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Number 15 - August-September 1991
Copyright 1991, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031 USA (703)385-0273
Permission granted to copy, without charge to recipient, when for
purpose of promotion of Loglan/Lojban.
First International Correspondence
JL to Become Subscription Journal
Lojban List Moves
Details Inside, and More.
ju'i lobypli (JL) is the quarterly journal of The Logical
Language Group, Inc., known in these pages as la lojbangirz. la
lojbangirz. is a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of
completing and spreading the logical human language "Lojban - A
Realization of Loglan" (commonly called "Lojban"), and informing
the community about logical languages in general.
For purposes of terminology, "Lojban" refers to a specific
version of a logical human language, the generic language and
associated research project having been called "Loglan" since its
invention by Dr. James Cooke Brown in 1954. Statements referring
to "Loglan/Lojban" refer to both the generic language and to Lojban
as a specific instance of that language. The Lojban version of
Loglan was created as an alternative because Dr. Brown and his
organization claims copyright on everything in his version,
including each individual word of the vocabulary. The Lojban
vocabulary and grammar and all language definition materials, by
contrast, are public domain. Anyone may freely use Lojban for any
purpose without permission or royalty. la lojbangirz. believes
that such free usage is a necessary condition for an engineered
language like Loglan/Lojban to become a true human language, and to
succeed in the various goals that have been proposed for its use.
la lojbangirz. is a non-profit organization under Section
501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Your donations (not
contributions to your voluntary balance) are tax-deductible on U.S.
and most state income taxes. Donors are notified at the end of
each year of their total deductible donations.
Page count this issue: 88+2 enclosures ($9.00 North America,
$10.80 elsewhere). Press run for this issue of ju'i lobypli: 275.
We now have about 620 people on our active mailing list, and 240
more awaiting textbook publication.
Your Mailing Label
Your mailing label reports your current mailing status, and your
current voluntary balance including this issue. Please notify us
of changes in your activity/interest level. Balances reflect
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contributions received thru 31 August 1991. Mailing codes (and
approximate balance needs) are:
Activity/Interest Level: Highest Package
Received (Price Each) Other flags:
B - Observer 0 - Introductory Materials ($5) JL JL
Subscription ($25/yr)
C - Active Supporter 1 - Word Lists and
Language Description ($15) LK LK Subscription
($5/yr)
D - Lojban Student 2 - Language Design
Information ($10) R Review Copy (no
charge)
E - Lojban Practitioner 3 - Draft Teaching
Materials ($30) UP Automatic Updates (>$20)
Please keep us informed of changes in your mailing address, and US
subscribers are asked to provide ZIP+4 codes whenever you know
them.
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Contents of This Issue
Important: Due to financial constraints, ju'i lobypli will be
fully converting to a subscription basis over the next few issues.
Be sure to read the financial news section if you wish to keep
receiving ju'i lobypli.
We got a lot accomplished in the months leading up to LogFest,
and several major decisions were made at that meeting. See the
news section.
la lojbangirz. has made its first research proposal, to the U.
S. defense agency DARPA, and also has attended its first
linguistics conference. See the news section.
This issue contains a lot of material derived from the Lojban
List computer mailing list on the Internet. Nearly all such
material has been edited, revised, and corrected from the original.
Included are discussions of grammar points, some more on Lojban and
linguistics, and a LOT of Lojban text. I have Lojban text material
from over a dozen people to choose from for this issue, and it is
tough to choose. Some will be saved for JL16.
Table of Contents
News
Finances ---3
Logfest 91 ---5
Lojban List Moves / Electronic Distribution Policy ---7
Language Development Activities ---8
Using the Language --10
Research and Linguistics --11
Products Status, Prices, and Ordering --12
International News --15
Publicity; News From the Institute --16
New Loglans --17
le lojbo se ciska --18, 26, 42, 47, 57, 65
Is Lojban Scientifically Interesting? --20
Summary of gismu/rafsi Official Changes --23
Cleft Place Structures and sumti-Raising --32
Versions of the Theory of Linguistic Relativity --42
On Loglan and Lojban Elidables --47
A History and Description of le'avla in Loglan and Lojban --50
The Culture gismu Revisited: Cultural Neutrality and the gismu
List --53
Grammar Notes: On Observatives; Predications and Identities --61
How to Say It - A New Regular? Feature --63
Translations of le lojbo se ciska --79
Computer Net Information
Via Usenet/UUCP/Internet, you can send messages and text files
(including things for JL publication) to la lojbangirz./Bob at:
[email protected] (This is a new address and supersedes the
prior "snark" address.)
You can also join the Lojban List mailing list (currently
around 80 subscribers). Send a single line message (automatically
processed) containing only:
"subscribe lojban yourfirstname yourlastname"
to:
[email protected]
If you have problems needing human intervention, send to:
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lojban-list-
[email protected]
Send traffic for the mailing list to:
[email protected]
Please keep us informed if your network mailing address
changes.
Compuserve subscribers can also participate. Precede any of
the above addresses with INTERNET: and use your normal Compuserve
mail facility. If you want to participate on Lojban List, you
should be prepared to read your mail at least every couple of days;
otherwise your mailbox fills up and you are dropped from the
mailing-list. FIDOnet subscribers can also participate, although
the connection is not especially robust. Write to us for details
if you don't know how to access the Internet network.
Whether you wish to participate in the news-group or not, it
is useful for us to know your Compuserve or Usenet/Internet
address.
5
We've been requested to more chances - we have to pay the
explicitly identify people who bills.
are referred to by initials in We've found that a high per-
JL, and will regularly do so in centage of people specifically
this spot, immediately before theordering material from us
news section. Note that contribute money to pay for it.
'Athelstan' is that person's realIt is ju'i lobypli and le lojbo
name, used in his public life, karni, which we send people
and is not a pseudonym. without a specific prepaid order,
that people do not contribute
'pc' - Dr. John Parks-Clifford,enough to cover. Our financial
Professor of Logic and Philosophytracking system finally improved
at the University of Missouri - to the point where we could
St. Louis and Vice-President of identify this situation.
la lojbangirz.; he is usually Yet ju'i lobypli is what people
addressed as 'pc' by the provide most feedback on, a
community. product that people clearly like.
'Bob', 'lojbab' - Bob The answer, it seems, is to put
LeChevalier - President of la JL on a prepaid, specific order
lojbangirz., and editor of ju'i basis. Then, presumably, those
lobypli and le lojbo karni. of you who want JL will tell us
'Nora' - Nora LeChevalier - so with your checkbooks and
Secretary/Treasurer of la credit cards.
lojbangirz., Bob's wife, author This solution engenders its own
of LogFlash. new problems. We can presume
'JCB', 'Dr. Brown'- Dr. James that not every JL subscriber will
Cooke Brown, inventor of the subscribe if they have to pay for
language, and founder of the it in full and in advance. But
Loglan project. if we drop significantly below
'The Institute', 'TLI' - The 200 U.S. addressees, we lose our
Loglan Institute, Inc., JCB's reduced 3rd class bulk rates in
organization for spreading his postage. This reduction amounts
version of Loglan, which we call to about $2 per copy, or $400 per
'Institute Loglan'. issue. So, if by reducing our
'Loglan' - This refers to the subscriber list for JL does not
generic language or language save us at least $400, we are
project, of which 'Lojban' is themerely serving less people for
most successful version, and the same amount of money. We
Institute Loglan another. thus find that there is a gap
'Loglan/Lojban' is used in between about 140 and 200 U.S.
discussions about Lojban where wesubscribers where we lose as much
wish to make it particularly or more money than when we send
clear that the statement applies to additional people who are not
to the generic language as well. paying. We suspect that going to
a prepaid subscription basis will
News put us in the middle of that
interval.
Finances Going to a fully paid basis
also makes it more difficult for
We may have gotten momentarily students, people out-of-work, and
overconfident in JL14, after low-income Lojbanists to get JL.
raising a nice amount of money Yet these subscribers are among
with our fund-raising letter lastour most productive volunteers,
fall. Unfortunately, since that and have been more likely to
fund-raiser, income has been spend the time and effort to
lower than the already depressed start learning Lojban. Non-U.S
levels before the letter. We aresubscribers are also hurt, having
hoping that this is due only to a higher price to pay, but often
the recession, but cannot take having a lower income because of
their country's economy.
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Finally, reducing our the hoops and see whether we
subscriber list reduces our could do so if it proves finan-
outreach - our ability to attractcially necessary.
new people and get them involved
in learning and using Lojban. Thus, at LogFest 91, we decided
People who buy our products oftenon the following steps:
learn about them through seeing
how others use them productively 1. JL will be converted to a
in JL. prepaid subscription basis over a
Fortunately, there is one period of around a year. If this
option that may eliminate the means that we lose bulk rate, so
bubble. In going to prepaid sub-be it. Price will be $20-
scriptions, we may be able to $25/year, payable in advance.
become a 'legitimate' periodical People with negative balances
qualifying for U.S. Second Class will be cut off (switched to le
(Periodical) postage rates. lojbo karni), unless supported
Second Class doesn't require the either by volunteer credits (see
200 minimum mailing that our below) or by direct donation by
current bulk rate permit does, another person.
has even lower rates per piece, 2. The first step will be a
and offers faster and more fund-raiser and direct-mail
certain delivery than bulk rate announcement of the new policy in
mailings. the next month or two. Every
However, to establish subscriber to JL will be sent a
legitimacy, we have to prove thatform to be signed and returned
our readers WANT to receive our indicating that you want to
publication. We can prove this receive JL, and a signature line
either with formal audit will be added to our order form.
procedures (which we cannot If not signed and returned and
afford), or through having on you have a negative balance, you
file explicit requests from each will be dropped as a JL
of our subscribers. The latter subscriber, but will receive LK
must be signed and dated, or we instead. If you have a positive
must have other proof that the balance, we still need you to re-
request is bona fide (such as turn the form to qualify for 2nd
electronic mail headers and class mailing.
addresses). The postal service 3. Thereafter, the negative
will audit us at least once a balance cutoff for JL subscribers
year, and they check carefully. will be raised each issue, and
A side benefit/penalty people not making the cut will be
(depending on whether you are thedropped to an LK subscription.
reader or the editor) is that 2ndWe will give people a one issue
class periodicals MUST be advance notice of cutoff. For
published regularly, and at leastthose with very negative
quarterly, so that JL would be balances, you will be able to
coming out every 3 months with noavoid the cutoff by explicitly
slips like we've been making subscribing and sending a signed,
lately. paid order for JL.
A final factor is that it costs There will be no exceptions.
$275 just to apply for a 2nd Some of you with very negative
class permit, so we must have allbalances may wish to decide what
of our procedures in place BEFOREyou want your status to be, and
we apply. possibly to negotiate with
We haven't decided for sure to someone or with us to continue to
go to 2nd class mailing - the receive issues. If you have done
rigor may be more than we can things for us, including active
handle with one full-time worker,participation on Lojban List such
me, who has other things to do that we use your material in JL,
besides publish JL. But we are you can possibly negotiate
going to start jumping through delayed payment or a partial
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amount to be paid to zero out should contact to request such
your balance. We ask however assistance in your company, to
that for those who can afford to,let us know. We will also be
you pay most or all of your directly seeking out ideas and
balances off so that we can help information from a couple of you
out others who cannot. whom people have recommended that
We do not intend to drop LK we specifically ask.
subscribers until the books are We are seeking donations,
done, except upon request. It probably in the $1000-$15000
isn't feasible to put LK on a range, to support specific or
subscription basis, because the general research projects in
response rate to our mailings is Lojban applications, and also to
so low. support publication of the
4. Given the cutback, we hope textbook and dictionary in
that our financial condition amounts large enough to keep the
improves to the point that we price down and allow wide
have a surplus. If so, the distribution. Specifically from
following plan will aid the ones companies that manufacture and
who cannot pay for subscriptions sell computers, we also are
and other materials. seeking unrestricted donations of
A 'volunteer credit' donation one or two small machines. Unre-
fund will be set up. People who stricted donation means that we
donate can specify donations for could use or sell the machine -
general expenses, or specificallyselling it to get money for
for this fund. In addition, a support or using it for research
specific portion of any excess purposes. Two machines would
revenues (profits) will be put inallow us to sell one and keep
this fund. one. Donation of machines to la
A committee will accept lojbangirz. apparently benefits
recommendations of people who such companies more than direct
have contributed in a wide cash donations. Again, ideas are
variety of ways from commentary welcome in this area.
on JL, learning the language, One such donation will greatly
participation on Lojban List, ease our month to month financial
recruiting, overseas activities. pressure. A larger donation or
They will also get a list from memore smaller ones would allow us
each issue of people whose to make intelligent financial
balance is less than the decisions on how to complete our
subscription cutoff, along with projects and to get serious
notes on any special research started, without the
circumstances that might allow distorting effect of living hand-
them to be retained as JL sub- to-mouth. Please help if you
scribers. The committee will can.
allocate the funds among the pos- 6. We plan to establish a
sible recipients, so as to allow 'Sustaining Membership' similar
the maximum number to be retainedto other non-profit organiza-
as JL subscribers. tions. Probably costing
5. We will seek direct $50/year, the benefits will be
donations of larger amounts of minimal - perhaps acknowledgement
money from companies, especially in our books, periodicals, and
from computer companies who mightour annual reports, perhaps a 10%
profit by the positive image of or 20% discount on purchases, and
supporting non-profit scientific higher priority on orders and
and educational research with services. The main 'benefit'
computer applications. We are will be knowing you are helping
asking ALL subscribers associatedmake Lojban a success. Details
with a company who might be will be announced.
willing to help support us, and 7. Finally, we have gotten a
who either have some influence inlocal computer network account
such decisions, or know who we
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which will significantly cut la On Saturday, after a slow start
lojbangirz.'s phone bill. due to late sleepers, we started
doing 'serious' Lojban. We had
We believe these steps will be prepared for a couple of dozen
more than sufficient to right ourdifferent kinds of activities, so
tottering finances. We've made aas to be ready for a range of
lot of progress so far, but as weLojban experience and interests.
continue to rapidly grow, it is This year, attendees were almost
easy to lose control. la all active students who knew
lojbangirz. is now far larger enough vocabulary and grammar for
than I can financially support byus to undertake intermediate
myself. activities.
As a business, we need a safety One activity that proved
margin so that financial crisis moderately successful was
is not always knocking at the translating aphorisms. People
door. And if we have to worry seem much more comfortable trying
less about finances, that means to translate single sentences
all the more effort that can be both from English to Lojban and
put towards writing books and vice versa, than with longer
software and otherwise making texts. Thus, every participant
sure Lojban continues to grow. got a random aphorism out of a
box (we pregraded the aphorisms
LogFest 91 by grammatical difficulty, so
people chose a line they had a
Logfest 91, the annual reasonable chance to translate),
gathering for celebration of and worked on a translation to
Lojban, started Thursday night, Lojban. More experienced
June 20, with the arrival of the Lojbanists aided the less skilled
first three visitors, even thoughones. Then each person presented
no organized activities (other her/his translation to the group
than getting ready) were as a whole, who then tried to
scheduled for Friday. As happensfigure out what it meant. In
when a good group of Lojbanists general, everyone successfully
gets together, Friday was filled understood others' translations,
with a variety of lively and using their word lists.
interesting discussions (not A weakness of the activity was
limited to Lojban). As people the size of the group. With over
arrived, the discussions got a dozen participants, it took a
livelier, and a bit more serious.long time to go through all
On Friday night, we turned to translations. We know next time
discussion of the financial we have that many people to di-
situation, and a related matter -vide into groups, so that things
the distribution of Lojban move quicker. Still, everyone
materials electronically (via thelearned a lot, and many were sur-
computer networks). Such distri-prised at how easily and well
bution helps our costs by they could understand the trans-
reducing postage, and offers the lations. You can try the
potential of more rapidly activity yourself - aphorisms in
expanding the Lojban community, both English and Lojban will be
but with a likely loss of income found in le lojbo se ciska this
since many people who receive issue.
materials electronically will not Less intense was a discussion
contribute to the costs of those on making tanru and lujvo. We've
materials. tried this before, but working at
The discussion ran all night, the level of individual words
and was heated at times. The gets people bogged down in the
result, though, was a workable semantics of English. In this
policy that attendees were case, working on lujvo for the
satisfied with. This new policy English word "tyranny", we ended
is discussed below. up with over a dozen tanru, each
9
with its own subtle distinction finances will improve to the
in meaning, and no real agreementpoint that we no longer have to
on a 'best' one. My own opinion spend hours debating new
is that there is no 'best' lujvo strategies.
for any given English concept, With such a long meeting, non-
because you will choose a voting Lojbanists tended to drift
different emphasis depending on in and out of the meeting into a
the context. This exercise, variety of discussions and
always educational but always informal activities. By the end
somewhat of a failure, reminds usof the meeting, a lively game of
that Lojban and English are very "la reno preti" (20 Questions)
different languages. was being played, entirely in
There were other activities on Lojban. This proved to be the
Saturday, but the primary focus most successful of the Lojban
outside of the above activities activities, continuing well-into
was group discussion and the evening.
socializing. Art Protin and By Monday, only 3 Lojbanists
David Twery, visiting from New were left. Two stayed until mid-
Jersey and the Philadelphia area week, with Bob Chassell joining
respectively met local Lojbanist in the regular Tuesday evening
Sylvia Rutiser, and agreed to conversation group, reporting in
start writing Lojban letters to Lojban on his touristy explo-
each other; there is now good rations of Washington, and
hope that there will come to be leading another round of "la reno
active Lojban social/study groupspreti". One unfortunate problem
in those two areas. Art and with a weekend gathering is that
David also promised that every so many (especially those from
once in a while they would pile out-of-town) cannot arrive until
into the car and drive to the DC very late Frday (whereupon they
area for an informal Lojban have to sleep half of Saturday in
social get together. order to recover), and they then
Sunday was dominated by the have to leave by late afternoon
annual meeting of la lojbangirz.,Sunday. Given that the annual
which started at 10:30 AM. That meeting so dominates Sunday, this
meeting recessed for lunch, but tends to give us less than a day
ran until 5 PM as we wrestled for a variety of activities.
with financial issues and pri- Thus the activities portion of
orities for the coming year. A LogFest has tended to be only
lot of decisions were made, and mildly successful.
even more than previous years, I We work more each year on pre-
think people were both satisfied planning activities, but planning
with the result and convinced is inherently limited. We never
that everyone had a meaningful know till people arrive who is
voice in the process. Since the coming, what their Lojban skill
latter was a major reason for level is, and what activities
forming la lojbangirz., these they find interesting. Also, as
long meetings are worthwhile. with the aphorism translations,
We are taking some steps activities that we test out
towards speeding up future successfully in a weekly
meetings. We will have more conversation session may work
advance notice of agenda items soquite successfully with 5 or 6
people can be prepared for people, but may bog down with a
discussion before LogFest starts.dozen or more participating.
