Turner Robin, Nicholas Nick. Lojban for beginners
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Lojban For Beginners—velcli befi la
lojban. bei loi co’a cilre
Robin Turner
Nick Nicholas
Lojban For Beginners—velcli befi la lojban. bei loi co’a cilre
by Robin Turner and Nick Nicholas
Published 2002
iii
Table of Contents
Preface—lidne prosa............................................................................................................................................... i
1. Sounds, names and a few attitudes............................................................................................................... 1
Vowels........................................................................................................................................................... 1
Consonants ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Special Characters........................................................................................................................................ 2
Alphabet........................................................................................................................................................ 2
‘Correct’ pronunciation............................................................................................................................... 3
Lojban with attitude! ................................................................................................................................... 3
Lojban Names (cmene) ................................................................................................................................ 4
Lojban words as names............................................................................................................................... 7
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................... 7
2. Relationships and Places .............................................................................................................................. 10
Names and relationships .......................................................................................................................... 10
Take your places... ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Determining place structure..................................................................................................................... 13
gismu as sumti .............................................................................................................................................. 14
Changing Places......................................................................................................................................... 15
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 17
Answers to exercises ................................................................................................................................. 17
3. Commands, Questions, and Possessives.................................................................................................... 21
Commands.................................................................................................................................................. 21
Softening the blow... .................................................................................................................................. 22
Questions .................................................................................................................................................... 22
Possessives.................................................................................................................................................. 25
More Possessives........................................................................................................................................ 27
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 29
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................. 29
4. Numbers, and a few more articles............................................................................................................... 31
Basic numbers............................................................................................................................................. 31
Numbers and articles ................................................................................................................................ 32
Proportions ................................................................................................................................................. 34
Quantities.................................................................................................................................................... 36
Number Questions..................................................................................................................................... 37
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 38
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................. 39
5. Times, days, dates (and abstractions) ......................................................................................................... 41
What is the time?........................................................................................................................................ 41
Times and Events....................................................................................................................................... 43
Times and Events, Improved: Conversion ............................................................................................. 43
Times and Events, Improved #2: sumti tcita ........................................................................................... 45
iv
Days and Months....................................................................................................................................... 45
Dates ............................................................................................................................................................ 47
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 49
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................. 51
6. Time and Space—basic Lojban ‘tenses’ ..................................................................................................... 54
Terminators................................................................................................................................................. 54
Tenses .......................................................................................................................................................... 56
Time with sumti .......................................................................................................................................... 56
Time and selbri............................................................................................................................................ 58
Space............................................................................................................................................................ 59
More negativity.......................................................................................................................................... 61
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 63
Answers to exercises ................................................................................................................................. 64
7. Getting Personal: Pro-sumti and more abstractions ................................................................................. 67
Referring back ............................................................................................................................................ 67
Assigning pro-sumti ................................................................................................................................... 69
Acronyms.................................................................................................................................................... 70
Direct quotations........................................................................................................................................ 71
Indirect quotations..................................................................................................................................... 72
Some more personal pro-sumti................................................................................................................. 74
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 75
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................. 77
8. Swapping things round: conversion and simple lujvo ............................................................................ 81
selbri conversions ....................................................................................................................................... 81
sumti conversions ....................................................................................................................................... 82
lujvo .............................................................................................................................................................. 84
Negative lujvo ............................................................................................................................................. 85
Reflexives and reciprocals ........................................................................................................................ 87
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 88
Answers to Exercises ................................................................................................................................. 89
9. Let me qualify that: internal sumti and relative clauses.......................................................................... 91
Internal sumti .............................................................................................................................................. 91
More internal sumti .................................................................................................................................... 92
