Lojban - User contributions [en]

Lojban Wave Lessons/1

2026-09-17T17:09:35Z

La-tcacpi: Fixed grammatical error

<noinclude>{{Wave}}

</noinclude>

==Lesson 1: Bridi, jufra, sumti and selbri==

'''Bridi''' is the most central unit of Lojban utterances. The concept is very close to what we call a proposition in English. A bridi is a claim that some objects stand in a relation to each other, or that an object has some property. This stands in contrast to '''jufra''', which are merely Lojban utterances, which can be bridi or anything else being said. The difference between a bridi and a jufra is that a jufra does not necessarily state anything, while a bridi does. Thus, a bridi might be true or false, while not all jufra can be said to be such.

To have some examples (in English, to begin with), ''Mozart was the greatest musician of all time'' is a bridi, because it makes a claim with a truth value, and it involves an object, Mozart, and a property, being the greatest musician of all time. On the contrary, ''Ow! My toe!'' is not a bridi, since it does not involve a relation, and thus does not state anything. Both, though, are jufra.

Try to identify the bridi among these English jufra:
# ''I hate it when you do that.''
# ''Woah, that looks delicious!''
# ''Geez, not again.''
# ''No, I own three cars''
# ''Nineteen minutes past eight.''
# ''This Saturday, yes.''
Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">1, 2 and 4 are bridi. The rest contain no relation or claim of a property.</span>

Put in Lojban terms, a bridi consists of one '''selbri''', and one or more '''sumti'''. The selbri is the relation or claim about the object, and the sumti are the objects which are in a relation. Note that ''object'' is not a perfect translation of '''sumti''', since sumti can refer to not just physical objects, but can also purely abstract things like "''The idea of warfare''". A better translation would be something like "''subject, direct or indirect object''" for '''sumti''', and ''main verb'' for '''selbri''', though, as we will see, this is not optimal either.

We can now write the first important lesson down:
{{notci|bridi {{=}} selbri + one or more sumti}}
Put another way, a bridi states that some sumti do/are something explained by a selbri.

Identify the sumti and selbri equivalents in these English jufra:
{{mupli|I will pick up my daughters with my car.}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">selbri: ''pick up (with)''. sumti: ''I'', ''my daughters'', ''my car''</span>

{{mupli|He bought 5 new shirts from Mark for just two hundred euro!}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">selbri: ''bought (from) (for)'' sumti: ''He'', ''5 new shirts'', ''Mark'' and ''two hundred euros''</span>

Since these concepts are so fundamental to Lojban, let's have a third example:
{{mupli|So far, the EPA has done nothing about the amount of sulphur dioxide.}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">selbri: ''has done (about)'' sumti: ''The EPA'', ''nothing'' and ''the amount of sulphur dioxide''</span>

Now try begin making Lojban bridi. For this you will need to use some words, which can act as selbri:

{{gl|dunda|x1 gives x2 to x3 (without payment)}}
{{gl|pelxu|x1 is yellow}}
{{gl|zdani|x1 is a home of x2}}

Notice that these words meaning ''give'', ''yellow'' and ''home'' would be considered a verb, an adjective and a noun in English. In Lojban, there are no such categories and no such distinction. '''dunda''' can be translated ''gives'' (verb), ''is a giver'' (noun), ''is giving'' (adjective) as well as to an adverb form. They all act as selbri, and are used in the same way.

As well as a few words, which can act as sumti:

{{gl|mi|"I" or "we" – the one or those who are speaking}}
{{gl|ti|"this" – a close thing or event nearby which can be pointed to by the speaker}}
{{gl|do|"you" – the one or those who are being spoken to}}

See the strange translations of the selbri above - especially the x1, x2 and x3? Those are called sumti places. They are places where sumti can go to fill a bridi. Filling a sumti in a place states that the sumti fits in that place. The second place of '''dunda''', for example, x2, is the thing being given. The third is the object which receives the thing. Notice also that the translation of '''dunda''' has the word ''to'' in it. This is because, while this word is needed in English to signify the receiver, the receiver is in the third sumti place of '''dunda'''. So when you fill the third sumti place of '''dunda''', the sumti you fill in is always the receiver, and you don't need an equivalent to the word ''to''!

To say a bridi, you simply say the x1 sumti first, then the selbri, then any other sumti.

Usual bridi: (x1 sumti) <u>(selbri)</u> (x2 sumti) (x3 sumti) (x4 sumti) (x5 sumti) (and so on)

The order can be played around with, but for now, we stick with the usual form. To say ''I give this to you'' you just say '''mi dunda ti do''', with the three sumti at the right places.

So, how would you say ''This is a home of me''?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''ti zdani mi'''</span>

Try a few more in order to get the idea of a place structure to sink in.

''You give this to me''?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''do dunda ti mi'''</span>

And translate '''ti pelxu'''

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">''This is yellow.''</span>

Quite easy once you get the hang of it, right?

