Chapter 17
As Easy As A-B-C? The Lojban Letteral System And Its Uses

1. What's a letteral, anyway?

1.1)  There are fourteen occurrences of the letteral
        ``e'' in this sentence.

Lojban uses the Latin alphabet, just as English does, right? Then why is there a need for a chapter like this? After all, everyone who can read it already knows the alphabet. The answer is twofold:

First, in English there are a set of words that correspond to and represent the English lerfu. These words are rarely written down in English and have no standard spellings, but if you pronounce the English alphabet to yourself you will hear them: ay, bee, cee, dee ... . They are used in spelling out words and in pronouncing most acronyms. The Lojban equivalents of these words are standardized and must be documented somehow.

Second, English has names only for the lerfu used in writing English. (There are also English names for Greek and Hebrew lerfu: English-speakers usually refer to the Greek lerfu conventionally spelled ``phi'' as ``fye'', whereas ``fee'' would more nearly represent the name used by Greek-speakers. Still, not all English-speakers know these English names.) Lojban, in order to be culturally neutral, needs a more comprehensive system that can handle, at least potentially, all of the world's alphabets and other writing systems.

Letterals have several uses in Lojban: in forming acronyms and abbreviations, as mathematical symbols, and as pro-sumti --- the equivalent of English pronouns.

In earlier writings about Lojban, there has been a tendency to use the word ``lerfu'' for both the letterals themselves and for the Lojban words which represent them. In this chapter, that tendency will be ruthlessly suppressed, and the term ``lerfu word'' will invariably be used for the latter. The Lojban equivalent would be ``lerfu valsi'' or ``lervla''.

2. A to Z in Lojban, plus one

   '   a   b   c   d   e
    .y'y.   .abu    by. cy. dy. .ebu

    f   g   i   j   k   l
    fy. gy. .ibu    jy. ky. ly.

    m   n   o   p   r   s
    my. ny. .obu    py. ry. sy.

    t   u   v   x   y   z
    ty. .ubu    vy. xy. .ybu    zy.

2.1)  ty. .abu ny. ry. .ubu
    ``t'' ``a'' ``n'' ``r'' ``u''

2.2)   ky. .obu .y'y. .abu
    ``k'' ``o'' ``''' ``a''

Note that the lerfu words ending in ``y'' were written (in Example 2.1 and Example 2.2) with pauses after them. It is not strictly necessary to pause after such lerfu words, but failure to do so can in some cases lead to ambiguities:

2.3)  mi cy. claxu
    I lerfu-``c'' without
    I am without (whatever is referred to by)
        the letter ``c''.

2.4)  micyclaxu
    (Observative:) doctor-without
    Something unspecified is without a doctor.

A safe guideline is to pause after any cmavo ending in ``y'' unless the next word is also a cmavo ending in ``y''. The safest and easiest guideline is to pause after all of them.

3. Upper and lower cases

3.1)  .iVAN.
    the name ``Ivan'' in Russian/Slavic pronunciation.

The effect of ``ga'e'' is to change the interpretation of all lerfu words following it to be the upper-case version of the lerfu. An occurrence of ``to'a'' causes the interpretation to revert to lower case. Thus, ``ga'e .abu'' means not ``a'' but ``A'', and Ivan's name may be spelled out thus:

3.2)  .ibu ga'e vy. .abu ny. to'a
    i [upper] V A N [lower]

How long does a shift word last? Theoretically, until the next shift word that contradicts it or until the end of text. In practice, it is common to presume that a shift word is only in effect until the next word other than a lerfu word is found.

It is often convenient to shift just a single letter to upper case. The cmavo ``tau'', of selma'o LAU, is useful for the purpose. A LAU cmavo must always be immediately followed by a BY cmavo or its equivalent: the combination is grammatically equivalent to a single BY. (See Section 14 for details.)