We will also try to have a Board Still, people noted and were
of Directors meeting perhaps a pleased by the increasing
month before LogFest to weed out sophistication of the in-Lojban
issues and ensure group attentionactivities, and the general skill
to the most important, while of everyone participating. We
expediting routine business. We still haven't reached the point
also hope, of course, that our where Lojban conversations break
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out spontaneously, but this may lojbangirz.'s original charter in
happen next year given the rate August 1987, when we started
of improvement in Lojban "Lojban - The Realization of Log-
speakers. More attendees will lan", now also known as
make this more likely, and "Loglan/Lojban" or just "Lojban",
improve the variety of activitiesla lojbangirz. has made repeated
going on at any one time. efforts over the last several
Total attendance was 17, most years to mend the political split
of whom were there all weekend. with The Loglan Institute, Inc.
7 were from out-of-town. About Earlier this year, we proposed
half were skilled enough to a settlement that would have
converse at least minimally in remerged the two current versions
Lojban, although such 'conver- of Loglan into one. The plan
sations' tended to be only would have guaranteed an honored
snippets and remarks. 13 place for JCB, as well as organi-
attended the business meeting on zational and possible financial
Sunday. John Cowan was elected support for the Institute. No
to the Board of Directors and response was received.
Albion Zeglin dropped his Board The Lojban design is
and voting membership due to lackessentially complete. Time has
of time. run out on making changes to
LogFest is supposed to be FUN, facilitate a merger - we can no
not all work. A major differencelonger make significant changes
from previous LogFests is that without corresponding impact on
the activities schedule didn't those who have learned and will
include a mass of technical learn Loglan/Lojban. Our version
debates and decisions that had toof Loglan is now substantially
be made. Of course, since the better than the Institute's, and
major Lojban design decisions we have people speaking and
have been made, only relatively writing the language.
minor questions of style, seman- As a result of this situation,
tics, and how we teach the the LogFest attendees voted that
language remain to be resolved. "Expending resources towards
These were decided in advance, orreconciliation with JCB or the
in a couple of cases, informally Institute is not a good use of
during the gathering (for exam- resources at this time, but we
ple, the nest of issues we've remain open to such
called "sumti-raising" - see reconciliation should their
below - were satisfactorily position change in the future."
resolved "in the halls" during and "There is no longer special
LogFest). authority given to pronouncements
Among minor decisions: of JCB or the Institute about the
"?spero" as a culture word for language."
"Esperanto" was voted down, and It is unfortunate that we have
the baseline of the gismu was had to go to such lengths in our
reaffirmed; few of the 'old- dispute, but we have tried hard
timers' want even minimal change.and long for an alternative
"navni" is broadened to include without success. We cannot allow
"inert gas" in its meaning. the ill will of one person, even
Finally, pending grammar the language inventor, to prevent
proposals were adopted and the us from freely using the language
grammar was rebaselined until af-he invented. The language be-
ter the textbook is completed - longs to the community now, as it
people are generally satisfied must be to succeed.
with the grammar for now, and are We hope that JCB and the
waiting to see how it is used andInstitute will change their
taught. position; we then can restore JCB
la lojbangirz./Institute split to the position of honor and
- In accordance with a unanimous esteem that he once held among
vote taken at the time of la the entire Loglan community.
11
Languages Server' on the
Electronic Distribution News Internet. Over the next few
Lojban List Moves months, as time allows, Bob will
prepare materials for
A major accomplishment of distribution. (We will also
LogFest was the adoption of a supply data directly on diskette
policy for electronic - current price is $10 per
distribution of materials that uncompressed diskful, in any of
balances our desire to get these the 4 diskette formats we can
products to the public, thus support: 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 high
aiding in the language growth, and low density MS-DOS.)
with our need for income from our For those with Internet access
publications, and a goal to who wish to get materials, send a
fairly distribute our services tomessage containing, on separate
both computer people and non-com-lines, "help" and "index lojban"
puter people. to:
The essential core of the
policy benefits all Lojbanists, [email protected]
regardless of your access to
materials: All published The Server will reply
"language definition materials" automatically. The index will
will be placed in the public identify what files are available
domain, and will be distributable- a reading priority should be a
without restriction, in any 'read-me' file that will describe
medium. These include word liststhe files officially put out by
and the language grammar. la lojbangirz., and their status.
Teaching materials, some draft The help file will tell you how
materials, and all JLs, will be to request files to be sent to
distributable under our retained you - generally all you need to
copyright using a standard do is say:
license - shown in the
distribution policy below.
All materials, except those
that we rely on to show a profit
to support our other activities
(like software and the textbook),
will be posted for electronic
distribution. Some materials,
like ju'i lobypli, will be posted
after considerable delay (6
months or more), so that we make
a current paid-for copy a
valuable service. In addition,
the material as posted will
generally have minimal formatting
for electronic text. Electronic
JLs and many other publications
will be difficult to read,
because standard electronic text
uses 80 characters per line, and
we use much higher print
densities in formatting our
publications. As a result, an
electronic 'printout' of JL may
have sections that will be un-
readable without manual editing;
la lojbangirz. will not do that
editing.
Our point of original
distribution will be the 'Planned
12
"send lojban/filename". Jerry Altzman is helping us out
in another way. Volume on the
On an organized basis, we Lojban List mailing group has
expect that much of this materialgrown so that it was straining
will be cross-posted to the Com- list-founder Eric Raymond's
puserve 'Foreign Language network connection. Jerry found
Education' forum by varying room for us on one of the
Lojbanists with access to both computers he manages, and Lojban
Internet and Compuserve. Lojban-List was switched during the last
ists are welcome to distribute week of August. In addition, the
the material electronically in list now uses a more advanced
keeping with the policy described"Listserv" process that allows
below - any restrictions will be people to sign up and remove
noted in the files themselves. themselves from the list, tem-
All materials will be released porarily suspend receiving
directly by me to Jerry Altzman messages when overloaded or
of the PLS. The read-me file vacationing, and of course post
will contain my directory of messages, all without human
dates and version numbers of all intervention. See page 2 for
such releases. details.
We eventually plan to include
in the official directory an MD-4
(tamper-resistant 'message di-
gest' value) for each file so you
can verify that material you ob-
tain is authentic. We will also
publish a printed MD-4 checksum
list separately, and will make
available for free a program to
determine the MD-4 checksum of
any file. There are some hangups
in implementing the MD-4 support
because the checksum must be
calculated on the file as it
actually is sent by the Server,
which has UNIX-oriented line and
file conventions that differ from
the ones associated with the MS-
DOS version produced by la
lojbangirz.
Others are encouraged submit
Lojban materials to the Server;
we will occasionally check these
materials and advise the Server
managers (Lojbanists Jerry
Altzman and Mark Shoulson) as to
which materials we think are
useful and current. (We ask that
you send us a copy of all such
submissions, with a note that you
plan to so submit them. Send
them either by paper-mail to the
la lojbangirz. address, or
electronically to:
[email protected]
la lojbangirz. encourages
comments on draft materials that
are released to PLS.
13
Logical Languages Group Policy word lists and other language
Electronic Distribution of definition materials, will be
Materials copyrighted using a copyright
Approved 23 June 1991 notice essentially similar to the
one attached to this draft
Copyright, 1991 policy.
The Logical Language Group, Inc.
(la lojbangirz.) 4) To assure the integrity of
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-electronically distributed la
1303 USA lojbangirz. materials, every
Phone (703) 385-0273 document distributed
electronically will bear a
All rights reserved. Permission message digest value computed
to copy granted subject to your using the MD-4 algorithm, source
verification that this is the code for which is publicly
latest version of this document, available.
that your distribution be for the
promotion of Lojban, that there 5) la lojbangirz. will make
is no charge for the product, andavailable, free of charge, a list
that this copyright notice is of the MD-4 message digest values
included intact in the copy. for all materials released in
electronic distribution. la
1) la lojbangirz. publications lojbangirz. will also provide a
and materials are hereby divided program to compute message digest
into three groups: values, free of charge with the
purchase of Group C materials,
Group A materials consist of subject to technical limitations.
text, and are sold at or near
cost. 6) la lojbangirz. intends to use
Group B materials consist of the Planned Languages Server as
text, and are sold above cost. the primary distribution medium
Group C materials consist of on the Internet. Other
computer software, and are sold distribution media on the same or
above cost. other networks may be established
at la lojbangirz.'s discretion.
This division is independent of
the division into Level/Package 7) Materials in Group B and Group
0-3 materials, which depends not C will not be distributed
on cost but on the presumed electronically. Group C
interest level of the reader. materials in object form will be
distributed on diskette and
2) The following are non- whatever other media are
exhaustive lists of materials in technically available to la
each group: lojbangirz. (currently, none).
Group A: JL and LK issues;
draft textbook lessons; word 8) Source code to Group C
lists; language definition software will be made available
materials; ancillary materials. on diskette or other media to
Group B: the (as yet unwritten)persons who sign a non-disclosure
textbook; the (as yet unwritten) agreement with la lojbangirz., at
dictionary. a cost equal to the cost of the
Group C: Logflash for PC and Group C software in object form.
Mac; the la lojbangirz. Lojban
Parser (in beta release); lujvo- 9) This policy becomes effective
maker; random sentence generator.when ratified by la lojbangirz.'s
official bodies. (it has been.)
3) la lojbangirz. will provide It may be altered at any time by
all materials in Group A for la lojbangirz.
electronic distribution free of
charge. All materials, except
14
Language Development Activities A last minute proposal assigns
rafsi to fo'a, fo'e and fo'i
Vocabulary - Many minor (selma'o KOhA). These assigned
vocabulary-polishing activities to names with du or goi plus
occurred since last issue. 20 several other cmavo rafsi (mi,
gismu proposed and approved last do, vi, va, vu, ti, ta, tu) can
year were finally created using be used along with names to allow
the 6-language algorithm. rafsi more abbreviated expressions of
were assigned to as many of thesecultures not included in the
as possible, and the cmavo list gismu list. e.g. fo'e du la
was examined to see how many suomis (Finland). .i mi cilre lo
cmavo that might be useful in fo'enselsanga. (I learn a
lujvo could be assigned rafsi. Finnish song.) Since the most
The revised rafsi have been useful culture words are those
released in an updated list - seefor 'my' culture and 'your'
the products news below. The newculture, "mi" and "do" will be
gismu and the changes to the likely to be used in this way.
rafsi list are in the features The last paragraph uses the
section of this issue. word "selma'o", which may be
The cmavo list has also been unfamiliar. We have adopted this
updated - reflecting the grammar lujvo for what we have previously
and usage developments of the called a "lexeme". The lujvo is
last year. Extended definitions,based on the second place of
up to 96 characters long, are "cmavo", which is the grammatical
incorporated into the new list. role of the cmavo. The things we
The cmavo list update will be are calling "selma'o" are the
released at approximately the basic grammatical types of cmavo
same time as JL16 in October, and other words found in Lojban.
along with the Logflash 3 cmavo (The definition of "selma'o"
instruction software and other shows a little of the meaning
materials, giving time for last variation permissible in lujvo,
minute reviews. since selma'o BRIVLA and CMENE
The gismu place structure are not grammatical units of
revision has been idling since cmavo, although all other selma'o
last fall. This project was are. The generalized meaning
intended to produce 96-character implicit in "selma'o" is
extended and clarified place acceptable since people learn
structures/definitions for each finely details of word meanings
gismu, thus providing clearer by seeing how they are used, not
information for those learning by some kind of rigorous
and using the words, and allowinganalysis.)
the new list to be used as input Grammar - The proposed changes
for the updated LogFlash 1, now to the grammar printed in JL14
scheduled for October release. went without a single comment, or
The place structure review willeven a question. What little
almost certainly not be completedfeedback we got seemed to
before that October release indicate that the discussion was
because of its relatively low too technical for most readers,
priority, so we have decided thatand that without considerably
a version close to the present more discussion and examples,
working list will be released in printing the proposals was not
October at the time LogFlash is worthwhile.
updated, replacing the current Additional proposals evolved
list. The new list will become after JL14 was published, finally
the official public domain totalling 28. All but one, the
language definition list upon re-'sumti-raising' proposal
lease, and we will recommend thatdiscussed below, passed without
people studying or using the comment from Lojban List as well.
language start using that list as Thus, at Logfest, the set of 28
soon as possible. changes was adopted, and the
15
grammar was rebaselined until has backed this discussion with
after the textbook is completed the most prolific use of the
and reviewed. We do not plan to language after Michael Helsem
consider any changes until then, (whose Lojban poetry is now truly
and very few are expected to voluminous - he has published a
surface, anyway. volume of it).
Even the 28 changes adopted are Style and semantic issues that
quite minor: almost nothing have been raised and discussed on
written in the language in the Lojban List are too numerous to
past two years became mention here. A lengthy
ungrammatical as a result of discussion of relativistic tenses
changes, and a few things not started the trend last winter.
grammatical became so, since manyMore recently, the primary topics
of the changes were designed to have been the determination of
bring the formal description of meaning of lujvo (stimulated by
the grammar more closely aligned Jim Carter's oft-rejected
with how people actually were proposal for what he calls
using the language. "dikyjvo" - regular mandatory
Indeed, and this seems rules for building lujvo based on
significant: in the last few the source gismu place
months it has become clear that structures), the distinction
no longer is the language design between abstract and non-abstract
being driven by language sumti values (tied in with the
engineers like myself who are discussion of 'sumti-raising' -
trying to figure out how people see below), the meaning and usage
WILL use the language. Instead, of the various modals in selma'o
we have a group of people using BAI, and the mass/set/individual
Lojban, and what they find out indistinction in Lojban
trying to express things in the descriptors.
language has driven many, if not Other 'old' issues are really
most, of the most recent changes.semantic ones. Debate has
The other significant factor incontinued on the necessity and
the grammar is that a complete- value of the cultural gismu and
grammar Lojban parser has finallythe gismu that represent
been completed. Not only does elements. Most often the debate
this provide a new standard for derives from new people who are
what is grammatical in the not familiar with the reasons why
language, but it serves as a they were included, which include
stabilizing force motivating historical reasons as well as the
against changes that might renderjustification of usage. There is
this valuable tool outdated. considerable fear that these
(The parser is expected to be words will lead to cultural
released some time this fall.) biases, fears not shared by Bob
Semantics and style - A new and others who have been working
entry in this discussion, becauseon the language longest. We
the Lojban design plan excludes expect that this issue will not
semantics and style being be resolved until the dictionary
prescribed. However, we have is published, wherein the words
people actively using the lan- for other cultures and elements
guage in conversation, that did not get assigned gismu
translation, and new writings. will be listed, along with the
The questions that come up in rules for deriving new words of
actual usage of the language are those kinds as needed. (An
generally not grammatical ones, article later in this issue
but usage questions like "How do discusses cultural gismu.)
you say this?" and "Why doesn't One recurring issue that
this work?". affects the community as a whole
One Lojbanist, Nick Nicholas, is the frequency and type of
has made discussion of style his translations presented with
primary theme on Lojban List. HeLojban text. We can give no
16
translation, or a block the book, but if you like poetry,
translation for an entire text, the English versions will have
or line by line translations value and the enormous volume of
which are either colloquial Lojban may inspire you, as well
English or word-for-word. The as provide ideas on what works
more literal the translation, theand what fails to communicate in
less need you have to look up Lojban text. We have several
words in words lists. This can copies left of this 'first Lojban
be both good and bad: the trade-book', which we will send free
off is between learning the upon request to anyone making a
vocabulary or understanding the prepaid order over $20, or for
grammar. Some people want text postage costs only ($2-$3)
they can try to read and be otherwise. Michael seeks
challenged. Others are just try-comments and suggestions from all
ing to get a feel for the readers.
language. What do you want? John Hodges observes that
What do you think we should Michael's publication, even with
change, if anything, in our imperfect Lojban, is a "signifi-
Lojban text presentations in JL? cant event, symbolically and
politically. This is exactly the
kind of thing [la lojbangirz.]