Multiple bridi after each other are separated by '''.i''' This is the Lojban equivalent of full stop, but it usually goes before bridi instead of after them. It's often left out before the first bridi, though, as in all these examples:

{{gl|.i|Sentence separator. Separates any two jufra (and therefore also bridi).}}

'''ti zdani mi .i ti pelxu''' ''This is a home to me. This is yellow.''

Before you move on to the next lesson, I recommend that you take a break for at least seven minutes to let the information sink in.<noinclude>

{{Wave}}[[Category:Lojban Wave Lessons]]
</noinclude>

lo valslinku'i cu mo.

2026-08-20T20:57:52Z

La-tcacpi: Changed to redirect (slinku'i) from empty page.

#REDIRECT [[slinku'i]]

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2026-07-28T21:28:43Z

La-tcacpi: create user page

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2026-07-28T21:25:53Z

La-tcacpi: import user wiki

Lojban Wave Lessons/25

2026-07-28T21:25:35Z

La-tcacpi: Corrected grammar (English), and a few changes for brevity and clarity of explanation.

<noinclude>{{Wave}}

</noinclude>

==Lesson 25: Logical connectives==

If you ask a Lojbanist: ''Do you want milk or sugar in your coffee?'' she'll answer: ''Yes.''

Witty as this joke might be, it illustrates a weird property of the English way of asking this question. It is phrased as a true/false question, but it really isn't. In Lojban, we can't have this kind of inconsistency, and so we must find another way of asking this kind of question. If you think about it, it's pretty hard to find a good and easy way, and it seems Lojban have picked a good way instead of an easy way.

To explain it, let us take two separate bridi: Bridi 1: ''I like milk in my coffee'' and bridi 2: ''I like sugar in my coffee''. Both of these bridi can have the state true or false. This yields four combinations of which bridi is/are true:

A) 1 and 2 B) 1 but not 2

C) 2 but not 1 D) neither 1 nor 2

I, in actuality, like milk in my coffee, and I'm indifferent as to whether there is sugar in it or not. Therefore, my preference can be written A ) true B ) true C ) false D ) false, since both A and B yields true for me, but neither C nor D does. A more compact way of writing my coffee preferences would be TTFF for true, true, false, false. Similarly, a person liking his coffee black and unsweetened would have a coffee preference of FFFT. This combination of "true" and "false" is called a ''truth function'', in this case for the two statements ''I like milk in my coffee'' and ''I like sugar in my coffee''. Note that the order of the statements matters.

In Lojban, we operate with 4 truth functions, which we consider fundamental:

A: TTTF (and/or)

O: TFFT (if and only iff)

U: TTFF (whether or not)

E: TFFF (and)

In this example, they would translate to something like: A:''Just not black coffee'', O: ''Either both milk or sugar, or nothing for me, please'', U: ''Milk, and I don't care about if there's sugar or not'' and E: ''Milk and sugar, please.''

In Lojban, you place the word for the truth function between the two bridi, selbri or sumti in question. That word is called a logical connective. The words for truth functions between sumti (and just for sumti!) are '''.a''' '''.o''' '''.u''' and '''.e'''. How nice. For instance: ''I am friends with an American and a German'' would be '''lo merko .e lo dotco cu pendo mi'''.

How would you say: ''I speak to you and no one else?''

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi tavla do .e no drata''' Note that this actually states that it's true that "I speak to you".</span>

One more: ''I like cheese whether or not I like coffee''

{{gl|ckafi|x1 is a quantity/contains coffee from source/of grain x2}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi nelci lo'e cirla .u lo'e ckafi'''</span>

You can perhaps deduce that there are sixteen possible truth functions, so we need to learn twelve more in order to know them all. Eight more can be obtained by negating either the first sentence or the second. The first is negated by prefixing the truth function word with '''na''', the second is negated by placing '''nai''' after the word. For example, since '''.e''' represents TFFF, '''.e nai''' must be ''both 1 is true and 2 is false'', which is FTFF. Similarly, '''na .a''' is ''Just not: 1 is true and 2 is false'', which is TTFT. Doing this type of conversion in the head real-time is very, very hard, so perhaps one should focus on learning how logical connectives work in general, and then learn the logical connectives themselves by heart.

Four functions cannot be made this way: TTTT, TFTF, FTFT and FFFF. The first and the last cannot be made using logical connectives at all, but they are kind of useless anyway. Using a hypothetical logical connective in the sentence ''I like milk FFFF sugar in my coffee'' is equivalent to saying ''I don't like coffee'', just more complicated. The last two, TFTF and FTFT, can be made by prefixing '''.u''' with good ol' '''se''', which just reverts the two statements. '''se .u''' , for instance is ''B whether or not A'', which is TFTF. The final list of all logical connectives can be seen below.

