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Lojban Mini-Lesson (draft)

NOTE:This lesson is sligtly out-dated but still valuable as an introduction to the basic concepts of Lojban.
Copyright, 1991, by the Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA Phone (703) 385-0273 [email protected] All rights reserved. Permission to copy granted subject to your verification that this is the latest version of this document, that your distribution be for the promotion of Lojban, that there is no charge for the product, and that this copyright notice is included intact in the copy.

Introduction

This is the 16 September 1991 draft of the Lojban Mini-Lesson, an introduction to the language that is intended to give readers a basic idea as to how Lojban looks and sounds, and how it differs from English and other languages. For those familiar with it, this corresponds to the first of the Esperanto Postal Course lessons, except that thus far, this is the only lesson, and it covers a bit more of the language in one unit.

This mini-lesson is expected to become a mainstay of our introductory package for Lojban. At this posting we already have people committed to translate this into Esperanto and Swedish, and other language versions are expected to follow.

We are interested in comments on the readability and understandability of this material. We especially want people to go through it, and then to try the exercises at the end, so we can determine whether the lesson teaches the material and whether the exercises are appropriate and within the capability of the student. We want responses from both active Lojbanists and people who have not seen any of our material before.

We are interested in more than just corrections of typos—we want to know what you understood, and what needs more explanation. LLG will commit to providing individual responses to all questions generated from this draft circulation, and will provide an commented answer key to anyone who returns a completed response (please allow a little time for these responses—we have no idea how much volume is to be generated). For our benefit, if you do the exercises. please let us know whether you did them as you went along, or after reading the entire lesson text, and also give us a rough idea how much time the entire lesson took.

Of course this may cause reviewers to become more interested in learning Lojban, and we certainly would not object to that. Contact LLG at the address above for more information.

(Note: There are exercises at the end of the lesson for each section. You may do these exercises as you go along, or wait until you complete the entire lesson.)

1. The concept of the predicate

Let us consider John and Sam and three statements about them: 
		"John is the father of Sam"

		    "John hugs Sam"

			  and

		"John is taller than Sam"
These all describe relationships between John and Sam. However, in English, we use a noun to describe a static relationship (1), a verb to describe an active relationship (2) and an adjective to describe an attributive relationship (3). In Lojban we make no such grammatical distinctions; these three sentences, when expressed in Lojban, are grammatically identical. The same part of speech is used to represent the relationship. In formal logic this whole structure is called a predicate; in Lojban it is called a "bridi", and the central part of speech is the "selbri". Logicians refer to the things thus related as arguments, while Lojbanists call them "sumti". These Lojban terms will be used for the rest of the lesson. 
	   bridi (predicate)
______________|_______________ 
|                              | 
  John   is the uncle of   Sam 
 |____| |_______________| |___| 
   |           |            | 
 sumti      selbri       sumti (argument)

2. Place structures

In a relationship, there are a definite number of things being related. In English, for example, "give" has three places: the donor, the recipient and the gift. For example: John gives Sam the book. and Sam gives John the book. mean two different things because the relative positions of "John" and "Sam" have been switched.

Further, The book gives John Sam. seems strange to us merely because the places are being filled by unorthodox arguments. The relationship expressed by "give" has not changed.

In Lojban, a given selbri has a specified number of arguments. The simplest selbri consists of a single root word, called a "gismu", and the definition in a gismu word-list gives the place structure explicitly. The primary task of constructing a Lojban sentence, after choosing the relationship itself, is deciding what you will use to fill in the sumti places.

3. Pronunciation

Lojban has six recognized vowels: "a", "e", "i", "o", "u" and "y". The first five are the pure Romance vowels: "a" as in "father", "e" as in "let", "i" as in "machine", "o" as in "dome" and "u" as in "flute". "y" is pronounced as the sound called "schwa"; that is, as the unstressed "a" as in "about" or "around".

Twelve consonants in Lojban are pronounced more or less as their counterparts are in English: "b", "d", "f", "k", "l", "m", "n", "p", "r", "t", "v" and "z". The "c", on the other hand is pronounced as the "sh" in "hush", while "j" is its 'voiced' counterpart, the sound of the "s" in "pleasure". "g" is always hard as it is in "gift", never as in "giant". "s" is as in "sell", never as in "rose". The sound of "x" is not found in English; it is like 'breathing through' a "k". It is found as "ch" in Scottish "loch", as Spanish "j", and as "ch" in some dialects of German. It gets easier to say as you practice it. "r" can be trilled, but doesn't have to be.

