                 Ju'i Lobypli    Number 5 - May 1988

              Published by:  The Logical Language Group
                      Bob LeChevalier, President
                            2904 Beau Lane
                           Fairfax VA 22031
                            (703) 385-0273

                 Attend LOGFEST 88 - June 10-13, 1988

                        See Below for Details

This newsletter is a publication by and for people interested in the
development of a 'logical language', based on concepts described an
article by Dr. James Cooke Brown in Scientific American, June 1960,
and in later publications written by Dr. Brown and others.  Many, but
not all, of these publications were published by The Loglan Institute,
Inc. of Gainesville, Florida.  The Logical Language Group is not
connected with the Loglan Institute, Inc., and no publication of this
organization is, or purports to be, approved by Dr. Brown or The
Loglan Institute, Inc.  Dr. Brown has expressly disapproved of this
publication effort.

As he is the original inventor of the concepts being used, we have a
standing policy to allow Dr. Brown to respond in these pages to any
issues raised therein.  He has not chosen to do so until now.  His two
letters speak for themselves, and so are printed exactly as received.
I ask that ALL READERS PLEASE READ DR. BROWN'S ATTACHED LETTERS.  We
have disagreements with Dr. Brown, both in point of fact and in
opinion.  Our response will be found in the back pages, in keeping
with our desire to remove legal and political maneuvering from being
the main focus of our effort.

Your editor is Bob LeChevalier.  As organizer of the newly named
Logical Language Group (which we intend to incorporate as a non-profit
corporation), I have been leading the efforts of several dozen of you
to complete and publish this year a stable, baselined version of the
language which directly realizes the concepts put forth by Dr. Brown
and others and developed over the last 35 years (under a different
language name).  The current version of the language is called Lojban
to clearly distinguish it from earlier versions and to base the
language name on words from within the language.

This newsletter is going to over 330 people in about a dozen
countries.  The newsletter is distributed for free.  Donations are
requested in order to cover our publication costs.  You also may
maintain a balance from which we will deduct our publication costs.
Details on this may be found below.  The Logical Language Group is
seeking tax-exempt status from the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization,
which will enable your donations to be tax-deductible.

                        CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

     LOGFEST 88
     What Do They Mean?:  Technical and Lojban Terms Used in this
               Issue
     Lojban Status:  Primitives (gismu), 'Little Words' (cmavo),
               Grammar, Textbook and Teaching Aids, MEX, Revised
               Schedule
     New Publications
     Revised Plans for Lojban Classes
     McLean High School Lojban Club
     Report on LogFlash
     TECHNICAL AND TEACHING MATERIAL ABOUT LOJBAN:
          On the Lojban Predicate (bridi)
          Lojban in Translation - Several Expressions and a Song
          Lojban Numbers
          How to Use Your Old L1 and L4/5 books
          Current Development Issues:  Lojban Attitudinals, A New
               Scheme for  'Borrowings' (na'evla)
     We Want Your Inputs! - Flash Cards, Lojban Pen Pals, APA
     Orders, Organizational, and Financial News:  Revised Fiscal
               Statement, Proposed Budget, The Order Fiasco and
               Revised Plans, The Balance System and Understanding
               Your Mailing Label, Revised Price List
     Response to Dr. Brown's Letters
     The Contributors' List
     Map to Logfest 88
     Attachments:
               Dr. Brown's Response to Ju'i Lobypli Number 4
               Revised Lojban Brochure

Space and time considerations prevent us from including any letters to
the editor this time, others than Dr. Brown's response.  We also had
wanted to include some of the lively discussions that have taken place
on the CLBB during the past couple of months.  Maybe next time.  For
those of you who tried it early on when participation was low, try
again.  There is considerably more discussion.

The FORTH bulletin board apparently has been taken down temporarily.
When I hear that it is up again, I will let you know.

For those who have had trouble with uploading and downloading onto
CLBB, there is a second BBS run by Lawrence Kesteloot which has copies
of the LogFlash programs.  This BBS is called the AMRAD board.  See
Lawrence's messages on CLBB for more information.
______________________________________________________________________
______________
                'Capital Loglan Bulletin Board' (CLBB)
          Available to all in the Logical Language Community
              Local to Virginia/DC Area : (703) 391-8873
                   (1200 Baud - login as 'loglan')
'PC Pursuitable',  Lojban Data and Shareware File Upload and Download
                  Provided Courtesy of Joel Shprentz

          Your Editor checks this Board about twice weekly.
Send messages to the Editor via UseNet/ARPAnet/UUCP using the SYSOP's
                      address: shprentz@bdm.com

LOGFEST 88 - June 10-13, 1988

Our third annual mini-convention for the logical language community
will be held again at my house in the Washington DC suburbs.  We are
again expecting people from all over the country.  We moved the date
earlier in the year when local humidity isn't yet so high; more people
can now sleep comfortably, either indoors or outdoors.

What will LogFest 88 be like?  If the previous two are good examples,
it will be both fun and educational.  We expect most of last years
attendees to return, and perhaps double their number (or more).  We
are in fact hoping to hear from enough of you that we can reserve
space at a nearby school for Saturday, which has been the peak
attendance day.  Discussions will be at all technical levels.  We
expect to have sessions on the following:

Novices' Workshops:              Lojban Community Review
     Pronunciation               and Baseline Decisions:
     Introductory Grammar             Pronunciation
     Some Basic Vocabulary            Morphology
                                      gismu word set
Computer-Aided Tutorials with
     LogFlash and Other Programs Lojban Community Inputs
                                 and Discussion:
Group Workshop on Lojban              gismu place structures
     Translation                      preliminary cmavo list,
attitudinals
                                      preliminary grammar
Computer Synthesis of Lojban Speech     lujvo-making algorithm
                                      computer-aided-instruction
Group Conversation Workshop in Lojban   other teaching materials
                                      na'evla practices

Organizational Meeting:  The Logical Language Group, Inc.
Discussions of Other Issues Subject to Attendees' Interests

We will have our two computers in use, and Art Wieners is bringing his
UNIX-based multi-tasking computer (which has ports that can hook onto
several terminals if we can get some of the local Lojbanists to bring
some for the weekend).

An ambitious plan.  We won't have time to do everything we want to do.
But this looks like the first LogFest where there will be a few people
able to spontaneously converse in the language.

This is also your chance to meet those people who you've only read
about, that are making logical language a reality: pc (John Parks-
Clifford), Chuck Barton, and Jeff Taylor are among our expected
attendees.  The conversation will be lively - that we can guarantee.

Meals will likely be obtained from local restaurants with take-out
service.  There is plenty of choice.  We had cold cut platters last
year as well.  We have tents and a couple of spare sleeping bags, for
those who don't have any.  We also have floor space and blankets.
Hotels are a couple of miles away.  I am directly on a Metro subway
line, and right off the freeway near the Washington DC beltway, so the
place is easy to get to.  Union Station (Amtrak) and National Airport
have Metro stops as well.  If you come in at Dulles airport, there is
bus service to the nearest Metro station, you can rent a car, or
possibly we can pick you up.  We can also support visiting families on
a space-available basis, if you let us know in advance.  (pc expects
to bring his 11-year old daughter Sara.)  Since we are on the Metro,
families can conveniently sightsee downtown (or learn about Lojban!)

Let us know your plans - by letter or phone call - so we can plan for
you.

  What Do They Mean?:  Technical and Lojban Terms Used in this Issue

These are brief definitions.  The synopsis of phonology and morphology
gives more detailed explanations.  Since these words are relatively
unknown and not used in literature prior to this year, I have put
their closest equivalent from that literature in italics.

     bridi  -  Lojban predicates (with arguments included).  These
convey the basic claim of a Lojban sentence.  A simple sentence
consists of a single central bridi.  The bridi is a kunbridi with
sumti attached which give the specifics of the claim.  Each sumti in
turn may be composed of subordinate clauses with their own bridi;
usually these are simple kunbridi.  The basic sentence syntax in
normal form is:
           sumti - central kunbridi - sumti - sumti - sumti ...
In this structure, the central kunbridi corresponds to the English
verb, and the sumti to the attached noun and prepositional phrases.
There are other orders and structures possible.
     cmavo  -  Little Words (LWs).  The structure words, usually only
one to three letters long, which convey the organization (syntax) of
Lojban utterances.
     gismu  -  Individual primitive root words that are the most
common non-structural concepts.  These are the basic ridvla.  They are
used individually, or combined in tanru.  They are also used to build
compound ridvla: lujvo.  These are of three types: xregi'u (C-Prims),
lobgi'u (L-Prims) and klogi'u (N-Prims).  Most are xregi'u, which were
built algorithmically from six common languages.
     kunbridi  -  Bare bridi without arguments attached; these may be
individual ridvla, or strings of multiple ridvla combined in various
ways.
     lerfu  -  Letterals, or symbols for the letters of the alphabet,
now conceptually expanded in Lojban to include all non-numerical
symbols that have no defined Lojban cmavo.
     lujvo  -  Complexes (Cpxs).  ridvla that are formed as compounds
of gismu, each representing a particular tanru.  Whereas tanru can be
ambiguous, there will be a specific meaning assigned to each lujvo and
specific place structures for associated sumti.
     MEX  - Mathematical expressions and their Lojban grammar; a
longstanding problem.  In Lojban: mekso.
     minmi  -  Names that have been Lojbanized into a proper word
form.
     morphology  -  The rules of proper word formation, which are
rigidly defined for Lojban.
     na'evla  -  Borrowings (L-Prims).  Specialized terms, often
technical, that are taken from other languages and Lojbanized into an
acceptable word form.
     parse  -  The determination of the syntax of a string of text or
symbols.
     rafsi  -  These are affixes, combining forms of gismu and common
cmavo that each serve to represent a single word.  They are assembled
together by specific rules to form lujvo, which can in turn be broken
down uniquely into the represented components.  Those components then
indicate a tanru that may suggest the meaning of the lujvo, making new
lujvo comparatively easy to learn.
     ridvla  -  Predicate words.  The basic components of Lojban
semantics, found in kunbridi.  ridvla in a sense can be said to
subsume several English parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, and prepositions, depending on how they are used in the
sentence.  ridvla are both singular and plural unless specifically
quantified.
     sumti  -  The arguments of a bridi.  Each sumti is related in a
specific way to the ridvla in the kunbridi to which they are attached,
and to the other sumti that are attached.  The most important of these
sumti are defined to exist in a particular order for each ridvla, and
there are rules to determine which set is used.
     syntactically unambiguous  -  The existence of a single correct
word grouping (parse) for a given word order.  In proving Lojban
unambiguous with YACC, we must further be able to do so by a set of
technical rules called 'LALR(1)', which basically means that the
language groups from the left, and that it is possible to parse the
language taking one word at a time from the left.
     syntax  -  The structure and word order of a language,
independent of the meanings of words.  Similar to 'grammar' in
meaning.
     tanru  -  Metaphors that are made by combining ridvla in various
ways to create new, more complex, or more specific meanings.  Lojban
tanru are ambiguous in meaning, with the capability to expand upon and
define that meaning more clearly to an arbitrary degree.  However the
syntax - the order and grouping of the ridvla and cmavo that make up
the tanru is rigidly and unambiguously defined.
     YACC  -  A computer software program written by Bell Labs (AT&T)
that is used to generate parsing programs for computerized text.  It
also serves to verify that the syntax rules specified for these
programs are unambiguous according to 'LALR(1)' rules.

                            Lojban Status

Primitives (gismu)

In response to your orders, we have sent out some 150 copies of the
Lojban gismu list in various sorted orders.  We have not had much
feedback on the words.  Tommy Whitlock, who helped make them, would
like to eliminate some of them.  I also have gotten comments from pc,
and have a list of proposed words that the Word Makers' Council
generated while working with a previous version of the language.  Some
of these have already been made into gismu.  Others are better suited
to be made as na'evla, given our set of Lojban gismu.

All comments will be reviewed at LogFest and decisions made, after
which the gismu list will be frozen indefinitely to ensure that people
have a chance to learn a stable list of words.  We actually expect
very few changes, but all of you are welcomed, indeed urged, to submit
comments prior to LogFest.

'Little Words' (cmavo)

The cmavo list has not faired so well.  We were forced to completely
redo the list to ensure that there was no question of independent
creative effort from Dr. Brown.  In addition, there have been dozens
of proposals over the years since the 1974-5 language, some good and
some bad, that have never received a formal decision.  We are
attempting to include all proposals that are consistent with each
other and with the grammar that is being developed.  Where possible,
we are allowing multiple proposals to remain in the language to let
usage determine the 'best' one(s).  We are also trying to systematize
words even more than in previous versions, but this has proven
difficult.

One major proposal was made by Scott Layson and Chuck Barton several
years ago.  It required redoing the number words to make them more
understandable in 'noisy' environments.  In redoing the whole list,
this was finally possible.  However, the decisions for the ten digits
greatly constrained the other cmavo decisions.  We wanted to have
easily recognized patterns for as many as possible.

Another major change is that the lerfu, or words used to express
letters of the alphabet and symbols, have been moved out of the
'little word space', allowing much more room, and higher recognition
ability for the cmavo in their place.

In general, we are trying to build the new cmavo so as to suggest the
gismu which is closest in meaning.  For example, the three 'time'
tenses for past, present, and future, are pu, ca, and ba, from the
Lojban gismu: purci (past/before), cabna (now/simultaneous with), and
balvi (future/after).  We believe that this is preferable to the
pattern of the old words which were probably chosen because they
suggested the English words 'past', 'now', and 'future', a pattern
that is not consistent with cultural neutrality.