TTTT: Cannot be made

TTTF: '''.a'''

TTFT: '''.a nai'''

TTFF: '''.u''' OR '''.u nai'''

TFTT: '''na .a'''

TFTF: '''se .u'''

TFFT: '''.o''' OR '''na .o nai'''

TFFF: '''.e'''

FTTT: '''na .a nai'''

FTTF: '''na .o''' OR '''.o nai'''

FTFT: '''se .u nai'''

FTFF: '''.e nai'''

FFTT: '''na .u''' OR '''na .u nai'''

FFTF: '''na .e'''

FFFT: '''na .e nai'''

FFFF: Cannot be made

Logically, saying a sentence with a logical connective, like for instance '''mi nelci lo'e cirla .e nai lo'e ckafi''' is equivalent to saying two bridi, which are connected with the same logical connective: '''mi nelci lo'e cirla .i {E NAI} mi nelci lo'e ckafi'''. This is how the function of logical connectives is defined. We will get to how to apply logical connectives to bridi in a moment.

By putting a ''j'' in front of the core word of a logical connective, it connects two selbri. An example is '''mi ninmu na jo nanmu''' ''I am a man or a woman, but not both''

{{gl|ninmu|x1 is a woman}}

This is ''tanru-internal'', meaning that it loosely binds selbri together, even when they form a tanru: '''lo dotco ja merko prenu''' means ''a German or American man'', and is parsed '''lo''' ('''dotco ja merko''') '''prenu'''. This binding is slightly stronger that normal tanru-grouping (still weaker than specific grouping-words), and as such, '''lo dotco ja merko ninmu ja nanmu''' is parsed '''lo''' ('''dotco ja merko''') ('''ninmu ja nanmu'''). The selbri logical connectives can also be attached to '''.i''' in order to connect two sentences together: '''la .kim. cmene mi .i ju mi nanmu''' ''I'm called Kim, whether or not I'm a man''. The combination '''.i je''' states that both sentences are true, much like we would assume had no logical connective been present.

Unfairly hard question: Using logical connectives, how would you translate ''If you're called Bob, you're a man.''?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''zo .bab. cmene do .i na ja do nanmu''' or ''Either you're not named Bob and a man, or you're not named Bob and not a man, or you're named Bob and a man. But you can't be named Bob and not be a man.'' The only combination not permitted is: ''You're called Bob, but not a man.'' This must mean that, if it's true that you're called Bob, you must be a man.</span>

If we try to translate the sad, sad event of ''I cried and gave away my dog'', we run into a problem.

Attempting to say the sentence with a '''je''' between the selbri ''gave'' and ''cried'', would mean the same word for word, but unfortunately mean that ''I cried the dog and gave away the dog'', cf. the definition of logical connectives. One can cry tears or even blood, but crying dogs is just silly.

However, we can get around by using ''bridi-tail'' logical connectives. What they do is that any previous sumtcita and sumti attaches to both selbri bound by the bridi-tail logical connective, but any following sumti or sumtcita only applies to the last mentioned: The bridi splits up from one head to two tails, to speak metaphorically.

The form of a bridi-tail logical connective is gi'V, with the V for the vowel of the truth function.

How could you correctly translate the English sentence to Lojban?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi pu klaku gi'e dunda le mi gerku'''</span>

What does '''ro remna cu palci gi'o zukte lo palci''' mean?

{{gl|palci|x1 is evil by standard x2}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">''People are evil if and only if they do evil things.''</span>

Furthermore, there is a ''forethought all but tanru-internal'' group of connectors made by prefixing ''g'' in front of the truth function vowel. ''Forethought'' in this context means that they need to go in front of the things they connect, and thus you need to think about the grammatical structure of the sentence before saying it. ''All but tanru-internal'' means that it serves both as a connective between sumti, bridi, selbri and bridi-tails, but not between two selbri of one tanru. Let me show you how it works, rewriting the Lojban sentence above:

'''go lo remna cu palci gi lo remna cu zukte lo palci'''

The first logical connective in these kinds of constructs is what carries the vowel signalling what truth function is being used. The second logical connective is always '''gi''', and like '''.i''', it has no truth function. It simply serves to separate the two terms being connected. If you want to negate the first or second sentence, a '''nai''' is suffixed to either the first or second logical connective, respectively.

Provided that the constructs are terminated properly, it has remarkable flexibility, as the following few examples demonstrate:

'''mi go klama gi cadzu vau le mi zdani''' ''I go, if and only if walk, to my home'' or ''I can only go to my home by walking.'' Notice that the '''vau''' is needed to make le mi zdani apply to both '''cadzu''' and '''klama'''.