A likely use of ``tau'' is in the internationally standardized symbols for the chemical elements. Each element is represented using either a single upper-case lerfu or one upper-case lerfu followed by one lower-case lerfu:

3.3)  tau sy.
    [single shift] S
    S (chemical symbol for sulfur)

3.4)  tau sy. .ibu
    [single shift] S i
    Si (chemical symbol for silicon)

4. The universal ``bu''

4.1)  zo bu
    the word ``bu''

The ability to attach ``bu'' to words has been used primarily to make names for various logograms and other unusual characters. For example, the Lojban name for the ``happy face'' is ``.uibu'', based on the attitudinal ``.ui'' that means ``happiness''. Likewise, the ``smiley face'', written ``:-)'' and used on computer networks to indicate humor, is called ``zo'obu'' The existence of these names does not mean that you should insert ``.uibu'' into running Lojban text to indicate that you are happy, or ``zo'obu'' when something is funny; instead, use the appropriate attitudinal directly.

Likewise, ``joibu'' represents the ampersand character, ``&'', based on the cmavo ``joi'' meaning ``mixed and''. Many more such lerfu words will probably be invented in future.

The ``.'' and ``,'' characters used in Lojbanic writing to represent pause and syllable break respectively have been assigned the lerfu words ``denpa bu'' (literally, ``pause bu'') and ``slaka bu'' (literally, ``syllable bu''). The written space is mandatory here, because ``denpa'' and ``slaka'' are normal gismu with normal stress: ``denpabu'' would be a fu'ivla (word borrowed from another language into Lojban) stressed ``denPAbu''. No pause is required between ``denpa'' (or ``slaka'') and ``bu'', though.

5. Alien alphabets

As stated in Section 1, Lojban's goal of cultural neutrality demands a standard set of lerfu words for the lerfu of as many other writing systems as possible. When we meet these lerfu in written text (particularly, though not exclusively, mathematical text), we need a standard Lojbanic way to pronounce them.

There are certainly hundreds of alphabets and other writing systems in use around the world, and it is probably an unachievable goal to create a single system which can express all of them, but if perfection is not demanded, a usable system can be created from the raw material which Lojban provides.

One possibility would be to use the lerfu word associated with the language itself, Lojbanized and with ``bu'' added. Indeed, an isolated Greek ``alpha'' in running Lojban text is probably most easily handled by calling it ``.alfas. bu''. Here the Greek lerfu word has been made into a Lojbanized name by adding ``s'' and then into a Lojban lerfu word by adding ``bu''. Note that the pause after ``.alfas.'' is still needed.

Likewise, the easiest way to handle the Latin letters ``h'', ``q'', and ``w'' that are not used in Lojban is by a consonant lerfu word with ``bu'' attached. The following assignments have been made:

       .y'y.bu     h
        ky.bu       q
        vy.bu       w

5.1)  ky.bu .ubu .abu cy. ky.
    ``q'' ``u'' ``a'' ``c'' ``k''

A few more possibilities for Latin-alphabet letters used in languages other than English:

       ty.bu       þ (thorn)
        dy.bu       &edh; (edh)
        

However, this system is not ideal for all purposes.  For one thing, it is
verbose.  The native lerfu words are often quite long, and with ``bu'' added
they become even longer: the worst-case Greek lerfu word would be
``.Omikron. bu'', with four syllables and two mandatory pauses.  In addition,
alphabets that are used by many languages have separate sets of lerfu words
for each language, and which set is Lojban to choose?

Where no obvious closest counterpart exists, some more or less arbitrary choice must be made. Some alien lerfu may simply not have any shifted equivalent, forcing the speaker to fall back on a ``bu'' form. Since a ``bu'' form may mean different things in different alphabets, it is safest to employ a shift word even when ``bu'' forms are in use.

