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Chapter 1
Lojban As We Mangle It In Lojbanistan: About This Book
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Lojban (pronounced ``LOZH-bahn'') is a constructed language. Previous
versions of the language were called ``Loglan'' by Dr. James Cooke Brown, who
founded the Loglan Project and started the development of the language
in 1955. The goals for the language were first described in the open
literature in the article ``Loglan'', published in Scientific American,
June, 1960. Made well-known by
that article and by occasional references in science fiction (most notably
in Robert Heinlein's novel The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and computer
publications, Loglan and Lojban have been built over four decades by dozens
of workers and hundreds of supporters, led since 1987 by The Logical
Language Group (who are the publishers of this book).
There are thousands of artificial languages (of which Esperanto is the
best-known), but Loglan/Lojban has been engineered to make it unique in
several ways. The following are the main features of Lojban:
-
- Lojban is designed to be used by people in communication
with each other, and possibly in the future with
computers.
-
- Lojban is designed to be neutral between cultures.
-
- Lojban grammar is based on the principles of
predicate logic.
-
- Lojban has an unambiguous yet flexible grammar.
-
- Lojban has phonetic spelling, and unambiguously resolves
its sounds into words.
-
- Lojban is simple compared to natural languages;
it is easy to learn.
-
- Lojban's 1300 root words can be easily combined to form
a vocabulary of millions of words.
-
- Lojban is regular; the rules of the language are
without exceptions.
-
- Lojban attempts to remove restrictions on creative and
clear thought and communication.
-
- Lojban has a variety of uses, ranging from the creative
to the scientific, from the theoretical to the
practical.
-
- Lojban has been demonstrated in translation and in
original works of prose and poetry.
2. What is this book?
This book is what is called a ``reference grammar''. It attempts to expound
the whole Lojban language, or at least as much of it as is understood at
present. Lojban is a rich language with many features, and an attempt
has been made to discover the functions of those features. The word
``discover'' is used advisedly; Lojban was not ``invented'' by any one person
or committee. Often, grammatical features were introduced into the
language long before their usage was fully understood. Sometimes they
were introduced for one reason, only to prove more useful for other reasons
not recognized at the time.
By intention, this book is complete in description but not in explanation.
For every rule in the formal Lojban grammar (given in Chapter 21), there
is a bit of explanation and an example somewhere in the book, and often a
great deal more than a bit. In essence, Chapter 2 gives a brief overview of
the language, Chapter 21 gives the formal structure of the language, and the
chapters in between put semantic bones on that formal flesh. I hope that
eventually more grammatical material founded on (or even correcting)
the explanations in this book will become available.
Nevertheless, the publication of this book is, in one sense, the completion of
a long period of language evolution. With the exception of a possible
revision of the language that will not even be considered until
five years from publication date, and any revisions
of this book needed to correct outright errors, the language described in
this book will not be changing by deliberate act of its creators any more.
Instead, language change will take place in the form of new vocabulary ---
Lojban does not yet have nearly the vocabulary it needs to be a fully
usable language of the modern world, as Chapter 12 explains --- and through
the irregular natural processes of drift and (who knows?) native-speaker
evolution. (Teach your children Lojban!) You can learn the language
described here with assurance that (unlike previous versions of Lojban
and Loglan, as well as most other artificial languages) it will not be
subject to further fiddling by language-meisters.
It is probably worth mentioning that this book was written somewhat
piecemeal. Each chapter began life as an explication of a specific
Lojban topic; only later did these begin to clump together into a
larger structure of words and ideas. Therefore, there are perhaps not
as many cross-references as there should be. However, I have attempted
to make the index as comprehensive as possible.
Each chapter has a descriptive title, often involving some play on words;
this is an attempt to make the chapters more memorable. The title of Chapter 1
(which you are now reading), for example, is an allusion to the book
English As We Speak It In Ireland, by P. W. Joyce, which
is sort of informal reference work about Hiberno-English. ``Lojbanistan'' is
both an imaginary country where Lojban is the native language, and a term
for the actual community of Lojban-speakers, scattered over the world. Why
``mangle''? As yet, nobody in the real Lojbanistan speaks the language at
all well, by the standards of the imaginary Lojbanistan; that is one of
the circumstances this book is meant to help remedy.
Each chapter is broken into numbered sections; each section contains a
mixture of expository text, numbered examples, and possibly tables.