Internal sumti tcita ...................................................................................................................................... 94
Relative clauses .......................................................................................................................................... 95
ke’a ............................................................................................................................................................... 96
Restrictive and non-restrictive ................................................................................................................. 98
Summary..................................................................................................................................................... 99
Answers to Exercises ............................................................................................................................... 100
10. Cause and Effect ......................................................................................................................................... 105
Physical causation.................................................................................................................................... 105
Motivation................................................................................................................................................. 106
Justification and Implication .................................................................................................................. 107
Converting causes.................................................................................................................................... 108
v
Connecting sentences .............................................................................................................................. 109
Why?.......................................................................................................................................................... 111
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 112
Answers to Exercises ............................................................................................................................... 113
11. Putting it together: Lojban connectives.................................................................................................. 117
Types of logical connectives................................................................................................................... 117
Connecting sumti ...................................................................................................................................... 119
Connectives in tanru................................................................................................................................. 121
Connecting bridi tails ............................................................................................................................... 123
Asking about connectives....................................................................................................................... 125
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 126
Answers to exercises ............................................................................................................................... 127
12. Aspect, Vocatives, Loan Words, and Equalities.................................................................................... 131
Aspect........................................................................................................................................................ 131
More Aspects............................................................................................................................................ 133
Vocatives ................................................................................................................................................... 133
Loan words ............................................................................................................................................... 135
Equalities................................................................................................................................................... 137
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 139
Answers to exercises ............................................................................................................................... 140
13. Keeping it flowing: Textual cmavo.......................................................................................................... 144
Lojban with lots more attitude............................................................................................................... 144
My attitudinals! All mine! (And you?) ................................................................................................. 146
Discursives................................................................................................................................................ 147
Erasure....................................................................................................................................................... 148
Bits and pieces .......................................................................................................................................... 150
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 151
Answers to exercises ............................................................................................................................... 152
14. Why didn’t I think of that before? More connectives ......................................................................... 155
Forethought connectives......................................................................................................................... 155
Non-logical connectives.......................................................................................................................... 157
tanru grouping .......................................................................................................................................... 159
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 161
Answers to exercises ............................................................................................................................... 162
15. Singled out: Isolating specific places ..................................................................................................... 166
Indirect questions..................................................................................................................................... 166
Properties .................................................................................................................................................. 168
From sumti to abstraction: tu’a ............................................................................................................... 171
Raising: jai................................................................................................................................................. 174
Summary................................................................................................................................................... 178
Answers to exercises ............................................................................................................................... 179
A. Unsettled Business...................................................................................................................................... 183
Embedded vo’a ......................................................................................................................................... 183
Unfilled places in ka-abstractions .......................................................................................................... 184
vi
B. Vocabulary .................................................................................................................................................... 186
i
Preface—lidne prosa
This document is an introductory course on Lojban, consisting of fifteen lessons. It has been authored
by Robin Turner and Nick Nicholas, and gives a gentle introduction to the structure of the language.
Robin authored lessons 1–8 and 10–11 in 1999; Nick added to the existing lessons, and authored
lessons 9 and 12–15, in 2001.
The material covered in this course should be sufficient to allow the learner to understand most of the
Lojban they are likely to see in the online Lojban discussion groups, or in the publications of the
Logical Language Group. For information on Lojban, please contact the Logical Language Group:
Bob LeChevalier
The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane
Fairfax, VA 22031
U.S.A.
(+1 703) 385-0273
<lojban@lojban.org>
http://www.lojban.org
The document What is Lojban? (available online at
http://www.lojban.org/publications/level0.html) is a general introduction to the language. It
should be available from the same place you obtained this document.
Lojban is likely to be very different to the kinds of languages you are familiar with—which certainly
include English. If a point of grammar or logic seems inscrutable at first, don’t hesitate to move on, and
come back to it later. Likewise, some of the exercises are trickier than others (particularly the
translation exercises at the end of each lesson.) If you can’t work out the answer to a particular
question, feel free to skip it—but do look at the answer to the question, as there are often useful hints
on Lojban usage in there. The answers to the exercises are at the end of each lesson.
Occasionally we use brackets to clarify the grammatical structure of Lojban in our examples. These
brackets are not part of official Lojban orthography, and are included only for paedagogical purposes.
Robin is English (residing in Turkey), and Nick is Greek-Australian (residing in the U.S.A.) So don’t be
surprised if you see some unfamiliar language usage in this text. We are particularly unrepentant
about using Commonwealth spelling.
Our thanks to the Lojbanists who have reviewed these lessons; in particular, Pierre Abbat, John
Clifford, John Cowan, Björn Gohla, Arnt Richard Johansen, John Jorgensen, Nora Tansky LeChevalier,
Jorge Llambías, Robin Lee Powell, Adam Raizen, Anthony Roach, Tim Smith, Rob Speer, Brion Vibber.