Using the Language wanted to make possible by
insisting that the language be
This is the most significant public domain, and precisely what
area of news, in my opinion. TheJCB wanted to prevent by keeping
number of people actively trying copyright control over the very
to speak and write in Lojban to words of his language. Helsem
communicate with others has ex- did not ask permission to
ploded. Since JL14, I have re- publish. You and he took it for
ceived or reviewed extensive textgranted that it was his right to
(more than a couple of paragraphspublish. JCB would deny this.
of block text) in Lojban from BobTo defend the purity of the
Chassell, John Cowan, Ivan language, JCB would insist that
Derzhanski, Coranth D'Gryphon, Helsem correct his grammar before
Michael Helsem, Rory Hinnen, Nickpublishing. (Not to mention,
Nicholas, Sylvia Rutiser, Mark send royalties to JCB.)"
Shoulson, David Twery, and writ- Sylvia Rutiser and Ernest
ten some myself. By comparison, Heramia started an intermittent
only Jamie Bechtel, John Cowan, 'pen-pal' correspondence last
Sylvia Rutiser and myself sent inwinter. Ivan Derzhanski
extensive text over the 8 month (Bulgaria) and Nick Nicholas
period between JL13 and JL14. (Australia) started the first
This is not counting a couple international correspondence ex-
of dozen people who have written change in May. Recently Sylvia,
letters or sent messages elec- David Twery, and Art Protin
tronically with a sentence or twostarted a round-robin letter
of understandable and often gram-exchange. I have a list of
matical text. Several other peo-several others interested in
ple have told me that they have writing letters in Lojban - send
written some, or a lot of, Lojbanus a note with a few sentences
text (in some cases, I am waiting(or maybe a self-descriptive
to see before believing; the paragraph) in Lojban with English
amounts claimed seem incredible).translation, and we will try to
Michael Helsem has collected match you with someone of
several of his Lojban poems, madecomparable skill. Give us some
corrections, and published them indication of how often you would
in an artistically decorated expect to write - one problem we
cover - copies were given to have experienced so far is people
every LogFest attendee. There prepared to write as often as
are still some Lojban errors in
17
once a week paired with people other ongoing activity is the
who take months to respond. construction of a Lojban
The amount of Lojban text now traveler's phrase book, after the
being posted on the Lojban List style of Berlitz.
is rather overwhelming at times. New Lojbanic activities seem to
Nick Nicholas first got materialssurface every week or two, and I
from us around the time JL14 was have no doubt that there will be
published. He has recently been a new crop of them to report by
the most prolific and one of the JL16. Why not let yours be among
most skillful among Lojban writ- them?
ers, posting paragraphs of text
to Lojban List virtually every
week. Noting that Nick is also a Research and Linguistics
full-time student AND one of the
leaders of the Australian Es- The Loglan Project is starting
peranto organization, his to become a real research
productivity makes me ashamed of endeavor again. We have estab-
my own (but .ui what lished a presence on several
inspiration). major forums for computer
Also on the computer network, linguistics information exchange,
Jack Bennetto has started a game and are making ourselves known to
of "telephone" (you may know thislinguists who are researching in
as "whisper down the line", or byareas where Lojban might be rele-
another name). Starting with a vant. Among these areas are:
moderately complex sentence, each- linguistic expression of
successive person translates whatemotion;
he/she receives from English to - word compounding;
Lojban or vice versa, and passes - predicate deep structure
the translation to the next grammars;
person. We've had no reports yet- the ISO standards for
on how well this activity is international character set
proceeding. encodings;
Weekly Lojban conversation - semiotics;
sessions have continued here in - representation of abstraction;
the Washington DC area, with any-- logical expression;
where from 3 to 6 attending each - computational linguistics;
session (about 10 people total - machine translation;
have participated). The amount - abstract system specification
of conversation time has dropped language;
a bit, because the group spent - foreign language education.
time before LogFest planning ac-
tivities for the gathering. At least one well-known linguist
Since LogFest, we have started anhas expressed interest in Lojban,
intermittent group project - and we hope to attract many more.
translating the entire board game Bob wrote an essay on the
"Careers" into Lojban in honor oflinguistic research applications
Jim Brown, who invented both the of Lojban for posting to one of
language and the game. (We may these groups. This essay appears
seek permission from Parker later in this issue, slightly
Brothers Inc., which owns rights edited. A new version of the
to the game, to distribute the Lojban brochure will be issued in
game translation to those of you a couple of months, incorporating
who are interested.) some of this material.
Not all Lojban text is orderly. Athelstan and Bob attended GURT
Next issue will contain a (The Georgetown University Round
sampling of the Lojban graffiti Table of Linguistics) this year.
that appeared on a wall of Bob GURT is one of the more
and Nora's house (specially prestigious linguistics
prepared to make this non- conferences. There were just
destructive) during LogFest. Oneunder 800 attendees. After
18
initially being hesitant for fearinitial bid, but preparing the
of adverse reaction from proposal stimulated much new
linguists, on Wednesday we put activity around here and opened
out about 30 brochures with a options that look quite promising
short note on Lojban's for the future.
applicability to linguistics Bidding for research grants is
research. They were gone within a learning experience. In today's
two hours. On Thursday we put competitive research environment,
out 110 more, and nearly all wereit may take several proposals to
gone when the conference ended atget one grant or contract. The
4PM. We got some great name initial proposal not only serves
recognition out of this, even if as a basis for further proposals,
none of these brochure readers which are now half written at the
decides to do something about start, but every effort we make
Lojban just yet. teaches us more about how to do
I suspect some will do so things better the next time.
eventually. Almost everyone we For example, since submitting
talked to seemed at least mildly the proposal abstract, John Cowan
interested in the concept of an has been researching and writing
artificial language designed for up a detailed analysis that shows
linguistics research, and a that Lojban is a superset of the
couple of researchers thought we computer language PROLOG, often
had some interesting research used in artificial intelligence
angles that they might like to processing. This means that
investigate. I would say that most, if not all, Lojban
Athelstan and I together threw upsentences could be processed into
more questions (usually good fromPROLOG statements and fed into a
the reaction of the audience and PROLOG processor. This would
the speaker) than most people, sogreatly reduce the cost and risk
I'm sure we were noticed. of developing a Lojban processor
The primary topic at GURT was from scratch. (We seek PROLOG
foreign language education, but experts among the community to
we also attended sessions on review John's work. Let us know
natural language processing. you're interested!)
la lojbangirz. is planning to A major plus in our efforts to
attend at least one and possibly obtain research funding is John
two more linguistics conferences Cowan's completion of a full-
this year. language Lojban parser. Still in
la lojbangirz. is closer to testing, this parser breaks all
initiating scientific research Lojban text (including cmavo
using Lojban. The new version ofcompounds) down to individual
LogFlash contains instrumentationwords and parses the results.
that will allow study of how The ability to parse at the
people learn words, and whether individual word level is a major
the recognition score algorithm improvement over the best
used to build the words has any accomplishments of the Loglan
relevance to their learnability. Institute before we started on
More importantly, la the Lojban redesign. More
lojbangirz. in July prepared and importantly, it is better than
submitted its first research anything that can be accomplished
proposal. The proposal (actuallyin processing natural languages.
a proposal abstract since we did Of course, our 'advantage' may
not request a specific dollar be a problem with getting DARPA
amount) was submitted to DARPA funding. It turns out that
(US Defense Advanced Research having bypassed the worst
Projects Agency), the primary problems in natural language
government funding agency for processing, the problems that we
artificial intelligence and need and want to solve to process
natural language processing Lojban text are quite different
research. We didn't win this than the ones considered on the
19
'leading edge' of research. We (Level B) Observer (old level
thus are required to write 0/B)
proposals extremely carefully to (Level C) Active
show how learning to process Observer/Supporter (old level 1
Lojban text will lead to better and 2)
processing of natural languages. (Level D) Lojban Student (old
We hope to include portions of level 3)
our proposal in JL16, in order to(Level E) Lojban Practitioner
give our supporters an idea of (people demonstrating some
how we are presenting the competency with the language,
language. But also, we welcome and actively using it in some
suggestions from the community on regular activity)
how to better explain our
research approach, and to prove
that it is sound. (We also want
to hear of any alternate research
approaches that we may be
missing).
Products Status, Prices, and
Ordering
With the decisions described in
the finances section, we are
making changes in our coding for
mailing status. These changes
are summarized in the new mailing
label coding block on page 1.
Most importantly, we have
separated JL and LK subscriptions
from the status codes (levels 0,
1, 2, 3, and B). We have also
added an automatic update status
that is independent of the
others, indicating your desire to
receive updates and your
commitment to keep enough in your
balance to pay for them.
Next, we are separating the
activity level implied in the
level numbers from the encoding
of the materials we actually have
sent you. As people have moved
around in level, or been
downgraded, your 'mailing level'
no longer tells us what material
you have.
The activity level portion of
your level will be converted to a
letter code indicating your
current interest level. The
level numbers 0 through 3 will
refer to a series of packaged ma-
terials that will tell us what
we've sent you.
The conversion to letter codes,
and their interpretation, is as
follows:
20
('A', in case you are wondering, Products and Schedule - This
is used for people dropped from past year has been one of change,
our mailing list, for whom we of consolidation. We haven't
maintain financial accounts produced many 'new' things; we
because we've sent materials.) have been enhancing and refining
old ones.
The difference between old The fruits of that effort are
level 0 and old level B has now starting to show up on our
merely been whether you were order forms. Even more will ap-
receiving le lojbo karni or not. pear over the next couple of
The original difference betweenissues. The following is a
old levels 1 and 2 was whether summary of the current products
you automatically get updates of schedule (as well as the minor
materials when they are updated releases since last issue):
(presumably a level 2 was more
active and needed the latest in- (Jun 91)
formation for active work). Electronic postings to P.L.S.:
Since we went so long without Baselined gismu list (old
issuing any updates, and have version)
gotten into such a financial Draft Proposed gismu Place
morass, the distinction became Structure Revisions
insignificant. Review of Loglan 1 - Draft Long
Then, during the last year, we Version
started sending some additional
materials to level 2 people that
we don't send to level 1 people,
in order to keep the level 1
price down. Thus the original
distinction we intended between
the two levels was lost, and we
are restoring that information as
the automated update flag. You
will not receive automatic
updates unless you keep suffi-
cient balance to pay for them.
These codes will now appear
separately on your mailing label,
and with the start of paid JL
subscriptions, your subscription
expiration date/ issue will also
appear on your mailing label.
There is increasing interest
among Lojbanists in contacting
and communicating with others of
equivalent skill levels. Right
now, Bob makes these evaluations
subjectively, but as the numbers
of people actually using the
language increases, Bob's
evaluations become less reliable.
Thus, we are also planning a
proficiency code system that will
tell us your demonstrated profi-
ciency level at reading, writing,
or speaking Lojban. To minimize
confusion, we will delay im-
plementing this for about 6
months. Suggestions are welcome,
though.
21
(Aug 91) Rebaselined gismu list
Printed: (updated)
Updated rafsi list and lujvo- Synopsis of Lojban Orthography,
making guide Phonology, and Morphology
(updated)
(Sep 91) Lojban and Machine Translation
Printed: Lojban and Esperanto - 16 Rules
JL15 Comparison and Commentary
LK15 Lojban, Sapir-Whorf and
Synopsis of Lojban Orthography, Semiotics
Phonology, and Morphology
(updated) (Nov 91)
Attitudinal Paper (updated) Printed:
What is Lojban - la lojban. mo JL16
Brochure (revised) LK16
What is Lojban - la lojban. mo Software
Brochure (Esperanto version) Lojban Parser (PC and some UNIX
Software: versions)
Revised Random Sentence Electronic postings to P.L.S.:
Generator New Textbook Lesson 1 Draft
Revised lujvo-Making Program JL14
Electronic postings to P.L.S.: LK14
What is Lojban - la lojban. mo le'avla-making algorithm and
Brochure (revised) examples (Cowan)
What is Lojban - la lojban. mo
Brochure (Esperanto version)
Overview of Lojban (1991 (Dec 91)
update) Electronic postings to P.L.S.:
lujvo-making guide selma'o paper (Cowan)
Updated rafsi list Selected list of Lojbanized
Re-baselined formal grammar names
E-BNF for re-baselined grammar Revised Draft Lessons 1-6
Reply to Arnold Zwicky's review A comparison of Lojban and 1989
of Loglan 1 (orig. review Institute Loglan (Cowan)
1969) Glossary of Lojban/linguistic
Revised cmavo list terminology
Back issues of JL #1-13
Back issues of LK #8-13 (Jan 92)
Summaries of sci.lang Printed:
discussions of Lojban JL17
The Lord's Prayer in Lojban LK17
(Revised 1991) Lojban Learning Materials
Negation paper (Book)
Lojban Mini-Lesson (Athelstan) Lojban Reference Materials
(Book)
(Oct 91)
Printed: Unscheduled But Planned
Re-baselined formal grammar
E-BNF for re-baselined grammar Printed:
Lojban Mini-Lesson (Athelstan) Lojban Textbook
Revised cmavo list Lojban Dictionary
Rebaselined gismu list Lojban Pocket Reference
(updated) Lojban Reader (Book)
Software: Lojban Phrase Book
LogFlash 1 - gismu (Revision 7)Printed and Electronic:
LogFlash 3 - cmavo (Revision 1) Lojban gismu Etymologies
Electronic postings to P.L.S.: Software:
Lojban Tense Paper (Cowan) Logflash 2 - rafsi (Revision 7)
Lojban MEX Paper (Cowan) Hypercard LogFlash/Mac -
Attitudinal Paper (updated) (Revised and New versions)
22
Lojban Adventure Game worst; page numbering will be
incorrect, and graphics (like
Now that we've shown the Nora's cartoons) will not be pre-
overall plan, we can explain. sented at all. Some of these
As with all of our schedules, materials will thus be of
this one should be taken as a marginal use; consensus is that
plan, not a promise. We are a different people judge usefulness
volunteer organization and the by different standards.
schedule depends on the time Software updates to all of our
availability of specific people. software nears completion. In
We also are short of money, and the case of the lujvo-making pro-
the scheduled publications dependgram and random sentence
heavily on significant numbers ofgenerator, this is merely an
you paying up your balances and update to accept new data files
putting in additional money to based on the latest language
cover these new products. definition.
The true goals are the items As described in JL14, LogFlash,
listed for next January - two our vocabulary teaching software,
books that will contain all of is undergoing a major overhaul.
the teaching and reference The new versions retain the
materials we have put out, teaching algorithm that has
updated to the current language. proven so effective, but adds
In the process of creating colored screens, user
those books, all of our current flexibility, and a new learning
products will be updated to re- mode designed to help Lojbanists
flect changes in the language or quickly become familiar with the
the way we teach it. As each is range of the gismu and cmavo
updated, there will be a heavy without the time-consuming effort
emphasis on making it available needed to master the lists.
on the Planned Languages Server. Since the major guideline for
This helps fulfill our obligationthis schedule is the earliest
and commitment to place the practical publication of two
language definition materials in books, let us look more closely
the public domain, enables more at what they are and why we are
people to see detailed design putting them out.
information about Lojban, and of First, these two books may be
course gives us some last minute considered the prototype Lojban
feedback on these materials textbook and dictionary. The
before binding them. word "prototype" is used because
In the process of making these Bob has long had an idea of what
materials available, we will be a Lojban textbook and dictionary
reviewing them for current SHOULD be, and these short term
accuracy, and will make minor products will not be anything
revisions and updates. Some of like the goal versions.
the printed products will thus However, people in the
not be generally distributed - wecommunity are in need of books
won't waste your money (and Bob'scontaining materials for studying
time) sending you minor Lojban, and reference materials
corrections to a publication you needed to use Lojban. Even
may not be using. We will, serious Lojbanists who work with
however, send the latest version the language a lot are becoming
on new orders, and inform you in overwhelmed by the volume of
this column about other revisionsmaterials and updates that la
you may want to know about. lojbangirz. has issued. Time is
As noted in the discussion of being wasted hunting through
electronic policy above, we will accumulated ju'i lobypli issues
not be rewrite or specially and enclosures, and other
format materials for electronic materials you have obtained from
distribution. Tables and some us, looking for relevant material
example texts will suffer the that has become a bit outdated.
23
The language design is now firm one, possibly with sample
enough that we can create up-to- sentences for each;
date versions of all important - a glossary of linguistic and
materials. By collecting these Lojban jargon terms;
materials in bound volumes, we - a selected list of le'avla
give people actively working with borrowings and an algorithm
the language the tools you need to make more;
to do so - all in one place. - a selected list of Lojbanized
Bob's work on the textbook names;
revision has dragged on far too - a set of cultural/national
long, and the reasons are not words for all countries in
going away. Shifting away from the United Nations, and se-
long-term targets to short-term lected other places;
goals, he has already picked up - a selma'o catalog describing
in productivity. the grammar of each word
The materials being revised and type, with many examples;
issued electronically (and - as many sample lujvo as we have
occasionally in printed form) time to verify and space to
over the next 6 months will include.
become the contents of the new This book will also run about
books. The books will then be 300-400 pages and be bound. It
assembled out of the revised will also probably cost around
pieces and published, hopefully, $25, depending on orders.
around the beginning of next Since we have had an excellent
year. record of recruiting Institute
Under current plans, the Loglanists who later find out
learning materials book will about Lojban, la lojbangirz. is
contain the 1st lesson of the planning a 'guide to Lojban for
revised textbook, Lojban mini- Institute Loglanists', which may
lessons by Athelstan and John be incorporated in one of the two
Hodges, the 6 draft textbook planned books. This will
lessons, the negation paper, the maximize people's use of the
attitudinal paper, the old Institute's books that may have
grammar summary, and selected been purchased, since much of the
short writings (mostly revised material JCB has written applies
from JL articles) that teach the to Lojban equally as well as the
language. This will be publishedInstitute version of the
as a bound book, probably Velo- language.
bound. Total page count will Once the books are out, Bob
exceed 400 pages. Price will be will then concentrate on
around $25-$30, depending on the producing refined versions while
number of advance orders. you concentrate on learning and
The reference manual will using Lojban. Your efforts will
contain revised versions of:then provide the hundreds of
- la lojban. mo brochure; examples needed for the properly
- Overview of Lojban; completed books.