'''se gu do gi nai mi bajra le do ckule''' ''Whether or not you, then not I, run to your school'' or ''I won't run to your school no matter if you do or not''

The tanru-internal equivalent of gV is gu'V. These are exactly the same, except that they are exclusively tanru-internal – they may be used only within a tanru. They also bind a selbri to the '''gi''' tighter than normal tanru-grouping, but weaker than explicit binding-sumti:

'''la xanz.krt. gu'e merko gi dotco nanmu''' is equivalent to

'''la xanz.krt. merko je dotco nanmu'''

And so you've read page up and page down just to get the necessary knowledge in order to be able to learn how to ask ''Would you like milk or sugar in your coffee?'' in Lojban. Simply place a question logical connective instead of another logical connective, and like '''ma''', it asks the listener to fill in a correct response. Unfortunately, these question-logical connectives don't always match the morphological pattern of the logical connectives they ask for:
{{gl|ji|Logical connective question: Asks for a sumti logical connective (A)}}
{{gl|je'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a tanru-internal selbri logical connective (JA)}}
{{gl|gi'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a bridi-tail logical connective (GIhA)}}
{{gl|ge'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a forethought all-but tanru internal logical connective (GA)}}
{{gl|gu'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a forethought only tanru internal logical connective (GUhA)}}

So... how would you ask if the person wants milk or sugar in her coffee?
{{gl|ladru|x1 is/contains milk from source x2}}
{{gl|sakta|x1 is/contains sugar from source x2 of composition x3}}

Possible answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''sakta je'i ladru le do ckafi''' though I guess something more English and less elegant could also suffice like '''do djica lenu lo sakta ji lo ladru cu nenri le do ckafi'''</span><noinclude>

{{Wave}}
[[Category:Lojban Wave Lessons]]
</noinclude>

Lojban Wave Lessons/25

2026-07-28T21:06:29Z

La-tcacpi: Rephrased answer to make more sense (previous answer was ungrammatical). Meaning of the joke/remark is preserved.

<noinclude>{{Wave}}

</noinclude>==Lesson 25: Logical connectives==

If you ask a Lojbanist: ''Do you want milk or sugar in your coffee?'' she'll answer: ''Yes.''

Witty as this joke might be, it illustrates a weird property of the English way of asking this question. It is phrased as a true/false question, but it really isn't. In Lojban, we can't have this kind of inconsistency, and so we must find another way of asking this kind of question. If you think about it, it's pretty hard to find a good and easy way, and it seems Lojban have picked a good way instead of an easy way.

To explain it, let us take two separate bridi: Bridi 1: ''I like milk in my coffee'' and bridi 2: ''I like sugar in my coffee''. Both of these bridi can have the state true or false. This yields four combinations of which bridi is/are true:

A ) 1 and 2 B ) 1 but not 2

C ) 2 but not 1 D )neither 1 nor 2

I, in actuality, like milk in my coffee, and I'm indifferent as to whether there is sugar in it or not. Therefore, my preference can be written A ) true B ) true C ) false D ) false, since both A and B yields true for me, but neither C nor D does. A more compact way of writing my coffee preferences would be TTFF for true, true, false, false. Similarly, a person liking his coffee black and unsweetened would have a coffee preference of FFFT. This combitation of "true" and "false" is called a ''truth function'', in this case for the two statements ''I like milk in my coffee'' and ''I like sugar in my coffee''. Note that the order of the statements matters.

In Lojban, we operate with 4 truth functions, which we consider fundamental:

A: TTTF (and/or)

O: TFFT (if and only iff)

U: TTFF (whether or not)

E: TFFF (and)

In this example, they would translate to something like: A:''Just not black coffee'', O: ''Either both milk or sugar, or nothing for me, please'', U: ''Milk, and I don't care about if there's sugar or not'' and E: ''Milk and sugar, please.''.

In Lojban, you place the word for the truth function between the two bridi, selbri or sumti in question. That word is called a logical connective. The words for truth functions between sumti (and just for sumti!) are '''.a''' '''.o''' '''.u''' and '''.e'''. How nice. For instance: ''I am friends with an American and a German'' would be '''lo merko .e lo dotco cu pendo mi'''.

How would you say: ''I speak to you and no one else?''

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi tavla do .e no drata''' Note that this actually states that it's true that "I speak to you".</span>

One more: ''I like cheese whether or not I like coffee''

{{gl|ckafi|x1 is a quantity/contains coffee from source/of grain x2}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi nelci lo'e cirla .u lo'e ckafi'''</span>

You can perhaps deduce that there are sixteen possible truth functions, so we need to learn twelve more in order to know them all. Eight more can be obtained by negating either the first sentence or the second. The first is negated by prefixing the truth function word with '''na''', the second is negated by placing '''nai''' after the word. For example, since '''.e''' represents TFFF, '''.e nai''' must be ''both 1 is true and 2 is false'', which is FTFF. Similarly, '''na .a''' is ''Just not: 1 is true and 2 is false'', which is TTFT. Doing this type of conversion in the head real-time is very, very hard, so perhaps one should focus on learning how logical connectives work in general, and then learn the logical connectives themselves by heart.

Four functions cannot be made this way: TTTT, TFTF, FTFT and FFFF. The first and the last cannot be made using logical connectives at all, but they are kind of useless anyway. Using a hypothetical logical connective in the sentence ''I like milk FFFF sugar in my coffee'' is equivalent to saying ''I don't like coffee'', just more complicated. The last two, TFTF and FTFT, can be made by prefixing '''.u''' with good ol' '''se''', which just reverts the two statements. '''se .u''' , for instance is ''B whether or not A'', which is TFTF. The final list of all logical connectives can be seen below.