Shifts for several alphabets have been assigned cmavo of selma'o BY:

   lo'a    Latin/Roman/Lojban alphabet
    ge'o    Greek alphabet
    je'o    Hebrew alphabet
    jo'o    Arabic alphabet
    ru'o    Cyrillic alphabet

5.2)  zai .devanagar. bu
    Devanagari (Hindi) alphabet

5.3)  zai .katakan. bu
    Japanese katakana syllabary

5.4)  zai .xiragan. bu
    Japanese hiragana syllabary

In addition, there may be multiple visible representations within a single alphabet for a given letter: roman vs. italics, handwriting vs. print, Bodoni vs. Helvetica. These traditional ``font and face'' distinctions are also represented by shift words, indicated with the cmavo ``ce'a'' (of selma'o LAU) and a following BY word:

5.5)  ce'a .xelveticas. bu
    Helvetica font

5.6)  ce'a .xancisk. bu
    handwriting

5.7)  ce'a .pavrel. bu
    12-point font size

Several sections at the end of this chapter contain tables of proposed lerfu word assignments for various languages.

6. Accent marks and compound lerfu words

6.1)  tei .ebu .akut. bu foi ty. tei .akut. bu .ebu foi
    ( ``e'' acute ) ``t'' ( acute ``e'' )

This system breaks down in languages which use more than one accent mark on a single lerfu; some other convention must be used for showing which accent marks are written where in that case. The obvious convention is to represent the mark nearest the basic lerfu by the lerfu word closest to the word representing the basic lerfu. Any remaining ambiguities must be resolved by further conventions not yet established.

Some languages, like Swedish and Finnish, consider certain accented lerfu to be completely distinct from their unaccented equivalents, but Lojban does not make a formal distinction, since the printed characters look the same whether they are reckoned as separate letters or not. In addition, some languages consider certain 2-letter combinations (like ``ll'' and ``ch'' in Spanish) to be letters; this may be represented by enclosing the combination in ``tei ... foi''.

In addition, when discussing a specific language, it is permissible to make up new lerfu words, as long as they are either explained locally or well understood from context: thus Spanish ``ll'' or Croatian ``lj'' could be called ``libu'', but that usage would not necessarily be universally understood.

Section 19 contains a table of proposed lerfu words for some common accent marks.

7. Punctuation marks

8. What about Chinese characters?

8.1)  .y'y.bu .abu ny. vo zy. .ibu vo
    ``h'' ``a'' ``n'' 4 ``z'' ``i'' 4

The Japanese company named ``Mitsubishi'' in English is spelled the same way in romaji, and could be spelled out in Lojban thus:

8.2)  my. .ibu ty. sy. .ubu by. .ibu sy. .y'y.bu .ibu
    ``m'' ``i'' ``t'' ``s'' ``u'' ``b'' ``i'' ``s'' ``h'' ``i''

9. lerfu words as pro-sumti

9.1)  .abu prami by.
    A loves B

In Example 9.1, ``.abu'' and ``by.'' represent specific sumti, but which sumti they represent must be inferred from context.

Alternatively, lerfu strings may be assigned by ``goi'', the regular pro-sumti assignment cmavo:

9.2)  le gerku goi gy. cu xekri .i gy. klama le zdani
    The dog, or G, is black.  G goes to the house.

9.3)  le gerku cu xekri. .i gy. klama le zdani
    The dog is black.  G goes to the house.

Here is an example using two names and longer lerfu strings:

9.4)  la stivn. mark. djonz. merko
        .i la .aleksandr. paliitc. kuzNIETsyf. rusko
        .i symyjy. tavla .abupyky. bau la lojban.
    Steven Mark Jones is-American.
        Alexander Pavlovitch Kuznetsov is-Russian.
        SMJ talks-to APK in Lojban.

Perhaps Alexander's name should be given as ``ru'o.abupyky'' instead.

What about

9.5)  .abu dunda by. cy.
    A gives B C

9.6)  .abu [boi] dunda by. boi cy. [boi]
    A gives B to C

9.7)  xy. boi ro [boi] prenu cu prami
    X all persons loves.
    X loves everybody.

10. References to lerfu

The rules of Section 9 make it impossible to use unmarked lerfu words to refer to lerfu themselves. In the sentence:

10.1)    .abu. cu lerfu
    A is-a-letteral.