- Machine grammar and E-BNF; The only immediately available
- Synopsis of phonology, new product is an updated rafsi
morphology, and orthography;list, incorporating the changes
- gismu list updated with new listed later in this issue.
place structures, and Also, since people receiving the
Roget's Thesaurus codes, andrafsi in the past have often had
multiple English synonyms no idea how to use it, the
where applicable (instead ofsection on lujvo-making from the
the English keyword index Synopsis has been extracted and
used now); heavily revised, and will now be
- rafsi lists and lujvo-making distributed with the rafsi list.
guide;
- cmavo list with clearer
definitions than the current International News
24
Australian Lojban Society - la
Esperanto brochure - lojbangirz. has effectively
Considerable effort by Paul gained an affiliate in Australia.
Francis O'Sullivan, followed up Major, in Perth, and Nick
by Mark Shoulson, Nick Nicholas, Nicholas, in Melbourne, are
and David Twery, have led to a attempting to establish and keep
complete and up-to-date contact with all Lojbanists in
translation of the la lojban. mo Australia and New Zealand. In
brochure into Esperanto. In addition, because the cost of
addition, Mark is formatting it mailing overseas is so high,
for a typeset-quality master, andMajor is serving as a focal point
we should have printed copies for la lojbangirz. mailings, and
within a few weeks. The brochurehe then redistributes copies to
will also be posted all his correspondents. Nick is
electronically on the Planned becoming one of our most skilled
Languages Server, and possibly onLojbanists, and can answer most
Compuserve. questions about the language.
Large numbers of our readers This benefits la lojbangirz.,
are Esperantists interested in because we lose money on most
Lojban. We encourage you to overseas mailings even with the
distribute copies of the 20% surcharge we require. It
Esperanto version to other benefits those who are part of
Esperantists. This not only willthe new group, because it costs
spread knowledge of Lojban aroundless for all of you: Major can
the world, but it will enhance produce copies for you and get
our position as an artificial them to you via local post much
language working with the cheaper than we can. Major does
Esperanto community, and not in ask for reimbursing of his expen-
competition with it. Indeed, we ses, or the group will not be
now see Esperanto as one of our able to grow.
primary languages for spreading Major and Nick both keep in
information about Lojban to othercommunication with the rest of la
countries. lojbangirz. via electronic mail.
We don't yet have other Major's address is:
materials about Lojban in
Esperanto, but we expect that Major
this will change. As more and Box T1680 GPO
more Esperantists who also speak Perth WA 6001
English join in with those who AUSTRALIA
translated the brochure, our
ability to produce Esperanto Nick's address is:
translations of our other
materials improves. Nick Nicholas
(We remind our readers that we 17 Renowden St.
also have a French translation ofCheltenham Victoria 3192
the brochure, although it has notAUSTRALIA
been updated yet to reflect new
policies and new materials, and It doesn't take a lot of people
is missing the newly added to make this type of regional
section on Lojban and linguisticsgroup work (there are 7 on our
research.) lists in this region of the
(We are constantly seeking world, and only 5 are thus far
volunteers to translate any of participating). We require that
our materials into other lan- one person is willing to take
guages. Please contact us if responsibility to get materials
interested. Such volunteer work to the others, and also take the
is the type which we qualify for financial risk of supporting
credits in receiving materials those who don't pay for materials
when you cannot pay for them.) right away.
25
We welcome others who would Publicity - Bob and Nora's Trip
like to try to similarly organize
the people of your country and Bob and Nora travelled to the
possibly neighboring countries. San Francisco area in late April
Already, we have a potential for a vacation and Lojban pro-
volunteer in Sweden, Christopher motion trip. We had an
Arnold, who hopes to organize andopportunity to meet with several
recruit other Lojbanists to join Lojbanists, though with a couple
the half dozen of you now in the we were dogged by an inability to
Scandinavian countries. get schedules together. We
regret those of you we missed.
(One way not to be missed is to
make sure we have your telephone
number - sometimes plans get made
in a big hurry. Specify if the
number is unlisted or otherwise
not for release to other
Lojbanists.)
Bob gave one lecture, to a
group of students at St. Mary's
College including Dr. Robert
Gorsch's class in semiotics that
has studied a small Lojban unit
(see JL12 for more on this
class), and gave two talks
combined with mini-lessons to
groups of Lojbanists. Dave
Cortesi organized and publicized
the primary meeting, held in Palo
Alto. Donald Simpson organized
the other at his house in Albany
as a smaller event for those who
couldn't get to the other
meeting.
A total of around 20 people
showed up between the two
meetings. Special pleasure was
Scott (Layson) Burson's
attendance at the Palo Alto
meeting. Scott, now inactive in
the Loglan community, did the
final work to complete the first
Loglan parser and the first
version of the machine grammar
accepted by the Institute.
Jay Stowell arranged to
videotape the Palo-Alto mini-
lesson. We have considered
distributing copies of this, but
the cost of videotape duplication
is high enough that we want to
use a better original (unedited
videotapes have a 'home movie'
quality about them, and we saw no
easy way to turn Jay's tape into
a salable product). We are going
to try to specially film a mini-
lesson, hopefully later this
year. Brad Lowry, who does
professional video filming, has
26
volunteered to film and edit thislegal position, that 'Loglan'
mini-lesson. cannot be a 'trademark', was
Some new people attended the sound, and was important to our
Palo Alto meeting, and at least making the Loglan project a
one person signed up as a level 3success. Contrary to what JCB
Lojban student. All-in-all, the claims, our legal fight started
meeting was a success, though we when Jim Brown sent a letter
always wish we could have done threatening us with legal action
better at getting information to (a copy of this letter was
prospective attendees and helpingincluded in all issues of JL5);
more people to attend. it is unfortunate for all of us
Finally, Bob and Nora got that his position on threats was
together for a brunch with Scott not then what it is today:
Burson and Doug Landauer, another JCB reiterates his claims that
pioneer in Loglan machine grammarBob and Nora split off from the
work. Institute "presumably to ac-
commodate their own
entrepreneurial interests", using
News From the Institute "the threat of schism to try to
make us [change Institute
Legal - Last issue, we thought business policies]". He then in-
the legal battles between la sists that the two efforts "went
lojbangirz. and the Loglan Insti-their separate ways" because
tute had finally ended. Alas, "threats seldom work on human be-
the day after JL14 went to press,ings".
we heard from our lawyer that Jim Our answer: No! Our purpose
Brown had informed him of his in starting Lojban was to put
intent to appeal to the US Court Loglan in the hands of the people
of Appeals. who had been promised it, had
At this writing, the appeal paid for it, and had long assumed
process is well underway. The that they had the free right to
Institute has filed its appeals use it as they choose, as "the
brief and we have responded; we human use of any language is, of
see little chance of the appeal course, in the public domain"
succeeding. We won't go into the(Jim Brown, again, but this time
issues again at length - anyone from a 1977 proposal).
interested can contact us for JCB also claims that "there
details. were no substantial intellectual
We are hoping for a ruling differences between me and the
around the end of the year which proto-Lojbanists".
firmly closes the door on the le- Response: We consider our
gal battle. Meanwhile, we are commitment to intellectual
proceeding in accordance with thefreedom a substantial difference.
decision, using "Loglan" to refer To stop these misstatements of
to the generic language of which our purpose and goals, and to
"Lojban" and what we have been ensure that there is no further
calling "Institute Loglan" are doubt or misconception of our
versions. true purpose, we have modified
JCB claims in the new Lognet our statements about Loglan and
that our initial challenge was Lojban that appear on page 1 on
"an harassment designed to straineach issue of ju'i lobypli to
our resources" and that our suit more clearly indicate that the
"is a timewaster once based on free use of Loglan as a human
the premise that The Institute language is the sole reason for
couldn't or wouldn't be able to the split and our existence.
respond to their attack." Actually, of the statements in
Our response: No! We hoped the new issue of Lognet, those of
that the dispute could be settlededitor Jim Smith are most of-
by negotiation, but fought at fensive, and are indeed libelous.
this juncture because we knew ourMr. Smith accuses la lojbangirz.
27
with the false statements "LLG publication in the Communications
has been around for just a few of the ACM, a noted computer
years, but they are claiming all journal, albeit not a refereed
of JCB's work since 1955 as theirpublication. This paper was
own ... I will not give free finally submitted, and was
advertising to a competitor whoserejected.
primary technique is plagiarism la lojbangirz. is considering
and whose product lacks any hint its own paper on Loglan/Lojban's
of originality." Mr. Smith has formal grammar, but not until
received a considerable set of next year.
our publications and knows that Declensions - Institute Loglan
we claim no work of JCB's as our added an 'animal' declension
own. We have formally requested proposed over a year ago by Bob
that Mr. Smith issue a retractionMcIvor. The change adds a large
and public apology for these number of gismu to that version
uncalled for and unacceptable of Loglan which differ from each
remarks. other only in the final vowel. A
Name of the language - We have broader proposal for a broader
been told that some supporters ofset of declensions, applying to
Jim Brown are offended by our useall Institute Loglan gismu, was
of "Institute Loglan" for their never formalized, and is no
version of the language. We havelonger being considered.
asked for an alternative other Publications - There has been
than the generic name that would no further word of the
satisfy them, but have received reincarnation of The Loglanist
no response. We cannot agree to that was promised for late last
use the generic name "Loglan" year. Lognet has continued
only for their version - we need coming out quarterly to 'Members'
and use the term for our of the Institute. The May issue,
discussion of the evolutionary indicated that the 'membership'
history of the language that numbered 110. The August issue
includes Lojban, and in reaching reported another 7 members were
out to people who have heard of added.
Loglan through Robert Heinlein's Bill Gober, in the new issue of
books or the 1960 Scientific Lognet, criticizes the Institute
American article, and might not use of the "lexemic pause". This
realize that Lojban implements is not a new criticism, and was
the language described. one of the key language changes
The Institute Moves - Shortly we made in designing Lojban.
before publication, the InstituteWhat is new is that this lengthy
moved back to San Diego (actuallycriticism was printed without
Jim Brown moved - the Institute rebuttal from JCB, who was less
proper will continue to be open-minded on the subject four
incorporated in Florida and hold years ago.
annual meetings there). Steve Rice is the chief word-
"Careers" Lives - Jim Brown maker for the Institute now. He
reports that the board game has made several dozen new words,
Careers, which he invented, is both gismu and lujvo, and these
again on the market. This have appeared in the last couple
additional income is bolstering of issues. Some of these are
his capability to finance the good, but most have the
Institute. He indicates that traditional failings of tanru
some money will be earmarked for (metaphors) made up by the In-
new Scientific American stitute, incorporating English
advertising, which now costs idiom.
$3500 for one advertisement. Examples:
CACM Paper - Since 1982, JCB "criminal-quality-take", in
and others have been writing and Lojban: "zekri ckaji lebna"
revising a paper on the Loglan becomes the lujvo for "x1
machine grammar for intended decriminalizes x2".
28
"beyond-fast-record-use",
"bancu sutra vreji pilno" is
given to a lujvo meaning "x1 fast
forwards past x2 on record/tape
x3 on machine x4".
(The word "vreji", and its
Institute equivalent, refer to
any record of an event, not
merely sound recordings.)
New Loglans?
Nora noticed in passing that
Barbara Hambly's recent 'Star
Trek' novel, Ghost Walker,
contains several references to a
computer language called
'Loglan'. She didn't note the
page numbers, so you will have to
read the book for yourself.
Hambly's book thus joins two
books by Robert Heinlein, one by
Robert Rimmer, and one by JCB
that mention a fictional Loglan
language.
A new book, Loglan-88 is out,
describing Loglan, but the
language described has nothing to
do with ours or the Institute's
versions of the language.
Professor Salwicki and others at
the Polish Institute of
Informatics has been developing a
computer language for about 20
years that it calls 'Loglan'.
The newly published book reports
that the language is an ALGOL
derivative and has object-ori-
ented programming features. The
book is published in hardbound by
Springer-Verlag; look under
'Loglan' in Books in Print for
more details.
_________________________________
__________
29
Features
le lojbo se ciska
Our Lojban text will start this issue with commented sentences, and
then a commented letter. The sentences are offered by Rory Hinnen
on behalf of a group of Lojbanists studying together in the Los
Angeles area. (If you live in this area, and wish to join this
group, please contact Rory at 818-796-8096 (home) or 818-354-8128
(work), or Gerald Koenig at 213-641-2905 (home) or 213-829-4156
(work). They are meeting irregularly, rotating the meeting place,
because of the travel times, and offer to be very flexible in order
to get new people to join in.
In the following, Rory's submitted sentences are followed by an
indented actual translation if it differs from his intended
translation. Corrected Lojban and any comments from Bob
LeChevalier are also indented.
le cmalu mlatu crane le bardu gerku
the small-cat in-front-of thing, the large-dog, ... [an incomplete
sentence with no selbri]
The small cat is in front of the large dog
le cmalu mlatu cu crane le barda gerku
ti poi gerku cu prami le mlatu
This which dogs, loves the cat. [This dog loves the cat.]
The dog loves the cat.
le gerku cu prami le mlatu
Bob: "ti" should be used only when pointing. The other and
more common way to say "this dog" is "le vi gerku"
.i ma prami le mlatu
What loves the cat?
.i ma se prami le mlatu
What does the cat love?
Bob: Excellent!
mi cadzu vi le srasu
I walk at the grass.
I walk on the grass.
mi cadzu le srasu
Bob: The correction uses the Lesson 4a revised place
structure of "cadzu", which specifies "on surface ..." Your
version should be understandable, though.
mi cadzu vi le srasu le ckule le ru'azda le klaji be va le zdani
I walk on the grass to school from home via the street near the
building.
Bob: Using the baseline gismu list place structure of
"cadzu", this looks fine. With the Lesson 4A change, just
replace "cadzu" with "dzukla" ("walkingly-go")
do cadzu mo
You are a walking _____.
You are walkingly _____ing.
Where are you walking to?
30
do cadzu ma
Bob: "cadzu mo" is a tanru. See above regarding "dzukla".
le ckule se cadzu mi
The school-walking_destination, I, ...
To school I'm walking.
le ckule cu se cadzu mi
31
*do cadzu fi mo [Ungrammatical - no translation possible.]
Where are you walking from?
do cadzu fi ma
le ru'azda te cadzu mi
The assuming-nest type of walked-from thing, me, ...
I'm walking from home. [Actually: "From home, walk I".
le re'azda cu te cadzu fi mi
I'm not sure what the lujvo is intended to mean, unless it is
a typo for "re'azda" ("human-nest"), which I assumed in the
correction. "te" switches the x1 and x3 places, leaving x2
unchanged.
do gasnu ma?
What are you doing? [You do what?]
mi gasnu lenu cilre la Lojban. .i do gasnu ma
I'm doing the event of learning Lojban. What are you doing?
Bob: .i'e xamgu
mi na cilre la Lojban. .i mi zutse le stizu
I'm not learning Lojban. I'm sitting in the chair.
Rory: (Jim [Carter] had a lot of problems with the last
little exchange. He said I was taking for granted the
replication of the actor "mi". [in the "lenu" clause])
Bob: He's right in that the x1 place of "cilre" was
elliptically unspecified. In natural usage, "mi" would be the
obvious value, but formally the translation is: "I'm doing
the event of ... learning Lojban. What are you doing?". The
most frequent assumption in the pattern [x1 broda <lenu ...
brode>] is to assume that the x1 is replicated in the
ellipsis. But if the listener is unsure, it/she/he can always
ask: ".i ma cilre la Lojban".
ko catlu .i le crino nanmu
Look! The green man ...
Look! Green man!
ko catlu .i crino nanmu
Rory: (Jim made me put the "le" in there, and then convinced
me he was right.)
Bob: He's wrong. The "le" made it an incomplete sentence, a
bare sumti, leaving the listener hanging for the rest of the
sentence (.oi). There is no implicit or explicit selbri.
ko sisti .i mi na catlu le crino nanmu
Cease! I don't look at the green man.
Rory: We argued for a while "le" or "lo" in the above
sentence, but we eventually came to the conclusion that it
didn't matter because of the negation. But without negation,
I should go with "lo").
Bob: Either could be correct with or without a negation.
"lo" claims that it really was a green man, rather than
possibly a picture of one. Usually English speakers use "lo"
for indefinites. "le" is definite - you DO have a specific
one in mind, but it might only be being described as a man for
32
convenience of conversation. In this context, "le" would
normally be taken as referring to the green man of the
previous observative, since that is the logical 'thing
described' that the speaker could expect the listener to
assume.