Lojban also has three 'semi-letters': the period, the comma and the apostrophe. The period represents a glottal stop or a pause; it is a required stoppage of the flow of air in the speech stream. The apostrophe sounds just like the English letter "h". Unlike a regular consonant, it is not found at the beginning or end of a word, nor is it found adjacent to a consonant; it is only found between two vowels. The comma has no sound associated with it, and is used to separate syllables that might ordinarily run together. It is only found inside names taken from other languages (it helps preserve the original sound of a name).

Stress falls on the next to the last syllable of all words, except if that vowel is 'y', which is never stressed; in such words the third-to-last syllable is stressed. If a word only has one syllable, then that syllable is not stressed.

4. Single words that can act as sumti

Some words can be used singly to fill in a sumti place. mi I, me, we, us, the speaker (and maybe others, unspecified)—Lojban words (unless explicitly quantified, i.e. labeled with a number), do not distinguish between singular and plural forms. do you, you all, thou, the person(s) addressed by the speaker ti this thing, this person, this place (usually indicated by a gesture) ta that thing, that person, that place tu that yonder thing, that yonder person, that yonder place zo'e something, it's not important that you know what ("zo'e" is used as a place filler) da something, I haven't determined what ("da" is the 'existential variable' of logic) ma what?, fill in this blank ("ma" is used for asking some kinds of questions) Let's look at a simple Lojban bridi. The place structure of the gismu "tavla" is __x1__ talks to __x2__ about __x3__ in language __x4__ This bridi will then have the form __x1__ tavla __x2__ __x3__ __x4__ For example: mi tavla do zo'e zo'e means I talk to you about something in some language. do tavla mi ta zo'e means You talk to me about that thing in a language. mi tavla zo'e tu ti means I talk to someone about that thing yonder in this language. ta tavla ma mi zo'e means That person talks to who(?) about me in some language. or Who is that person talking to about me?

5. Ellipsis

There are many words in Lojban that do not need to be written or spoken aloud for them to operate. For example, when "zo'e" is left off of the end of the bridi, it is understood that the sumti place still exists, and is filled with some unstated sumti. This process is called ellipsis. Trailing "zo'e"s are almost always ellipsized. mi tavla do means I talk to you. do tavla mi means You talk to me. da tavla ta means Someone talks to that person. do tavla zo'e mi means You are talking about me. zo'e tavla mi do means Someone talks to me about you.

6. Variant forms of the bridi

Thus far you have seen one sumti before the selbri with any remaining sumti coming afterward. In fact, the selbri may come after any number of the sumti without changing the meaning of the bridi (but not before all of them). So: mi tavla do ti I talk to you about this. mi do tavla ti I, to you, talk about this. and mi do ti tavla I, to you, about this, talk. all represent the same relationship. The important thing is that the order of the sumti has not changed. These variations similarly apply to selbri with different numbers of sumti.

7. sumti switching

For one reason or another you may want to change the order, placing one particular sumti at the front of the bridi. The operator "se", placed before the last word of the selbri, will switch the meanings of the first and second sumti places. So mi tavla do ti I talk to you about this. has the same meaning as do se tavla mi ti You are talked to by me about this. The operator "te", used in the same place, switches the meanings of the first and the third sumti places. mi tavla do ti I talk to you about this. has the same meaning as ti te tavla do mi This is talked about to you by me. Note that only the first and third sumti have switched places; the second sumti has remained in the second place.

The operators "ve" and "xe" switch the first and fourth sumti places, and the first and fifth sumti places, respectively.

More than one of these operators may be used on a given selbri at one time, and in such a case they are evaluated from left to right. However, in practice they are used one at a time, as there are better tools for complex manipulation of the sumti places.

8. selbri modification

When two gismu are adjacent the first one modifies the second, and the selbri takes its place structure from the rightmost word. For example, "sutra" means "__x1__ is fast at doing __x2__"; "sutra tavla" means "__x1__ talks fast to __x2__ about __x3__ in language __x4__".

Specifically, the meaning of the first place of the first word is what modifies the next word: "sutra tavla" means "__x1__ is a fast-thing type of talker to __x2__ about __x3__ in language __x4__".