TTTT: Cannot be made

TTTF: '''.a'''

TTFT: '''.a nai'''

TTFF: '''.u''' OR '''.u nai'''

TFTT: '''na .a'''

TFTF: '''se .u'''

TFFT: '''.o''' OR '''na .o nai'''

TFFF: '''.e'''

FTTT: '''na .a nai'''

FTTF: '''na .o''' OR '''.o nai'''

FTFT: '''se .u nai'''

FTFF: '''.e nai'''

FFTT: '''na .u''' OR '''na .u nai'''

FFTF: '''na .e'''

FFFT: '''na .e nai'''

FFFF: Cannot be made

Logically, saying a sentence with a logical connective, like for instance '''mi nelci lo'e cirla .e nai lo'e ckafi''' is equivalent to saying two bridi, which are connected with the same logical connective: '''mi nelci lo'e cirla .i {E NAI} mi nelci lo'e ckafi'''. This is how the function of logical connectives is defined. We will get to how to apply logical connectives to bridi in a moment.

By putting a ''j'' in front of the core word of a logical connective, it connects two selbri. An example is '''mi ninmu na jo nanmu''' ''I am a man or a woman, but not both''

{{gl|ninmu|x1 is a woman}}

This is ''tanru-internal'', meaning that it loosely binds selbri together, even when they form a tanru: '''lo dotco ja merko prenu''' means ''a German or American man'', and is parsed '''lo''' ('''dotco ja merko''') '''prenu'''. This binding is slightly stronger that normal tanru-grouping (still weaker than specific grouping-words), and as such, '''lo dotco ja merko ninmu ja nanmu''' is parsed '''lo''' ('''dotco ja merko''') ('''ninmu ja nanmu'''). The selbri logical connectives can also be attached to '''.i''' in order to connect two sentences together: '''la .kim. cmene mi .i ju mi nanmu''' ''I'm called Kim, whether or not I'm a man''. The combination '''.i je''' states that both sentences are true, much like we would assume had no logical connective been present.

Unfairly hard question: Using logical connectives, how would you translate ''If you're called Bob, you're a man.''?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''zo .bab. cmene do .i na ja do nanmu''' or ''Either you're not named Bob and a man, or you're not named Bob and not a man, or you're named Bob and a man. But you can't be named Bob and not be a man.'' The only combination not permitted is: ''You're called Bob, but not a man.'' This must mean that, if it's true that you're called Bob, you must be a man.</span>

If we try to translate the sad, sad event of ''I cried and gave away my dog'', we run into a problem.

Attempting to say the sentence with a '''je''' between the selbri ''gave'' and ''cried'', would mean the same word for word, but unfortunately mean that ''I cried the dog and gave away the dog'', cf. the definition of logical connectives. One can cry tears or even blood, but crying dogs is just silly.

However, we can get around by using bridi-tail logical connectives. What they do is that any previous sumtcita and sumti attaches to both selbri bound by the bridi-tail logical connective, but any following sumti or sumtcita only applies to the last mentioned: The bridi splits up from one head to two tails, to speak metaphorically.

The form of a bridi-tail logical connective is gi'V, with the V for the vowel of the truth function.

How could you correctly translate the English sentence to Lojban?

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''mi pu klaku gi'e dunda le mi gerku'''</span>

What does '''ro remna cu palci gi'o zukte lo palci''' mean?

{{gl|palci|x1 is evil by standard x2}}

Answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">''People are evil if and only if they do evil things.''</span>

Furthermore, there is a forethought all-but tanru internal group of connecters made by prefixing ''g'' in front of the truth function vowel. ''Forethought'' in this context means that they need to go in front of the things they connect, and thus you need to think about the grammatical structure of the sentence before saying it. All-but tanru internal means that it serves both as a connective between sumti, bridi, selbri and bridi-tails, but not between two selbri of one tanru. Let me show you how it works, rewriting the Lojban sentence above:

'''go lo remna cu palci gi lo remna cu zukte lo palci'''

The first logical connective in these kinds of constructs are what carries the vowel which signal what truth function is being used. The second logical connective is always '''gi''', and like '''.i''', it has no truth function. It simply serves to separate the two terms being connected. If you want to negate the first or second sentence, a '''nai''' is suffixed to either the first (for the first sentence) or second (for the second sentence) logical connective.

Provided that the constructs are terminated properly, it has remarkable flexibility, as the following few examples demonstrate:

'''mi go klama gi cadzu vau le mi zdani''' ''I go, if and only if walk, to my home'' or ''I can only go to my home by walking.'' Notice that the '''vau''' is needed to make le mi zdani apply to both '''cadzu''' and '''klama'''.