In some cases, we were even able to use a rafsi which represents a
gismu in lujvo compounds to be a cmavo of similar meaning.  For
example, ki'e is the rafsi for ckire (grateful), and also means 'Thank
you'.

We will discuss another major area of change, the attitudinal
indicators later in this newsletter.

A first draft list of cmavo was circulated to a half dozen reviewers;
only pc gave comments, though he made up for everyone else.  It has
taken several months (and perhaps 8 hours on the telephone) to redo
the list in its current form.  pc - an expert on tense logic and other
areas in philosophy - was concerned to ensure that the understandings
of his field are incorporated in the cmavo set.  Unfortunately, with
no training in philosophy myself, I was a bit dense in interpreting
his comments, and in deriving adequate solutions to the problems he
raised.

I intend to have a new draft set of cmavo for LogFest.  It exists
right now in scribbled notes on three old copies.  I'm sure that there
will be considerable discussion at LogFest of the new ideas we've
included.  Then, after we've verified that the new concepts are
compatible with the grammar (see below), we will publish a list for
all of you to groan over.  We intend to have this list available with
the next issue of JL, and will send it to all with positive balances.
Six months later, it too will be frozen.  (We'll also put it up on
CLBB.)

Grammar

I had hoped to pass the buck on grammar development off to others,
leaving me to handle a few less headaches.  It didn't work.  We needed
people with time, compatible computers, and similar software and
computer language experience to be able to produce results quick
enough for our schedule, and we don't have them.  I also found that
there were numerous issues that we wanted to cover in the rewritten
grammar that required me to write extensively.  Time at the computer
to generate text has been my shortest supply, so it didn't get done.
In addition, the discussions with pc on cmavo were generating many new
ideas to try to check in the grammar.

The result is that I needed a grammar worker locally to work with
YACC, and get together as needed with me.  My local volunteers have
been silent lately.  When grammar became the critical path in the
schedule, I started working on it myself.

YACCing is surprisingly easy, at least with a grammar as simple as
that for Lojban.  I had some suggestions from Jeff Prothero, who
developed the original version of the existing machine grammar as well
as the recent 'Public Domain Loglan Parser (PLOP)'.  I also got direct
(by telephone) assistance from Jeff Taylor, who developed a parser for
the language as part of his master's thesis work several years ago.
Jeff T. also YACCed an initial 'thought experiment' grammar that I
wrote up last November to test some ideas, then walked me through the
process of removing ambiguities.  Nora also has been helpful, using
the experience she gained while writing translation programs from the
language to English (it's nice having such expertise so close at
hand).

In short, I started with a set of 40 odd rules covering perhaps 15% of
the language on May 7th.  At this writing on May 14th, I'm up to 135
rules which parse unambiguously and which cover just under half the
language.  If not for this newsletter and our trip to Europe, I would
be sure of a complete trial grammar by LogFest.  I'm not promising,
but I am hopeful.  Jeff Taylor, meanwhile, is working on a
Parser/PreParser shell that will drive the resulting YACCed grammar,
and hopes to have it ready for LogFest as well.

With luck, we will have a usable, if not final, grammar to go out with
the next JL, along with that list of cmavo I just mentioned.  We have
yet to add in several new features and to test my MEX grammar concept,
so this also may be too ambitious.  But we are certain enough that the
grammar will not be changing significantly, that we are including some
first translation works in this issue.  Some of the new grammar and
cmavo ideas will be evident to anyone familiar with the earlier
language versions.

Textbook and Teaching Aids

It had been our goal to have more teaching aids by now, and especially
by LogFest.  We haven't been able to meet this goal, although progress
is being made.  Nora has had very little time to work on further
versions of LogFlash for teaching rafsi, lujvo, place structures, and
grammar.  These programs became lower priority when the cmavo and
grammar became the critical path.  Other factors, described below,
further interfered.  As a result, teaching materials are our most
serious backlog, and will probably remain so until around July.

We have gotten some work done on the textbook.  Since, I've never
written a language text before, I am using a textbook in language
textbook writing that was published by the U.S. State Department.
Their approach involves a fair amount of front end work before the
first lessons are written, but apparently leads to a professional
quality product that is well suited for adults learning a language
that is not widely spoken, such as is true for Lojban.  We first
defined you - our audience - in terms that allow us to keep this in
mind when putting in detail and emphasis.  I then made a list of
concepts to be taught, and then organized them into an outline.  That
outline will be used to write a synopsis of the whole language,
similar to the abbreviated one found in the beginning of the old L4/L5
dictionary.  We will then expand upon this synopsis with examples and
exercises, then organize the material as the skeleton of the textbook
in an order providing progressive level of detail and plenty of review
and detailed explanation of difficult concepts.

This will take time, and may delay the initial publication by several
months.  The final completion should be less affected: once we start
writing, I believe that the lessons will be generated relatively
quickly.  I feel that there has been too little effort put into doing
a good textbook in the interest of getting a quick one.  We do expect
to have the synopsis out before the textbook.  It will serve to define
the language for us and for you, and give people something to start
learning from while we produce the high quality product needed to make
Lojban successful.

On an unrelated note, we have had requests from a number of you who do
not have computers for a greater emphasis on printed rather than
computerized material.  The textbook will eventually provide this.
More immediately, however, we have determined that it is practical to
issue a new set of flash cards, along with a revised manual learning
procedure that equates to the LogFlash algorithm.  These will be
issued after the gismu list is baselined, and will include the most
common cmavo that are unlikely to change.  Low volume will make these
more expensive, so we need a good idea of how many can be distributed
before going to press.  There will undoubtedly be changes in the place
structures of several gismu, but it would be better to include the
current proposal than none at all.  After all, the main purpose of the
flash cards is to teach the gismu, and not their detailed semantics.
The circumstance amounts to planned obsolescence.  We can't remedy
this, except to offer a discount to buyers of a first set when a
revision appears, probably about a year later.  It does enable you
without computers to start on the language with a proven effective
teaching aid and methodology.

The cost of these flash cards is dependent on the number interested,
since we must print on card stock.  We will take orders now.  We will
produce them, probably in July, and ask people to send money if they
do not have an established balance.  Given the response level that we
have had to previous products, the flash cards may run as high as $20,
which is the same price we are asking for LogFlash.  Let us know of
your interest.

MEX

The biggest incomplete chunk of the language for several years has
been MEX, the grammar of mathematical expressions.  Dr. Brown has said
that MEX would have to wait for a later version of the language.  We
found this unacceptable - a solution must be found, even if not
optimal, in order to say that we have a complete language.  MEX is
also highly relevant to a potential practical application for Lojban:
the formal verification of computer programs.

I went back to zero and tried to examine the goal of MEX.  Each of the
last two LogFests allowed me to broach ideas which were appropriately
shot down.  Last August, I finally wrote something down which
summarized my ideas.  It never got typed up, though, as we were going
full speed on the gismu rebuilding effort.

In November, I tried to describe a grammar approach which incorporated
my MEX concept.  This was the 'thought experiment' grammar described
above.  pc made some pointed comments, and Jeff Taylor finally ran it
through YACC last month, which indicated some flaws.  They were
solvable, but the results we obtained suggested that we need to
formally define the rest of the grammar before we can formalize the
MEX grammar to mesh smoothly with the main grammar.  This is not
looking difficult; time will prove us right or wrong.  Our most likely
problem is in some internal tables in the YACC version we are using,
which may not hold all the pieces we need.

The new concept of MEX will look very similar in structure to the
Lojban bridi-based sentence, but will be more self-referential
(recursive) due to the nature of mathematics.

Revised Schedule

This plan gets changed as often as our name used to be.  At least we
have a plan, and we are slowly checking off the milestones, even if
usually a bit late.  I'm starting to get a better feel for what can be
accomplished in a given amount of time, so the schedule is slowly
getting more realistic.  I still believe that you will be able to
meaningfully begin learning the language this year, wherever you are.
Those who have already started with LogFlash, and are learning the
gismu should expect that we will keep up with you in producing
teaching materials to follow up on your new vocabulary.  Knowing the
bulk of the gismu is vital to learning Lojban, especially until we
have the dictionary complete, which will be quite a while yet.

Be aware that we are responsive to your needs.  One reason the
schedule changes is so that we can give you what you need and are
ready for.  If more of you let us know that you are making progress
with LogFlash 1, we will put higher priority on LogFlash 2 and later
versions.  If we hear that many of you are trying to learn the gismu
without LogFlash due to a lack of computer resources, we will
accelerate producing flash cards and prepare some trial lessons that
can allow you to build on those words.  Unless you let us know that
you are working with some facet of the language, we cannot help you.

This schedule allows for two significant events that could not be
planned for.  First is the threat of legal action by Dr. Brown that
has greatly distracted me from doing useful work.  I must presume that
this threat will require additional resources.

Second, I was recently laid off.  While this tightens our budget and
makes Lojban publications more dependent on all of you contributing,
it does at least temporarily bolster our capability to meet the
schedules that we write.  I am not likely to have a new job before
July.  If I remain unemployed for long, Lojban will significantly
benefit from my time, and these schedules will start moving forward
instead of backwards.  Unfortunately, as most of us know, it is hard
to operate a full scale research project and organize a new business
while holding a full-time job.  Nora and I have effectively been
trying this, and have been unable to get enough committed time from
other people to get rid of the schedule overload.  We will gladly take
volunteers.

May 1988        Ju'i Lobypli Issue 5 - the newsletter for the logical
                    language community
                YACCing of trial grammar
                visit to England, meet with British Lojbanists
June 1988       preparation of lists of structure words (cmavo)
                cmavo list proposal completed
                trial formal grammar redefinition complete
                LogFlash 1 available for UNIX and MacIntosh
                Logfest 88 - a celebration of Lojban, meeting in the
                    Washington DC area 11-12 June
                final baseline of primitive list
                outline of Lojban synopsis complete
                incorporation of The Logical Language Group
July 1988       writing of Lojban synopsis
                final revisions of cmavo proposal
                non-computerized flash cards available
                prepare outline of Lojban textbook
August 1988     Ju'i Lobypli Issue # 6 publication
                cmavo list published
                trial grammar published for comment
                Lojban grammar synopsis complete
                LogFlash 2 available for IBM PC and compatibles
September 1988  completion of formal grammar disambiguity verification
                first two Lojban textbook lessons complete
                additional textbook lessons completed at two per month
                start of Lojban class in the DC area
October 1988    outline design of remaining textbook lessons complete
                LogFlash 3 is published
November 1988   publication of Loglan parser based on latest grammar
                Ju'i Lobypli Issue # 7 published
                preparation of cassette tape and new version of
                    LogFlash 1 supporting it
December 1988   republication of LogFlash 1
                draft textbook lessons that are completed are
                    published for other classes
                Boston-area Lojban class starts, other areas if
                    interest demands it
                preliminary textbook word list available
January 1989    publication of LogFlash 4
                Evecon 89 convention in the DC area - we intend
                    significant Lojban activities, including a short
                    video about the language.
February 1989   publication of a draft Lojban reader - accumulated
                    translations to Lojban from various sources
                Ju'i Lobypli #8 published
March 1989      baseline of Lojban grammar
                draft publication of complete textbook for 6 month
                review period
May 1989        Ju'i Lobypli #9 published
                publication of LogFlash 5
June 1989       LogFest 89
                first Lojban materials in non-English language
                    (probably French and/or German)
September 1989  baseline of Lojban textbook for publication
November 1989   textbook and reader publication
                final republication of LogFlash series with cassettes
December 1989   preliminary Lojban-English dictionary and reference
manual
June 1990       review publication of Lojban dictionary
December 1990   final publication of dictionary. Lojban baseline
complete

                           New Publications

As announced in the last issue, we published the Lojban phonology and
morphology synopsis.  We also revised and republished the lujvo-making
algorithm, although we were unable to add examples as we had wanted.
A set of examples was to be included in this issue, but we ran out of
space.  Maybe next issue..  Note that these publications did occur on
schedule, although we had to let other things slide.  This newsletter
is also going out on schedule, about 3 months after the last one.  We
hope that our pattern of regularly publishing useful materials in and
about the language will inspire you to contribute time and/or money,
and most of all to make the significant intellectual investment that
is learning and using Lojban.  We have no doubt that you will find it
rewarding.


                   Revised Plans for Lojban Classes

Because we are behind in producing teaching materials, we haven't
started the DC area Lojban class yet.  We have some 60 DC-area
Lojbanists who may be interested in the class - several of you so
indicated on the registration forms.  Most of the DC-area people,
however, either do not have computers, or at least have not let me
know that they are working with LogFlash (which can be downloaded from
the CLBB bulletin board).  I have about a half dozen who seem to be
making serious efforts, and the rest are just watching and waiting.  I
have received a strong impression that you would rather wait until we
have good teaching materials than to 'wing it', by holding classes
with ad hoc materials.

While we have widespread interest, it appears not to be deep enough to
justify the change our priorities to get the DC class started sooner.
The same is true for Boston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco area,
each of which have 20 to 40 people who have shown some interest.
Boston has the best potential to get an early class.  There appears to
be interest, but no one has stepped forward to organize the group.  I
need single points-of-contact for groups in other cities, in order to
keep costs down; we intend to provide phone support for classes during
the trial period when we are testing teaching materials.  There is a
possibility that Chuck Barton will be able to help in this capacity in
the fall.  He is a long-time member of the community, as well as a
skilled linguist and teacher of languages.

We will be discussing the teaching materials problem at LogFest.  We
also intend some novice workshops on Saturday morning, which may
become the first couple of lessons in the textbooks, which would speed
up our ability to start a local class.  I may also have an informal
'class' this summer, without materials, for those locals willing to do
the extra work needed to learn without these materials.  They can then
assist in creating teaching aids and materials for a more formal
class.

