Lojban
In other languages 日本語 中文 русский Deutsch English Esperanto español français la .lojban. latviešu Lengua Aquatica magyar Nedder düütsch polski português svenska
is an experiment in human language –
a constructed language based on predicate logic.
What is Lojban?
Lojban is a carefully constructed spoken language. It has been built for over 50 years by dozens of workers and hundreds of supporters.
- Lojban's grammar is simpler than of most natural languages, but complex in its own unique way. Lojban is an experiment in thought, as well, it wishes to see how these unique language structures affect thought and understanding.
- Lojban allows the expression of tiny nuances in emotion, using words called attitudinals, which are essentially spoken emoticons.
- Lojban allows you to communicate concisely without unnecessary or undesired details. For example, you don't have to always think of what tense (past, present or future) to use in a verb when it's already clear from context.
- Lojban is machine parsable, which allows potential new explorations in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine translation.
- Lojban has a live community of speakers expanding its vocabulary day by day.
Lojban means different things to different people
- a linguistic curiosity - a test-bed for language experimentation
- a challenging way to expand their minds or discipline their thoughts
- a new perspective on languages
- an entertaining medium to communicate with friends or create art
- a domain for exploring the intersection of human language and software
What will Lojban mean for you?
More basic information ...
Learning Lojban
Official resources
- "The Complete Lojban Language", a reference grammar of Lojban. This book will teach you how to read and use Lojban, what the different types of words and grammatical constructs do. It does not, however, teach vocabulary, style, or colloquial language. Please note that since the initial publication of the reference grammar, some language reforms such as xorlo have become widely adopted.
Unofficial and supplemental resources
Different non-authoritative learning resources have been created. They are said to be more beginner-friendly.
- A set of pronunciation guides
- Lojban in simple phrases, an introduction (also available in PDF)
- Wave Lessons, a popular textbook
- "The Crash Course", a work-in-progress textbook
Dictionaries
- la jbovlaste is a prescriptive, editable, multilingual dictionary. It is considered by many to be the current de-facto standard dictionary of Lojban. Many other dictionaries and tools are based on it.
- la vlasisku is an online English—Lojban dictionary, based on data of la jbovlaste; intended to be more user-friendly (note: it is only irregularily updated, la jbovlaste is more up-to-date).
- la sutysisku is an online multilingual Lojban dictionary (including English) that also works offline. Updated at least once a month.
- la slovlacukt, an alternative offline dictionary.
- Stardict dictionaries in some languages (usable with GoldenDict, Dictionary Universal, etc.)
- Multilingual gismu (root word) and cmavo (particle) lists in tsv and html formats
- Word lists ordered by frequency of use
Related things
- An unofficial list of simple definitions of gismu
- Example sentences at Tatoeba.org
Software tools
- Memrise.com offers on-line Lojban vocabulary flashcards. Anki is a downloadable alternative.
- camxes is an automatic grammar of Lojban. It can help you to understand the structure and correctness of sentences.
Other learning materials ...
Connect with the community
Lojban is spoken by a vibrant community, producing literature, music, and art, and discussing questions about language and thought. The web comic xkcd said that, if you spoke Lojban, you'd have to speak with Lojbanists. That may not be such a bad thing!
IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
At any time of day, there are likely to be Lojbanists available on IRC to answer questions or engage in real-time Lojban conversation. Join the chat in your browser with the KiwiIRC or QWebIRC browser-based clients, or connect with the IRC client of your choice. There are three channels (chat rooms) on the Freenode IRC network (host: chat.freenode.net, ports: 6667 or 6697 for an SSL-encrypted connection) that are typically used for Lojban:
- #lojban for discussion about Lojban in any language
- #ckule for the teaching of Lojban and questions from beginners in any Language
- #jbosnu for discussions exclusively in Lojban
Here is an cheat sheet for those unfamiliar with IRC.
Mailing lists
The lojban-beginners mailing list is for questions about learning and understanding Lojban. You can subscribe to the list by sending a question to lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com.