Note that I can't be sure of the intended meaning of this
sentence for another reason, given the context. What is
supposed to be "ceased", the discussion, talking about the
green man, or something else? The second sentence also loses
me, although it is quite grammatical. Is it a mistake for "I
don't see ...", or is it missing the attitudinal ".aunai" (I
don't want!).
33
Is Lojban Scientifically about that system to a scientist.
Interesting I can see a few other
possibilities:
David Pautler
([email protected]), challenged a) in a highly complex system
the scientific relevance of (which even an AL is), the
artificial languages. The interaction of the design
following is lojbab's (Bob features displays properties that
LeChevalier's) response. are 'more than the sum of the
parts'. Thus it is possible that
David wrote: all language is merely a system
I did not say that ALs have no comprised of a bunch of neurons
good use. I said there's nothingreleasing neurotransmitters.
particularly interesting about Biochemistry may eventually
them (from a scientific viewpointdevise a complete explanation for
...) because they're artificial. the neuronic process (including
Some interesting sociological genetic components), and we may
behaviors may appear if these then say we "know the design
languages come into widespread principles of the system". But
use, perhaps even some in- we won't know the system, because
teresting linguistic phenomena ifthe complexity of those neuronic
enough spontaneous innovation interactions is so great that
occurs (although AL enthusiasts knowing the pieces does not give
seem to want to prevent this). a total understanding of the
But there certainly doesn't system. This indeed may be what
appear to be anything interestingdefines the concept of 'system'.
about them now, because AL Knowing all the prescribed
enthusiasts in this group prefer rules of an AL does not tell you
to argue over which of several how that AL is used communica-
(truly arbitrary) conventions aretively, and I don't mean in the
"better". sociological sense. A sample
I am willing to admit I am question: Given multiple ways of
wrong about all this if some of communicating the same idea, do
you AL enthusiasts can give the users of the language choose
rest of us some good reasons why particular forms over others, and
ALs are scientifically why? This is similar to a
interesting. question that presumably is
commonly asked about natural
and later added in clarification:languages.
I can come up with many other
I still believe that knowing the sample questions of science that
design principles of any system can be applied to the system of
beforehand makes a scientific an AL that are not compromised by
study of those principles 'knowing the design', but let's
silly... move on. (Feel free to ask,
though).
lojbab's response: b) A simpler system, which can
be more fully understood, may
The added comment definitely serve as an excellent model for a
clarifies the problem, especiallyless understood, more complex
since it removes the loaded topicsystem. Thus the simpler system
'AL' from the question. I will could be examined for parallels
answer primarily from the to hypotheses about the more
standpoint of Lojban, though somecomplex system. Examination of
of my points are applicable to the simpler system may suggest
Esperanto and other ALs. properties to look for in the
David is taking a very limited more complex system, or it may
view of science, to presume that even suggest hypotheses that can
the design principles of a systembe tested in the more complex
are the only interesting thing system.
34
A 'hot' topic in parts of the c) Another aspect of a simple
Lojban community is whether the system is that it is easier to
language has or should have, an perform experiments on than a
underlying semantic theory. If more complex system. There are
one exists, it is certainly not fewer variables, and if the
as developed or prescribed as thesystem is 'designed', some things
syntactic design and theory. that are variables in complex
Filtering out syntactic ambiguitysystems are in effect tunable
allows a more direct examination constants in the simple,
of semantic ambiguities, in- carefully-designed system. You
cluding the properties of can then rerun the experiment
modification and restriction, with minor changes to explore the
resolution of anaphora, and effects of those variables.
identification of ellipses. Any Experimental linguistics of
semantic theories proposed for this sort is a virtually
natural language can be looked atunthinkable possibility with the
in terms of semantic usage in thenatural languages. The Sapir-
simpler Lojban system. Whorf Hypothesis is not really
As a 'model of a natural testable in the natural languages
language', it seems likely that since we can't control any
any theory NOT true of Lojban is variables, and we don't know what
at least suspicious with regard things about a language might be
to natural language, thus determining to a culture. Sapir-
allowing partial verification of Whorf may be more testable when
theories (not complete - I would you can reduce or even control
never say that ALs should be the variables with a language
studied to the exclusion of like Lojban. Let me be specific:
natural languages, but rather in Lojban is a predicate language,
relation to them). If the theorywith no nouns, verbs, or
is true of natural language, thenadjectives. What are the lin-
you have found evidence that guistic (communicative)
Lojban is in some way unnatural. properties of such a system? The
Then you try to explain which of answer has been partially
the (fully-known) design featuresexplored through symbolic logic.
of Lojban causes this un- But do people thinking
naturalness. By counterexample linguistically in any way mimic
that design feature is not a the processes of formal logic?
feature of natural languages. What effects would a formal-
You've learned something about logic-based language have on
natural language by studying an those linguistic thinking
artificial one. processes. Is the resulting
As another example, pragmatic language susceptible to the same
effects can be more easily analysis as natural language in
recognized in the simpler Lojban terms of the various formal
system, and can be clearly systems that have been developed
identified as pragmatic. Thus, by linguists over the past few
insights about pragmatic effects decades?
may be more visible in Lojban, Given that natural language
insights that would then be processing in computers usually
tested in the natural languages. involves converting natural
language to some kind of
predicate form in which
deductions can be made, the
validity of predicate logic as a
tool for such analysis is already
accepted. But how to you
identify the logical deductions
that a human being makes from a
natural language statement. If
thinking in Lojban, the human is
35
already thinking using predicate instead of the construct. It
logic structures; thus the seems that all manner of
deduction process is much more linguistic universals could be
plain. investigated in this way.
Let me pose an experiment.
Take even a few children during My remaining points are not
the critical period of language necessarily specific to the
learning and teach them this 'system' nature of a language,
artificial language (at the same but deal with David's original
time as they learn their question on whether artificial
traditional language). Do they languages are scientifically
become truly bilingual? If they interesting. In general they
are as fluently communicative in rely on the assumption argued
the AL as they are in their above that a model of a system is
natural language, then the AL is valuable for learning about the
a suitable linguistic model. system.
Then, ANY theory of language that
cannot extend to cover the fea- d) I've mentioned only child
tures of the AL is inadequate. learning as revealing the
You could perform a series of essential nature of language,
experiments with ever more exoticbecause this is what many
artificial languages (obviously linguists concentrate on. But
you need new speakers for each there is also the important
test). Sooner or later, either applied linguistics problems of
the model breaks and the AL is noteaching foreign languages. It
longer acquirable by children is much easier to test a method
and/or communicative as a or theory of vocabulary
language, or the theory breaks, teaching/learning with an
and you've learned where to look artificial language than with a
for improvements in the theory. natural language; I don't think
With only natural languages, the statement that ALs are more
you have to devise theories basedquickly (I didn't say easily -
on the available data, and then which is a subjective question)
go look in other natural learned then NLs is particularly
languages for confirmation or controversial; there have been
refutation. But this isn't the experiments verifying this in the
optimal kind of experimentation literature for decades.
because you really cannot plan The pragmatic problems of
the experiment or control the language learning are alone
variables (the other language mayjustification into researching
have the same apparent feature using ALs. But ALs may provide
through a totally different pro- the solution as well as the means
cess that you won't recognize of testing.
because you aren't looking for It seems to be well accepted
it.) that in learning a second
A language like Lojban is such language and then learning a
an ideal test bed for third, you learn the third MUCH
experimentation, because it is more quickly than the second.
flexible; you can evolve slightlyThe example I've heard is this:
different versions of the
language very easily by simply Assume that it takes 4 years
changing some features. Forbid a to learn French and then 2 to
given construct in the prescrip- learn German thereafter; and
tion, and do not teach it to a vice versa. Let us assume that
child. Does the child develop you can learn an artificial
that construct anyway by analogy language in 1 year to a
to other languages known, or does comparable degree as you can
the child successfully adapt to learn French.
whatever other processes you've Then you can learn the AL
designed into the language and German in 3 years instead
36
of 4, and all three languages I don't claim this example as a
in 5 years instead of 6. This fact - it should be easily
gains a year EVEN IF YOU NEVER testable in a controlled experi-
AGAIN USE THE AL. ment, and this seems much more
scientific than arguments about
what ALs and NLs are 'easier to
learn'.
e) Lojban has one feature
designed to explore a less-
understood aspect of language -
the expression of emotion.
Lojban allows expressive
communication of emotions in
words without suprasegmentals
(this presumably unlike all natu-
ral languages, but not entirely,
as many languages have a limited
set of indicators of attitude in
the form of interjections and
some discursive function words
e.g. 'but'). Can human beings
manipulate the symbols of emotion
in the same way they manipulate
the comparable symbols of non-
emotional expression? There is a
whole range of experimental
questions raised by this design
element, probably the most
'unnatural' element of Lojban's
design.
f) The latter points to the one
other aspect of a well-designed
artificial language of scientific
interest and value to linguistics
- as a tool of analysis.
I present an example, based on
the 1991 Scientific American
Library book The Science of
Words, by George A. Miller of
Princeton.
In the book, a picture
caption notes that Nootka (a
Pacific Northwest language) has
the single word:
"inikwihl'minik'isit" meaning the
equivalent of the entire English
sentence "Several small fires
were burning in the house." I
won't presume to know any more
about Nootka than I've just told
you, but in Lojban, I can express
that sentence paralleling the
English:
so'i cmalu fagri puca jelca
vine'i le
Many small fires were-then
burning at-within the
37
prezda This order is also expressible
person-nest. in Lojban:
and analytically as a single word fagykemprezdanerso'icmapru
(though not with the same fire-type_of-person-nest-
structure as Nootka) inside-many_some-small-
past_thing/event
prezdane'ikemcmafagyso'ikemprun
unje'a I don't know which of the two
person-house-inside-type_of- orders more accurately conveys
small-fire-many_some-type_of- how the Nootka speaker thinks of
previous-burning the concept expressed by the
word, or whether others would be
(Yes, I can say it!) better still.
The Lojban in either case more
Actually, according to Miller, accurately tracks the semantics
the Nootka breaks down as: of the Nootka, demonstrating the
inadequacy of the English - the
inikw -ihl -'minih - actual word as broken out did not
'is -it require two separate particles
fire/burn in-the-house plural for fire and burn as did the
diminutive past- English equivalent, and the
English translation used the more
tense complicated tense "were-burning"
instead of the simpler, and
presumably more accurate "burnt".
(I'll plainly admit that I'm
relying on the given explanations
by Miller, which are in English,
but it seems clear that in
translating the word-sentence
into English there is a
considerable ambiguity
introduced.
I won't claim that Lojban can
express everything in the natural
form of any language. Lojban has
a less-marked syntactic word-
order, and expressing other
orders requires marking particles
that would not be found in the
source language. Thus there is a
tradeoff between semantic
representation and syntactic
representation.
Still, I think a convincing
case can be made that, as a
predicate language, Lojban is a
much more effective tool at
studying both the forms and
semantics of other languages than
is English, which has its own
cultural, syntactic and semantic
complexities to gum up the
analysis. This is especially
true for analysis by non-native
English speaking linguists - if
there is any place where there is
a justification for an interna-
tional, minimal-culture language,
38
it is when linguists from how the language creolizes in
different native language contact with those other
backgrounds try to perform and languages. Because of the speed
communicate their linguistic of learning, artificial languages
analyses. should tend to show effects more
quickly (by being mastered to a
g) There is also the 'other' communicative level more
tool aspect of an artificial quickly). Anecdotal evidence
language, in computer and artifi-about Esperanto supports this
cial intelligence (AI) idea.
applications. I mentioned the Does this mean that the
similarity in c) above between conclusions are absolutely valid
Lojban and the internal for natural language evolutionary
representations used in natural processes? I don't claim so.
language processing by computers.But again, we are performing
A predicate language like experiments with a model,
Lojban should be especially somewhat idealized, of a natural
amenable to AI processes - the language. Unlike a paper-
programmers are familiar with theoretic model (as all
predicate language expression andlinguistic theories must
manipulation, and often store theinherently be), this is a model
data in predicate form internallythat can be experimented with
for manipulation. With Lojban, using live speakers. Provided
such storage becomes a fairly that we understand the model as
trivial process. it evolves, that understanding
If Lojban is proven by much more approximates an under-
experiment (per above) to have standing of natural language as
the systemic properties of a time goes on.
natural language, and is easier
to implement in computational i) The large majority of
linguistics research problems, itlanguages have some degree, more
serves as a tool to bridge those or less, of prescription. In
two disciplines, leading to more addition, some 'natural'
rapid and effective natural languages, like modern Hebrew,
language processing. But only ifformal Swahili, and some
it is tried. Even if it proves standardized dialects (e.g.
less than ideal, I have little Mandarin, which has been noted as
doubt that study of natural lan- being related to but not
guage using computational identical to the Beijing
linguistic techniques and a dialect), are not all that far
Lojban-based tool will be from being true artificial
productive in ways not possible languages, but are much more
with any natural language. interesting to linguists. A
(In effect, this argument is predominantly prescribed language
the same as f), except that would seem an especially
instead of two different-natural-effective tool for studying the
language speakers trying to effects of prescription on lan-
communicate about language, you guage development and use (again,
have a human and a computer, who I refer to linguistic and not
obviously speak different native sociological effects).
languages, trying to Such studies may aid in first-
communicate.) language education as well as
second-language acquisition.
h) A highly prescribed languageThey may also aid in analyzing
is an ideal test bed for the development of different
examining the processes of registers (usages based on social
language evolution. In the case class and situation) of a single
of an AL like Lojban, as the language: such registers can be
speaking community in each interpreted as reactions to
culture grows, you can observe
39
prescriptive environments that 5. Add "hemp", to include natural
constrain language use. rope, burlap, marijuana, and
hashish - "marna";
None of these scientific 6. Add "protein" - "lanbi";
applications of Lojban inherently7. Add "buckwheat" - "xruba";
requires a large fluent body of 8. Add "cassava", to include taro
speakers, or any solely-native and yam, and other starchy
speaker of that tongue. If any roots (not tubers) - "samcu";
of the less scientific applica- 9. Add "sorghum" - "sorgu";
tions of Lojban serve to justify 10.-11. Add "magenta" and "cyan"
it developing such a speaker as the missing two subtractive
base, the nature of Lojban's use- primary colors - "nukni",
fulness as a model will change. "cicna";
New applications, as yet not 12. Add "North America", the
really predictable, will turn up, continent, as distinct from
aided by our no doubt increased "merko", referring to the U.S.
understanding of language. But - "bemro";
the model, even if well under- 13. Add "South America", the
stood, no longer is as simple, continent, as distinct from
and new Loglans and other "xispo", referring to Latin
experimental linguistic tools, America - "ketco";
all artificial languages, will be14. Add "Antarctica" - "dzipo";
developed to take the next step. 15. Add "glimmering" to cover the
I have hopefully given a bit of concepts of morning and evening
food for thought, yet with only a twilight - "murse";
few hours preparation. I also 16. Add "decrease" in parallel to
only thought about this as a revised meaning of "increase"
somewhat an outsider to the - "jdika";
profession of linguistics. With 17. Add a different gismu to be
a different point-of-view others the inverse of "panzi" -
should be able to find many more "rorci";
questions of scientific interest 18. Add "elder/ancestor" for
using an AL like Lojban either as family members of generations
a model, an experimental test preceding the parents
bed, or a tool. And if even a (including non-direct line, the
small fraction of these ideas are relationship is more so-
useful, then ALs have a valid cial/ethnic than biological).
scientific role in linguistics. Gender would be added via
tanru, as would explicit
_________________________________ biological lineage. The
______________ conversion would give "de-
scendant" as well as
Summary of gismu/rafsi Official "grandkids" in the broadest
Changes sense - "dzena";
19. Add "aunt/uncle/godparent"
New gismu as approved in June for non-lineal (socio-ethnic)
1990 (see JL13): family members of the parental
generation. The conversion
1. Add "daytime", changing the would give "niece/nephew" -
keyword for "day" to "full day" "famti";
- "dinri"; 20. Add "cousin" for non-
2. Add "virtue", as distinct from immediate (socio-ethnic) family
"good", to parallel with "evil" members of the same generation.