If I remain unemployed, we may find ourselves able to start a class
sooner than fall.  What I need most is some clear indication from you,
the potential students, as to what you want.  Let's hear from you all.

(I also want to note that I have received a high percentage response
from Denver/Boulder/Cheyenne, Seattle, Houston, and Portland.  While
these areas have fewer Lojbanists than the above areas, I know that
many of you there are interested in a class.  If you want to get
together and start learning the language, I will do what I can to
support you.)

                    McLean High School Lojban Club

The most exhilarating feeling I get from working with Lojban comes
when I detect true enthusiasm for the language in others.  I recently
gained this feeling when some new names showed up on the CLBB bulletin
board.  Harry Pierson is a local high school student that heard about
Lojban at Evecon last year.  He recruited Lawrence Kesteloot, and a
couple of others, and suddenly we had the McLean High School Lojban
Club (MHSLC).

Believe me!  These guys are enthusiastic about Lojban.  Suddenly, I
had several messages per week on the CLBB.  Lawrence, who operates
another bulletin board (see below), started posing tough translation
problems for me.  He then edited my responses, which may be found
below in the translation section.  He thus gains credit for changing
my emphasis to teaching more by example than by detailed explanation.
Harry, meanwhile, borrowed one of our copies of L1, and caused us to
generate the information on using the old books that is found below.

Both of them have taken some of Nora's old programs, and are working
to convert them to Turbo Pascal, where they can be updated to fit the
new words and grammar.  Lawrence is especially interested in
developing a Lojban translator, and Harry has expressed interest in
the old concept of a Lojban 'compiler'.

It is neat to see new people take off like they have with the
language.  I have heard less from their other friends in MHSLC, but I
am hoping that Harry and Lawrence will set an enthusiastic example for
them, and indeed for all of you.  Certainly, they can testify that
working with Lojban is exciting.  And they have inspired me into new
excitement, as well.  Even now, as we wrestle with bringing Lojban to
my generation from that of the project's founder, I can see that there
is interest and excitement that will ensure that I and others can pass
Lojban on to the next generation.


                          Report on LogFlash

The most significant activity and progress of the last few months has
been in working with LogFlash, especially with the already completed
LogFlash 1 that teaches the gismu.  Some 35 people ordered and
received copies of LogFlash 1 for the IBM PC version.  I have about 15
orders for several other computers, and have people working on porting
the program to each of them.

Richard Kennaway, in England, has made the most significant progress.
He has sent screen printing for his revision for the MacIntosh.  He is
actually completely rewriting the program to take advantage of the
Mac's icon and mouse orientation, and the stuff he's generating looks
fantastic.  Nora and I will meet him when we visit England this month,
and I hope to have a report, or even a diskette, to show off at
LogFest.  (Then all I need is a local Lojbanist with a MacIntosh that
they are willing to bring over here to LogFest.  Anyone out there?)
STOPPRESS: I received a report from Richard on publication day that
the program is working.  We will see it next week in England.  The MAC
for LogFest is now a higher priority.  Any help?.

I also know of people working on Apple II, Atari ST, AMIGA, and UNIX C
portings.  I have received no status from any of them.  In some cases,
we have 2 or 3 volunteers independently working.  Given external time
conflicts, not all will finish, but I suspect that we will have
versions for several machines to report next issue.

How is it working?  We have received no reports of software problems,
nor have we had any here in several months.  Nora, Tommy, and I have
all used it and gone through the gismu several times.  pc and Jeff
Taylor also have reported going through the entire set of words.  I
believe pc is at the 70% proficiency level.  Tommy had to stop due to
insufficient time a couple of months ago, but Nora reached 90%
proficiency, and I got almost to perfection with 99% correct (10
errors in 1272 words tested in two 1-hour periods on two days).  I
then undertook a test of how well the program actually taught me the
gismu.  I have taken two months without any lessons, and minimal work
with the vocabulary.  I just restarted last week, and found that I was
still at 85% average retention the first time through.  I am averaging
96% on the second time through, so far.

LogFlash 1 works, and teaches even an abysmal linguist like me the
vocabulary.  Since the gismu vocabulary is so important to the
language, I hope that those of you who can use LogFlash will be doing
so.  Even with the delay in other teaching materials, I've shown that
you won't be wasting your time.  Keep me informed of your progress,
and LogFlash 2 will be waiting for you when you are ready to learn the
rafsi.


             TECHNICAL AND TEACHING MATERIAL ABOUT LOJBAN

I now am going to turn to technical matters, instead of news.  People
want to know about Lojban, not just that we are working on it.  The
next several sections will explain things about the language,
hopefully conveying the image that the language is nearly complete,
and fairly stable.

                   On the Lojban Predicate (bridi)

The nature of Lojban bridi is one of the most difficult features about
the language to teach.  There are several reasons for this, and I will
try to describe this nature.  If you report that this discussion is
helpful, it will be used in the textbook, so I need feedback.

The Lojban concept of bridi is based on the 'predicate' of predicate
logic, which is the logic you may have studied in school.  In
predicate logic, all statements about the world are true, false, or
indeterminate.  (In a recent development called 'fuzzy logic', truth
is represented as '1' and falsehood as '0', and statements may have
truth values between 0 and 1.  This complication will not be discussed
here, although we have designed support for fuzzy logic into Lojban.)

Much of predicate logic is defined so as to allow definitive ways of
determining whether a statement is true or false.  Lojban bridi follow
these rules, and the grammar which communicates them implements these
rules.  Any Lojban statement may thus be interpreted as a single or
compound predicate of this variety.  Each predicate is represented as
a bridi.

bridi follow the structure of logical predicates in another way.  A
predicate is defined as having a fixed set of 'arguments', each of
which relates to the predicate, and to each other in some way.  Thus
the English sentence "The storekeeper sold the toy to the child for
$5.00" could be represented as a predicate:

                sold (storekeeper, toy, child, $5.00)

This might further be expressed in symbolic notation as S(s,t,c,5).
The statement has the same logical structure as "The real estate agent
sold the house to me for $100000".  The common structure can then be
represented in symbols as Sx1x2x3x4, where x1 is someone who sold
something, x2 is what is sold, x3 is the buyer, and x4 is the price.
Some logicians prefer to show the symbols in a way that matches the
English grammar by putting x1 before the predicate S: x1Sx2x3x4.  This
structure, called 'infix notation' causes the first argument to appear
like the subject of the sentence, the second argument as the direct
object, and the other two arguments as indirect objects.

Lojban grammar is built on this version of predicate logic notation,
although there are ways to express Lojban bridi in many other
notational equivalents.  Corresponding to the arguments are Lojban
sumti, and the main predicate concept is known as a kunbridi.  A
normal Lojban bridi is thus expressed as:

                   sumti kunbridi sumti sumti sumti

if the kunbridi is defined as having 4 sumti.

In Lojban a kunbridi may be expressed as one word, known as a ridvla,
or as a series of ridvla that modify each other, a combination known
as a tanru.  A tanru may also have structure words, cmavo, to indicate
internal structure.

A major point about predicates is that they can represent verbs like
'sold', nouns like 'table', adjectives like 'blue', or adverbs like
'quickly'.  The grammar and the logic is independent of what part of
speech is represented.  Typically a noun expression will have fewer
arguments defined for it than a verb, because the noun is more
concrete a concept - you need fewer variables to indicate the
relationships between a table and other objects around it, than you do
to interrelate the components of an act of selling.  Different
predicates may thus have different numbers of arguments.  Similarly
Lojban kunbridi or their component ridvla have differing numbers of
sumti.

It becomes useful, in turning predicate logic into a language, to
recognize the semantic implications of a kunbridi representing either
a noun, a verb, or an adjective.  We have words in English that act
like this: x1 is a cradle for baby x2, or x1 cradles x2.  Having
recognized this similarity, we can then make the natural metaphor of
'cradling the basket in your arms'.  We have recognized intuitively
that to 'hold in the manner of a cradle' is the same as to 'be a
cradle', and that what is contained in the 'cradle' is irrelevant to
whether it is a cradle or not.

When you get used to thinking like this, it becomes easy, to realize
that if you sit on a table, then the table is 'chairing you'.  You
also learn that adjectives can be thought of as nouns or verbs: if
something is blue, then it is 'a blue thing' which is 'blueing' at you
and the rest of the universe.  When you can think like this about a
wide variety of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, you will have mastered a
vital concept behind Lojban semantics.  le blanu is a blue object that
blues at you.  le vecnu is a salesperson who sells something to
someone for some price; it expresses both the verb 'to sell', and to
the salesperson at the same time, even though the thing sold, the
buyer, and the price, are not given.  It also is clear that selling
something once to someone for some price makes one a 'seller' or
'salesperson' in essence.

A critical feature of an actual language as spoken is that ideas are
often left unsaid.  The logician, with his fixed argument structures
for the predicates, can easily recognize that which is unsaid - for
example the missing arguments in 'She sold the car' are the buyer and
the price.  The person who makes such a statement is either being
intentionally vague by not specifying the known arguments, or assumes
that the listener knows the values of the missing arguments, or the
speaker doesn't know them, or possibly just considers them to be
unimportant to the 'claim' being made in the statement.  After all, if
there exists some buyer, and some price under which the statement is
true, then 'She sold the car' is a true statement.  Leaving out
argument information, whether intentional or not, is called 'ellipsis'
(which is enshrined in the name for the three dots that often stand
for such omitted information '...' - ellipses).

Other times, a speaker may wish to add information not expressed in
the predicate 'place' structure.  'She sold the car on Sunday' adds a
time that the sale occurred.  Actually, most sales have a point in
time where the 'sale' occurs - but that point may be an interval.
(When you sell a house, the sale lasts from an agreement to sell until
the 'closing' several months later.)  One can choose to define the
predicate 'sale' to always include a time argument, or one can decide
that the time of sale is not essential to the nature of it being a
sale.  In the latter case, one adds incidental information which is
important to the claim with what is called a 'modal phrase', which in
English is usually a prepositional phrase.

Interestingly, in English and other natural languages, a modal phrase
looks just like many of the other arguments.  It is merely the
definition of the predicate that dictates whether an argument is
inherently part of the statement, or must be considered a modal
phrase.

Prepositions, when used to attach modal phrases, are called modal
operators.  A modal operator usually will have additional words to
clearly indicate the relationship between the phrase and the rest of
the predicate.  'on Sunday' has no additional words - English speakers
know that in this context, 'on' means 'at time/date'.  A logician
would thus express the modal phrase as 'at time/date Sunday'.

In Lojban, like other natural languages, you can leave out 'arguments'
or sumti, or you can add in modal phrases.  The Lojban grammar treats
modal phrases and sumti equivalently.  A modal phrase has identical
grammar as a sumti, but has a mandatory 'modal operator' to clearly
indicate the relationship between the phrase and the bridi.

A last point to note is that arguments in predicates may themselves
contain predicates.  In 'The man sold the car', clearly 'car' is also
a predicate, as is 'man'.  These predicates may have their own
arguments attached: 'The (seller of the car) came'.

Generally, predicates found in arguments appear as noun phrases.  In
Lojban, a noun phrase is often expressed by attaching the cmavo 'le',
and le turns a bridi into a sumti.  Semantically, the sumti that
results refers to the first argument of the predicate represented by
the bridi.  Lojban has cmavo which act to switch the order of sumti in
a bridi.  These 'conversion operators' allow any argument to appear in
the first position and so be turned into a sumti with le.  Thus, in le
te vecnu, 'te' switches the first and third arguments, causing the
sumti to refer to the buyer, and not the seller.

Another cmavo "fo'i" allows you to turn any bridi (with or without
attached sumti) into a modal operator.  We've defined plenty of modal
operators, but there will always be one more that would be useful.  In
this way, a bridi can become the equivalent of an English preposition.

I hope the above is reasonably clear.  Nora has written more on some
aspects of this, with her own examples, and I'll turn the 'page' over
to her.  Let us know which explanations are clear, and which examples
are more useful.

            Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives - Who Needs Them?
                         by Nora LeChevalier

As anyone who has discussed Lojban with me knows, I am fond of
thinking of blanu (blue) in "ti blanu" (this is blue) as an active
verb.  I think of something sitting there "blue-ing" out at the world
- emitting (or reflecting) certain wave-lengths of light.  This was my
way of getting insight into how Lojban manages to treat English nouns,
verbs and adjectives as all equivalent.

Similarly, one can think of an English noun, for example "house"
(xasfa) in a more verb-ish manner just I did with "blue".  "ti xasfa"
can be thought of as "this is acting as a house (for something)".  So
"le tanxe ca xasfa le gerku" makes perfect sense:  "the box is acting
as a house for the dog".

There's a neat and easy way to get a sumti (which functions like a
noun) out of any Lojban ridvla, regardless of the implicit "part-of-
speech" it is assumed to be in English.  ridvla like "xasfa" have
implicit places:  (something) is a house of (someone/some thing).
When we refer to "le xasfa" we mean "the house" or "the thing which is
acting as a house for (someone)".  This is exactly what would be
filled in the first place of "xasfa".  Similarly, "le culgo" [culgo
means "(someone) goes (to somewhere) (from somewhere)"] refers to
something which would go in the first place of "culgo":  the one who
goes, or the "go-er".  Also, "le blanu" [blanu means "(something) is
blue"] refers to that something which is blue:  the blue thing.