'''se gu do gi nai mi bajra le do ckule''' ''Whether or not you, then not I, run to your school'' or ''I won't run to your school no matter if you do or not''

The tanru-internal equivalent of gV is gu'V. These are exactly the same, except that they are exclusively tanru-internal, and that they bind a selbri to the '''gi''' tighter than normal tanru-grouping, but weaker than explicit binding-sumti:

'''la xanz.krt. gu'e merko gi dotco nanmu''' is equivalent to

'''la xanz.krt. merko je dotco nanmu'''

And so you've read page up and page down just to get the necessary knowledge in order to be able to learn how to ask ''Would you like milk or sugar in your coffee?'' in Lojban. Simply place a question logical connective instead of another logical connective, and like '''ma''', it asks the listener to fill in a correct response. Unfortunately, these question-logical connectives don't always match the morphological pattern of the logical connectives they ask for:
{{gl|ji|Logical connective question: Asks for a sumti logical connective (A)}}
{{gl|je'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a tanru-internal selbri logical connective (JA)}}
{{gl|gi'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a bridi-tail logical connective (GIhA)}}
{{gl|ge'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a forethought all-but tanru internal logical connective (GA)}}
{{gl|gu'i|Logical connective question: Asks for a forethought only tanru internal logical connective (GUhA)}}

So... how would you ask if the persons wants milk or sugar in her coffee?
{{gl|ladru|x1 is/contains milk from source x2}}
{{gl|sakta|x1 is/contains sugar from source x2 of composition x3}}

Possible answer: <span style="color:gray;background:gray;">'''sakta je'i ladru le do ckafi''' though I guess something more English and less elegant could also suffice like '''do djica lenu lo sakta ji lo ladru cu nenri le do ckafi'''</span><noinclude>

{{Wave}}[[Category:Lojban Wave Lessons]]</noinclude>

Welcome!/en

2026-07-28T15:49:24Z

La-tcacpi: Updated dictionaries section (jbovlaste is now obsolete.)

<div style="box-sizing: border-box; width:100%; background-color: #eef; padding: 15px 20px; border: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.4);">

<div style="text-align: center; font-size: 1.5em; font-family: sans-serif">Welcome to the lojban wiki!</div>

{{Lojban StackExchange}}
==What is lojban?==
{{Side box|style=width:300px;|text=<table>
<tr><td>'''nelci'''</td><td>⬚ likes ⬚.</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''patfu'''</td><td>⬚ is a father of ⬚.</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''mi nelci do'''</td><td>I like you.</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''mi patfu do'''</td><td>I'm your father.</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''do nelci ma'''</td><td>What do you like?</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''ma nelci mi'''</td><td>Who likes me?</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''do patfu ma'''&emsp;</td><td>Who are you a father of?</td></tr>
</table>}}
[[Image:yt-evarusar.png|240x134px|'''Beauty in the artifice''': an introduction to Lojban by [http://bitsfair.com/ Ewa]|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kI__OTFn0o|thumb]]

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 based on simple rules, and its linguistic features are inspired by predicate logic. 
*Lojban allows the expression of nuances in emotion using words called [[attitudinals]], which are like spoken emoticons. '''ue''' marks that you're surprised; '''ba'u''' marks that you're exaggerating.
*You can be as vague or detailed as you like when speaking lojban. For example, specifying tense (past, present or future) or number (singular or plural) is optional when they're clear from context.
*Lojban is machine parsable, so the syntactic structure and validity of a sentence is unambiguous, and can be analyzed using computer tools.

*There is a live community of speakers expanding the lojban 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?

{{clear}}
</div>

== Official publications ==
[[File:cll-1.1.png|thumb|The Complete Lojban Language|link=http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_book.pdf]]
'The Complete Lojban Language' book is an official publication by The Logical Language Group and is available in several formats:
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0966028325/ As a hardcover book]
* [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_book.pdf CLL v1.1 PDF] and [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_cover.pdf CLL v1.1 PDF Cover] ; these are the actual files used to produced the hardcover version, so it's exactly what you get if you buy a copy
* [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1.epub CLL v1.1 EPUB] (the ebook format) and [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1.mobi CLL v1.1 MOBI] (another ebook format, generated from the EPUB using Kindle's tools, so it should work on all Kindle devices)
* In HTML: [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-no-chunks/ CLL v1.1 HTML One Big File], [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-chapter-chunks/ CLL v1.1 HTML One File Per Chapter], [http://lojban.org/publications/cll/cll_v1.1_xhtml-section-chunks/ CLL v1.1 HTML One File Per Section]

This book will help those who already understand some lojban. It's the most complete reference of lojban language by far. It does not, however, teach vocabulary, style, colloquial language or other possible variations of the language.

== Related documents ==
* A [[How to use xorlo|description of the xorlo reform]].
This reform was approved by the Logical Language Group in 2003.