- "vrude"; The generalized family
3. Add "citrus" - "nimre"; relationship is still expressed
4. Add "cabbage", to include by "lanzu", which can be
broccoli, cauliflower, and modified via tanru - "tamne".
perhaps lettuce - "kobli";
40
The following shows the new gismuketco ket tco South
actually made, which may be addedAmerican
to your gismu lists. Quechua
x1 reflects South American
gismu rafsi keyword culture/nationality/geography
clue / in aspect x2
synonyms
kobli cabbage
bemro bem North cole- /
American cauli-, broccoli,
berti kale,
merko kraut
x1 reflects North American x1 is a quantity of
culture/nationality/geography cabbage/leafy vegetable of
in aspect x2 species/strain x2
cicna cyan lanbi protein
/ albumin /
turquoise amino
x1 is cyan/turquoise/green-blue x1 is a quantity of protein of
type x2
dinri daytime
/ marna hemp
daylight marijuana
x1 is a daytime of day x2 at / jute,
location x3 cannabis
x1 is a quantity of
dzena dze elder hemp/marijuana/jute of
/ species/strain x2
grandparent, ancestor
x1 is an elder/ancestor of x2 murse
by bond/tie/ degree x3 glimmering
/
dzipo zip dzi zi'o twilight, dawn,
Antarctican penumbra
dzucipni x1 is a twilight/dawn of day x2
(penguin?) at location x3
x1 reflects Antarctican
culture/nationality/ geography nimre mre citrus
in aspect x2 lime /
famti aunt or lemon, citric
uncle x1 is a quantity of citrus
/ (fruit, tree, etc.) of
godparent species/strain x2
x1 is an aunt/uncle of x2 by
bond/tie x3 nukni nuk magenta
fuchsin /
jdika decrease fuchsia
/ reduce x1 is magenta/fuchsia/red-blue
x1 is decreased/reduced in
property x2 by amount x3 rorci ror procreate
/
engender, sire, dam,
beget
x1 engenders/procreates/begets
x2 with coparent x3
samcu cassava
/ taro,
manioc, tapioca,
41
yam xruba xub buckwheat
x1 is a quantity of rhubarb /
cassava/taro/manioc/tapioca/yamsorrel grass
(starchy root) of x1 is a quantity of
species/strain x2 buckwheat/rhubarb/sorrel grass
of species/strain x2
sorgu sog sorghum
x1 is a quantity of sorghum of The following are rafsi changes
species/strain x2 needed for the above changes. In
both cases, these are words that
tamne cousin had been given an extra rafsi
x1 is a cousin of x2 by "because it was there", not
bond/tie x3 because it was needed.
vrude vud vu'e virtue dotco dot do'o German
x1 is virtuous by standard x2 delete rafsi tco
merli mel mei measure
delete rafsi mre
The following is a previously
approved change to the gismu
baseline.
ckamu- less
deleted, replaced by:
mleca mec me'a less
The following are previously
approved changes to the gismu
keyword baseline.
mukti muk mu'i motive
was
purpose
djedi ded dje dei full day
was day
gismu gim gi'u root word
was
primitive
tanru phrase
compound
was
metaphor
lujvo luv jvo affix
compound
was cpd
predicate
Several cmavo were newly
assigned rafsi, but in some cases
where a rafsi might be useful,
there was no rafsi even remotely
similar to the cmavo available.
The following lujvo-making con-
ventions are proposed as
solutions for these cmavo used in
lujvo. Note that there may be
lujvo with these patterns that
are not convention-based
42
cu'o preceded by number dzi dzipo
rafsi is a mre nimre
probability rather mre- merli
than modification tco ketco
fi'u with number rafsi tco- dotco
is interpreted as bem bemro
fraction rather than biz bi'o or bi'i
modification caz ca'a
ka'e handled by kakne caz- cadzu (retains dzu)
li'i lifrysucty- in firstcel ce
position cez ce'i
mu'e mulnynun- in firstdaz da'a
position dum du'u
pu'u prucynun- in firstjoz jo'e
position kep ke'e
si'o sidbysucty- in firstket ketco
position kuz ku'a
su'u sucty- in first mec mleca
position mem mei
za'i zastynun- in firstmom moi
position nal na'e
zu'o zuktynun- in firstnal- na
position nar na
nuk nukni
The following is then a summarypez pe'a (figurative lujvo
of ALL changes to the rafsi list - totally
since the gismu baseline list was unpredictable place
published. You may wish to manu- structure)
ally update your gismu lists and piv pi'u
rafsi lists. New lists will be piz pi
published by the end of the year.puz pu'i
ror rorci
( - after a rafsi means the rafsirov roi
was deassigned for reuse.) sog sorgu
soj so'a
CVC CCV CVV cmavo/gismu sop so'e
sor so'i (also has "so'i"
ce'o ce'o added this one is for
co'e co'e making a series)
fo'a- forca (retains sor- skori (retains sko,
for, fro) ko'i)
fo'a fo'a sos so'o
fo'e fo'e sot so'u
fo'i fo'i vud vrude
ke'e ke'e xub xruba
le'e le'e zip dzipo
lo'e lo'e
me'a mleca I received a question about the
no'e no'e listing in the rafsi change
nu'o nu'o summary about conventions for
to'e to'e some abstractions. So let me
ve'e ve'e explain further.
vu'e vrude For the example, we will use
za'o za'o "salci", which has the place
ze'e ze'e structure "x1 celebrates x2 by
ze'o ze'o doing/being x3".
zi'o dzipo "nu salci" is an abstraction
zo'a zo'a selbri: "x1 is the event of (x1S
zo'i zo'i celebrates x2S by doing x3S)".
dze dzena
43
To make this into a lujvo, we be representing the abstraction
have reserved a rafsi for 'nu', since there may be more obvious
and in this case the lujvo-makingnon-abstraction meanings. The
algorithm gives "nunsalci": "x1 convention however tells you how
is the celebration-event of x2 to make a lujvo that will at
celebrating x3 by doing x4". Allleast suggest the abstraction
we do is renumber the places. rather than force you to try to
We also have rafsi reserved forguess randomly how to do so. In
'ka', 'ni', and 'jei' among the general, the convention is close
abstractors. We do not have to the most obvious
rafsi for the four Aristotelian interpretation anyway.
subcategories of 'nu' events: As for nunsalci, the places of
'states', 'activities', 'process-the unabstracted selbri are
es', and 'achievements'. Nor do renumbered shifted by 1. For a
we have rafsi for other members couple of abstractors (ni and jei
of NU, including the idea ab- come to mind) with more than one
stractor "si'o", the experience place in the abstraction selbri,
abstractor "li'i", etc. the trailing places are added to
The convention described says the end.
that for those members of NU that
do not have rafsi, we will use a This convention is not part of
combination of rafsi for related any baseline, and is quite open
gismu in specific positions for your comments. Indeed, we'd
(generally at the beginning of like to see some people try
the lujvo) to indicate the making lujvo using them and using
abstraction. We don't assume them in example sentences.
that all lujvo in that form will
_________________________________________________
le lojbo se ciska (continued)
Coranth D'Gryphon sent me a letter - an excellent beginning writing
effort, which I will share with all of you since it brings out some
neat points. I'm sure Coranth's ego will stand public correction,
and all-in-all he did an outstanding effort even if I've commented
it to death. I encourage beginning people to write to each other
in Lojban, preferably with English translation enclosed. Send your
first writing to me (Bob) at the la lojbangirz. address, and I'll
match you with someone based on your skill level (and possibly your
interests). A suggestion for a first letter is either a list of
sentences or a self-description. There is NO BETTER WAY to learn
the language than to see how others misunderstand your attempts to
express in the language. And if communication actually occurs,
you've achieved the purpose of language, which is more important
than being correct. If you can figure out most of what Coranth was
TRYING to say on the following (there are errors and even typo-
nonexistent words that can make some parts virtually impossible to
a novice), you are ready.
Following is Coranth's uncorrected original text and his
translation. My comments follow.
coi doi lojbab.
le lojbo ckule cu xamgu
.i di'u cu pluka mi
.i re le ci tardi cu djica troci le nu la Lojban cu se djuno
.i ji'a .i'ou'anai mi pu skami ciska piso'i le ti fasnu tebe'i do
.i mi'u pu fonxa tavla
44
.i la lojbo gerna cu frili mi
.i le lojbo valsi na go'i
.i mi cu troci le nu la'edi'u cu se djuno
.i .au.a'o mi baze'e djuno roru
45
.i paupei la logflac. cu kakne le sidju di'e .inaja jei di'u
.i pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a
.i ju'e ki'e co'o lojbab.
la korant.
Hi Bob
The Lojban-school is good.
This pleases me.
2 of the 3 students desire-ingly try-to-attain the-state-of Lojban
being-known.
I regret/sorrow-at I have-before not computer-written much-of these
events to-you.
Ditto have-before not telephone-talked.
Lojban grammar is easy for me.
The-set-of Lojban words is not.
I try-to-attain the-state-of them-previous being-known.
I hope-desire-that I will-after-some-time know them-all.
Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help?
The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true:
Request-please : you (imper) talk-to me about the-process-of
getting them.
I conclude. thanks. bye.
Coranth
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Commentary. The unindented text and translation are Coranth's
versions:
coi doi lojbab.
Hi Bob
le lojbo ckule cu xamgu
The Lojban-school is good.
Both excellent. [Coranth, by the way was attempting to tutor
some students in Lojban in the Boston area, which is another
group that is ripe for group study as the LA people are doing.
.i di'u cu pluka mi
This pleases me.
You translated the Lojban to English correctly, but the
English is ambiguous. A more exact English translation of
your sentence is:
The last sentence pleases me.
Now you have a right to be pleased about the last sentence:
it was well done. But I suspect that you were trying to
46
express that the state of affairs described by the last
sentence is what pleased you, in which case you wanted to say:
.i la'edi'u [cu] pluka mi.
It is probably useful to memorize "la'edi'u" as a single word;
you will use it in an English translation far more often than
"di'u" alone, unless you are writing essays about language.
47
.i re le ci tardi cu djica troci le nu la Lojban cu se djuno
2 of the 3 students desire-ingly try-to-attain the-state-of Lojban
being-known
Except "tadni" for "tardi", excellent. I explicitly check or
have Nora check all of my writings before sending them out to
make sure I don't make word mistakes. Until you master the
vocabulary, you should do an extra check whenever possible.
Of course, though, I would rather you write Lojban without
checking the words, than not write Lojban at all.
.i ji'a .i'ou'anai mi pu skami ciska piso'i le ti fasnu tebe'i do
I regret/sorrow-at I have-before not computer-written much-of these
events to-you.
A great teaching sentence. It was grammatical and I
understood what you intended, but you made lots of little
errors.
You left out translating the "ji'a" ("additionally"), and
I'm not sure how it applies; if you are trying to non-
specifically link this sentence to the previous one ".ije" is
a logical joining, and ".i" is the simple run-on sentence
"and".
The attitudinal "appreciation+loss" does not convey to me
your English - what did you "lose"; it sounds like the type of
emotion one might feel when a trusted and valued employee left
the company, or maybe what you might say in a letter of
resignation. Possibilities are the simple ".u'u", or
".i'anaise'i" (or attaching the ".i'anai" differently: "mi
.i'anai pu ..." which means roughly: "I, damn me, previously
..."
Your English sentence is a negation - you have NOT
PREVIOUSLY written much-of these events, but this negation is
not in the sentence. You could do so with "na", but I would
prefer the more exact "punai".
"ciska" is "inscribe"; you clearly noticed that its place
structure wasn't that useful and used "tebe'i". "cusku" is
usually more applicable; writing is just a medium (which could
go in the "ve cusku" place if it was important). "tavla" is
also useful here; it is not limited to verbal expression
(which is "bacru"), and it has a 'talkee' too. Finally, as
implied by your "tebe'i", you could have used "benji" with "le
datni/se skicu be le fasnu" or more simply "le fasnu datni".
"piso'i" is a fraction of a whole. If you are treating
the events as separate reportable instances, you wanted "so'i
le fasnu" = "many of the events". If you wanted to talk about
them as a mass, you wanted "piso'i lei fasnu" = "much of the
mass of events". Probably the latter is better.
"ti" as a demonstrative does not work well in letters,
and in any case I doubt if you could point to the "ti" that
'possesses' the events. "ti" is a sumti and in that position
"le ti fasnu" it meant "this thing's event(s)". For "this" in
such a sumti you usually want the locator "vi": ("le vi
fasnu" = "the here event"). Now it turns out that a different
possessive might actually have been appropriate here: "le
de'u fasnu" = "the earlier sentence's events", or possibly,
"le ru fasnu" which in your writing can only refer to "the
Lojban class"; therefore "the Lojban-class's events". Of
course, "ru" alone might have been clear since you would have
48
been writing about the class as well as the events associated
with the class.
Adding all these comments together, I might have written
the sentence as:
.ije mi .i'anai punai .uu skami cusku le de'u fasnu do
And I, (Damn me!) didn't (Regret!) computer-express the
earlier sentence's events to you.
.i mi'u pu fonxa tavla
Ditto have-before not telephone-talked.
Again missing the negation, only it is more blatant here.
You said that we have talked.
You don't say what we haven't talked about. Since you
and I have telephone talked before, you are putting a lot of
semantic load on that "mi'u" to convey that you want me to
transfer the subject of talking from the previous sentence (as
well as the other places).
I like "je" or "ji'a" here instead of "mi'u" though it
seems as interesting concept to use a "ditto" discursive to
copy the sumti from the previous sentence, while changing the
selbri. Hmmm.
"je", with no discursive, linking a specified-sumti bridi
with an observative, does strongly suggest the sumti copying.
I do this a lot, according to Nora. There are also more obvi-
ous forms, based on a compound sentence using "gi'e", but I
won't go into that here.
My attempts:
.ije punai fonxa tavla
And didn't telephone talk.
OR
.ije punai fonxa tavla do le de'u fasnu
And didn't telephone talk to you about the earlier sentence's
events.
You also could have combined the last two sentences into
one, but the negated tense makes the translation apparently
illogical for English speakers, who implicitly convert the
selbri from "and" to "or" under DeMorgan's Law. This is not
recommended until people can truly think in Lojban:
.ije mi .i'anai punai .u'u skami je fonxa cusku le de'u fasnu
do
And I, (Damn me!) didn't (Regret!) computer-(or)-phone express
the earlier sentence's events to you.
.i la lojbo gerna cu frili mi
Lojban grammar is easy for me.
.i le lojbo valsi na go'i
The-set-of Lojban words is not.
You are correct that "na" does not require "cu". Excellent.
.i mi cu troci le nu la'edi'u cu se djuno
I try-to-attain the-state-of them-previous being-known
"la'edi'u" here makes your sentence mean:
49
I try-to-attain the-state-of (the-set-of Lojban words is not
[easy for me]) being-known.
You wanted "ri" to get your translation:
.i le lojbo valsi na go'i .i mi troci lenu ri cu se djuno.
.i .au.a'o mi baze'e djuno roru
I hope-desire-that I will-after-some-time know them-all
I corrected for publication what I presume to be a typo
".ava'o" in your original.
You wanted "ze'eba" instead of "baze'e", which means here "I
will for some interval in the future know all of them."
Examine the parallel examples in "tense*" in the cmavo 'Lexeme
order list', which are based on "pu". "ra" is more correct
than "ru" here; counting backwards in your version, "ri" is
"la'edi'u" and "ra" is "le lojbo valsi". In my rewritten
versions, "ri" is still "le lojbo valsi".
(See the following article for details regarding this
comment.) Given the new place structure of "djuno", I think
you want "tu'a roru".)
.i paupei la logflac. cu kakne le sidju di'e .inaja jei di'u
Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help?
The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true:
This one was fun. I had to write most of the following
before I knew what you were trying.
"paupei" isn't wrong but the "pau" is superfluous. "pau"
is used to let the listener reader know that a question is
coming up later in the sentence that might not be expected,
forewarning that attention is needed so that the answer can be
provided. When the question is the next word, the warning is
redundant, but not wrong. I think that your desired question
was probably ".iapei" or "pe'ipei", asking about belief or
opinion.
I'm sure you wanted "le nu sidju di'e". Otherwise "le
sidju" ("the helper") is the x2 place of "kakne" and "di'e" is
the x3 place. But as for what it means:
Your second sentence isn't grammatical; you may have
wanted "di'u jetnu" based on your English. But more pressing
is that you have one awesome self-referential sentence loop
here, and I can't honestly say I understand the English any
better than the Lojban. It's often a good idea to put a
colloquial English translation along with a literal one if the
structure is convoluted as in this case.
I'll rephrase your English to reflect what you said
(making the corrections already noted):
.i la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju di'e .inaja di'u jetnu
Logflash is able at helping the following sentence. [Only if]
the previous sentence is true.
Does this make the problem clearer? You have a logical
connective that makes some funky claims about the truth
conditions of the combined pair of sentences. (I think you
get a tautology of a sort: ".inaja" here effectively causes
"not X or X", where "X" is the "di'u" of the second sentence.
50
If the first is true the second must be; if the first is
false, so is the second.) Then the second sentence is talking
about the truth of the first sentence, while the first
sentence is talking about Logflash helping with the second
sentence. [Sounds of mental explosion as circuits are fried
.oicairo'e].
.ua.ue ki'anai [I think I finally understand!]
I think I figured out now what you were trying to do (but
only after all that analysis. My clue is how you grouped your
English with a line separating:
Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help.
The-following only-if the-previous-sentence is-true:
Request-please : you (imper) talk-to me about the-
process-of getting them.
This makes it clear that "di'e" is supposed to be part of
the same sentence as the "di'u", and actually refers to the
sentence afterwards. At which point all becomes clear:
".i" is an almost perfect sentence terminator. It says
that the following sentence is about to start, making all of
the 'elidable' terminators of constructs shorter than sentence
scope (i.e. "vau", "kei", "ku", etc.) actually elidable at
the end of a sentence. BUT the ".i" can ONLY go between
sentences. It seems you were trying to use ".inaja" as the
selbri. But the "di'e" is irrevocably part of the first of
two sentences in this case, and I merely spent my effort
trying to figure out how it fit in. But then, that analysis
pointed out the need for "lenu sidju" vs. "le sidju" - which I
think is what you wanted; I might have missed it if not for
the hanging "di'e".
At which point I can say GOOD TRY, especially since we
nowhere cover logical connectives in text materials. But:
The members of "GOhA", "me"+"KOhA", and PA+MOI, are the only
cmavo or cmavo compounds that come to mind as being valid as a
selbri (there may be some complex equivalents of these, too.
Lojban logical connectives connect constructs; they are not in
themselves selbri. If you want a predicated connective, you
need a gismu or tanru. We have provided "kanxe", "vlina",
"dunli" and "nibli", and I think the latter is what you want
here:
.i pe'ipei la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju .i di'e se nibli
di'u
(Opinion-question?) Logflash is able at helping. The
following is entailed by the preceding.