It's a bit harder to explain all the types functioning as adjectives,
because in Lojban the modifier/modified relationship (making a tanru)
is deliberately left vague or ambiguous semantically; if you want to
be specific, you have to use a different mode of expression.  Two
possible meanings of "le blanu xasfa" (the blue house) are "the house
which is blue" and "the house belonging to a blue thing".  The former
interpretation is more common in this sentence.  Similarly, "le gerku
xasfa" ("the dog house") could be "the house which is a dog" or "the
house belonging to the dog".  The latter interpretation is more common
here.  "le culgo xasfa" (literally "the go house") could be "the house
which is a go-er" (equivalent to "the house which goes) or "the house
belonging to a go-er".  You can decide which of these interpretations
is more plausible.

        Lojban in Translation - Several Expressions and a Song

Over several months, I've occasionally had reason to translate a
sentence or two into Lojban, and I've saved a couple that seemed
interesting.  Lawrence Kesteloot of the MHSLC made a collection of
translations that I put on the CLBB, and edited them into a file.
I've added some more clarifying remarks and the file is reproduced
below.  I also translated Occam's Razor, and the popular song 'Una
Paloma Blanca'.  These are provided with somewhat less extensive
notes.  The song was chosen because Lojban tends to have more
syllables than the corresponding English.  It is thus better to choose
songs from languages such as Spanish and Italian for direct
translation, since these also share this trait with Lojban.

                     LOJBAN Quicky-Look-up-Sheet
                     ---------------------------
                   Assembled by Lawrence Kesteloot

----------------------------------------------------------------------
                       --------------

Example #1:

English:               "See Spot run."

Explanation of English:       We are telling someone to do something -
                       this is an imperative.  The thing to do is
                       "see".  That which is to be seen is "Spot
                       running".

Step by step:

kanvi               =  x1 sees x2
ko kanvi            =  see, imperatively (telling someone to see
                       something).  The person that is communicated to
                       is implicitly x1.
bajra               =  x3 runs via route x4.
la Spat             =  Spot (la means we are talking about a name)
                       (See pronunciation guide for explanation of the
                       change from 'Spot' to 'Spat')
la Spat bajra       =  Spot runs.  A pause is required after Spot,
                       since it is a name.  "La Spat" is being
                       substituted for x3; x4 is being left
                       unspecified.
le nuke la Spat bajra  = the event of Spot running.  "event of"
                       abstractions are going to be common occurrences
                       in translation.  This turns the bridi "la Spat
                       bajra" into a sumti that can fill in for x2,
                       above.  Note "ke" is not really required here,
                       but is a good habit until you are familiar with
                       the grammar.  "nu" grabs only the next ridvla,
                       "nuke" an entire bridi.

Lojban:                ko kanvi le nuke la Spat bajra
                       /ko KANvi le nuke la spat (pause) BAZHra/

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Example #2:

English:               "Support Lojban!"

Explanation of English:       We are asking the public to support this
                       language.  It is a plea, not a command.  In
                       English, it could be understood as either
                       ("Support Lojban NOW!", or "Please support
                       Lojban!", or even "Let's support Lojban!").

Step by step:

e'o                 =  attitudinal meaning "Please"
e'osai              =  /e-ho-sai/ - sai changes it into "Please!"
                       (Stronger)
sarji               =  x1 supports x2.
ko sarji            =  imperative; x1 is implicitly the person
                       communicated to.
lojban              =  Lojban (no need to capitalize)
la lojban           =  lojban is a name.  Remember to pause.
                       Substitute this for x2.

Lojban:                e'osai ko sarji la lojban
                       /e-ho-sai ko SARzhi la LOZHban/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Example #3:

English:               "Keep using Lojban", "Continue the mass of
                       events of lojbanic expressing"

Explanation of English:       This is a suggestion (Lets!)

Step by step:

e'a                 =  attitudinal meaning "Lets"
e'asai              =  "sai" changes it into "Lets!" (Stronger)
ranji               =  x1 continues x2.
ko ranji            =  imperative; substitutes person communicated-to
                       for x1.
lo nuke             =  the act of (see example #1)
lojbo               =  Lojbanic (culture, language, etc)
cusku               =  express

Lojban:                e'asai ko ranji lo nuke lojbo cusku
                       /e-ha-sai ko RANzhi lo nuke LOZHbo SHUsku/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Example #4:

English:               "We serve you better."

Explanation of English:       There are some ambiguities here.  Who is
                       we?  Who is you?

Step by Step:

    First, translate it word by word:

xamgu               =  x1 is good
zmadu               =  x2 is more than x3 in aspect x4 (forms the word
                       "mau" used below)
selfu               =  x5 serves x6.
(we) xamgu zmadu selfu (you)  =    "good type of moreness, type of
                       serving", The part left of the comma modifies
                       the right.  This is a tanru (metaphor).  In
                       this form, only x5 and x6 are applicable
                       arguments (sumti), although there are ways of
                       expressing x3 and x4 if needed.
(we) xamgu selfu (you) mau         =    "we good-serve you, so much
                       more than ...".  "mau" is derived from "zmadu,"
                       so the meaning is very close to the first
                       version.  "mau" is a modal operator, acting
                       like a preposition or adverb in English, adding
                       an extra argument (of type x3) onto the bridi
                       "...xamgu selfu...".  (Remember that
                       predicates, also called 'bridi', have a
                       specific number of arguments which need not
                       always be two like in this case.)  You will
                       note that I translated it leaving the trailer
                       of the "prepositional phrase" blank.  The
                       Lojban does not express what is being compared
                       against as the reference.  The filler is
                       basically "that something which I have in mind
                       to put in here I am not saying", which is as
                       ambiguous as the slogan we started with.

                       *** Lojban makes ambiguity more explicit. ***

    Pronouns:

do                  =  you (one listener only)
do'o                =  you and others (plural)
dozi                =  you and others in a small area
doza                =  you and others in a medium area
dozu                =  you and others in a large area.
                       "doza" means, "All those in the receiving area
                       who might hear this," and is therefore probably
                       what is meant in the English sentence.
mi'a                =  I and others, but not including you
mizu                =  I and a large number of people.  These two are
                       different, and either could be taken.  "mizu"
                       is better, since it is what was probably meant
                       in the English sentence.

Lojban:                mizu xamgu selfu doza mau
                       /mizu KHAMgu SELfu doza mau/

======================================================================

                         Quicky Grammar Lookup
                         ---------------------
                (By alphabetical order of Lojban words)

Small words (like two-letter words) are called cmavo

da   - "da xxx" == "something is/does xxx" (used to be "ba")

e'a  - Makes it a suggestion (Lets!).  This is an attitudinal (showing
       attitude) - See example #3

e'o  - Makes it a petition (Please!).  This is an attitudinal - See
       example #2

ke   - Causes certain cmavo to be made "long scope".

ko   - Put in front to make imperative (command).  "ko xxx" == "(you)
       do xxx" - See example number 1 (Make sure to leave off the
       first argument when forming the imperative)

la   - Defines a name (such as Lojban or Spot or Bob) - See example #1
       and #2.  Names are always followed, and sometimes preceded, by
       a pause 'la xxx' can be interpreted as "that which I am
       thinking of which is named xxx".

le   - Means 'that which I am thinking of as being ...'.

lo   - means 'each/any of those which actually are being ...'.  This
       effectively claims that something actually "is being ...",
       whereas "le" doesn't.  (For example, a woman dressed up as a
       man could be spoken about as "the man is a woman" using "le
       nanmu" for "the man"; "lo nanmu" would not be valid since the
       one you are thinking about isn't actually a man.)  The old
       language version 'lo' is now (pending finalization) either
       'lei' or 'loi'.  These are the 'massified' equivalents of 'le'
       and 'lo'.  (There also is a massified term for 'la' now, that
       wasn't in the old language, and a fourth series "le'o" is the
       individual and "li'o" the massified term, which means "that
       which exhibits some property of ...".  Massified is best
       defined by example:  "The water" is "individual" = 'le djacu'.
       "Water is blue" talks about water as a mass and is 'lei djacu'.
       Since water in a muddy river isn't blue, "loi djacu" is not
       true (since the mass of all actual water isn't blue).  There
       are a lot of subtleties though.  They'll probably come out in
       translations.

nu or
nuke - Put in front to say "the act of" or "the event of".  "le nuke
       xxx" == "the event of xxx" - See example number 1 and "ke",
       above.

sai  - From (tsali == strong) - See example #2 and #3.  When after an
       attitudinal, indicates a strong attitude.  The entire series is
       "cai" (intense), "sai" (strong), "ru'e" (weak), "cu'e"
       (ambivalent).  An unmodified attitudinal could be anywhere
       between "cai" and "cu'e" in strength.  The user is not being
       specific and isn't required to.  (Negative expressions of
       attitudinals are made by attaching "nai" to the attitudinal,
       and then optionally one of the other four).

======================================================================

                      Quicky Pronunciation Lookup
                     ----------------------------

x   - unvoiced velar fricative, the back 'ch' in German 'ich', in
      Russian 'Khrushchev', in Scottish 'Loch (Ness)'.
c   - English 'sh'
tc  - English 'tsh' /t sh/ = /ch/
j   - 'zh' as in 'measure'
dj  - /d zh/ like the English 'j'

'   - (apostrophe) joining sound between two vowels in a separate, to
      keep them part of the same word.  Pronounce it as a short,
      breathy /h/, as in 'oh hello' run together, which in Lojban
      would be written "o'elo".  The apostrophe does appear in lujvo
      (complexes), which may have vowel pairs.  lujvo are composed of
      pieces called rafsi (affixes) which uniquely represent the gismu
      (primitives).  The rafsi for each gismu are the three (possibly
      plus an apostrophe) letter words that appear next to the gismu
      on a LogFlash screen.

All the other letters are pretty much as they are in English.


 NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION OF "SPOT" IN EXAMPLE #2:

"Spot" becomes "Spat" in Lojban because Lojban is totally phonetic
spelling.  The Lojban letter 'a' is pronounced like in Spanish 'casa',
which is similar to the 'a' in 'father'.  Lojban 'o' is a very pure
"long o", like the one in Spanish 'como', which is not quite like the
one in 'joke'.  (English vowels are sloppy, the 'o' in joke slips down
into a 'u' at the end, which is not allowed in Lojban).  You can say
for yourself, and find out what "Spot" pronounced Lojbanically sounds
like.  Not like English.  People usually would prefer their names to
sound like they are used to (and definitely animals), so we try to
Lojbanize names as close in sound to the original as possible.  This,
of course can lead to many spellings of the same English name, as it
is pronounced differently indifferent places.

======================================================================

                            Occam's Razor

roda poi vemspaci ro'aroi ganai sampyrai gi xagrai

/roda poi vemSPAci roharoi   ganai SAMpuhrai   gi KHAgrai/
(Long spaces are phrasing pauses and are not mandatory.)

roda poi vemspaci             =  All somethings which are explanations
ro                            =  all (formerly 'ra')
da                            =  free variable x1 (formerly 'ba')
poi                           =  which is (indicates an identifying
                                 subordinate clause)
vemspaci                      =  explanation (from ve spaci; ve is the
                                 fourth conversion operator,
                                 exchanging the fourth sumti

                                 32
                                 explanation with the first sumti
                                 explainer in spaci [x1 explains x2 to
                                 x3 as x4]

ro'aroi                       =  nearly always: a 'tense'
ro'a                          =  nearly all: a number
-roi                          =  extensional suffix, converts a number
                                 into an "extensional" (counting)
                                 tense such as 'once', 'always',
                                 'never'.  This tense concept is a new
                                 addition to Lojban, not found in
                                 previous versions.

ganai sampyrai gi xagrai      =  if simplest then best: a kunbridi for
                                 which roda poi vemspaci is the first
                                 sumti.
ganai ... gi ...              =  forethought logical connective
                                 meaning 'if ... then ...', where in
                                 this case '...' is a kunbridi.  The
                                 result is a compound kunbridi. In the
                                 previous language version, this was
                                 'kanoi ... ki ...'.
sampyrai                      =  simplest, from tanru 'sampu traji',
                                 which literally translates as
                                 'simple-superlative'
xagrai                        =  best, from tanru 'xamgu traji',
                                 literally 'good-superlative'




                             Chorus from
                   Una Paloma Blanca (A White Dove)
                       copyright holder unknown


                      Lines are given in order:
                           Actual song line
                          Lojban translation
                      Lojban pronunciation guide
                Literal English translation of Lojban


                          Una Paloma Blanca
                         i pa blabi papcirni
                        /i pa BLAbi papCIRni/
                   one which is a white peace-bird

                      I'm just a bird in the sky
                      .i mi cirni vizu le tsani
                      /i mi CIRni vizu le TSAni/
       I am being a bird here in this large region of the sky.

                          Una paloma blanca
                         .i pa blabi papcirni
                        /i pa BLAbi papCIRni/
                   One which is a white peace-bird.

                       Over the mountains I fly
                      .i ja'u lei cmana mi vofli
                    /i zhahu lei SHMAna mi VOfli/
      Above the mass of mountains (which I have in mind), I fly.

                   No one can take my freedom away
                 .i noda na'erkakne le ka zifre po mi
                /i noda naherKAKne le ka ZIfre po mi/
No something is taker-able of the quality of being free which belongs
                                to me.


I believe you will find this translation sing-able to the tune of the
                            popular song.

                            Lojban Numbers

As described above, the old number words were so close together that
in a 'noisy' environment, they could not be distinguished.  Examples
of where this could be a problem include air traffic control radio
communications, where even English numbers and letters are doctored to
make them clearly understood.  In redeveloping the Lojban number
words, we have ensured that we get maximum separation between the
words.  The new numbers are:

                    1    pa                  6    xa
                    2    re                  7    ze
                    3    ci                  8    bi
                    4    to                  9    so
                    5    mu                  0    no

With the exception of '0', the final vowels rotate in 'aeiou' order.
As with earlier versions of the language, digits of larger numbers are
read off.  The decimal point is still pi.  Thus 625.3 is xaremupici.