Thanks also to Robin Lee Powell for providing the infrastructure for publishing the course in progress,
and to Paul Reinerfelt for his help in producing the TeX version of the text.
ni’o le dei seltcidu cu te ctuca be loi co’a cilre bei fo la lojban. gi’e se pagbu lo pamumei .i le go’i cu se finti
la’o gy. Robin Turner gy. joi la’o gy. Nick Nicholas gy. goi la nitcion. gi’e frili jai junri’a fo le stura be le bangu
.i la robin. finti le 1moi bi’i 8moi .e le 10moi bi’i 11moi pagbu ca la 1999nan .i la nitcion. jmina fi le pu zasti
pagbu gi’e finti le 9moi .e le 12moi bi’i 15moi vau ca la 2001nan.
Preface—lidne prosa
ii
ni’o lei datni poi se cusku le dei te ctuca cu pe’i banzu lenu ka’enri’a le cilre lenu jimpe piso’a loi lojbo poi
lakne fa lenu tcidu ke’a vecu’u le jondatnymu’e ke lojbo casnu girzu .a le se prigau be la lojbangirz. .i mu’i
tu’a loi tcila pe la lojban. ko te notci fo la lojbangirz. noi se judri zoi gy.
Bob LeChevalier
The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane
Fairfax, VA 22031
U.S.A.
(+1 703) 385-0273
<lojban@lojban.org>
http://www.lojban.org
gy. .i le seltcidu po’u la’e lu la lojban mo. li’u zi’enoi ka’e se cpacu fi le jondatnymu’e tu’i zoi gy.
http://www.lojban.org/publications/level0.html gy. cu nalsteci cfari bo skicu le bangu .i ba’a ka’e cpacu
le go’i tu’i le jaitu’i cpacu be le dei seltcidu
ni’o la lojban. cu la’a mutce frica le bangu poi slabu do zi’epoi ju’o se cmima le glico .i ko fau lo da’i nu lo
nandu pe le gerna .a le logji cu simlu loka to’e ke frili se jimpe co’a lenu tcidu cu zukte lenu rivbi tu’a le nandu
gi’e krefu troci tu’a ri baku .i pa’abo su’o cipra jufra cu zmadu su’o cipra jufra leni tcica nandu .i go’i fa ra’u le
nunfanva cipra jufra pe le fanmo be ro te ctuca pagbu .i za’o lenu do na pu’i jdice le danfu be lo preti kei ko
co’u troci gi’e ku’i catlu le danfu be le cipra jufra .imu’ibo le danfu so’iroi jarco lo plixau se stidi pe lenu pilno
la lojban. .i le danfu be le cipra jufra cu diklo le fanmo be ro te ctuca pagbu
ni’o mi so’iroi pilno lo girzu sinxa lerfu mu’i lenu ciksi le gerna stura be la lojban. be’o pe le mi mupli seltcidu .i
le girzu sinxa lerfu genai pagbu le se zanru ke lojbo ke nunciska ciste gi se pilno fi le nu po’o ctuca
ni’o la robin. cu glico gi’e xabju le gugdrturkie .ije la nitcion. cu xelso sralo gi’e xabju le merko .i seki’ubo ko
na se spaji tu’a loi glibau selpli pe le dei seltcidu zi’epoi na slabu do .i mi ra’u to’e xenru lenu pilno le glico se
jitro gugde bo girzu ke valsi lerfu se cuxna ciste
ni’o mi ckire le lojbo poi cipygau fi le kamdrani le dei te ctuca zi’eno’u la. pier.abat. joi la biorn.golys. joi la
djan.iorgensen. joi. la .arnt.rikard.iuxansen. goi la tsali ge’u joi la xorxes.jambi,as. joi la djan.kau,n. joi la
djan.klifyrd. goi la pycyn. ge’u joi la noras.tanskis.lecevaLIER. joi la rabin.lis.pau,el. joi la .adam.reizen. joi la
.antonis.routc. joi la tim.smit. joi la rab.spir. joi la braiyn.viber. .i ckire ji’a la rabin.lis.pau,el. ce’e lenu sabji
le jicmu be lenu gubgau le ve ctuca ca’o lenu finti pe’eje la paul.rainerfelt. ce’e lenu sidju lenu cupra le
seltcidu peta’i la tex.