10.2)    me'o .abu cu lerfu
    the-expression ``a'' is-a-letteral.

Now we can translate Example 1.1 into Lojban:

10.4)    dei vasru vo lerfu
        po'u me'o .ebu
    this-sentence contains four letterals
        which-are the-expression ``e''.
    This sentence contains four ``e''s.

Since the Lojban sentence has only four ``e'' lerfu rather than fourteen, the translation is not a literal one --- but Example 10.4 is a Lojban truth just as Example 1.1 is an English truth. Coincidentally, the colloquial English translation of Example 10.4 is also true!

The reader might be tempted to use quotation with ``lu ... li'u'' instead of ``me'o'', producing:

10.4.5)    lu .abu li'u cu lerfu
    [quote] .abu [unquote] is-a-letteral.

10.5)    The word ``.abu'' is a letteral

10.6)    la'e lu .abu li'u cu lerfu
    The-referent-of [quote] .abu [unquote] is-a-letteral.

11. Mathematical uses of lerfu strings

This chapter is not about Lojban mathematics, which is explained in Chapter 18, so the mathematical uses of lerfu strings will be listed and exemplified but not explained.

A lerfu string as mathematical variable:

11.1)    li .abu du li by. su'i cy.
    the-number a equals the-number b plus c
    a = b + c

11.2)    li .y.bu du li ma'o fy. boi xy.
    the-number y equals the number the-function f of x
    y = f(x)

Note the ``boi'' here to separate the lerfu strings ``fy'' and ``xy''.

A lerfu string as selbri (followed by a cmavo of selma'o MOI):

11.3)    le vi ratcu ny.moi le'i mi ratcu
    the here rat is-nth-of the-set-of my rats
    This rat is my Nth rat.

11.4)    ny.mai
    Nthly

11.5)    xy. xi ky.
    x sub k

11.6)    vei ny. [ve'o] lo prenu
    ( ``n'' ) persons

All the examples above have exhibited single lerfu words rather than lerfu strings, in accordance with the conventions of ordinary mathematics. A longer lerfu string would still be treated as a single variable or function name: in Lojban, ``.abu by. cy.'' is not the multiplication ``a x b x c'' but is the variable ``abc''. (Of course, a local convention could exist that made the value of a variable like ``abc'', with a multi-lerfu-word name, equal to the values of the variables ``a'', ``b'', and ``c'' multiplied together.)

There is a special rule about shift words in mathematical text: shifts within mathematical expressions do not affect lerfu words appearing outside

mathematical expressions, and vice versa.

12. Acronyms

12.1)    la dyny'abub. .i la ny'abuty'obub.
    .i la cy'ibu'abub. .i la sykybulyl.
    .i la .ibubymym. .i la ny'ybucyc.
    DNA. NATO.
    CIA. SQL.
    IBM. NYC.

Some compression can be done by leaving out ``bu'' after vowel lerfu words (except for ``.y.bu'', wherein the ``bu'' cannot be omitted without ambiguity). Compression is moderately important because it's hard to say long names without introducing an involuntary (and illegal) pause:

12.2)    la dyny'am. .i la ny'aty'om.
    .i la cy'i'am. .i la sykybulym.
    .i la .ibymym. .i la ny'ybucym.
    DNA. NATO.
    CIA. SQL.
    IBM. NYC.

In Example 12.2, the final consonant ``m'' stands for ``merko'', indicating the source culture of these acronyms.

Another approach, which some may find easier to say and which is compatible with older versions of the language that did not have a ``''' character, is to use the consonant ``z'' instead of ``''':

12.3)    la dynyzaz. .i la nyzatyzoz.
    .i la cyzizaz. .i la sykybulyz.
    .i la .ibymyz. .i la nyzybucyz.
    DNA. NATO.
    CIA. SQL.
    IBM. NYC.