We received two independent comments requesting that we make Lojban
more culturally neutral by not mandating base 10.  We have added six
digits to allow up to base 16 to be represented in Lojban.  Using the
letters A thru F as is done in English is not desirable, so we have
provisionally assigned cmavo, which are in alphabetical order to make
learning easier:

                    A    dei                 D    jau
                    B    foi                 E    lau
                    C    gai                 F    vai

There is still some bias towards base 10.  The 10 basic digits have
rafsi assigned, thus making lujvo that are based on numerical tanru
shorter.  We could not make this provision for the other six digits,
and still provide good coverage for the large data base of tanru
already waiting to be made into lujvo.  There are, after all, few
existing metaphors which are based on numbers between 11 and 16,
except for 12.  Of the cmavo we propose, only foi is unassigned as a
rafsi.  We could sacrifice the alphabetical order to make foi be 'C',
which would be equivalent to 'dozen', for use in tanru.  Opinions?

We have eliminated old cmavo for double and triple zeros.  Large and
small numbers will be expressed using some representation in
scientific exponential notation.  This expression is part of the MEX
grammar, and thus has not yet been defined.


                How to Use Your Old L1 and L4/5 Books

Many of you who bought L1 (the 1975 description of the language by Dr.
James Cooke Brown which is now obsolete) or L4/5 (the 1975 dictionary,
compiled by Dr. Brown from his and others' work, mostly under an NIH
grant in the early 1960's), have asked whether these are still of any
value in learning Lojban.  They can be, especially L1, at least until
we publish the new textbook and dictionary.  L4/5 is obsolete in that
nearly every word is no longer the correct word.  However, there is a
lot of hard work put into the tanru and place structures of the ridvla
that are given.  If you are working on a translation and cannot think
of a good tanru to use, look the English word up and use the
discussion given in both halves of the dictionary for Dr. Brown's old
word to help you choose your tanru.

Nora wrote the following for the MHSLC, who borrowed one of our copies
of L1 in order to be more prepared for LogFest:

This is a general guide to using L1 to help learn Lojban.  Much of the
grammar is the same; changes will be listed here.  Comments are given
on what you can or should skip, assuming that at this point you want a
reasonable overview of the grammar, but not an absolutely thorough
coverage.  The book is out-of-print, although you might find copies in
a library; there was a microfilmed 1969 edition of this book printed
and published by Xerox University Microfilms (Ann Arbor, Michigan,
catalogue number S-398) which may be found in some libraries.  It is
possible that they will still print copies from the microfilm, but
they are expensive.  The microfilm copy is not identical to the
version Nora discusses, but should track fairly closely.  The chapter
numbers are off by one so Section 4.5 in the discussion below is 5.5
in the microfilm version.

Notation:
     Old language version words   - in italics:        gudbi.
     Lojban words                 - in bold:      xamgu.

Chapter 1 is one of the best descriptions of why the language was
originally developed, and why it might be interesting.  It also
describes how the language is considered a 'logical' language, as well
as ways in which no language can truly be considered logical.

You might as well skip chapter 2; it covers pronunciation and word
forms, which are explained in the new Synopsis of Lojban Phonology and
Morphology.

Section 3.1
     OK in general, but the place structure of blanu has changed.  It
     now just means "is blue"; there is a separate word (blanymau,
     which is a lujvo 'compound') having the meaning "is bluer than".
     The examples given here will apply for that word.

Section 3.4
     OK in general, but the specific number of places for some
     examples have changed.

Section 3.6
     The "timeless" tense has been dropped.  If you don't put in a
     tense it either continues a tense that was previously set up with
     a special indicator (you don't have to worry about this now), or
     it just means you haven't specified which one you have in mind
     (which is perfectly OK in Lojban).  So, skip all but the first
     paragraph or two in this section.  Well - the last paragraph is
     okay, too.

Section 3.8
     On page 49, the next-to-last paragraph ("Notice..."):  There is
     now a way to apply nu (Lojban se) to more than the "naked pred",
     (nuke - see the discussion below when you get to Section 4.11),
     but I suggest you don't worry about it for now.

     Also, again, the "time-free" translations are not necessarily
     correct (page 51, items 17-20).

Section 3.12
     OK.  cmalo nirli ge ckela may be grammatical now, but still
     redundant, as he says.

Section 3.13
     Item 7:  The word go (Lojban ko) now creates an automatic break
     in the modification order, so:
          da nirli ckela go cmalo = da cmalo ge nirli ckela
          (It is a girls' school which is small = It is a small type
          of girls'-school)

     Because of the above, skip items 8-10.  They are no longer
     correct.

Section 3.14
     Item 9:  The translation is incorrect (at least, now it is).  da
     no fa nu crina a fa metlo means "It will neither be rained on nor
     be wet".  Or, as a more literal translation (and showing better
     that no has a scope covering the whole rest of the sentence), "It
     will not be the case that it will either be rained on or be wet".

Section 3.16
     Items 11-12:  gi is gone, and gu (Lojban ku) has been changed
     around a lot.

          #11 da gi vedji gudbi ce sadji farfu is no longer correct;
          it should be da cui vedji gudbi ce sadji farfu.

          #12: da gudbi ce vedji sadji gu farfu should be da gudbi ce
          vedji ci sadji farfu (or, da gudbi ge vedji sadji gue
          farfu).  The ci (Lojban bo) closely links the vedji and the
          sadji; (the ge-gue (Lojban ke and kei) combination acts
          somewhat like parentheses, saying that vedji sadji should be
          taken as a unit.

Section 3.17
     Skip this section.  zea has been removed.  ze and its several new
     relatives can be used to mix both sumti (arguments) and bridi
     (predicates).

Section 3.18
     Note again that the "timeless tense" no longer exists; so, you
     can skip items 8-9.

Sections 4.3 & 4.4
     OK in general, but current words for pronouns may differ as to
     what's really covered and exactly how they are used.  For
     example, there are several equivalents for the da series, some of
     which do not work as defined in the text.  (Even Dr. Brown seldom
     followed the rules given here for counting.)

Section 4.5
     Item 2:  In Lojban, the imperative must be marked.  Djan gotso
     would be Djan ko culgo.  Instead, the "observative" is unmarked.
     This is what you use when, for example, you call someone's
     attention to the book on the table by pointing and saying
     "Book!".

Section 4.6
     Item 4: Again, as in section 3.13, the ge is implied when go is
     used, so it is not needed.  The sentence should be: le nirli
     ckela go bilti ce cmalo.

Section 4.11
     Minor variation here.  po (Lojban nu) originally had a long
     scope, taking in everything to the end of the sentence unless
     specifically ended by a gu.  This is no longer the case.
     Instead, po only applies to the single word following it if that
     word is a single ridvla; if po is followed by a sumti (the
     equivalent of a noun phrase), it is taken to be long scope -
     after all, it has to cover at least up to the next ridvla in any
     case since it is not defined as applying to sumti.  To make a
     long scope when po is followed by a ridvla, you need a grammar
     word to make it so; in Lojban, you would use nu ke (also often
     written as one word, nuke).  Of course, if there is only one word
     following the po, the two forms are equivalent.

Section 4.14
     Item 5: This is not correct.  It should be lemi me da gudbi letu
     me da.  me turns the pronoun da into something which the le can
     take (that is, it becomes the equivalent of a ridvla, which is
     the normal object for a le to take).  le (still le in Lojban)
     cannot precede a sumti form without converting it with me.
     (There are minor exceptions for possessives; don't worry about
     them yet.)

Section 4.15
     Item 3: As in section 4.14, me is needed: le me leva mrenu gu
     botcu.

Section 4.19
     Number words are now penultimately stressed (next-to-last
     syllable) like ridvla.  To separate one number word from the
     next, you'd have to pause, as you do in English.

Section 4.19
     Jim gets obscure at about item 9.  I suggest you skip it.  You
     can read it, but don't worry if you don't understand; I didn't on
     first reading.

Section 4.23
     Complex topic, and he doesn't seem to give any simple examples.
     I suggest you read the explanation before item 1, maybe glance at
     #1, and skip the rest.

     Well, if you do read it anyway, keep in mind that the ki...ke...
     phrasing has been changed to ke...ki... so that you know up front
     what kind of link you're being expected to do.  Similarly,
     ki...kanoi... becomes ka...kinoi (the noi piece does not move if
     it refers to the second piece), and ki...noka... becomes
     kanoi...ki... (it does move if it refers to the first piece).
     (Convert the words to Lojban by replacing 'k' by 'g' in the
     cmavo, and by replacing no, noi, and nu by na, nai, and se,
     respectively.

Section 4.24
     The negator for a sumti ("argument") is ni (no in Lojban), which
     is the same thing as "zero" ("He goes to zero Romes.", in
     effect).

     The negator for a bridi ("predicate") is no (na in Lojban).

     Items 5 to end: Skip!  These are really confusing, and some are
     probably wrong.  Jim seems to have trouble being consistent in
     this area.

Section 5.4
     Items 6-7: As mentioned in section 4.5 comments, the imperative
     needs a ko marker.

Section 5.6
     Items 1-3: Lojban uses ki'a after the item being asked "which"
     about, so:
          da ki'a pa donsu de (or, completely in Lojban: ko'a ki'a pu
          dunda ko'e).

          da pa donsu de ki'a (or, Lojban: ko'a pu dunda ko'e ki'a).

     In general, Lojban uses ki'a after a word to ask for
     clarification, no matter what type of word it is.  If you are
     specifically asking for the identity of the person/thing, you can
     use the construction ko'a goi ma ("[the variable label] ko'a is
     assigned to what thing/person?"); see the general explanation of
     ma, below.  Other questions (as in item 3 in this section) are
     done differently; they are based on what type of word you want
     the answerer to fill in.  If the answerer is to fill in a ridvla
     or possibly a bridi, you use mo: ko'a mo stuci = "He is what-
     kind-of teacher?", or mi mo = "I am doing/being what?".  If the
     answerer is expected to fill in a sumti, you use ma: ma stuci =
     "who/what is a teacher?", or (as in subject (v)), ca ma = "At
     what [time]?".

Sections 5.9-5.12
     As in section 5.7, when asking time/place questions you use vi ma
     ("At what [place]") and ca ma ("At what [time]?").

     The rules for attachment of the time/location phrase to a portion
     of a sentence has changed.  mi pa durzo de na la Ven now has the
     na la Ven applying to the whole sentence.  If you want the phrase
     to be specifically attached to a sumti ("argument"), you must
     show this with ji (in Lojban, ne or pe, with some differences
     between these that parallel jia and jio in Section 5.8,
     respectively):
     mi pa durzo de ji na la Ven (Lojban: mi pu pilno ko'a pe ca la
     Son).

Section 5.15
     As mentioned for section 5.6, ma is used to ask questions when
     what is wanted is a sumti, so ie da gotso is ma culgo in Lojban.

Section 5.16
     As mentioned for section 4.23, the ki...ka... type of
     construction has been turned around to be ka...ki...; similarly,
     the ki...Ica...noka... would be kanoi...Ica...ki..., etc.

Section 5.17
     Skip item 13 to the end of the section; this is far too complex.

Section 5.18
     As mentioned for section 4.24, negation of sumti is done with ni
     (Lojban no), while negation of bridi is done with no (Lojban na).

     Skip items 7 to the end of the section; very complex.

Section 5.19
     If you don't want to see the topic beaten to death, you can give
     up at about page 215.

Section 5.22
     As mentioned for section 5.6, most of these questions would be
     asked with ma rather that ie or ie da.

     Of course, skip #14.  I don't intend even to look at it for
     validity.

Skip Chapter 6 & on, which are only interesting from a historical
perspective.  You are now done.

The following is Nora's list of cmavo which she made to accompany the
above text.  These are the latest proposals, and are the most commonly
used cmavo.  They are among the most stable on the list, and certainly
should by usable with the old L1 until we come out with a more
complete list (which will have some additional explanation for each
word).  The English translations given are those that Nora used in her
old translation program.

