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QUICK START LOJBAN
[what is Lojban omitted]
This booklet copyright 1990 by The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904
Beau Lane, Fairfax, Va. USA 22031-1303 (703) 385-0273
LOJBAN QUICK PRONUNCIATON GUIDE
... [omitted]
LOJBAN NAMES (CMENE)
Cmene always end in a consonant. They are the only Lojban words that
end in a consonant. They are always followed by a pause, indicated in
print by a period. They may not include the syllables la, lai, or doi
within them. They are often preceded by la ("the one named") or doi
("O", or "Hey", indicating direct address.) They are usually not
capitalized.
Lojbanized form for
.adolf. xitlr. Adolf Hitler
crlak. xolmz. Sherlock Holmes
maRIS. .antuaNET. Marie Antoinette
.uinstn. tcrtcil. Winston Churchill
.eibry'em. linkyn. Abraham Lincoln
mixeil. gorbatcof. Mikhail Gorbachev
.aizek. .ezimov. Isaac Asimov
.arnld. cuartzynegr. Arnold Schwartznegger
djanis. djaplin. Janis Joplin
meris. tailr. mor. Mary Tyler Moore
djan. .endrsn. John Anderson
.eduard. KEnydis. Edward Kennedy
.ilizabet. djordn. Elizabeth Jordan
djiordj. buc. George Bush
ranld. reigyn. Ronald Reagan
ritcrd. niksn. Richard Nixon
djimis. kartr. Jimmy Carter
lindn. djansn. Lyndon Johnson
frenkln. ROsevelt. Franklin Roosevelt
KEnadas. Canada
MExikos. Mexico
nuiork. New York
pakipsis. Poughkeepsie
xainrix. ximlr. Heinrich Himmler
don. ki'otes. Don Quixote
sfietlonys. Svetlana
xrucTCOF. Khrushchev
.iulius. tsezar. Julius Caesar
margret. maglaxln. Margaret McLaughlin
rut. RItcardsan. Ruth Richardson
dorytis. tampsn. Dorothy Thompson
To Lojbanize a name: eliminate double consonants and silent letters.
Convert all sounds to their closest Lojban equivalent. If the name ends
in a vowel, add some consonant that sounds good. If the stress is not
on the next-to-last syllable, capitalize the one stressed. If la, lai,
or doi appear, substitute something like ly, ly'i, or do'i,
respectively.
GRAMMAR- THE BIG PICTURE
A lot of Lojban will look strange, and familiar things will be done in
strange ways. It is a lot simpler than it looks at first. The
strangeness comes partly from building the grammar around formal logic,
and partly from making the accomodations needed so that present-day
computers could take dictation, transcribe, parse, and translate it
easily.
English sentences are made of subjects, verbs, objects, etc. Lojban
sentences (bridi) are made of selbri and sumti.
Some vocabulary-
bridi x1 is a lojban predicate with meaning x2 and
arguments x3 ("sentence")
selbri the central predicate-word (brivla) of the sentence
cu indicates (if necessary) that the selbri follows
sumti x1 is an argument of predicate/function x2
cmene x1 is the name of x2 to/used by x3
cmavo "little word", grammatical structure word
brivla "bridi-valsi", predicate-word
"elide" English word meaning "to leave out"
vau indicates (if necessary) that there are no more sumti
for this selbri. (usually elided.)
Lojban uses the meaning of "predicate" from formal logic: a predicate
is a set of arguments (x1, x2, x3, and so forth) and the relationship
between them, taken as a unit.
Selbri and sumti are in turn made of brivla, cmavo, and cmene,
(predicate-words, structure words, and names) which are the ultimate
"parts of speech" in Lojban.
Many grammatical structures in Lojban have opening markers, and
corresponding closing markers called terminators. The terminators are
available if necessary to make clear where one structure ends and
another begins. Usually there are other ways of determining this, so
terminators more often than not may be left out, or elided. Sometimes I
will show an elidable word in brackets. More on this later.
