is the selbri and dictates a 'place structure'.

 .i me pendo do
 I am your friend.

 ti blanu
 this is blue.
 
 ta blanu
 that is blue.

 .i mi tavla do
 I talk to you.

x3 and x4 are implied. There will always be a subject and a language, they just may not be specified.

 mi tavla do do
 I'm talking to you about you.

.i = sentence separator, goes at the beginning of a sentence. ni'o to separate paragraphs.

 .i ti blanu .i mi tavla do ti .i mi dunda ti do
 This is blue. I am talking to you about this. I am giving this to you.

 .i ta zdani mi
 that is my home.

Tense and plurality are implied when not stated explicitly. So saying ".i ta zdani mi" could referring to an empty lot you want to buy and build a house (or my house will be there) or the same sentence could refer to a childhood home (that was my house).

 .i mi ctuca do
 I teach you.

Even without stating it, you may be plural.

 .i mi dunda ti do

Can be either I give this to you or I give these to you. You could even just say '.i dunda' leaving all sumti implied.

There are position markers, fa, fe, fi, fo, fu (in that order). So to say I'm giving to you with out specifying what is being given you would say ".i mi dunda fi do". Also, the position of the selbri is flexible.

 .i mi dunda ti do
 .i mi ti dunda do
 .i mi ti do dunda

These all mean the same thing. If the selbri is the first word, then it is implied that x1 (the first sumti) is omitted. When using the position markers, counting continues, so if we jump to sumti 3, the next sumti will be 4. ".i fe ti do fa mi dunda" would be I give this to you. But they're not used very often.

This can also be accomplished with zo'e, which roughly means 'something' or 'someone'

 .i ta bitmu fo ti
 that is a wall in this

A tanru happens *ANY TIME* that two selbri are adjacent to each other in a bridi.

 .i ti xunre zdani mi
 This is my red house

The first part modifies the second part. So in someway relevant to the houseness there is redness. It is not automatically the outside. The place structure is always taken from the second part.

To use selbri in sumti positions, you create a sort of sub clause by wrapping it with lo and ku. They act sort of as parenthesis and sort of the word 'a' or 'an' in English.

 .i mi tavla lo merko ku
 I talk to an American.

 .i lo xunre ku zdani mi
 a red houses me

 .i lo merko ku dunda lo pelxu ku mi
 an american gives me a yellow

Names may be expressed a sumti labelled with la

 .i zdani la .edym.
 Adam's house

I think...

To make something a command, replace do with ko

 ko tavla mi
 talk to me

To make a command a request, begin with .e'o

 .e'o ko tavla mi
 please talk to me

To make something a question, us ma in the place of the value to be filled

 ma tavla do
 who talks to you

Similar to lo, le means the

 .i mi tavla le vecnu ku
 I talk to the seller

By placing 'na' before a selbri it declares the selbri false

 .i mi na klama ti ta
 it is false that I go to this from that

There is also scalar negation:

• je'a : it is very true
• ja'a : true, used to remove a na - .i ti na zdani mi / this is not my house, some one could respond ja'a go'i/yes it is, or na go'i/no it is not - I'm not sure how go'i would be interpreted. But na go'i does not produce a double negative.
• no'e : neutral
• na'e : other-than (a weak form of not)
• to'e : polar opposite

Placing se before a selbri flips x1 and x2

 .i do vecnu ta me
 you sell that to me
 .i ta se vecnu do me
 that sells you to me

• se moves x1 to after x2
• te moves x1 to after x3
• ve moves x1 to after x4
• xe moves x1 to after x5

Questions

To make a question true or false, place xu in front

 .i xu ti zdani do
 this is your house?

We can respond yes be repeating the selbri or with go'i. We can respond no with na selbri or na go'i.

Placing ma in place of a sumti turns the bridi into a question asking for the sumti to be filled in

 .i ti zdani ma
 Whose house is this?

Replacing the selbri with mo turns it into a (very broad) question of the relationship

 .i do mo
 you do what / you are what
 .i do mo ti
 you are what to him?

This can also be used in tanru

 .i ti mo zdani do
 this is your what house?

Number questions are done with xo

 xo le botpi cu kunti
 how many bottles are empty
 ci le botpi cu kunti
 three bottles are empty

Possesives

Use pe to create a simple possesive, it means of

 le tamne pe la tim.
 tims cousin
 or more litterally the cousin of tim

It can also be done like this (with le and positioning)

 le la loryn. karce
 lauren's car

 le do cukta
 your book

But it only works when the possesor is a single word sumti.

Articles

We us la for cmene - things like names.

For sumti we us le.

More complex is lo. It mostly means 'a' or 'some'. But really it's a complex predicate thing.

 le ci gerku
 the three dogs

 ci le gerku
 three of the dogs

 lo ci gerku
 three dogs

The article lu'o refers to a mass or collection. The example given was "three men carried the piano". In English, it is unclear of three men were carrying the piano together or if they took turns. Saying lu'o would mean they did it as unit.

 lu'o ci lo nanmu cu bevri le pipno

• la : that named
• le : that described
• lo : that which really is
• li : the number
• lai : the mass named
• lei : the mass described
• loi : the mass which really is
• la'i : the set named
• le'i : the set described
• lo'i : the set which really is

Tanru inversion using co

 ta blanu zdani = ta zdani co blanu
 that is a blue house

There are some cases (the example involved be'o - type of) where this is more convenient because it reduces the necessary nesting.

Tanru grouping

 small girls school
 Could be
 a small school for girls
 or
 a school for small girls

The cmavo bo indicates the closest scope grouping, it is like a hyphen or "type of"

 ta cmalu nixli bo ckule
 That is a small girls-school
 ta cmalu bo nixli ckule
 That is a small-girls school

Without bo, tanru group to the left, but consecutive bo group to the right.

Groups are formed with ke (start) and ke'e

 ta cmalu ke xunre zdani ke'e
 that is a small (red house)

If ke'e is at the end of the tanru, it can be omitted. But it's not the same as the english "the small, red house" because it is now small for being a red-house.

Logical Connectors

• je: logical and
• ja: logical or
• joi: mixed mass and
• gu'e: forethought logical and
• gi: forethough connection seperator

 ta cmalu je xunre zdani
 that is a small, red house

 ta cmalu je xunre je zdani
 that is small and red and a house

bo takes precedence over connectors

 ta cmalu je pelxu bo xunre zdani
 that is a small, yellowish-red house.

Linked sumti

• be : begin linked sumti
• bei : linked sumti seperator
• be'o : linked sumti terminator

 ti xamgu be do bei mi (be’o) zdani
 this is-a-good (for you by-standard me) house.
 This is a house that is good for you by my standards.

In this sentence be'o is not necessary. Note that the word following be is x2, not x1.

Attitudinals

• .ui - happiness
• za'a - evidential (directly observed)
• .u'u - guilt
• .oi - complaint
• .iu - love

 .i do dunda mi lo plise ku .ui
 you gave me an apple, Yay!

Special Words

• go'i : refers to the last sentence, but used as 'yes'
• zu'i : "the typical"
• ca'e : "i hereby declare"
• pe'i : "in my opinion"
• ma : sumti question word ("ti zdani ma" = who's house is this)
• mo : selbri question word ("do mo" = you are what/you do what)
• mi : I/we
• do : you/your
• ti : this
• ta : that
• tu : that yonder
• zo'e : unspecified value
• xu : is it true that...
• ko : replaces do and turns the sentence into a command
• ri : the last referenced sumti
• xu : makes a statement a true/false question (goes at the beginning)