1
Chapter 1. Sounds, names and a few attitudes
The first thing you need to do when you learn a foreign language is to become familiar with the
sounds of the language and how they are written, and the same goes for Lojban. Fortunately, Lojban
sounds (phonemes) are fairly straightforward.
Vowels
There are six vowels in Lojban.
a
as in father (not as in hat)
e
as in get
i
as in machine or (Italian) vino (not as in hit)
o
as in bold or more—not as in so (this should be a ‘pure’ sound.)
u
as in cool (not as in but)
These are pretty much the same as vowels in Italian or Spanish. The sixth vowel, y, is called a schwa in
the language trade, and is pronounced like the first and last A’s in America (that’s English America, not
Spanish.) It’s the sound that comes out when the mouth is completely relaxed.
Two vowels together are pronounced as one sound (diphthong). Some examples are:
ai
as in high
au
as in how
ei
as in hey
oi
as in boy
ia
like German Ja
ie
like yeah
iu
like you
ua
as in waah!, or French quoi
ue
as in question
uo
as in quote
ui
like we, or French oui
Double vowels are rare. The only examples are ii, which is pronounced like English ye (as in “Oh come
all ye faithful”) or Chinese yi, and uu, pronounced like woo.
Consonants
Most Lojban consonants are the same as English, but there are some exceptions:
g
always g as in gum, never g as in gem
c
sh, as in ship
j
as in measure or French bonjour
x
as in German Bach, Spanish Jose or Arabic Khaled
Chapter 1. Sounds, names and attitudes
2
The English sounds ch and j are written as tc and dj.
Lojban doesn’t use the letters H, Q or W.
Special Characters
Lojban does not require any punctuation, but some special characters (normally used in punctuation in
other languages) affect the way Lojban is pronounced.
The only one of these characters which is obligatory in Lojban is the apostrophe; in fact the apostrophe
is regarded as a proper letter of Lojban. An apostrophe separates two vowels, preventing them from
being pronounced together (as a diphthong); it is itself pronounced like an h. For example, ui is
normally pronounced we, but u’i is oohee.
A full stop (period) is a short pause to stop words running into each other. The rules of Lojban make it
easier for one word to run into another when the second word begins with a vowel; so any word
starting with a vowel conventionally has a full stop placed in front of it.
Commas are rare in Lojban, but can be used to stop two vowels blurring together when you don’t
want to use an apostrophe (which would put a h between them). No Lojban words have commas, but
they’re sometimes used in writing non-Lojban names, for example pi,ER. (Pierre), as opposed to pier.
(P-yerr), pi.ER. (Pee; Ehr), or pi’ER. (Piherr).
Capital letters are not normally used in Lojban. We use them in non-Lojban words (like Pierre) when
the stress of a word is different from the Lojban norm. The norm is to put the stress on the last-but-one
syllable; so, for example, kurmikce ‘nurse’ is kurMIKce, not KURmikce. The name Juliette would be written
DJUli,et. if pronounced in an English way, but juLIET. if pronounced as in French.
Alphabet
In most language textbooks, you get the alphabet of the language together with its sounds. Letters
(lerfu) turn out to be even more important than usual in Lojban, so we might as well go through their
names quickly.
Consonants are straightforward: the name of a consonant letter is that letter, plus y. So the consonant
letters of Lojban, b, c, d, f, g ..., are called by., cy., dy., fy., gy.... in Lojban (using the full stop as we’ve
just described.)
Vowels would be called .ay, .ey, .iy, but that would be rather difficult to pronounce. Instead, they are
handled by following the vowel sound with the word bu, which basically means ‘letter’. So the vowels
of Lojban are: .abu, .ebu, .ibu, .obu, .ubu, ybu.
The apostrophe is regarded as a proper letter in Lojban, and is called .y’y.. To some people, this sounds
like a cough; to other, like uh-huh (when it means ‘Yes’ rather than ‘No’.)
Lojban has ways of refering to most letters you can think of; see The Complete Lojban Language, Chapter
17 for details. If you have the urge to spell out your name in Lojban and have an H, Q, or W to deal
with, you can use .y’y.bu, ky.bu and vy.bu. So Schwarzenegger is spelt in Lojban as:
sy. cy. .y’ybu vybu. .abu ry. zy. .ebu ny. .ebu gy. gy. .ebu ry.
And spelling that is a task the equal of anything the Terminator ever did!