Basic structure of utterance:
sentence .i sentence .i sentence .i sentence
ni'o sentence .i sentence .i sentence .i sentence .i sentence
ni'o sentence .i sentence .i sentence
fa'o
".i" indicates the start of a new sentence. "ni'o" indicates the start
of a new topic or paragraph. "fa'o" indicates end of message. "fa'o"
may usually be elided.
Basic structure of sentence: at least one sumti before the selbri.
sumti sumti ... sumti [cu] selbri sumti sumti...[vau]
ctuca x1 teaches audience x2 ideas/methods x3 about subject x4
by doing/being x5
tavla x1 talks/speaks to x2 about x3
kurji x1 takes care of x2, x1 is a caretaker of x2
e.g. mi [cu] ctuca do ta [vau]
x1 selbri x2 x3
teacher to-teach student ideas/methods
I teach you that.
or: mi'o [cu] tavla le ctuca [ku] ko'a [vau]
x1 selbri x2 x3
speaker to-talk spoken-to about subject
(You & me) talk to the teacher about it.
or: ?xu mi do ctuca ta
x1 x2 selbri x3
Is it true that I to you teach that?
or: le ctuca cu kurji le tavla
x1 selbri x2
caretaker takes care of the one taken care of
The teacher takes care of the talker.
or: do ?ma kurji
x1 x2 selbri
You take care of what?
or: mi'o ?mo le ctuca
x1 selbri x2
You and I do what with the teacher?
Again, Lojban sentences are made of selbri and sumti.
Selbri may be of several types, including the following:
Gismu are 5-letter predicates. (We have about 1,360.)
Lujvo are shortened, compound gismu. (Potentially millions.)
La'evla are lojbanized words borrowed from other languages.
?mo is the "question selbri", which may be used anywhere
that a selbri might. "Please fill in this blank."
Se brivla are "converted predicates", of which more soon.
Tanru are multiple brivla, of which even more later.
Sumti may include:
"Pronoun" sumti, pro-sumti: mi, do, mi'o, ti, ta, tu, (etc.)
lerfu, "letters", serving as pro-sumti: .abu, by, cy, (etc.)
descriptions and names: le brivla [ku], la cmene [ku]
zo'e "something unspecified", placeholder
?ma Question sumti, "Please fill in this blank."
sumti clauses, (very useful), of which more eventually.
Lots of new words are to be expected, with a new language. Two pages of
vocabulary next, in one big chunk; then piece by piece, with examples.
TWO PAGES OF VOCABULARY
...[omitted]
BRIDI AND PLACE STRUCTURES
klama x1 comes/goes to x2 from x3 via route x4 using x5
x1 is the traveler
x2 is the destination
x3 is the starting point
x4 is the route
x5 is the means of transportation
e.g. la vlad. drakulas. cu klama la lndn. la translvanias. le
x1 selbri x2 x3 x4
xamsi le bloti [vau]
x5
Vlad Dracula comes to London from Transylvania over the sea
by boat.
cliva x1 leaves/goes away from x2 via route x3 using x4
Obviously "cliva" is close to "klama" in meaning, but not the
same, as they have different place structures.
e.g la vlad. cu cliva la translvanias. le xamsi [zo'e] [vau]
x1 selbri x2 x3 x4
Vlad leaves Transylvania by sea.
English has place structures too. "John gives Sam the stake" has a
different meaning than "Sam gives John the stake". The change in
position results in a change in meaning. We don't usually think of
them, as we have many other ways to indicate what relationships hold
between words. Lojban has these, too; we'll get to them later.
Usually, counting the sumti from the front of the sentence gives you the
places of the sumti. But sometimes we want to skip some, or put them in
a different order. "fa" is a tag indicating that what follows is the
first-place (x1) sumti of the bridi. "fe, fi, fo, fu" indicate the x2,
x3, x4, and x5 sumti, repectively.
dunda x1 gives x2 to x3
tcidu x1 reads x2 from medium/document x3
cusku x1 expresses/says x2 to x3 in form/media x4
preti x1 is a question/query about x2 by x3 to x4
<<lu la drakulas. klama fu ?ma li'u>> preti fi la van. xelsin.