The reader will notice a certain similarity in the examples used throughout
the book. One chapter after another rings the changes on the self-same
sentences:
1.1) mi klama le zarci
I go-to that-which-I-describe-as-a store.
I go to the store.
will become wearisomely familiar before Chapter 21 is reached. This method
is deliberate; I have tried to use simple and (eventually) familiar
examples wherever possible, to avoid obscuring new grammatical points
with new vocabulary. Of course, this is not the method of a textbook,
but this book is not a textbook (although people have learned Lojban
from it and its predecessors). Rather, it is intended both for self-learning
(of course, at present would-be Lojban teachers must be self-learners)
and to serve as a reference in the usual sense, for looking up obscure
points about the language.
It is useful to talk further about Example 1.1 for what it illustrates
about examples in this book. Examples usually occupy three lines. The
first of these is in Lojban, the second in a word-by-word literal
translation of the Lojban into English, and the third in colloquial
English. The second and third lines are sometimes called the ``literal
translation'' and the ``colloquial translation'' respectively. Sometimes,
when clarity is not sacrificed thereby, one or both are omitted. If there
is more than one Lojban sentence, it generally means that they have the
same meaning.
Words are sometimes surrounded by square brackets. In Lojban texts, these
enclose optional grammatical particles that may (in the context of the
particular example) be either omitted or included. In literal translations,
they enclose words that are used as conventional translations of specific
Lojban words, but don't have exactly the meanings or uses that the
English word would suggest. In Chapter 3, square brackets surround
phonetic representations in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Many of the tables, especially those placed at the head of various sections,
are in three columns. The first column contains Lojban words discussed
in that section; the second column contains the grammatical category
(represented by an UPPER CASE Lojban word) to which the word belongs,
and the third column contains a brief English gloss, not necessarily or
typically a full explanation. Other tables are explained in context.
A few Lojban words are used in this book as technical terms. All of these
are explained in Chapter 2, except for a few used only in single chapters,
which are explained in the introductory sections of those chapters.
It is necessary to add, alas, that the examples used in this book do not
refer to any existing person, place, or institution, and that any such
resemblance is entirely coincidental and unintentional, and not intended
to give offense.
When definitions and place structures of gismu, and especially of lujvo,
are given in this book, they may differ from those given in the
English-Lojban dictionary (which, as of this writing, is not yet published).
If so, the information given in the dictionary supersedes whatever is
given here.
Although the bulk of this book was written for the Logical Language Group
(LLG) by John Cowan, who is represented by the occasional authorial ``I'',
certain chapters were first written by others and then heavily edited by
me to fit into this book.
In particular: Chapter 2 is a fusion of originally separate documents,
one by Athelstan, and one by Nora Tansky LeChevalier and Bob LeChevalier;
Chapters 3 and 4 were originally written by Bob LeChevalier with contributions
by Chuck Barton; Chapter 12 was originally written (in much longer form) by
Nick Nicholas; the dialogue near the end of Chapter 13 was contributed by
Nora Tansky LeChevalier; Chapter 15 and parts of Chapter 16 were originally
by Bob LeChevalier; and the YACC grammar in Chapter 21 is the work of several
hands, but is primarily by Bob LeChevalier and Jeff Taylor. The BNF grammar,
which is also in Chapter 21, was originally written by me, then rewritten by
Clark Nelson, and finally touched up by me again.
The research into natural languages from which parts
of Chapter 5 draw their material was performed by Ivan Derzhanski.
LLG acknowledges his kind permission to use the fruits of his research.
The pictures in this book were drawn by Nora Tansky LeChevalier, except
for the picture appearing in Chapter 4, which is by Sylvia Rutiser.
I would like to thank the following people for their detailed reviews,
suggestions, comments, and early detection of my embarrassing errors in
Lojban, logic, English, and cross-references: Nick Nicholas, Mark Shoulson,
Veijo Vilva, Colin Fine, And Rosta, Jorge Llambias, Iain Alexander,
Paulo S. L. M. Barreto, Robert J. Chassell, Ivan Derzhanski, Jim Carter,
Irene Gates, Bob LeChevalier, John Parks-Clifford (also known as ``pc''),
and Nora Tansky LeChevalier.