The general-purpose lojban mailing list, which covers anything else related to Lojban, was founded in 1989, and has about 500 subscribers. You can subscribe to it by sending an email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
Social media
Lojban has a presence on many of the most popular web sites: 
Facebook, 
Google+, 
Reddit, 
Quora.
la jbotcan is an informal bulletin board which hosts images and discussions in Lojban and English.
International Contacts
| Languages spoken | |
|---|---|
| la selpa'i seladwa@gmx.de |
English, German |
| la gleki gleki.is.my.name@gmail.com |
English, Russian |
| la ilmen ilmen.pokebip@gmail.com |
English, French |
| la tsani nictytan@gmail.com |
English, French |
| la xorxes jjllambias@gmail.com |
English, Spanish |
| la guskant gusni.kantu@gmail.com |
English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Esperanto |
| la remod rdentato@gmail.com |
English, Italian |
Lojban around the world - other ways of communication ...
What's next?
- Try reading Lojban texts. Start with something shorter and easier such as "Terry the Tiger" (audio is available) or "The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin". When you're ready, move on to "The Little Prince" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".
- Try your hand at translating into Lojban, or write your own original texts: Poetry, prose, blogs, tweets, etc.
- Continue learning vocabulary using memorization software.
- Help expand the dictionary by translating Lojban words into other languages, or coin new compound words and add them.
More info ...
From Lojban news...
Community news
12 July 2015
- la .cogas. published «claxu be do crisa» ("Summer Without You"), a new original song in Lojban.
28 June 2015
- The LLG Board of Directors have re-elected Robert Lechavalier as President. And Rosta has been elected Vice President. Riley Martinez-Lynch has been elected as Secretary/Treasurer. Many thanks to outgoing Vice President Veijo Vilva, and long time Secretary/Treasurer Robin Lee Powell.
21 June 2015
- La DJemynai published an album of lojban songs "ZA'O".
On the Internet
- ひのき @hinoki__
- 寝起きで口が回らない場合や、思い出し思い出し言葉を選ぶときについ言葉尻が伸びてしまうとき、あらぬ誤解が無くなる。lojban言語(logになって...
- hinoki__ 2015-07-24 05:32:35
- Sarah Snell-Pym @Saffy
- Mr @alaric what is Musee/Musi/Mooosey or possibly Lucy in #lojban Sarah Snell-Pym @Saffy
- Watching language vids about learning multiple languages @MariiKusha frowns @ the Spanish & says 'thats not
Google Groups: lojban
- Re: [lojban] jbonunsla - location
- Got confused with the CLL, I guess.
- Christa Hansberry 2015-07-24 14:00:09
- Re: [lojban] Interactive learning on Duolingo
- Esperanto's appearance on duo brought in thousands of new learners. It was a massive success. I am enjoying the course myself. Sent from my iPad On Jul 23, 2015, at 5:14 PM, summerf...@gmail.com wr...
- Seth Turner 2015-07-24 05:18:58
GoogleGroups: lojban-beginners
- Re: [lojban-beginners] Re: Differenes between “ka” and “nu”
- (I already use nitcu2 as a property) > but I'm not sure > this is a sustainable route; we'd then need new brivla for every brivla > where a {ka} belonging to x1 is useful as a substitution...
- selpa'i 2015-07-23 21:30:26
- Re: Differenes between “ka” and “nu”
- Yes, I have seen {kaidji} and made {kaitcu} as well, but I'm not sure this is a sustainable route; we'd then need new brivla for every brivla where a {ka} belonging to x1 is useful as a substitutio...
- Jonathan Soo 2015-07-23 19:14:39
GoogleGroups: bpfk-list
- Re: [bpfk] Re: Lojban word definitions style guidelines
- coi ro do As per Naours' request, I will submit a Lojban dictionary definition style guidelines proposal to BPFK's vote. Here is the proposal draft: • http://mw.lojban.org/papri/BPFK_style_guidel...
- Ilmen 2015-07-24 11:34:36
- Re: Internal grammar of UI, NAI and CAI
- It is difficult to represent that elliptical illocution though. Either {ge'e} can represent an illocution or evidential as well, which makes it extremely vague, or it can only express UI1-type emot...
- Spheniscine (la zipcpi) 2015-07-23 10:45:48