( x1 selbri x5 )=x1 selbri x3
"Dracula is coming how?" asks Van Helsing.
.i le ninmu goi ko'a cu tcidu zo'e le krili bolci
The woman reads (something unspecified) from the crystal sphere.
.i ko'a cusku <<lu le ciblu pinxe cu klama fu le bloti li'u>>
x1 selbri x2=( x1 selbri x5 )
The woman says "The blood-drinker comes by boat."
If one of these tags is used, any untagged sumti following are
assumed to count from the tag. e.g. "di'u preti fi mi do", "That
(the previous sentence) is a question by me to you."
CONVERTED BRIDI- SE, TE, VE, XE
se exchanges 1st and 2nd sumti of the bridi
te " 1st and 3rd " " " "
ve " 1st and 4th " " " "
xe " 1st and 5th " " " "
se, te, ve, xe are called "conversion operators". The effect is a
lot like "passive voice" in English.
la van. xelsin. te preti fa <<lu ?ma xe klama fa la vlad. li'u>>
x3 selbri x1=( x5 selbri x1 )
Van Helsing asks "How comes Vlad?"
.i <<lu ri klama fu le bloti li'u>> se cusku le krili bolci tcidu
( x1 selbri x5 )=x2 selbri x1
"He comes by boat", says the crystal-ball-reader. (Notice that
here the "ri" refers to the last sumti in the "quoted world".)
lasna x1 fastens/connects/attaches x2 to x3 with x4
se lasna x2 is fastened by x1 to x3 with x4
te lasna to x3 is fastened x2 by x1 with x4
ve lasna with x4 is fastened x2 to x3 by x1
le lasna the one who fastens
le se lasna the "fastenee"
le te lasna the thing fastened to
le ve lasna the means of fastening
cfari x1 initiates/starts x2 from prior state x3
tagji x1 is tight on/in x2 at locus x3
le skori ku ve lasna le nanmu le ckana le nixli
x4 selbri x2 x3 x1
With the rope is fastened the man, to the bed, by the girl.
("ku" is the closing marker for "le". Why is "ku" needed here, if
before it was always elided? Because if we wrote "skori ve lasna" the
dumb computer parser would think we were making a compound bridi, a
tanru- see below. We need a clear ending to the x1 sumti before the
selbri can begin. I've been using "cu" to do this in the earlier
examples, and I choose to use "ku" here.)
.i ri cmila le se lasna .i ri se tagji le ve lasna
x1 selbri x2 x2 selbri x1
She laughs at the bound one. On him are tight the bonds.
.i le cinse te venfu ku se cfari The sexual revenge is begun.
x2 selbri
gasnu x1 does x2 to/with x3
dukse x1 is an excess of x2 by standard x3
bapli x1 forces/compels x2 to do/be x3 by means x4
nitcu x1 needs x2 for purpose x3 under conditions x4
cpacu x1 gets/acquires x2 from x3 for purpose x4
zukte x1 takes action x2 with purpose/goal x3
frati x1 reacts/responds with x2 to x3 under conditions x4
jmina x1 adds/combines x2 to x3 with result x4
xenru x1 regrets/rues x2
cpedu x1 requests/asks x2 of/from x3 in manner x4
spuda x1 replies to x2 with response x3
pikci x1 begs/pleads/supplicates x2 for x3
xrani x1 injures/harms/damages x2 at/in x3 by means x4
snuti x1 is accidental/unintentional on the part of x2
culno x1 is full with x2
banzu x1 suffices for x2 under conditions x3
djica x1 desires/wants x2 for x3
fraxu x1 forgives x2 for doing/being x3
dirba x1 is dear/precious/emotionally valued to x2
ckini x1 is related to x2 by relation x3
This might be called the "quick and dirty" way to teach vocabulary.
(Sorry about that.) These are examples of gismu, 5- letter predicates
that are the root words of the language. To make sentences, you "fill
in the blanks" (x1, x2, etc.) with names, descriptions, pro-sumti,
placeholders, questions, or clauses.