(Nora would stop here; she likes short simple sentences,
but I'll muck things up a little more.) At which point we can
actually eliminate the 2nd sentence entirely, using a causal
connective:
51
.i .pe'ipei la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju
.iseni'ibo pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a
which translates as:
Question-opinion : Logflash is-able-to help?
Necessitating therefore: request-please: you (imperative)
talk-to me about the-process-of getting them.
It is even possible to compress this to the single
sentence (in which case the "pau" is useful, too):
.i pau la logflac. cu kakne lenu sidju pe'ipei kei seni'i lenu
pe'ue'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a
Question follows: Logflash is-able to help (Your opinion
please), which (the ability) would necessitate therefore
(I request-please) that you (imperative) talk-to me about
the-process-of getting them.
Note the "kei" to terminate the "lenu" clause. Without it,
the now-more-complex sentence means something only roughly
similar (note the angle brackets):
Question follows: Logflash is-able at <helping (your opinion
please) thus necessitating therefore (I request-please)
that you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of
getting them.>
There is no problem asking a Lojban question about a
sentence while exploring the logical consequences of its
truth. Lojban presumes that, logically speaking, the truth
value of a question is the same as that of the sentence with
the question satisfied (the blank filled in, etc.) Thus you
can ask my opinion on the first sentence, while telling me
what to do if it is true. Note that you have to move the
"pe'ipei" question itself around when you try to ask it all in
one sentence, so that I clearly know that you are asking about
Logflash's ability to help, and not whether (its ability to
help necessitates talking about getting it).
One other comment. Just as "LogFest" Lojbanizes poorly,
so does "LogFlash". "*gf" is not a permissible medial pair in
Lojban, since "g" is voiced and "f" is unvoiced. Lojbanize it
as "logyflac." or "logvlac."
.i pe'u.e'o ko cu tavla mi le pu'u cpacu ko'a
Request-please : you (imperative) talk-to me about the-process-of
getting them.
An excellent non-trivial concluding sentence, with only
two minor flaws. "pe'u" is a vocative member of COI, and
expects a name or description afterwards - you can't quite use
it like an attitudinal, unless you close it with "do'u".
Without the "do'u", the vocative absorbs "ko" as the target of
"pe'u", and you have approximately: "Request-of-you
(imperative), that (observative: someone unspecified) talks-
to-me about ...". This still gets your point across. However,
with the "ko" absorbed, there is no sumti to separate, and the
"cu" is not needed or allowed. Secondly, "ko'a" is undefined.
Presuming that you mean Logflash, I would simply repeat "la
logyflac." Alternatives are the vague "ra" or assigning
"ko'a" with "goi" - a waste for one reference.
52
As an answer to your letter, call or write again regarding
getting LogFlash. I of course believe it is helpful - it is
the ONLY reason I can lojbo cusku with any skill.
.i ju'e ki'e co'o lojbab.
I conclude. thanks. bye.
la korant.
Coranth
You wanted "mi'e korant." for complete grammaticality.
Overall an excellent first effort. It better than others argues
for some explanation of logical connectives at an early stage. I
will modify my textbook outline as a result. Keep it up!
53
Cleft Place Structures and sumti- Thus, I'll explain some of the
Raising problem, give simple examples of
a couple of the points which you
A minor excursion in "how to may be able to use and general-
say it in Lojban" turned into a ize, but otherwise will just try
major philosophical examination to explain the changes. If you
of language and metalanguage (howdon't understand just yet, don't
we talk about language) this worry - we carried on
spring. The result of this conversations in Lojban for a
endeavor was a series of minor couple of years without even
word changes - mostly additions noticing the problem.
of cmavo, one minor grammar (Difficulty warning: this
change, and a couple of major material in places relies on all
philosophical realizations about of the contents of the draft
language that shook us to the un-textbook lessons. You may not
derpinnings and will have a understand everything that
profound effect on how we teach follows without them, but I've
the language. tried to make the explanation
Unfortunately, we can't take independent of your knowledge of
the space here to discuss the Lojban as much as possible.)
question in depth, including the You may know that Lojban has at
various rationales for decisions least two major kinds of sumti
made and not made. The (arguments) in its bridi (pre-
discussion would be as long and dications). Only two are
intricate as the negation paper relevant here. I will call these
published last year, only more 'simple' and 'abstract' sumti.
confusing. Instead, we'll try to A simple sumti is comparable to
outline what was decided, what in English are 'common
emphasizing effects on Lojban nouns' - objects that you can
expression. point to. Examples include "le
English does not have very stizu" ("the chair"), "le zarci"
effective tools for talking about(the market). But because Lojban
language. You have to teach a doesn't distinguish nouns, verbs,
whole specialized vocabulary for and adjectives, we can also have
any aspect of language - a "le blanu" ("the blue thing"), or
vocabulary that reads like jargon"le kurji" ("the one taking care
without a great deal of of ...") as simple sumti. All of
explanation. Classic problems the examples so far are what we
are how to describe the meaning call 'descriptions' in the Log-
of words like "of" and "the", or lan/Lojban project. In a
how to describe the meaning of a description, a selbri (the
form of the verb "to be" combinedpredicate word or phrase that
with the suffix "-ing" on a verb defines the relationship) is
without merely giving an example.converted into a sumti, omitting
However, for those questions, the x1 place, using a descriptor
you at least know the answer, word like "le" or "lo". The de-
even if you can't easily phrase scription then refers to some-
it. Topics like 'indirect thing intended that would fill
questions' (which are not really that x1 place. Thus "le klama"
questions at all), and 'object is something that would fill the
raising' (sumti raising when x1 place of "x1 comes/goes to x2
generalized in Lojban) are topicsfrom x3 via x4 using mode x5".
for linguistic researchers. An abstract sumti looks and
Everyday people use these acts differently. In an abstract
linguistic features all the time sumti, you take a whole bridi
without realizing it AND, even predication (including the x1),
realizing it, find it difficult i.e., a whole sentence, and turn
to paraphrase and explain what it into a sumti. That sumti then
they are doing, and why they represents the abstract state or
understand what it means. event of the relation occurring
54
("nu"), the characteristic prop- many ways. An abstraction has
erty(ies) of that relation the abstract marker from NU on
("ka"), or any of several other the front and an elidable
abstractions, including "du'u" (aterminator "kei" on the back, to
predication about the relation), keep the language unambiguous,
and "jei" (the truth value of allowing you to know whether a
such a relation). These others selbri is part of the abstraction
may be found in selma'o NU in or is the main selbri of the
your cmavo list. sentence, or whether a sumti is a
What is hidden in most usage ofsumti of the main sentence bridi,
these abstract sumti is that we or of the abstraction bridi.
have created an entirely new These descriptions and abstrac-
selbri relationship encompassing tions are long, possibly complex
the abstracted bridi and its in grammar, and generally a pain
places as the selbri. For most to repeat when you are saying a
abstractions, this new selbri haslot about them. So we have
only one place, though "jei", symbols or 'anaphora' to stand
which talks about truth values, for them. You may be familiar
has an x2 place for epistemology,with "ko'a" which can be assigned
and "ni", and amount, has a to represent any sumti, whether
scale. When you use one of theseabstract or simple, as well as
abstractions in a sumti, you are "mi" ("me") and "do" ("you").
again filling in the x1 place of All of these are 'anaphora' -
one selbri, but at a higher, morewords that stand for something
abstract level than for a simple previously defined or obvious
sumti. Thus there is a parallel from the context. There are a
between these different levels oflot of others. One other kind of
sumti such that both are tied anaphora is names. When you use
back to a bridi relation with onethe name "lojbab." for me, the
unspecified place. name represents me for discussion
An example of an abstract bridiin a sentence. "la lojbab." is
is: thus grammatically equivalent to
"do" and "le nu mi klama le zarci
x1 is the event ("nu") of [ku] [vau] [kei] [ku]".
<xk1 comes/goes (klama) to xk2 We can also use names as
from xk3 via xk4 using mode anaphora for events and other
xk5> abstraction sumti. "The
Renaissance" is a name for an
In "le nu klama", the "le" means important historical period, and
that we are talking about the x1 "The Battle of Bunker Hill" is
just defined, just as "le" means the name of an event.
for simple sumti. The other By equating simple sumti and
sumti may or may not be abstract sumti grammatically, we
explicitly expressed, but the achieve some of the power of Loj-
grammar is that of a full bridi ban's grammar. Lojban allows the
terminated by the elidable manipulation of both types of
terminator "kei": arguments using its grammar as
predicate logic does - you ignore
le nu mi klama le zarci kei ku the representation when
[le nu <mi klama le zarci kei> manipulating the symbols.
ku] The risk for human speakers is
The event of my going to the the same as the advantage: you
market ... may ignore the representation
(As a lujvo, "nunklama", the 6 when manipulating the symbols.
places would be renumbered x1 If you forget that you are
through x6, hiding the two levelsworking with abstractions, you
of grammatical structure.) can end up mixing levels of
The parallel effect of "le" abstraction. The result is
allows us to grammatically treat nonsense. In natural language,
these two kinds of sumti alike inwhen we speak nonsense, the
55
listener tries to make sense of that would be sumti in Lojban.
it, and intuitively ignores The relations that would be the
errors of abstraction level, selbri in Lojban are
giving understanding that may traditionally represented by a
ignore logical errors. We want single word root ("gismu") in
to avoid this in Lojban. Lojban; respectively these are
Some examples. Here are some "djuno" ("know"), "mulno"
relations expressed as English ("complete"), and "galfi"
sentences: ("modify").
In each pair of sentences, one
(1) relates a concept using an
It is good. (It representing abstract sumti, and the other a
"the cat") concept using a simple sumti.
It is good. (It representing But notice: it is the "actor" of
"the long romanticthe event in the abstraction sen-
walk to the park")tence that serves as the simple
sumti in the other sentence. In
(4) you may need to look at the
(2) parenthesized versions to see
Mary considered it. (It this.
representing "the In English, we typically
cat") interpret both sentences as
Mary considered it. (it meaning the same thing. But how
representing "the can this be - is an abstraction
long romantic walkreally the same as the actor of
to the park") that abstraction? Is it "I" that
turns the water into steam, or is
(1) serves to remind that it "my boiling the water" that
abstract sumti and simple sumti turns it into steam? It cannot
are equivalent in Lojban bridi. be both using a single definition
You need to be able to manipulatefor "turns it into steam".
them using their symbols, without And indeed, the result is that
worrying about what the symbols the meaning of "turns water into
represent, or whether you end up steam", "is done", and "knows
with nonsense, as in (2). At about" in English have at least
some point, however, you want to two meanings, and we figure out
interpret "it", and if "it" which one applies based on
represents something illogical incontext.
the context, you want to Linguists say that in such
recognize that you have nonsense.cases, we have in effect 'raised'
the simple sumti out of the ab-
I know about John. straction and are using it to
(3) represent the abstraction. This
I know about John sleeping with feature is called 'subject-rais-
Susan. ing' or 'object-raising' when
used to describe English and
The cooking is done. other natural languages. We call
(My cooking something has it sumti-raising when talking
completed.) (4) about Lojban, which does not
I'm done cooking. distinguish between subjects and
(I have completed the cook- objects.
ing.) Notice that Lojban can make it
clear that there are really two
I turn the water into steam by distinct place structures
boiling it. (5) involved when you have a sumti-
My boiling it turns the water raising. For the examples, we
into steam. have:
(3) through (5) are pairs of
sentences with two 'arguments'
56
x1 knows about x2 (an actor) resulting in apparent non-se-
being the actor in doing x3 (anquitors:
activity abstract like
'sleeping with')] I know about John that the dog is
x1 knows about x2 (an abstract sleeping with Susan.
event or fact) I am done with you doing the
cooking.
x1 (an event) is done/complete. I turn the water into steam by
x1 (an actor) is done being the John boiling Susan.
actor in event x2
These appear to be nonsense,
x1 (an actor) modifies x2 into x3but the human mind attempts to
by being the actor in make sense of them anyway, pos-
event/process x4 sibly concluding that John is
x1 (an event/process) modifies x2literally or figuratively a dog,
into x3 that "my being done with you
cooking" means that I will not
The problem is explicit becausetolerate it any more and will eat
so much of Lojban semantics is out instead, with "done" being
embedded in the place structures.interpreted figuratively.
For a variety of reasons - Another example out of recent
logical integrity, ease of events that shows the logical
learning, etc., we want to have errors that can result from this
only a single place structure for(courtesy Art Protin):
each Lojban word, and we want to
know what goes into each place. Saddam Hussein modified the
We have given a label to bridi borders of Iraq to include Kuwait
place structures where one of theby Iraqi soldiers invading
sumti places is defined to be an Kuwait.
actor (or some other place) in an
abstraction sumti found elsewhere Here we have an abstract cleft-
in the same bridi. We call thesestructured sentence (it uses the
'cleft place structures'. same structure as "I turn the
Even if there were no other water ..."), where the actor,
reason, we dislike cleft place Saddam, does not appear in the
structures because they are abstraction. To interpret this,
repetitive and redundant. This we can jump to all manner of
becomes evident in completely conclusions that are in some way
expressed Lojban sentences, for logically faulty. We relying on
which I will give English hidden assumptions to pull
equivalents: meaning out of the statement, as
we try to decide whether Saddam
I know about John that John is or his soldiers were the
sleeping with Susan. aggressors against Kuwait.
I am done with my doing the For example, we may rely on the
cooking. main predicate as pre-eminent,
I turn the water into steam by myinterpreting the statement as if
boiling the water. the Iraqi soldiers were Saddam
Hussein, or else his direct
Note that the last example has agents, puppets, or tools and not
two redundant sumti, "I", and thinking and feeling human beings
"the water", thus showing that capable of independent choice:
sumti-raising is not limited to
'actor' places. The Iraqi soldiers are not
Now, if you look at the Lojban responsible for attacking
for these, you realize that it is because they had no choice.
perfectly acceptable to put a
different value in one of the two Alternatively, we think of
supposedly equivalent places, "invade" as the active verb
making the soldiers the actual
57
'actors', while Saddam remains a completed it? Is "le galfi" a
nebulous motivational force (who modifier, or the modification
actually 'did' nothing): process? You clearly want to be
able to somehow access the actor,
The Iraqi soldiers are since he/she/it is likely to be
responsible, because Saddam used in a sumti.
merely gave orders and they In older versions of Loglan,
were obligated to disobey an there were many problem words of
immoral or illegal order (the this sort. Jim Brown basically
NЃrenburg judgement). argued that place structures
should be what is 'natural' for
The converse of the first speakers, including all
version (seen from Saddam's pointinformation that is needed to
of view perhaps) sees Saddam as determine the truth conditions of
actor, and the soldiers as the relation. Both of these
impersonal tools that failed in place structures include the
their function: information, so he typically
chose the more English-like
Saddam is not responsible for version of the place structure.
Iraq's losing the war because This led to all manner of subtle
his soldiers failed him. difficulties. Since the actor is
specified in one place, then also
We thus end up depersonalizing in the event sumti, you typically
either the soldiers or Saddam; will elliptically omit the actor,
they cease to be thought of as as well as other places.
real people because our
instinctive language use wants to?mi mulno
recognize only one active agent le nu [mi] jukpa [le
in an abstract statement. cidja] (6a)
Carrying such statements to their I complete
illogical conclusion can the event-of [me] cooking [the
depersonalize any aspect of the food].
war: I finish cooking.
The allied coalition forces ?le nu mi jukpa [le
should/should-not punish the cidja]
soldiers (or Saddam, or the cu mulno
people of Iraq: take your (6b)
choice) because they were/were- The event-of me cooking the food
not responsible. is-complete.
(I deliberately chose a current The second sentence is often
and controversial topic because 'shortened' in a couple of other
opinion molders, whether ways in colloquial English: "I'm
government or media, 'honest' done cooking." and "The food is
writers or propagandists, use done cooking". (6b) reveals that
just such illogical arguments andin English we are merely con-
hidden assumptions to convince densing the abstract event in a
readers of their point of view, different way, by ellipsizing a
often with deadly consequences. different sumti of the event
I intend none of the above bridi "my cooking the food". The
expressions to be taken as being result was haphazard,
mine or la lojbangirz.'s opinionsinconsistent place structures.
on the matter.) It is important to realize the
Another problem occurs when youhistorical roots of this problem,
turn one of these words with because they constrain the
possibly cleft structures into a solutions. The choice of gismu,
simple description sumti. Is "leand indeed the grammar of Lojban
mulno" an action that is itself, evolved from an earlier
complete, or the actor that version of Loglan. That version
58
did not recognize sumti-raising a space as a pause (there is no
as a feature of the language, andsymbolic representation in
tended to obscure abstractions Institute Loglan that a pause is
much the way we do in English, required in "le po blanu".
based on Brown's concept of Finally, Brown introduced a
'natural' place structures. "poge" construction to make a
In older versions of Loglan, 'long-scope' abstraction for use
most words had an actor in the x1with trailing arguments and
place. When trying to express logical connectives: "mi viska
one of these bridi using the le poge ta blanu" is a possible
given place structures, one construction, though one never
naturally ellipsized the first used because it is identical to
sumti of the abstract event, "mi viska lepo ta blanu". The
which was just a repetition of web of spaces and "ge"s made a
the actor, just as in (6a) above.mess of the grammar description,
However, JCB apparently did not especially since both are used in
recognize that the result was other ways in the grammar as
logically identical to one with well.
the abstract actor filled in, and When we started Lojban, we
instead built the Loglan grammar rebuilt the grammar on our own.
considering an abstract with el- At first, we merely copied the
lipsized x1 actor as a totally existing Loglan structures. But
separate grammatical construct. in 1989, we started teaching the
This construct has no basis in language. In what is now Lesson
logic and caused all manner of 3 of the draft textbook lessons,
ambiguities in Loglan, we attempted to explain Loglan
ambiguities that were solved by abstraction. Lojbanists from
cheating in the Loglan machine before March 1989 may remember
grammar. examples from that time using
Institute Loglan STILL has this"*le nuke", which exactly matched
problem, which I'll describe for "le poge"; we also had "nu" and
those comparing the two versions "lenu" as distinct constructs.