== Unofficial methods to learn lojban ==
These are learning resources that are made by people speaking lojban and that represent personal views of those authors:
{| style="width: auto;border-collapse:collapse;border: 1px solid #ccc;"
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;">A set of [[pronunciation|pronunciation guides]]</div>
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| [[la karda|la karda]], a rapid-fire overview of the grammar in small pieces
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;"><span class="plainlinks">search the [https://la-lojban.github.io/sutysisku/lojban/#sisku=coi_munje dictionary]<br/>[[Image:la_sutysisku.png|100px|link=https://la-lojban.github.io/sutysisku/lojban/#sisku=coi_munje]]</span></div>
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| [http://lojban.github.io/ilmentufa/camxes.html la camxes] is an automatic grammar checker of Lojban utterances. It can help you to understand the structure and correctness of sentences.
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;">[[Lojban Wave Lessons|Wave Lessons]], a popular textbook
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;">[https://daeldir.github.io/jbogidva/ Lojban guide]<br/>Provides hover translations of both sentences/phrases and words they contain. </div>
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;"><span class="plainlinks">[[File:slaide.png|100px|link=https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Yrxt9gAtqA_oSDD76Toq8VLSZjjOxJ5rkKsxFs3Cw8E/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=5000]]</span><br/><span class="plainlinks">[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Yrxt9gAtqA_oSDD76Toq8VLSZjjOxJ5rkKsxFs3Cw8E/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=5000 Lojban in simple phrases]</span><br/>Also available in [http://mw.lojban.org/images/d/d1/Lojban._How_to_quickly_create_sentences.pdf PDF]. Or try flashcards: [http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/lojban/ Memrise.com] offers on-line Lojban vocabulary flashcards, [http://ankisrs.net/ Anki] is a downloadable alternative.
</div>
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;"><span class="plainlinks">try searching for arbitrary words in<br/>[https://la-lojban.github.io/sutysisku/lojban/#seskari=catni&sisku=pluka&bangu=muplis&versio=masno the database of sentences]<br/>[[Image:La Muplis.png|150px|link=https://la-lojban.github.io/sutysisku/lojban/#seskari=catni&sisku=pluka&bangu=muplis&versio=masno]]<br/>Some of the sentences are not proofread by fluent speakers of Lojban.</span></div>
|-style="vertical-align:top;"
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| <div style="text-align:center;"><span class="plainlinks">Join [https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban_IRC the chat]<br/>[[Image:lo-se-irci.svg|100px|link=https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Lojban_IRC]]<br/> and try talking to other Lojbanists when they appear there. Try asking them questions.</span></div>
|style="padding:3px;border:1px solid black;width: 50%;"| [[Image:yt-lesson in lojban i.png|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjSTUK3hFI]]<br/>«Lessons in Lojban» by Dustin Lacewell
|}

Also check out:

* the [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_vkiwqOIOIJPqZTiomzd4ApUSEQXhEY6CeyZD_6c-PA/edit#gid=0 translation of 'Alice in Wonderland'] by xorxes with a parallel text in English.


=== Dictionaries ===
* [https://la-lojban.github.io/sutysisku/lojban/ la sutysisku] is an online multilingual Lojban dictionary (including English) that also works offline. [http://vlasisku.lojban.org/ la vlasisku] is an alternative for English speakers only that is regularly updated.
* [http://lensisku.lojban.org/ la lensisku] is an editable, multilingual dictionary. It is considered by many to be the current de-facto standard dictionary of Lojban. It supersedes [http://jbovlaste.lojban.org la jbovlaste], a now obsolete similar dictionary system.
*[http://guskant.github.io/lojbo/stardict.html Stardict dictionaries in some languages] (usable with [http://goldendict.org/ GoldenDict], [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dictionary-universal/id312088272?mt=8 Dictionary Universal], etc.)
*[http://guskant.github.io/lojbo/gismu-cmavo.html Multilingual gismu (root word) and cmavo (particle) lists in tsv and html formats]
*[[Word frequency lists|Word lists ordered by frequency of use]]
*An unofficial [[Simple gismu|list of simple definitions of gismu]]


===[[Learning materials. Secondary links|Other learning materials ...]]===

==Connect with the community==

[[Image:yt-ro lo maha datka.png|240x160px|«ro lo ma'a datka» and other Lojban songs by [[la guskant]]|link=https://vimeo.com/album/3152276|thumb]]
[[Image:yt-bripre jikca 9.png|240x160px|«bripre jikca», a community literary vlog|link=https://vimeo.com/112783041|thumb]]
[[Image:yt-baho.png|240x160px|«ba'o», a song by [https://djemynai.bandcamp.com La Djemynai]|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG4jyHG-hv8|thumb]]

Lojban is spoken by a vibrant community, producing literature, music, and art, and discussing questions about language and thought. The web comic [https://www.xkcd.com/191/ xkcd] said that, if you spoke Lojban, you'd have to speak with Lojbanists. That may not be such a bad thing!

===Instant messaging (text chat) ===


*<span class="plainlinks">[{{Webchat url qwebirc}} QWebIRC] browser-based clients, or</span>
*[[Lojban_IRC#Trickier_ways_of_connecting|connect with the IRC client of your choice]].
There are three main channels (chat rooms):
##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

The channels sometimes move slowly, so don't lose hope if you don't get a response immediately -- wait around a bit and someone is likely to see your message. Here is an [[IRC cheat sheet|cheat sheet]] for those unfamiliar with IRC.-->

====Connecting to the chat====
Use <u>any</u> of the following messengers (your and others' messages will be available in all of them no matter from which messenger you are sending your questions).