L1   Lojban    coarse English      L1      Lojban  coarse English
word cmavo      translation        word    cmavo    translation
I    i         .                   TU      do      YOU, YOUR
BA   da        SOMETHING           UA      uo      THERE!
BE   de        SOMETHING           UE      ue      WELL!
BO   di        SOMETHING           UI      ui      GOOD!
BU   [removed] SOMETHING           UO      o'o     WHAT!
DA   ri/ko'a   IT, ITS             UU      uu      WHAT A SHAME!
DE   ra/ko'e   IT, ITS             VA      va      NEAR, THERE
DI   ru/ko'i   IT, ITS             VE      so      9, NINE
DO   ru/ko'o   IT, ITS             VI      vi      AT, HERE
DU   ru/ko'u   IT, ITS             VO      bi      8, EIGHT
EI   pei       ?                   VU      vu      AT A DISTANCE,
YONDER
FA   ba        AFTER, FUTURE
FE   mu        5, FIVE
FO   to        4, FOUR
FU   te                            BEA     mu'u gai       FOR EXAMPLE
GA   cu                            BEU     cu'i    POSSIBLY
GU   ku        ,                   CIA     si'a    SIMILARLY
IA   ie cai    CERTAINLY           CIU     du'i    AS MUCH AS
IE   mo/ki'a   WHAT/WHICH          COA     to'u    IN SHORT
IE DA          ma                  WHAT/WHICH      DAU           la'e
PROBABLY
II   ie ru'e   POSSIBLY            DIA     ra'i    ON BEHALF OF
IO   ie sai    PROBABLY            DIU     ti'a    IN DETAIL
IU   ie cu'e   WHO KNOWS?          DOU     ru'a    BY HYPOTHESIS
JE   be                            DUO     ru'e    BY THE METHOD OF
JU   ve                            FOI     su'u    AND VICE VERSA
LA   la                            GEA     te'i    IN PARTICULAR
LE   le        THE                 JOE     [removed]
LI   li        '                   JUE     bei
LO   lei/loi   SOME                KAE     ra'a    CONCERNING
LU   li'u      '                   KAU     kau     IN GENERAL
MI   mi        ME, MY              KIA     li'i    CLEARLY, OBVIOUSLY
NA   ca        DURING, PRESENT     KUO     [removed]          USUALLY
NE   pa        1, ONE              LAU     ra'e    ANYWAY
NI   no        0, ZERO             LIA     ta'i    LIKE
NO   na        NO, NOT             LUI     pu'a    FOR
NU   se                            MOU     mau/rai SO MUCH MORE THAN
PA   pu        BEFORE, PAST        NAU     ni'o    NOW
PE   po        OF                  NEA     ra'u    PRIMARILY, CHIEFLY

                                 43
PO   nu/nuke   THE STATE/EVENT OF  NEU     sau/va'u       WHEN, UNDER
CONDITIONS
PU   ka        THE PROPERTY/QUALITY OF     NIE     lu'a       LOOSELY
SPEAKING
RA   ro        ALL                 PAE     ri'i    ETC
RE   ro'e      MOST                PIE     pa'a    AS WELL AS
RI   ro'o      SEVERAL             POU     ku'i    HOWEVER
RO   ro'i      MANY                RAE     fa'o    IN CONCLUSION
RU   rau       ENOUGH              RUI     cei     ACCORDING TO
SE   ze        7, SEVEN            SAU     pa'o    FROM
SO   xa        6, SIX              SEA     si'u    WITH THE HELP OF
TA   ta        THAT                SIE     ba'i    INSTEAD OF
TE   ci        3, THREE            SUI     ji'a    ALSO
TI   ti        THIS                TIE     pi'o    WITH, USING
TO   re        2, TWO              VOI     ba'u    SKIPPING DETAILS


                      Current Development Issues

These are issues likely to be discussed at LogFest, and are introduced
so that those with some background in the language can think about
them a little before coming.

Lojban Attitudinals

The system of attitudinal indicators (the VV-form cmavo) is being
redone to greatly expand the number of attitudes that can be
indicated.  Also, each attitude can be expressed in varying degrees of
strength (as the old 'oV' series did for the obligation attitudes), or
can be negated.  Some examples occur in the translations above, but I
won't give a complete exposition until decisions are finalized.

A New Scheme for  'Borrowings' (na'evla)

A long-standing problem has been the construction of the multitudinous
technical words and specialized nouns that have made English the
repository of over 3 million words.  I made a proposal back in issue
number 2, which did not get a lot of feedback at LogFest 86.  There
was some vague unhappiness because it describes a whole new set of
rafsi that must be used to build na'evla, and which could be
ambiguous, simply from lack of complete definition.  For those who
read that proposal, the new proposal will be easy to understand.  Just
reverse everything.  At the beginning of any borrowing will be a
categorizer, which will be a standard rafsi (or possibly a lujvo).
This will be glued onto the 'borrowing' portion of the word in such a
way as to not fail the 'Slinkui' test.  (See The Loglanist, 6/1 for a
discussion of this fairly ill-defined test; it must be clarified into
an algorithm.)  Nora, who proposed this, and I have coined several ad
hoc na'evla in casual conversation, so it seems to be workable and
natural.


       We Want Your Inputs! - Flash Cards, Lojban Pen Pals, APA

Any time we do a questionnaire, we discover later that we asked the
wrong questions.  Of course, we also come up with new ones all the
time.  I'm not going to inflict another questionnaire on you (yet),
however.  We do read them and listen carefully, but I know that I hate
to fill them out.  So we will rely on those of you who choose to write
or who come to LogFest to speak for the rest of you.  The following
are issues we need some opinions on:

A. FLASH CARDS

Many of you do not have computers, or your computers can't run
LogFlash as it currently exists.  Or you want to be able to learn the
words without sitting at a terminal.  The LogFlash algorithm was
originally described for Dr. Brown as a way of learning the words with
printed flash cards.  After the gismu are baselined at LogFlash, we
certainly can have cards printed if there is demand.  I say printed;
we cannot efficiently produce them except by sending them to a
professional printer who can cut card stock into individual cards
after printing, and who can print on both sides of cardstock.  The
setup for printing can be expensive, so we need a number of orders to
spread out this initial cost.  The more orders we receive, the cheaper
will be the price.

Since the place structures are not going to be baselined for a while,
that data on the cards will eventually be partly wrong; the basic
information: the gismu and English key words will remain correct.  We
have to presume, though, that any copies not sold in the first year or
so may never be sold, since we will eventually have to redo the cards
with updated place structures.  That will be at least a year from now,
after people have used the language enough to find place structure
problems.

If only a couple of you order flash cards, the price would be
outrageous.  If we get 10 or more, I believe the price will be less
than $20 for a set.  If we get 50 or more, the price may be less than
$10 for a set.  So I need to know:

1. Are you interested in flash cards at any price?
2. What is the maximum price you would be willing to pay for them?

I am asking for no money now, but will certainly take it (and apply it
to your balances).  We will get an estimate.  If we can meet your
criteria, we will get them made and probably send them out around 2-3
months from now.

B. LOJBAN PEN PALS

This idea has been suggested as a way for those of you who have little
time to spend on Lojban can maximize your reward.  I can't possibly
give good responses to everyone who sends me letters, as I found out
in the last few months.  (This doesn't mean that I don't read or
appreciate them, though.)  If you write to other Lojbanists, you can
more likely get responses quickly.  When you learn more of the
language, you can start writing in Lojban.  Your correspondent can
then critique your vocabulary and grammar, and will in turn send you
letters that you can examine.  This, of course, is the only effective
way those of you who have no nearby Lojbanists can learn and practice
the language.

You can send copies to me if you wish (or to others, like pc, who know
the language better).  We will read them, not necessarily to respond,
but to get a feel for what people are learning and what people are
having trouble with.

3. Are you interested in having a Lojban pen pal to write to?
4. If so, please give some idea of what you would like to write about,
or possibly what level of skill you have with the old or new
languages.  We will try to match up people with common interests.
5. Or would you rather have just anyone, or someone in as close a
geographical area to you as possible?

C. LOJBAN SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIGS)

This newsletter started as an attempt to organize SIGS in local areas
having high concentrations of Lojbanists.  Only one such group, the
Portland group, ever made a meaningful attempt to do so, though there
have been stirrings in Boston, San Francisco, and LA.  The main
problem is that I have to identify a local person willing to serve as
a central contact.  This person can either be an active organizer who
canvasses the local group, or someone who waits for enough telephone
calls and calls a meeting at his/her house or some other convenient
spot.  I can also go one step further and send name and address
information to everyone in a SIG area, and let each of you take
whatever responsibility you choose.

We can support a SIG better than individuals.  If you collect
questions from several of you into one letter, I can answer them in
one letter which you can copy and distribute.  You also might be able
to answer each others questions and thus reduce the number I need to
respond to.  Of course, you also get the face to face (or telephone)
stimulation of dealing with others as interested in Lojban as you are.
This stimulation is why I'm working on the language.  Nora, Tommy, and
others around here have kept be going when I got depressed at the
politics I've been forced to deal with, and they urged (drafted?) me
to lead the effort to build the Lojban version to finally end the
politics and give all of you (and us) a language.

In addition, an organized SIG is the only way you can have a class.  A
class may consist of as few as two of you working together, but it
does require more than one.  We will be designing part of the textbook
for such classes, with more than two required for some exercises.

The following are metro areas or geographical groupings in our current
mailing list, and numbers of people in each:

METRO AREA GROUPINGS BY STATE    STATES WITH NO METRO AREA GROUPINGS
California:         63           Alabama        1
  SF/SJ             30           Alaska              1
      North         4            Arizona        2
      East Bay      8            Arkansas       1
      SF&Penins     7            Georgia        1
      San Jose      8            Iowa           1
      S. Cruz       3            Indiana        2
  LA                20           Kansas              2
      90x Zip       11           Louisiana      2
      91x Zip       5            Maine          1
      92x Zip       4            Nebraska       1
  San Diego         11           New Hampshire  3
  Other             2            New Mexico     2
Colorado            8            Nevada              1
  Denver/Boulder    7            Ohio           2
  Cheyenne WY       1            Oklahoma       1
DC Metro/MD/VA      70           Puerto Rico    1
  DC                4            South Carolina 2
  VA suburb         36           Tennessee      1

                                 46
  MD suburb         20           Utah           1
  (Baltimore)       4            Vermont        1
  (other VA)        6            Wisconsin      3
Delaware            3            West Virginia  1
Florida             9
  Gainesville       6            FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Illinois(Chicago)   5            Australia      2
Massachusetts       26           Canada              20
  01x Zip           15             Alberta      1
  02x Zip           11             BC           1
Michigan            6              Manitoba     1
  Detroit           2              Ontario      8
  Ann Arbor         2                  Nepean   2
  Lansing           2                  Toronto  4
Minnesota(M/SP)     3                  other    2
Missouri            6              Saskatchewan 1
  St. Louis         5            Denmark        1
N.Carol.(Raleigh)   6            England        9
New Jersey          7            Finland        1
  07x Zip           4            France              1
  08x Zip           3            W. Germany     2
New York            13           Netherlands    1
  NYC               10           Mexico              1
Oregon(Portland)    7            South Africa   1
Pennsylvania        10           Sweden              1
  Philadelphia      5            Switzerland    1
  Pittsburgh        3
Texas               10
  Austin            2
  Dallas/Ft Worth   1
  Houston           4
Washington(Seattle) 8

6. Are you interested in participating in a SIG in your area?
7. Would you be willing to serve as a passive organizer? An active
canvasser?
8. Do you object to having your name and address sent to someone else
who wants to organize actively?  Your phone number?
9. Should I send a list of names and addresses (and phone numbers?) to
all potential members of your SIG, rather than trying to identify a
center person.
10. If you have no local people to form a SIG, are you interested in
being a part of a "SIG of the whole" set up for those like you.  Most
activities would be conducted by mail, so this is just an elaboration
of the pen pal idea above, but might have a different flavor.

D.  Amateur Publishing Association (APA)

There are hundreds of small newspapers/magazines published by small
groups affiliated with the Amateur Publishing Association.  Members of
these groups contribute material to a center person who then collates
the stuff and sends it out, typically 3-6 times a year.  The
contributors may be required to send copies enough for everyone in the
group, or may pay a small fee for the center person to copy
everything.  Generally, the only other fee is for postage costs.
Everyone is expected to contribute something every once in a while;
the amount may range from one up to dozens of pages.  One
correspondent suggested that we form an APA for Lojbanists who wish to
write in or about the language.  This is similar in concept to the
'SIG of the whole' that I just mentioned, but has some specifics
attached.

This newsletter doesn't really qualify.  I do most of the writing (and
need to) and I do not want to limit my circulation except by the
limits of finances and your interest.  I also don't have time to do
the organizing; the center person doesn't have a lot to do, but this
would be one thing too many.

11.  Are you interested in finding out more about this concept, or in
participating in a Lojban APA?
12.  Are you willing to be or assist a center person for a Lojban APA?

E.  HOW ARE WE DOING?

13.  What do you like and dislike about Ju'i Lobypli?  What changes or
new features would you like to see?
14.  Are you willing to write something for publication?
15.  We have used three font sizes in this issue besides the
headlines.  We have primarily used larger 10 point for text and
smaller 8 point type for tables.  8 point type allows us up to 20%
more per page, which can cut our printing costs.  Can you tell the
difference?  Which do you prefer?
16.  We have had one request for binder margins on our publications.
This can be done, but cuts the content per page, and is a little more
work to set up.  Would this feature be valuable to you?  Would you
prefer that we print on three-hole punched paper?


              Orders, Organizational, and Financial News

Every organization has business to attend to, and this newsletter will
serve partially as the house organ for The Logical Language Group.  I
feel that since we are supported entirely by your contributions (or
else my pocketbook suffers), we should be accountable to you for what
we do with that money.  Since I am currently jobless (Nora is working,
though), our finances have gotten tighter; I am thus especially
conscious of keeping you pleased enough to keep contributing.

Incorporation

We will hold an organizational meeting for the group at LogFest,
wherein a charter and initial bylaws will be approved.  Any attendee
may participate; this will be a side event and not the major activity
of the gathering.  I will then take this to a lawyer who will check it
over for proprieties, and handle the paperwork to get us incorporated
as a non-profit corporation in Virginia.  This will take place
probably around the beginning of July, and cost around $100.

We will then file for 501(c)(3) non-profit status with the IRS, which
will allow your contributions (and ours) to be tax-deductible, and
will exempt us from income taxes for the organization (not that we
expect to generate enough income to pay any).  This apparently can
take as long as 6 months, so don't count on it yet.  However, they may
allow contributions received after incorporation to be deductible,
even if they are before the approval.  We will keep records, and
notify all contributors of any tax-deductible contributions.

Since contributions for which you receive goods are not deductible, we
must keep donation moneys separate from balances.  As such, we need
you to clearly indicate when you wish money to be considered a
donation, and not intended to apply to your balance.  On your request,
we will refund any remainder of your contributed balance money; that
money is in effect a loan.  (Donated money that gets IRS credit cannot
be such a loan.)  To prevent the conflict of interest that Dr. Brown
has had, Nora and I will make the bulk of our financial support as
donations, not as a loan.  Finances of the organization will be kept
clearly separate from our own.