When three or more gismu are in a row, the first modifies the second, and that combined meaning modifies the third, and that combined meaning modifies the fourth, and so on. For example, "sutra tavla cutci" means "__x1__ is a fast-talker type of shoe (for __x2__ of material __x3__)". That is, it is a shoe that is worn by a fast talker rather than a shoe that is fast and is also worn by a talker.

9. Converting a selbri to a sumti

Often we wish to talk about things other than the speaker, the listener and things we can point to. Let's say I want to talk about a talker other than "mi". What I want to talk about would naturally fit into the first place of "tavla". Lojban, it turns out, has an operator that pulls this first place out of a selbri and converts it to a sumti. "le tavla" refers to "the talker", and may be used as a sumti.

(Note that the double underline in examples marks the selbri, while each single underline marks a sumti. This notation is only for clarifying the sentence structure and is not a part of the language.) 

 
                            mi tavla do le tavla 
                            -- ===== -- --------

				   means

		      I talk to you about the talker
Similarly "le sutra tavla" is "the fast talker", and "le sutra te tavla" is "the fast subject of talk" or "the subject of fast talk". (Which of these related meanings is understood will depend on the context in which the expression is used. The most plausible interpretation within the context will generally be assumed by a listener to be the intended one.)

10. Marking the selbri

There is a problem when we want to say "the fast one is talking"; "le sutra tavla" means "the fast talker", not "the fast one is talking". To solve this problem we mark the selbri with the word "cu". The word "cu" has no meaning, and stands only to mark the beginning of the selbri within the bridi, separating it from a previous sumti. It comes before any other operator, such as "se" or "te". So: 
  
    le sutra tavla       means  the fast talker 
    --------------

    le sutra cu tavla    means  The fast one is talking. 
    --------    =====

    le sutra se tavla    means  The fast talked-to one.
    -----------------

    le sutra cu se tavla means  The fast one is talked to. 
    --------    ========
"cu" is always assumed to be in front of the selbri. It may be elided (left out) if this will not alter the grammar of the sentence, as in "mi cu tavla do".

11. Names

All words in Lojban end in vowels except for names. Names end in a consonant followed by a pause or glottal stop, either of which is represented by a period. Note that all grammatical punctuation in Lojban is spoken and represented by words rather than symbols. Names are 'Lojbanized' by conforming them to Lojban spelling and providing a final consonant if there isn't one; this consonant is typically "s" or "n" for English names, but any Lojban consonant may be used.

Remember that a comma without spaces around it in the middle of a name can be used to separate syllables that would ordinarily be run together in Lojban.

To convert a Lojbanized name into a sumti, use the article "la". "la djan." is "the one called John". For obvious reasons, the letter sequence "la" may not occur inside any name. Likewise, "doi" may not appear in a name, for reasons that will be obvious in the following section. (If a name would use either of these two sound patterns, it must be changed, perhaps to use "ly" or "le", "do'i" or "dei" instead.)

12. Vocatives and imperatives

You may call someone's attention to the fact that you are addressing them by using "doi" followed by their name. The phrase "doi djan." means "Oh, John, I'm talking to you". It also has the effect of setting the value of "do"; "do" now refers to "John" until it is changed in some way in the conversation.

If you say "do tavla", it means "you are talking". For the imperative in Lojban, the word "ko" is substituted for "do". The phrase "ko tavla" instructs the listener to do whatever is necessary to make "do tavla" true. For example: 

 
     ko tavla           means   Talk. 
     -- =====

     ko sutra           means   Be fast. 
     -- =====

     mi tavla ko        means   Be talked to by me. 
     -- ===== --
					        or      Let me talk to you.
"ko" can fill any appropriate sumti place, and can be used as often as is appropriate for the selbri: "ko kurji ko" and "ko ko kurji" both mean "You take care of you" and "Be taken care of by you", or to put it colloquially, "Take care of yourself".

13. Greetings

In all natural languages, greeting words are idiomatic. In Lojban "coi" means "hello" and "co'o" means "good-bye". Either word may stand alone, they may follow one another, or either may be followed by a pause and a name. 
 
    coi. djan.      means Hello, John. 
    co'o. djan. 	means    Good-bye, John.

14. Attitudinals

Different cultures express emotions and attitudes with a variety of intonations and gestures that are not included in the written language. Some of these are available in some languages as ejaculations (i.e. Aha!, Oh no!, Ouch!, Aahh!, etc.), but they vary greatly from culture to culture. Lojban has a part of speech known as an 'attitudinal' which specifically covers this type of commentary on spoken statements. They are both written and spoken, but require no specific intonation or gestures. Grammatically they are very simple: one or more attitudinals at the beginning of a bridi apply to the entire bridi; anywhere else in the bridi they apply to the word immediately to the left.