Answers from members of the community will arrive soon.

====Telegram====
Using this method you will be able to read the history of the chat since the beginning of 2016.

#Install the free [https://telegram.org Telegram messenger] on your Apple, Android or your desktop device
# join main Lojban chat groups by following these links:
#*<span class="plainlinks">[https://t.me/joinchat/BLVsYz3hCF8mCAb6fzW1Rw Lojban], [https://telegram.me/joinchat/BLVsYz4hC9ulWahupDLovA ckule], [https://telegram.me/joinchat/BLVsYz20Boixl0xN-0TrPw jbosnu]</span>
#Ask questions on Lojban in '''ckule''' group, talk in or about Lojban in '''Lojban''' group and talk only in Lojban in '''jbosnu''' group.

====Discord====
The chat is also connected to a [https://discord.gg/BVm4EYR Discord server].
#Ask questions on Lojban in #ckule channel, talk in or about Lojban in #lojban channel and talk only in Lojban in #jbosnu channel.
# Freely chat about anything to like-minded Lojbanists in the #jboselbau channel.

====Other methods====

You may alternately try [[Lojban_Live_Chat#Direct_web_access|other methods of connecting]].

===Social media===
Lojban has a presence on many of the most popular web sites: [[Image:Facebook_Logo_Mini.svg|12px|link=http://facebook.com/groups/Lojban/]] [http://facebook.com/groups/Lojban/ Facebook], [[Image:reddit-12.png|12px|link=http://www.reddit.com/r/lojban/]] [http://www.reddit.com/r/lojban/ Reddit], [[Image:quora.png|12px|link=http://www.quora.com/Lojban]] [http://www.quora.com/Lojban Quora].

===Mailing lists===
The [http://groups.google.com/group/lojban-beginners/topics lojban-beginners mailing list] is for questions about learning and understanding Lojban. You can subscribe to the list by sending a question to [mailto:lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com].

The general-purpose [http://groups.google.com/group/lojban/topics 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 [mailto:lojban@googlegroups.com lojban@googlegroups.com].

===International Contacts===

[[Image:yt higher logic.png|240x160px|an exposition by [[User:Guskant|la guskant]] in Japanese|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzqhNYCWKLo|thumb]]

{| class="wikitable"
! !!Languages spoken
|-
|[[User:Selpahi|la selpa'i]]<br /> [mailto:seladwa@gmx.de seladwa@gmx.de]||English, German
|-
|[[User:Gleki|la gleki]]<br /> [mailto:bangu@lojban.org bangu@lojban.org]||English, Russian
|-
|[[User:Ilmen|la ilmen]]<br /> [mailto:ilmen.pokebip@gmail.com ilmen.pokebip@gmail.com]||English, French
|-
|[[User:Tsani|la tsani]]<br /> [mailto:nictytan@gmail.com nictytan@gmail.com]||English, French
|-
|[[User:xorxes|la xorxes]]<br /> [mailto:jjllambias@gmail.com jjllambias@gmail.com]||English, Spanish
|-
|[[User:Guskant|la guskant]]<br /> [mailto:gusni.kantu@gmail.com gusni.kantu@gmail.com]||English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Esperanto
|-
|[[User:Remod|la remod]]<br /> [mailto:rdentato@gmail.com rdentato@gmail.com]||English, Italian
|}

===[[Lojban around the world]] - other ways of communication ...===

== What's next? ==
*Try reading Lojban [[te gerna la lojban|texts]]. Start with something shorter and easier such as "[[la .teris. po'u lo tirxu cu vitke zi'o le barda tcadu|Terry the Tiger]]" (audio is available) or "[[The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin]]" ([http://guskant.github.io/gerna_cipra/maltufa-1.1.html a parser suitable to those two texts]). When you're ready, move on to "[[le cmalu noltru|The Little Prince]]" (suitable parser: [http://lojban.github.io/ilmentufa/camxes.html camxes]) and "[http://selpahi.de/oz.html The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]" (suitable parser: [[maftufa]]).

*Try your hand at translating into Lojban, or write your own original texts: Poetry, prose, blogs, tweets, etc.
*Continue learning vocabulary using [[Lojbanic Software|memorization software]].
*Help expand the [http://jbovlaste.lojban.org/ dictionary] by translating Lojban words into other languages, or coin new compound words and add them.

===[[What's next?|More info ...]]===

----
<div style="font-size:90%;">This web site is dedicated to documenting Lojban and the activities of the Lojban-using community, and also serves as the official web site of the [[Logical Language Group]] (LLG), a non-profit organization founded in 1987 to promote the scientific study of the relationships between language, thought and human culture.</div>

<noinclude>
[[Category:tadni]][[Category:nu jikca]]
[[Category:jbopre]]
</noinclude>__NOTOC__