Most of you who have sent money have not clearly indicated whether the
money is for your balance or is a donation.  We therefore have assumed
that it is balance money.  If your balance is sufficiently high, we
will be pleased to transfer some to the donation pile.  Please let us
know.

By the way, the name was selected after careful thought.  We are
committed to supporting the entire logical language community, not
just a limited membership, or just signatories to legal agreements.
We are committed to completing the last 35 years' research and
spreading a single stable language as a result of that effort.  The
chosen name reflects this intent, and has a couple of nice side
features.  Translated into Lojban, it becomes la lojbangrup, which is
an easy to learn cognate that makes clear the association with Lojban.
We will start using this name in this publication next issue.

Otherwise, the organization and charter will not specifically mention
Lojban, especially given that there is a dispute over language names
in general.  We consider Lojban to be the name of the specific version
currently being produced, with the old name as the generic term for
the project and all versions of the language.

Welcome to la lojbangrup!

Revised Fiscal Statement

Last issue, I put in an approximation of our finances for the last
couple of years.  These were estimates that we have firmed up as part
of our incorporation effort.  Since we do not have good records for
what we spent supporting Tommy during the gismu development effort,
that is no longer included.  I have brought the data up to date of
this writing.

A key feature is that we have received responses with contributions
from 41 of you since JL4 (about 60 people overall).  These
contributions totalled $1585.75, or an average of almost $40.00
apiece, primarily due to 4 contributions over $100.  This is a much
better response than for previous issues; at this rate, we can have a
net of $6000 in contributions this year.  However, it still represents
less than 1 in 5 of you.  This means that those who are contributing
are each having to support four others, which is not fair.  If you
feel that the material we publish is interesting, please contribute at
least the cost of your publications.  See the discussion of the
balance system below and the price list to determine that amount.  If
you can match that with an equivalent gift, we will be a much
healthier organization.

1986

Contributions         525.00     UL1           169.62
                                 UL2           189.21
                                 Telephone     834.64
                                 other         123.95
                      ______                  _______
Net Income            525.00   Net Expenses   1317.42

                               Net Loss      (792.42)

                                               ______
                                                       525.00

1987

Contributions        1005.00     HL3           488.21
                                 Evecon/GPA    350.65
                                 LogFest 87    388.41
                                 telephone    1056.71
                                 books         332.04
                                 office supplies213.76
                                 software      194.80
                                 other           3.88
                     _______                  _______
Net Income           1005.00   Net Expenses   3028.52

                               Net Loss     (2023.52)
                                              _______
                                              1005.00


1988(Jan 1 - May 15)

 Contributions:
   pre-JL4            190.01     JL4           796.38
   post-JL4          1585.75     office supplies423.53
                                 other pubs.   695.77
   50% matching 86    262.50     telephone     488.23
   50% matching 87    520.00
   50% matching 88     95.00
   25% matching 88    396.43
                     _______                  _______
 Total Income        3049.69   Total Expenses 2403.91

                               Net Gain        645.78
                                              _______
                                              3049.69

Summary 1986-May 15, 1988

1986 Loss           (792.42)
1987 Loss          (2023.52)
1988 Gain             645.78
                   _________
                   (2170.16)

The net loss is made up from contributions.  The current balance debt
is $771.54.


Proposed Budget

The above shows what we've spent.  We are budgeting for the period May
15 to December 31, and then for next year.  We are estimating 10%
growth in subscribers each 3 months between JL issues, which is the
minimum that we've achieved so far.  All other figures are
extrapolations of current numbers.

1988 (May 15 - Dec 31)

 Contributions       4555.00     Bulk Rate Permit      50.00
 matching             180.00     Incorporation         100.00
                                 JL5                   600.00
                                 JL6                   660.00
                                 JL7                   725.00
                                 office supplies       1200.00
                                 other publications    1500.00
                                 telephone             1200.00
                                 other (10%)           724.00
                     _______                           _______
Net Income           4735.00   Net expenses            7929.00

                               Net Loss                (3196.00)
                                                       _________
                                                       4735.00

Net for entire year:           Net Loss                (2550.52)

As you can see, we will be losing our shirts if we don't get a higher
balance/donation response rate from you.  We need about double the
current response rate to cover expenses this year (and our debts will
grow due to increased balances, unless a lot of this is gifts).  To
publish final materials in 1989 will be a much larger expense; we need
to know that we will have real buyers of these materials.

For 1989, I am estimating sales of 300 textbooks, in addition to
contributions at the rate listed for 1988.

1989

  Contributions      9590.00     JL8           800.00
  Textbook Sales    12000.00     JL9           880.00
                                 JL10          970.00
                                 JL11         1070.00
                                 Textbook pub10000.00
                                 Other pubs   2500.00
                                 Office supp  2000.00
                                 Telephone    1800.00
                                 Other (10%)  2002.00
                    ________                 ________
Net Income          21590.00   Net Expenses  22022.00

                               Net Loss      (432.00)
                                             ________
                                             21590.00

This budget presumes that we will set the textbook price at a level to
make us come out reasonably close to even.  It does not include costs
for classes, advertising and miscellaneous other items that we should
expend in order to have Lojban be a success.  Those costs will only be
covered if we do better than this budget in income.

The Order Fiasco and Revised Plans

We received some 75 questionnaires in response to JL4.  We also had
previous responses from Evecon, from phone calls, etc.  As a result,
we had some 150 orders to fill.  It seemed that every order was
different, and I felt a need to respond with a brief note to about 100
of these.  As a result, in January and February I spent 4 weeks
producing JL4.  In March and April, I spent 4 weeks filling orders.  I
recently discovered that about 5 orders did not get sent.  I'm
including those people's material in this mailing.

What we ended up with was similar to the Publish on Demand (POD)
system that 'The Loglanist' used for volume 2.  This is labor-
intensive, and labor is even shorter than money.  It failed then, and
it failed for us.  As a result, we will have to make some changes.

We will treat certain high-priced items, like LogFlash, separately.
They will still be 'POD'.  Otherwise, we will basically have two
levels of 'sendings'.  The lower level will consist of just the
newsletter, and those things of general interest that we put in
appendices.  We will send this to everyone on our list, regardless of
your balance; we reserve the right to drop anyone who has a negative
balance, but will not do so until we can't afford otherwise.  You are
our 'investment' in the future of Lojban.

The higher level will include things like the Synopsis, the cmavo
list, etc.  These will be teaching materials and give meaningful
technical information.  They also will tend to be longer than
appendices, so our production costs are too high to send them to
everyone.  We will send these to you only if your balance is
sufficient, or if you are actively working as a volunteer in some
capacity.  The latter will receive 'volunteer credits' from the gifts
account.  We will be attempting to write these materials for the non-
linguist layman that is our typical audience.  We need feedback from
you if these materials are not what you want.

Due to our time constraints, we cannot generally accept orders for
selected items for individuals.  If this proves unsatisfactory, we may
add an intermediate level for people who want teaching materials only
when they are in a more final form.  We do, however, encourage you to
freely make and distribute copies to others.  Thus, one person in an
area can obtain everything, and then make copies for others.  (We also
will fill bulk orders and let you do the distributing.)

Please bear with us while we learn how to make this organization work
for you on its shoestring budget.  Your suggestions are welcome.

The Balance System and Understanding Your Mailing Label

We have computerized our records to some extent, although there are
still some bugs.  As a result, we can now automatically generate
balance data, and update it fairly easily.  You will see the result on
your mailing labels.  A typical balance line will look like:

                C  50.00 -D  10.00 -S  21.25 =B  18.75

This says that we have $50.00 in Contributions from you, including
matching funds and volunteer credits.  You have Donated $10.00 of this
as a gift not to be repaid.  We have Sent you $21.25 in materials,
resulting in a net Balance for you of $18.75.  We have tried to be
fairly generous with volunteer credits for people who did things for
us over the past couple of years.  What has been done is in some cases
without price; we wouldn't be doing this without you.

Note that we commit to refunding to you on request only that money
that you've actually sent us.  Matching funds and volunteer credits
are merely our way of thanking you by ensuring that you keep getting
material even if your balance runs low.

We are starting to deduct the price of the newsletter as of this
issue.  Thus, many of you will show a negative balance if you haven't
sent us money.  We will be happy to accept your contributions to
remedy this.

NOTE: We will shortly be obtaining a 3rd class bulk rate permit, and
most of our mailing will be done under this permit.  We thus cannot
get address updates automatically, as we have been.  The post office
may also not forward this material for you unless you guarantee
postage.  We should be mailing something to everyone every few months,
so IF YOU MOVE, YOU NEED TO LET US KNOW THE NEW ADDRESS.  We will try
to check and weed our mailing list every year by sending postcards
first class to anyone we haven't heard from.

Revised Price List

Our costs last time proved higher than expected.  We forgot to allow
for staples, mailing envelopes, etc.  The Post Office also caught us
with their rate increase.  We charged your balance with the new
prices, which were never more than the 25% that we added to match your
contribution.  The following is our revised price list.  The materials
are shown grouped as we would have sent them under our current balance
and order system.  If you request the higher level of publications and
have not received material from us before, we will send you the back
items that are asterisked.

For those who received some of the items listed and want others: we
will fill your individual orders received by July 1.  We cannot do
this except for those people who we sent orders to before.

These prices are what we charged you last time.  They are only
estimates for any future mailing.  If we mail to you under our bulk
rate permit, for example, the prices will be substantially cheaper.
But we have never done bulk rate before, and cannot estimate postage
costs.  The prices shown will probably be valid if we send the
materials First Class.  Foreign recipients should add some amount for
international postage.

Base level:             Pages    Price
  UL1                   44       $5.20
  UL2                   38        4.50
  HL3                   34        4.20
  JL4                   40        2.90  while they last
                                  5.00  after we run out, and must
reprint
  JL5 (estimated)       54        3.75  for this and any extra copies
now
                                  6.00  after we run out, and must
reprint

Teaching Material Level:
  Answers to HL3 Questions          34  $4.20
  GMR Synopsis          24       $3.10  no longer available
  *Synopsis of Lojban Phonology
     and Morphology     31       $2.50  subsidized by us a bit
  *lujvo-making algorithm            9  $1.25
  *gismu lists
     Lojban order       22       $1.85
     English order      22       $1.85
     Grouped by type and
        Difficulty      23       $1.85
  LogFlash manual       15       $1.35

Thus, anyone who sends a contribution who has not received an order
will be sent the Synopsis, the three gismu lists, and the lujvo-making
algorithm.  These would result in a balance charge of $9.30 at the
listed prices.

Special Orders Only:
     LogFlash for IBM PC, diskette and printed manual  $20.00
     (We included the Synopsis and printed gismu lists in this price
          in the last mailing, but cannot afford to do so any more.)

     Some people also received PLOP either from me or from Jeff
          Prothero.  If I sent it to you, then I deducted $20.00,
          though many received it free due to volunteer credits.  I
          will not be distributing PLOP again until it has been
          updated for the current language.  Those who were charged
          for this copy will receive the update free.

All of the above materials may be copied and distributed freely.  Our
publications and software are generally copyrighted, with unrestricted
permission to freely copy and distribute any publication or program as
long as you include any copyright notices, and do not charge for the
product.  Any derivative works must subscribe to this license.


                   Response to Dr. Brown's Letters

I have verified that Dr. Brown, on behalf of The Loglan Institute,
Inc. of Gainesville, Florida has indeed registered the name 'Loglan'
as a trademark for their line of 'Dictionaries and Grammars'.  I have
obtained a copy of his application.  It makes no mention of the
following germane facts:

1. The name has been used as a descriptive term for a language and for
a research project for almost 35 years.  There are places where it has
been used fictionally with no specific association with any particular
language.  Dr. Brown and others have used 'Loglan' as an adjective,
and has modified it into 'Loglandic', 'Loglandia', Loglanized', and
other such terms that emphasize its descriptive nature.

     'Loglan' has not generally been used to refer to the Institute's
Dictionary, which is generally referred to even by Dr. Brown as
'L4/5'.  That dictionary even defines the name as referring to the
language or to elements of the language.  If a 'grammar' can said to
have been published by the Institute, it is contained in several
places, called by Dr. Brown and the community 'L1', 'MacGram',
Notebook 1 or NB1, NB3, or Trial.nn where nn is a number.

2. More than half of this period preceded the existence of The Loglan
Institute, Inc.  The application makes statements that under trademark
regulations are interpreted as meaning that THAT organization has used
the mark since before 1960, which is impossible.

3. Descriptive terms cannot be registered unless they clearly
associate solely with the registrant.  Dr. Brown is not himself The
Loglan Institute, Inc., and the name of the language is far more
strongly associated with him than with the organization.  In any case,
your letters over the last 2 years have clearly indicated that, while
there is no confusion between my efforts and the Institute's, you
consider me a valid purveyor of materials pertaining to the language.

4. Others, including myself, James Carter, several college students
and professors, the late science fiction author Robert Heinlein,
author Robert Rimmer, Dave Cortesi, and Dr. Brown himself, have used
the name 'Loglan' in publications independently from The Loglan
Institute,Inc.  The name also floats freely on computer networks like
UseNet, occasionally associated with Dr. Brown's name, but seldom with
that of the Institute.  The Institute has made no objection to these
practices, and in some cases encouraged them.  Failure to vigorously
defend a trademark against all violations tends to invalidates it.  Of
course, since some of these 'violations' occurred before The Loglan
Institute, Inc. was incorporated, this was impossible.