12.4)    la me dy ny. .abu
    that-named what-pertains-to ``d'' ``n'' ``a''

This works because ``la'', the cmavo that normally introduces names used as sumti, may also be used before a predicate to indicate that the predicate is a (meaningful) name:

12.5)    la cribe cu ciska
    that-named ``Bear'' writes
    Bear is a writer

13. Computerized character codes

13.1)    me'o se'ecixa cu lerfu
        la .asycy'i'is. loi merko rupnu
    the-expression [code] 36 is-a-letteral
        in-set ASCII
        for-the-mass-of American currency-units.
    The character code 36 in ASCII represents
        American dollars.
    ``$'' represents American dollars.

As another example, the Unicode character set (also known as ISO 10646) represents the international symbol of peace, an inverted trident in a circle, using the base-16 value 262E. In a suitable context, a Lojbanist may say:

13.2)    me'o se'erexarerei sinxa le ka panpi
    the-expression [code] 262E is-a-sign-of
        the quality-of being-at-peace

14. List of all auxiliary lerfu-word cmavo

   cmavo   selma'o     meaning

    bu  BU      makes previous word into
                    a lerfu word
    ga'e    BY      upper case shift
    to'a    BY      lower case shift
    tau LAU     case-shift next lerfu word only
    lo'a    BY      Latin/Lojban alphabet shift
    ge'o    BY      Greek alphabet shift
    je'o    BY      Hebrew alphabet shift
    jo'o    BY      Arabic alphabet shift
    ru'o    BY      Cyrillic alphabet shift
    se'e    BY      following digits are
                    a character code
    na'a    BY      cancel all shifts
    zai LAU     following lerfu word
                    specifies alphabet
    ce'a    LAU     following lerfu word
                    specifies font
    lau LAU     following lerfu word
                    is punctuation
    tei TEI     start compound lerfu word
    foi FOI     end compound lerfu word

15. Proposed lerfu words --- introduction

For Latin-alphabet lerfu words, see Section 2 (for Lojban) and Section 5 (for non-Lojban Latin-alphabet lerfu).

16. Proposed lerfu words for the Greek alphabet

   alpha       .alfas. bu      .abu
    beta        .betas. bu      by
    gamma       .gamas. bu      gy
    delta       .deltas. bu     dy
    epsilon     .Epsilon. bu        .ebu
    zeta        .zetas. bu      zy
    eta     .etas. bu       .e'ebu
    theta       .tetas. bu      ty. bu
    iota        .iotas. bu      .ibu
    kappa       .kapas. bu      ky
    lambda      .lymdas. bu     ly
    mu      .mus. bu        my
    nu      .nus. bu        ny
    xi      .ksis. bu       ksis. bu
    omicron     .Omikron. bu        .obu
    pi      .pis. bu        py
    rho     .ros. bu        ry
    sigma       .sigmas. bu     sy
    tau     .taus. bu       ty
    upsilon     .Upsilon. bu        .ubu
    phi     .fis. bu        py. bu
    chi     .xis. bu        ky. bu
    psi     .psis. bu       psis. bu
    omega       .omegas. bu     .o'obu
    rough       .dasei,as. bu       .y'y
    smooth      .psiles. bu     xutla bu

17. Proposed lerfu words for the Cyrillic alphabet

   a       .azys. bu       .abu
    b       .bukys. bu      by
    v       .vedis. bu      vy
    g       .glagolis. bu       gy
    d       .dobros. bu     dy
    e       .iestys. bu     .ebu
    zh      .jivet. bu      jy
    z       .zemlias. bu        zy
    i       .ije,is. bu     .ibu
    short i                 .itord. bu
    k       .kakos. bu      ky
    l       .liudi,ies. bu      ly
    m       .myslites. bu       my
    n       .naciys. bu     ny
    o       .onys. bu       .obu
    p       .pokois. bu     py
    r       .riytsis. bu        ry
    s       .slovos. bu     sy
    t       .tvriydos. bu       ty
    u       .ukys. bu       .ubu
    f       .friytys. bu        fy
    kh      .xerys. bu      xy
    ts      .tsis. bu       tsys. bu
    ch      .tcriyviys. bu      tcys. bu
    sh      .cas. bu        cy
    shch        .ctas. bu       ctcys. bu
    hard sign   .ier. bu        jdari bu
    yeri        .ierys. bu      .y.bu
    soft sign   .ieriys. bu     ranti bu
    reversed e              .ecarn. bu
    yu      .ius. bu        .iubu
    ya      .ias. bu        .iabu