Nick Nicholas (NSN) would like to thank the following Lojbanists:
Mark Shoulson, Veijo Vilva, Colin Fine, And Rosta, and Iain Alexander for
their suggestions and comments; John Cowan, for his extensive comments, his
exemplary trailblazing of Lojban grammar, and for solving the ``manskapi''
dilemma for NSN; Jorge Llambias, for his even more extensive comments, and
for forcing NSN to think more than he was inclined to; Bob LeChevalier, for
his skeptical overview of the issue, his encouragement, and for scouring all
Lojban text his computer has been burdened with for lujvo; Nora Tansky
LeChevalier, for writing the program converting old rafsi text to new rafsi
text, and sparing NSN from embarrassing errors; and Jim Carter, for his
dogged persistence in analyzing lujvo algorithmically, which inspired this
research, and for first identifying the three lujvo classes.
Of course, the entire Loglan Project owes a considerable debt to James
Cooke Brown as the language inventor, and also to several earlier
contributors to the development of the language. Especially noteworthy
are Doug Landauer, Jeff Prothero, Scott Layson, Jeff Taylor, and Bob McIvor.
Final responsibility for the remaining errors and infelicities is
solely mine.
The founding document for the Loglan Project, of which this book is one
of the products, is Loglan 1: A Logical Language by James Cooke
Brown (4th ed. 1989, The Loglan Institute, Gainesville, Florida, U.S.A.)
The language described therein is not Lojban, but is very close to it and
may be considered an ancestral version. It is regrettably necessary to state
that nothing in this book has been approved by Dr. Brown, and that the very
existence of Lojban is disapproved of by him.
The logic of Lojban, such as it is, owes a good deal to the American
philosopher W. v.O. Quine, especially Word and Object (1960, M.I.T.
Press). Much of Quine's philosophical writings, especially on observation
sentences, reads like a literal translation from Lojban.
The theory of negation expounded in Chapter 15 is derived from a reading of
Larry Horn's work The Natural History of Negation.
Of course, neither Brown nor Quine nor Horn is in any way responsible for
the uses or misuses I have made of their works.
Depending on just when you are reading this book, there may be three
other books about Lojban available: a textbook, a Lojban/English dictionary,
and a book containing general information about Lojban. You can probably
get these books, if they have been published, from the same place where
you got this book. In addition, other books not yet foreseen may also
exist.
The following examples list the Lojban caption, with a translation, for
the picture at the head of each chapter. If a chapter's picture has
no caption, ``(none)'' is specified instead.
7.1) coi lojban. coi rodo
Greetings, O Lojban! Greetings, all-of you
7.2) (none)
7.3) .i .ai .i .ai .o
[untranslatable]
7.4) jbobliku
Lojbanic-blocks
7.5) (none)
7.6) lei re nanmu cu bevri le re nanmu
The-mass-of two men carry the two men
Two men (jointly) carry two men (both of them).
7.7) ma drani danfu
.i di'e
.i di'u
.i dei
.i ri
.i do'i
[What sumti] is-the-correct type-of-answer?
The-next-sentence.
The-previous-sentence.
This-sentence.
The-previous-sentence.
An-unspecified-utterance.
7.8) ko viska re prenu poi bruna la santas.
[You!] see two persons who-are brothers-of Santa.
7.9) (none)
7.10) za'o klama
[superfective] come/go
Something goes (or comes) for too long.
7.11) le si'o kunti
The concept-of emptiness
7.12) (none)
7.13) .oi ro'i ro'a ro'e
[Pain!] [emotional] [social] [mental]
7.14) (none)
7.15) mi na'e lumci le karce
I other-than wash the car
I didn't wash the car.
7.16) drata mupli pe'u .djan.
another example [please] John
Another example, John, please!
7.17) zai xanlerfu by. ly. .obu .jy by. .abu ny.
[Shift] hand-letters l o j b a n
"Lojban" in the manual alphabet
7.18) no no
0 0
7.19) (none)
7.20) (none)
7.21) (none)
8. Boring Legalities
This book is Copyright © 1997 by The Logical Language Group, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim
copies of this book, either in electronic or in printed form,
provided the copyright notice and
this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified
versions of this book, provided that the modifications
are clearly marked as such, and provided
that the entire resulting derived work is distributed
under the terms of a permission notice identical to this
one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute
translations of this manual into another language,
under the above conditions for modified versions,
except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation that has been approved by the Logical Language Group,
rather than in English.
The contents of Chapter 21 are in the public domain.