5. Dr. Brown states (under threat of penalty of law) that he knew of
no one other than The Loglan Institute, Inc. that had a right to use
'Loglan' for commercial purposes.  On the contrary, Dr. Brown clearly
knows of others with such rights.  Dr. Brown has stated recently that
he himself still holds copyrights for materials published before 1975.
He also claimed in the election of 1984 that if he resigned from the
Institute, he might still write books about the language.  This would
be counter to his current claim.  Scientific American and Xerox
University Microfilms also hold copyright on some materials, in
addition to all those mentioned above and every author who contributed
material to The Loglanist.

6. Although urged several times during the 1982-1984 period by the
Board of Directors of The Loglan Institute to make efforts to obtain
copyright and trademark protection for the language and the name
'Loglan', Dr. Brown did not do so.  Indeed, at one point, he exercised
his veto power as CEO to prevent this from becoming the policy of the
Institute, and refused to follow the passed motion by the Board
charging him to do so.  At another point, he used the fact that all
Loglan Institute funds were in his personal bank account to veto the
expenditure of money to investigate the legal rights of the Institute.

7. On at least two occasions, Dr. Brown has clearly put the language
into the public domain.  Once was in the introduction to Loglan 3,
before The Loglan Institute, Inc. existed, in which he exhorts the
reader to "please feel free to make it your own.  Invent in it freely
... you are free to change them in way that seems fitting to you".  He
later stated "But Loglan is also your language.  And you are free to
build new words of your own.  We ask only that from time to time you
communicate with the Loglan Institute as you do this, so that your
inventions too can become part of newly published lists."

In his letter which was labelled 'Welcome to Loglandia' to those of
you who responded to Dave Cortesi's article in Dr. Dobb's Journal in
1982, Dr. Brown stated "From 1955 to 1975, the design of Loglan has
been more or less the private domain of its inventor.  But from 1975
onward, with the publication of the two books, and especially with the
founding of The Loglanist in September 1976, Loglan became the
intellectual property  of all whose minds live at least partly in
Loglandia."

The above seven points are but a portion of the evidence contained in
some 14 pounds of documents which I have assembled into a brief on the
subject.  This material is being reviewed by others.  I have selected,
but not yet retained, a team of lawyers who are expert in intellectual
property law, to whom we will submit this brief; they will then advise
us of our legal options.  If they so advise, I and others will submit
a 'Petition for Cancellation' with this evidence, and Dr. Brown will
have to work very hard to avoid severe legal penalties.  We have no
doubt that the trademark will be cancelled.  The decision as to
whether there will be a legal challenge is not up to me in any case;
at least one person has said that he will file the cancellation
petition regardless of my participation.

I have urged since I started this effort that Loglan not become a
legal issue.  Dr. Brown has chosen to go to the lawyers; he will find
that this has been an expensive decision beyond any monetary
considerations.  No one is sadder about this than I.  In the letter of
mine that Dr. Brown refers to in his second letter, I told him that
the Institute should not throw legal stones while living in a glass
house.  He has ignored that advice.

The Loglan language cannot stand to have a legal cloud hanging
(literally) over its name.  You have a moral right to the language and
to that name for it, and so do I.  We have this right by Dr. Brown's
statements.  (Certainly, our implementation of Lojban has followed the
dictates of the Loglan 3 quote to the letter.  We await Dr. Brown
following through on his end and publishing our lists of words.)

Now to Dr. Brown's letters.  You have received several newsletters
from me.  I have scrupulously tried to ensure that there is no
confusion between me and the Institute by front page statements in
each issue.  In this issue, except in this essay, the word 'Loglan' is
used only in quotations from others, such as in the name 'Capital
Loglan Bulletin Board', or in the 'Public Domain Loglan Parser'.  Dr.
Brown has not, of course, complained of any others violating his
'trademark' except me.  In my publications after April 12, I either
eliminated the word 'Loglan', or added a trademark notice as required
by law.  I have also abided by his demand that all who received JL4
receive notice of his claim of trademark.  I have of my own volition
abided fully with the law and with his demands, without negotiating
any agreement from him.  He has no cause for complaint.

While the Patent and Trademark Office will decide on the legal issues,
you are the jury that really matters to me.  I and The Logical
Language Group stand for your right to use 'Loglan' the language, to
work on 'Loglan' the logical language research project, and to believe
in 'Loglan' the dream.  You will have that right, even if we never
again use 'the Gainesville word' (as pc calls it) as the name of the
language.  This would be difficult, as you have no doubt observed, but
we've demonstrated that it is possible in this issue.  Of course, the
whole world knows the language by the other name from Scientific
American, from Heinlein, Rimmer, UseNet, and other sources.  Neither
we, nor Dr. Brown with all the lawyers in the world, can stop this.
To avoid using the name, we may have to educate each of these people
about Dr. Brown's perfidy; this will certainly impede Loglan/Lojban's
acceptance.  Dr. Brown cannot win either.  The existence of Lojban
raises too many questions; we have made clear intellectual
improvements over the earlier language that he must answer for, and he
also must answer for his attempts to impede the intellectual freedom
of those he has let down after years of support.

I will not require any of you to make a choice.  If a legal battle is
fought, I will make every effort to ensure that The Logical Language
Group stays clear.  I will not use any of your money contributed for
Lojban for legal matters other than the incorporation and other such
endeavors that clearly and directly advance Lojban.  This is because
you did contributed the money for that latter purpose, and you did not
ask me to fight this battle.

If you choose, especially if you feel that I have in any way misled
you as to my relationship with The Loglan Institute, Inc., you may
obtain a refund of any contributions you made.  You may also decide
not to choose: to continue to support both of our efforts.

If you feel my cause is valid, you may choose to take action that will
assist me, and possibly yourself.  I am not urging any of these
actions.  Rather, I am posing them as ideas that you may wish to
consider acting upon.
     You may have a balance with The Loglan Institute, Inc.  If so,
          you may request a full refund of that balance, adjusted for
          inflation for each year since you contributed the money.
          This adjustment was approved by the Board of the Institute
          at Dr. Brown's suggestion, and he publicly announced the
          policy.  If Dr. Brown fails to do so promptly, you may
          choose to file claims against him for mail order violations.
     You may have ordered either NB3 or MacTeach and sent money, and
          have not received them (whether or not you signed the
          Aficianado Agreement).  If so, you may choose to file claims
          against him for mail fraud and mail order violations.  Dr.
          Brown made a mail offering and accepted your money, thus
          making a contract.  He did not fulfill that contract within
          the standard mail order period, and in your case has not
          done so yet, some two years later.  The Aficianado Agreement
          is an attempt to change that contract after the fact, and
          you are not obliged to accept it.
     You made any contribution to The Loglan Institute, Inc. in and
          above dues and balances.  If so, you may request a full
          refund of that contribution.  Article 10 in the Bylaws of
          the Institute require Dr. Brown to specifically emphasize to
          potential donors that Article 9 prohibits spending more than
          10% of the income in any year of the Institute on
          administrative costs, including legal fees.  He was further
          obliged to encourage you to make your donation contingent
          upon The Institute abiding by the 10% restriction.  He did
          not do so, and thus apparently committed fraud in accepting
          your donations.  (The Institute has probably violated
          Article 9 every year, and especially in the last couple by
          raising the trademark issue.)  (Incidentally, those
          donations and any balance money never went directly for
          Loglan, by the way.  By Dr. Brown's statements in Board
          memos, they were deposited in Dr. Brown's bank account 'in
          repayment of his loan', which is why his recent statements
          that the Institute is very poor are true.  He did later
          spend some or all of this money from his account on Loglan,
          presumably after gaining interest on your money before it
          was spent.  Clearly, Dr. Brown's loan has taken priority
          over your balance loans, and over spending your money to
          support Loglan, contrary to his recent statements in LogNet.
          A non-profit corporation may not be operated for the
          financial benefit of one of its officers.)
     You may have heard about Loglan through either the microfilm
          printings, or received the 'Welcome to Loglandia' letter and
          spent money and or time learning Loglan in the belief that
          you had the right to use the language freely.  If so, you
          may choose to file a claim against Dr. Brown for fraud in
          his attempt to claim otherwise.  He has certainly damaged
          you and your interests.  Even if you heard about Loglan in
          some other way, you may still have a valid claim if you can
          justify your belief in your right to free use.
     You may have contributed intellectually to Loglan by writing
          articles for The Loglanist, by volunteering for research
          efforts, by inventing words or composing materials over
          which The Loglan Institute, Inc. is now claiming
          intellectual property rights.  With a few possible
          exceptions, you have signed no agreements turning over your
          rights to The Loglan Institute, Inc.  You may choose to
          protest vigorously this appropriation.  Failing appropriate
          resolution, you may choose to file a claim against Dr. Brown
          and the Institute.
     You may not like legal action any more than I do.  If so, you may
          choose to write to Dr. Brown a letter informing him of the
          damage he has caused you.  You may demand that he take
          immediate action to remedy this damage or face legal
          consequences.  You have his letters to me as your model.
          Dr. Brown, of course, may find his own medicine a bit too
          bitter to take.
     I admit that all of the above ideas are raised in my self-
          interest.  Actions which put Dr. Brown on the offensive,
          forcing him to spend time and money other than in harassing
          me, will benefit any legal undertaking.  It may also cause
          Dr. Brown to reconsider, and to apply his resources more
          productively, perhaps even by helping us make the language
          effort he started come to fruition.  I might also be able to
          apply more of my limited resources towards completing
          Lojban.
     I am myself considering some or all of the above actions, based
          on my status as a Member of The Loglan Institute, Inc.  Past
          and present members may wish to participate in individual or
          joint claims against Dr. Brown for various documented
          improprieties in Institute operations under his management.
          If you so wish to participate, you may contact me for
          further details.

Regardless of what your decision is, you can write to Dr. Brown or me
of your opinion.  I certainly am willing to hear it; I cannot say that
it will influence Dr. Brown.

Except for brief reports on the results of actions taken, I intend
this to be the end to my discussion of intellectual property rights
regarding Loglan, as well as to my discussions of the faults of Dr.
Brown or of The Loglan Institute, Inc.  Regardless of the results of
this issue, Lojban will proceed.  It will be defined and frozen, and
The Logical Language Institute will fulfill its purpose.  You will
have a 'Loglan' to use, which by any other name will be better than
what has come before.

Dr. James Cooke Brown will continue to be credited for his paternal
contribution to the language.  I still respect the man and his genius
that made Loglan possible.  Jim does not believe me, but my
undertaking this endeavor was totally out of friendship and respect
for him and his ideals.  When Jim was ill in the Spring of 1986, and
asked me to visit him, I did so.  After a weekend of inspired worked
together, I swore to myself to make sure that Loglan got the chance to
gain the intellectual respect that it deserved, and to live on beyond
the man who brought the language to life.

I will fulfill that oath, even as Jim himself tries to kill his
creation.

Thank you all for your forbearance of this essay.


                        The Contributors' List

Now, to end this newsletter on a more upbeat note, let me list the
dozens of contributors who have aided us since the last issue.  Due to
space considerations, I cannot list each contribution, whether money,
volunteer work, or advice and suggestions on how to solve various
problems.  It is all of you that makes Lojban possible, and worth all
the work we are putting into it.  Let this list be our brief word of
thanks to each of you.

Brooke Albert, Athelstan, John Atkins, Rebecca Bach, Bruce Baker,
Chuck Barton, Tom Birchmire, Vincent Burch, Gary Burgess, Albert Cage,
Donna Camp, James Carter, Bob Chassell, Dan Cheek, Harry Chesley, Dave
Cortesi, Ida Ruth Davis, Ken Dickey, Bill Dorion, David Ellis, Mr. &
Mrs. Robert Ernst, Jim Gillogly, Marc Glasser, William Good, Michael
Grubb, Rick Harman, Hans Havermann, Glen Haydon, Dean Hickerson, Fred
Hills, Arthur Hlavaty, John Hodges, Bob Jenner, Mel Kanner, Richard
Kennaway, Lawrence Kesteloot, Frank LaFontaine, Steve Ladd, Doug
Landauer, Nora LeChevalier, Nancy Lebovitz, Bill Lee, John and Anita
Lees, Brad Lowry, Richard Mann, Brian Marin, Preston Maxwell, Robert
McIvor, Ben McLeod, Malcolm Mumme, John Negus, Paul Francis
O'Sullivan, Mike Parish, John Parks-Clifford, Dan Parmenter, Harry
Pierson, Kim Pizer, Jeff Prothero, Robert Radcliffe, Milton Raymond,
Paul and Grelia Reiber, Michael Rhodes, Faith Rich, Bill Rudow, Karl
Sackett, Rick Sakamoto, Joel Shprentz, Donald Simpson, Arthur Tansky,
Ron Tansky, Jonathan Tite, Marianne Turlington, Claude Van Horn, Jack
Waugh, Mark Alden Weiss, Steve Wheeler, Tommy Whitlock, Derreth
Wieman, Art Wieners, Christina Willrich, Jim Wilson, S. Woolsey, James
Yorke.

Special Thanks are offered to Mike Gunderloy, editor of Factsheet
Five.
Mike's quarterly newsletter reviews hundreds of other small
newsletters (as well as music and movies) and serves as a focal point
for information exchange.  Not a Lojbanist before receiving it, he
just named JL4 "Publishers' Choice" and gave us a great review.
Factsheet Five can be ordered from Mike at : 6 Arizona Ave.,
Renssellaer NY 12144-4502.  This latest issue reviewing us was #26 and
costs $2.00.

Even with over 80 names there, I'm sure I missed someone, and I have
not listed everyone who has participated in CLBB.  Please accept my
apologies for the omission, and my appreciation for your
participation.