18. Proposed lerfu words for the Hebrew alphabet

   aleph       .alef. bu       .alef. bu
    bet     .bet. bu        by
    gimel       .gimel. bu      gy
    daled       .daled. bu      dy
    he      .xex. bu        .y'y
    vav     .vav. bu        vy
    zayin       .zai,in. bu     zy
    khet        .xet. bu        xy. bu
    tet     .tet. bu        ty. bu
    yud     .iud. bu        .iud. bu
    kaf     .kaf. bu        ky
    lamed       .LYmed. bu      ly
    mem     .mem. bu        my
    nun     .nun. bu        ny
    samekh      .samex. bu      samex. bu
    ayin        .ai,in. bu      .ai,in bu
    pe      .pex. bu        py
    tzadi       .tsadik. bu     tsadik. bu
    quf     .kuf. bu        ky. bu
    resh        .rec. bu        ry
    shin        .cin. bu        cy
    sin     .sin. bu        sy
    taf     .taf. bu        ty.
    dagesh      .daGEC. bu      daGEC. bu
    hiriq       .xirik. bu      .ibu
    tzeirekh    .tseirex. bu        .eibu
    segol       .seGOL. bu      .ebu
    qubbutz     .kubuts. bu     .ubu
    qamatz      .kamats. bu     .abu
    patach      .patax. bu      .a'abu
    sheva       .cyVAS. bu      .y.bu
    kholem      .xolem. bu      .obu
    shuruq      .curuk. bu      .u'ubu

19. Proposed lerfu words for some accent marks and multiple letters

   acute       .akut. bu or
                .pritygal. bu   [pritu galtu]
    grave       .grav. bu
                or .zulgal. bu  [zunle galtu]
    circumflex  .cirkumfleks. bu
                or .midgal. bu  [midju galtu]
    tilde       .tildes. bu
    macron      .makron. bu
    breve       .brevis. bu
    over-dot    .garmoc. bu     [gapru mokca]
    umlaut/trema    relmoc. bu      [re mokca]
    over-ring   .garjin. bu     [gapru djine]
    cedilla     .seDIlys. bu
    double-acute    .re'akut. bu        [re akut.]
    ogonek      .ogoniek. bu
    hacek       .xatcek. bu
    ligatured fi    tei fy. ibu foi
    Danish/Latin ae tei .abu .ebu foi
    Dutch ij    tei .ibu jy. foi
    German es-zed   tei sy. zy. foi

20. Proposed lerfu words for radio communication

   Alfa        .alfas. bu
    Bravo       .bravos. bu
    Charlie     .carlis. bu
    Delta       .deltas. bu
    Echo        .ekos. bu
    Foxtrot     .fokstrot. bu
    Golf        .golf. bu
    Hotel       .xoTEL. bu
    India       .indias. bu
    Juliet      .juliet. bu
    Kilo        .kilos. bu
    Lima        .limas. bu
    Mike        .maik. bu
    November    .novembr. bu
    Oscar       .oskar. bu
    Papa        .paPAS. bu
    Quebec      .keBEK. bu
    Romeo       .romios. bu
    Sierra      .sieras. bu
    Tango       .tangos. bu
    Uniform     .Uniform. bu
    Victor      .viktas. bu
    Whiskey     .uiskis. bu
    X-ray       .eksreis. bu
    Yankee      .iankis. bu
    Zulu        .zulus. bu

Please e-mail [email protected] with any comments or concerns.