Some attitudinals are: 

 
Lojban      English attitude 		Ejaculations and other English used 
					to express these attitudes 
______       ________________           _______________________________ 
.a'o         hope	 		hopefully, I hope 
.e'o         request, petition, 	please!, get it done! 
	     command (with rank) 
.iu	     love, endearment, 
 	     affection 
.oi	     complaint, discomfort  	Oy!, Ouch! 
.ua 	     discovery 			Eureka! 
.ui          happy, cheerful 		Whee! 
.uu 	     pity, compassion       	Aww!
Attitudinals represent scales of emotion, and there are some indicators available to show where on the scale you are: 
 
cai    	     intense or absolute        .iucai      intense love 
             extreme feeling 
sai          strong feeling             .iusai      strong love 
ru'e         weak or mild feeling       .iuru'e     mild love 
cu'i 	     indifference               .iucu'i     "no love lost" 
nai 	     single word negator        .iunai      hate, enmity 
naicai       intense opposite           .iunaicai   intense hate 
naisai       strong opposite  		.iunaisai   strong hatred 
nairu'e      mild or weak opposite      .iunairu'e  mild hatred

Intensity indicators may stand on their own, indicating intensity of emotion while leaving the emotion unspecified, or they may be used to modify another attitudinal, but they will only modify the word immediately to the left. Thus ".a'o.uu" expresses hope mixed with pity, but ".a'o.uucai" expresses "hope mixed with intense pity", not "intense hope mixed with intense pity". (Note that, unlike in a selbri, attitudinals do not modify each other in any strict order, but are mixed. If multiple emotions are indicated, the one that the speaker wants most to express usually comes first.)

15. Yes or no questions

All yes or no questions in English may be reformulated to begin "Is it true that ...". In Lojban we have a word that asks precisely that question in precisely the same way. "xu" placed in front of a bridi asks whether that bridi is true as stated. "xu", however, is technically an attitudinal and can go almost anywhere in the bridi, in which case it asks the same question but emphasizes the word immediately to the left of it. So 
 
     xu do tavla mi 	 means  Is it true that you are talking to me? 
        -- ===== --

     do xu tavla mi      means  Are you the one talking to me? 
     --    ===== --

     do tavla xu mi      means  Talking to me? Is that what you're doing? 
     -- =====    --

     do tavla mi xu      means  Is it me you are talking to? 
     -- ===== --
An affirmative answer may be given by simply restating the bridi. Lojban has a shorthand for doing this with the word "go'i". This word stands for the whole bridi and assumes the values represented by the sumti are unchanged unless you specifically replace them. Instead of a negative answer, the bridi may be restated in such a way as to make it true. If this can be done by substituting sumti, it may be done with "go'i" as well. 
 
    question:   xu do kanro             Are you healthy? 
    answer:     mi kanro 	        I am healthy. 
    or: 	go'i 			I am healthy. ("do" to the 
				        questioner is "mi" to the 
				        respondent) 
    or: 	le tavla cu kanro       The talker is healthy. 
    or: 	le tavla cu go'i       	The talker is healthy.
A general negative answer may be given by "na go'i". "na" may be placed before any selbri (but after the "cu"). It is equivalent to stating "It is not true that ..." before the bridi. It does not imply that anything else is true or untrue, only that that specific bridi is not true.

16. Other terms

All gismu have combining-forms associated with them which may be combined into compounds called "lujvo". All gismu have at least one combining-form associated with them and may have as many as four, not counting the full form of the word, which may only appear at the end of a lujvo. The short combining-forms or affixes are called "rafsi". A lujvo may act in any way like a gismu within a bridi. Any word that can behave in this way is called a "brivla"; that is, a brivla is any word that can stand alone in a selbri or can modify another brivla.

When two or more brivla are strung together in a selbri or a sumti, the combination is called a "tanru". A tanru may also have "se"-type operators as well as brivla in it, as well as some other features not yet covered.

The little words that are not brivla, and usually indicate grammatical structure are called "cmavo". The cmavo also include the attitudinals and short sumti like "mi" and "do".

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Last modified: Mon Jun 27 23:10:50 PDT 2005

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