Days and Months

The days of the week are also cmene built from numbers, this time adding djed., from djedi, meaning 'day'. There is at present some disagreement about which day should be day one, though. The original convention was to follow the Judaeo-Christian convention of taking Sunday as the first day, giving

Sunday 

la padjed.

Monday 

la redjed.

Tuesday 

la cidjed.

... and so on. (Conveniently for one of your authors, this matches Greek for Monday through to Thursday.) However, in a Logical Language Group meeting in 1992 it was agreed that Monday be day 1, and Sunday be either 7 (la zedjed.) or zero (la nodjed.) according to taste (much to at least one of your author's inconvenience.) Eventually, though, people will use whichever system they prefer until one becomes universally accepted.

This may sound chaotic, but I have gone into this point as a good example of how in Lojban a large part of the language is "left to usage" — meaning that ultimately the language depends on the way people choose to use it in practice. People are also free to work out alternative conventions for cultures which do not use a seven-day week, possibly adding to the name to make it clear; e.g. la padjedjung. could be the first day of the Chinese ten-day week. (Remember, jungo means 'Chinese'.)

Note: For these lessons, of course, we do have to teach something — and that 'something' will be that Monday is Day 1. That, of course, is already getting in the way of usage, but it's unavoidable.

Tip: You will also see days in full lujvo form (meaning in practice one extra consonant after the number), looking like this:

no(n)djed. or nondei 

0-day

pa(v)djed. or pavdei 

1-day

re(l)djed. or reldei 

2-day

ci(b)djed. or cibdei 

3-day

vo(n)djed. or vondei 

4-day

mu(m)djed. or mumdei 

5-day

xa(v)djed. or xavdei 

6-day

ze(l)djed. or zeldei 

7-day (= 0-day)

Months also use numbered cmene, adding mast. (from masti 'month'), so January is la pamast. and so on. Again, since there are twelve months, we use the extra numbers, so October is la daumast. .

Note: You will also see months in full lujvo form — the catch being that hexadecimal digits have not been assigned rafsi (combining forms.) So:

pa(v)mast. or pavma'i 

1-month

re(l)mast. or relma'i 

2-month

ci(b)mast. or cibma'i 

3-month

vo(n)mast. or vonma'i 

4-month

mu(my)mast. or mumyma'i 

5-month

xa(v)mast. or xavma'i 

6-month

ze(l)mast. or zelma'i 

7-month

bi(v)mast. or bivma'i 

8-month

so(z)mast. or sozma'i 

9-month

daumast. or pavnonmast. or pavnonma'i 

10-month

feimast. or pavypavmast. or pavypavma'i 

11-month

gaimast. or pavrelmast. or pavrelma'i 

12-month

Just in case you're interested, the words for seasons are:

vensa 

Spring

crisa 

Summer

critu 

Autumn

dunra 

Winter

(For full definitions of these words, see the gismu list.) If the seasons where you live don't match this pattern, then you can easily create new words. For example, the rainy season or monsoon could be carvycitsi (from carvi, rain, and citsi, season) or simply la carv. . Here are some I made up for fun to give a better idea of the weather in the UK:

la lekcarv. 

'the cold rain' — Spring

la mliglacarv. 

'the warm (mildly-hot) rain' — Summer

la bifcarv. 

'the windy rain' — Autumn

la dujycarv. 

'the freezing rain' — Winter

Joking aside, this shows two features of word-building in Lojban: making cmene by losing the final vowel (which we saw in Lesson 1) and creating lujvo, or compound words. (For the same reason, you'll also see pavdjed., relmast., ...) You actually need a pretty good knowledge of Lojban to make up lujvo on the spot, but we'll learn how to make some simple lujvo later on in this course.

Exercise 4

What are these days and months in Lojban?

  1. Saturday

  2. Thursday

  3. March

  4. August

  5. November

  6. December