(otherwise skip this and the nextThe widely distributed 'February
two paragraphs). That version 1988' machine grammar contains
uses the word "po" where Lojban these fossils.
uses "nu". In Jim Brown's While trying to explain
versions of Loglan, "po" ("nu") abstractions, we demonstrated
does NOT change the nature of a that there was only one real
bridi, as I discussed above. "leconstruct involving "nu" and that
po blanu" was a simple sumti: was a bridi turned into a selbri.
"le (po blanu)", where "(po John Parks-Clifford (pc), noted
blanu)" is a description for of athat he and others had unsuc-
selbri. cessfully argued for this in the
To get an abstract sumti, you 1970's with Jim Brown. pc also
write "lepo" as a single word, had discussed cleft place
which the computer parser would structures with Brown, but with
then treat as a totally differentno resulting change.
selma'o (grammatical category) In 1989, both the abstraction
than "le", turning a whole bridi grammar and cleft place
predication into a sumti: "lepo structures issues came up
(ta blanu)". But a human being separately. The abstraction
can't tell "lepo" from "le po" inproblem was resolved as described
normal speech, so Jim Brown in- above, and pc's reasoning on the
troduced an arbitrary rule that cleft place structures was
to separate the two words, you convincing; we changed most place
had to pause between them - a structures where x1 was the actor
"lexemic" pause. and x2 was an event to a single
Computer languages often use place. tanru (metaphors) and
spaces to avoid ambiguities, and lujvo (complexes) were used to
Jim Brown was in effect treating access the actor. "mulgau"
59
(mulno gasnu) is thus the actor raising' from subject-raising and
form of "complete" in current object-raising.
Lojban. Start with the English
But the problem is not really sentence:
resolved. We missed several
cleft place structures, and have I try the door.
discovered them intermittently (1)
while doing the place structure
reviews. "galfi" was a recent Without recognizing sumti-
discovery, with the x1 place raising, we would translate this
cleft from the x4 event. into Lojban as:
Meanwhile, in teaching Lojban,
we have found that when native mi troci le vorme
English speakers trying to speak (1a)
Lojban guess at place structures,
they presume actor forms of the based on the place structure of
words. Thus some people, "troci"
(including those of us with more
experience) use "mi mulno" for x1 tries to do/attain x2 by x3
"I'm done", usually with humorous(1b)
results when called on it. (In
Lojban, "you" are presumably not which expands to:
"done" until the "event" repre-
sented by the word "you" is com- x1 tries to bring about the
plete; i.e. when you are dead, or event/state/ process/activity
even later, in some religions.) x2 by method x3 (1c)
Thus the problems: how hard do
we try to eliminate cleft place (1c) clarifies that x2 is an
structures and how do we solve abstract clause. I then view "le
the natural language habit of vorme" is a sumti-raising from
sumti-raising while preserving one of two possible x2 abstract
Lojban's logical character? sentences:
The Solution mi troci lenu mi karyri'a
le vorme (2)
The solution has evolved over I try the-event I open-cause
the last year or so in several the door.
stages. Only one grammar change
is involved, and that expands mi troci lenu le vorme cu
capabilities rather than changes kalri (3)
any existing constructs in the I try the-event the door
language. In developing a is-open.
solution, we ended up running
into multiple distracting side- (There is further possible
issues, ranging from the place complication in (2) in that rinka
structure of "djuno", to (cause), the basis of "karyri'a"
'indirect questions', the changeswould normally take an event
that resulted will also be abstraction in its x1 place, thus
listed. making the "mi" in that position
a sumti-raising as well. (2)
sumti-Raising thus can be further expanded to:
In Lojban, there is no mi troci lenu
difference between 'subject' and lenu mi lacpu/catke le vorme
'object', because free rearrange- cu rinka
ment of arguments (sumti) using leka le vorme cu kalri
conversion with selma'o SE can /lenu le vorme cu kalri
lead to any sumti being in the
first 'subject' position. The mi troci (lenu
proposal thus generalizes 'sumti-I try the-event
60
<lenu mi lacpu/catke le abstracted bridi which is
vorme> ellipsized, much as we leave out
the event I pull /push the unimportant trailing places. We
door have assigned the cmavo "co'e" to
cu rinka represent such an unspecified,
causes normally ellipsized, bridi.
<leka le vorme Thus, (1a) becomes:
cu kalri>) (4a)
the-property-of the door mi troci tu'a le vorme
open(-ness)
the door's openness. which is equivalent to
<lenu le vorme cu
kalri>) (4b) mi troci
the-event-of the door (5)
is-open I attempt
the door opening. lenu le vorme cu co'e
the-event the door
Clearly, much information is being/doing something.
lost or hidden in sumti-raising -
we don't know in (2) whether (To be formally correct, we
pushing or pulling the door is should use "lesu'u" to get an
necessary (or hitting the unspecified abstraction instead
elevator door button, for that of "lenu")
matter). Thus there clearly is a
lot of semantics hidden in "le By looking back at (4a) and (4b),
vorme" in original sentence (1a).we see that "co'e" in (5) is
We want to mark this explicitly. actually the equivalent of the
We want in Lojban to discourageEnglish:
unnecessary sumti-raising because
it is logically sloppy. However,"being opened by my
sumti-raising allows brevity and pushing/pulling it".
a 'natural' feel to the language.
Clearly, (4a) and (4b) are too We will urge that when people
much to ask of a speaker who is speak Lojban, that they try to be
thinking (1) - that she/he merelyaware of the possibility that
wants the door open, and it they may be sumti-raising, and
doesn't matter how. mark it with "tu'a".
We've thus accepted that sumti- Sloppy speakers, and new
raising must be allowed in the Lojbanists, will sometimes fail -
language. But it is most im- you have a lifetime of habit to
portant that people recognize overcome. Thus a listener may
when they are sumti-raising, and choose to assume that an unmarked
mark it so that the listener can concrete sumti in a place that
then allow for it, interpreting normally takes an abstraction
'what the speaker really meant' really is intended to be a sumti-
as being something involving an raising - choosing to understand
unspecified abstraction. (1) as meaning (5). If this
We therefore will explicitly happens too extensively, however,
mark sumti-raising using the the logical nature of Lojban is
cmavo "tu'a", which is assigned compromised - thus we will not
to selma'o LAhE (thus not teach unmarked sumti-raising as
requiring a grammar change). valid, and will discourage it or
LAhE is the category of 'indirectcorrect it when we notice it.)
markers' that tell the listener sumti-raising solves the
that the sumti as spoken is only problem of cleft place
an indirect symbol for what is structures. It allows uncleft
actually intended to fill the place structures to mimic cleft
place. ones for user convenience. A
Any time there is a sumti- sentence claim like:
raising, there is an implied
61
lenu mi cinfai cu galfi inherently defined to be cleft,
le bitmu with the actor/ agent extracted
The event-of (I paint) from the action. There is no
modifies the wall meaning to English "do" that
avoids a cleft structure.
corresponding to the place "zukte" also has a mandatory
structure: (6) cleft structure since an action
with goal requires an 'actor' to
x1 (an event/action/state) adopt that goal.
modifies x2 into x3 "lifri" is the corresponding
(also cleft) word for a
means the same as the cleft passive/patient/experiencer.
sentence: "Actor/ agent", "goal", and
"passive/patient/experiencer" are
*mi galfi le bitmu fo lenu terms used in case theory
mi cinfai semantics for the basic semantic
I modify the wall by the roles in a sentence. It is
event-of (I paint) likely that other places that
correspond to such basic semantic
based on place structure: roles may have remain cleft, if
(6a) only to support continued efforts
to regularize Lojban semantics.
*x1 (an actor/agent) modifies x2 We may find that a couple more
into x3 by doing/being x4 (an words must have cleft structures
action/state) due to the inherent mental state
of an actor that must be
But if the act of painting is identified to evaluate the truth
irrelevant or obvious, and all of the predication.
you need to communicate was that "ckaji" and "klani" are cleft
it was YOU who changed the wall, because they express the basic
then "tu'a" makes the ellipsis semantic relation of a property
possible for the uncleft abstract to the thing having the
structure (6), and makes the property, and an amount abstract
resulting sentence quite brief: to the thing being measured.
Having mentioned "gasnu", it us
tu'a mi galfi le bitmuworth noting that there is
(7) another way to extract an actor/
Something I do modifies the wall.agent from an abstraction clause
in an uncleft place structure.
The consensus of Lojbanists is This other method is to use "gau"
that uncleft place structures arefrom selma'o BAI, which is
logically cleaner and are more derived from "gasnu" and is tied
concise, hence the preferred way to that word's actor-extracting
to go in Lojban. Thus, we are cleft place structure.
trying to identify and eliminate Using the above example, we can
as many cleft place structures asthus say:
possible.
We will not eliminate all of gau mi
them. In some cases, the cleft (8)
structure is inherent to the galfi le bitmu
meaning of the concept. The mostwith-agent me (some-x1-event-
noteworthy of these are "gasnu", unspecified)
"zukte", "lifri", "ckaji", and modifies the wall
"klani".
One place structure change that This gives the same effect as
has been formally adopted is the sumti-raising, but is more clear
clarification that gasnu means as to the role of 'me' in the re-
"x1 is the actor/agent in doing lationship. sumti-raising need
event/process/activity x2". In not always involve raising an
other words, "gasnu" is 'actor/agent'. Given that the
62
unspecified abstract selbri is The classic argument used by gun
cinfai, we could easily say: control advocates, "Guns don't
kill people; people kill people",
tu'a lei blanu cinta relies on just such confusion of
(9) abstraction levels.
galfi le bitmu It is thus important to
The blue paint understand that there is no
doing/being something explicitly marked link between a
(i.e. being spread) "gau"-added agentive place, and
modifies the wall. the ellipsized x1 sumti. In
causality statements like "Guns
or even: don't kill people; people kill
people", the claim about the
tu'a le bitmu agent of a change may be indepen-
(10) dent of the event that physically
galfi le bitmu causes, motivates, justifies, or
The wall doing/beinglogically entails the result.
something "gau"-agents are thus logically
(i.e. having paint inaccurate but semantically clear
spread upon it) about the role of the marked
modifies the wall. sumti. sumti-raising is more
vague about the semantics of the
"tu'a" is thus very vague and "tu'a"-marked sumti, but more
relies on the speaker trusting precise logically. The only way
that the listener will be able toto be precise in both aspects is
determine from context what the to explicitly identify the
hidden abstraction is and role subordinate abstracted bridi.
the raised sumti plays (i.e. to Put still another way, BAI
understand what the speaker meansclearly specifies the semantic
without her/him being explicit). relation between the sumti and
"gau mi" on the other hand says the rest of the bridi, while
that I'm actually and actively labelled sumti-raising clearly
doing something to bring about specifies that hidden ellipsis is
the relationship, and we thus present. Both methods are a kind
would be surprised by "gau lei of ellipsis, and both have a role
blanu cinta" or "gau le bitmu". in the language. But let it be
On the other hand, "gau" takes recognized that only explicit
more thought than "tu'a". The elucidation of the hidden el-
reason the speaker might use lipsis gives a complete
"tu'a" sumti-raising is to save statement, just as explicit
time and mental energy for elucidation of all places in a
communicating the important bridi place structure makes a
instead of the 'obvious'. bridi more complete.
The "gau" form works
differently from "tu'a", since it All sumti are created equal.
is not actually sumti-raising.
The x1 place of "galfi" remains Let us suppose that you want to
unspecified. By avoiding that refer to the agent who modified
difficult place in the place the wall in a sumti, rather than
structure, it weakens that place in a full bridi. A mother says
structure. More importantly, useto her child: "whoever modified
of "gau" may indicate the this wall (by putting paint on
speaker's failure to recognize it) will be punished". Until
the hidden logical structure - this recent set of changes, there
that I am agent in a subsidiary was no direct way to do this.
event (the painting) rather than However, in the one grammar
necessarily the agent in "galfi".change, introduced, we have added
Ah, but aren't they the same selma'o JAI, which only has the
thing? Probably yes, in this word "jai" in it. Following is
case. But in others, not so.
63
the approved change and an abstraction sumti, one uses
example. either explicit sumti-raising or
implicit raising using a BAI
PREVIOUS RULE: modal tag. JAI-based 'modal
conversions' allow description
Official doctrine states that thesumti access to modal tag sumti-
sumtcita of a bridi constitute raising, as in:
nonstandard places which are co-
equal with the regular numbered le jai gau galfi be le
places. However, there was no bitmu
way to make these places the The actor-in modifying the
subject of a description by wall.
moving them into a numbered
(specifically, the x1) place.
djuno
APPROVED CHANGE:
The place structure of "djuno"
Add JAI+sumtcita as another has been much-debated. The
variety of SE conversion. (JAI problem is made more difficult
is a new selma'o.) This is because English combines at least
usable on selbri in descriptions four different concepts in "to
or main selbri, not in the other know" which are often broken out
places where SE is legal (logicalinto separate words in other
connectives, modals, etc.). The languages.
result is that the tcita sumti
comes to occupy the x1 place, and
the original x1 place is switched
by the conversion to an un-
numbered place which can be
accessed with the cmavo "fai"
(selma'o FA). All other places
numbers remain unchanged as in SE
conversions.
To make room for this usage, the
current "fai" and "fi'e" (selma'o
GOhA) are changed respectively to
"nei" and "no'a". (There is more
explanation of these words
below.)
RATIONALE:
It is currently messy to say "the
time of my going to the store";
this looks like an abstraction,
but does not match any existing
abstractor. It can be handled
quite neatly with:
le jai ca
klama be le zarci bei fai
mi
the (thing which is)
simultaneous-with going to
the store by me.
In addition, when attempting to
access a place (such as an agent)
that is actually found within a
64
These are: they contain a 'question word'
- "to understand something" and imply a question that was or
("jimpe") could be asked, but are not
- "to be familiar with something"really questions. They often
("it is na'e cnino to me") involve knowledge, hence the
- "to know in general about place structure of "djuno" fig-
something" ("I know ured heavily in the discussion.
arithmetic") An English example: "I know who
- "to know a specific fact is went to the store."
true" ("I know that '2+2=4'"). The term 'indirect question' is
The latter two can be related actually somewhat of a misnomer;
in a single gismu, and "djuno" all Indo-European languages
represents those types of overlap use of relative pronouns
knowledge. The new place with question words, and all use
structure for "djuno" recognizes these 'wh- words' in 'indirect
that the 'subject' of knowledge questions'. Grammarians could
(x3) may or may not be at a also call them 'indirect
broader level than the knowledge restrictive clauses', but this
itself (x2), and that knowing a would never sell.
fact (x2) entails knowing it in The problem in Lojban is that
some larger context (x3), as wellwe cannot translate these using a
as according to an epistemology question word, or there is an
(a means of knowledge, e.g. ambiguity:
deduction, observation,
authority, etc. x4)). Thus the
current place structure proposal
for "djuno" is:
x1 knows that abstract statement
x2 (a 'truth') about subject x3
is true under epistemology x4
Examples:
mi djuno zo'e
lei cmaci
I know some-fact(s) unspecified
about math
[by some epistemology].
mi djuno ledu'u li vo
sumji li re li re
I know the-assertion 4
sums 2 [and] 2
[about some subject by some
epistemology]
mi djuno
fo le nu la .iuklid.
lojycipra
I know something about something
by Euclid's
logical-proof.
Indirect Questions
There are a variety of kinds of
'indirect questions', most often
identifiable in English because
65
mi djuno le du'u ma implicit in the context, knows
klama le zarci the correct value for that place:
I know the statement (Who?
going to the store) holds mi djuno le du'u la
(1) djan. klama le
I know the predication [John
where "ma" is asking the listener goes to the
to fill in the answer. This is zarci jikau le
akin to the English - perhaps zdani
said in surprise, with emphasis store (Connection-known) the
as underlined: house] holds.
I know who went to the store? I know whether John goes to the
store or to the house.
Loglan/Lojban must not use (4)
emphasis to distinguish such
usages. If the x1 place had been "la
There are at least two ways of djan.", context would imply that
expressing these now. When the it is John who knows the value,
indirect question word is a form and not the speaker.
of "ma" (who, what, when, where, You can match an English
why, and how questions), just usetranslation better sometimes
sumti-raising: using a different word in the
selma'o. Using a non-question
mi djuno tu'a word may imply additional
le klama be le zarci information not expressible with
I know [some statement about] a question. The initial "kau"
the goer to the store, example captures the 'indirect
[namely, identity] question' aspect of the English
(2) "whether", but does not read very
colloquially. You can insert a
Note that the place structure hypothetical 'answer' where the
for "djuno" allows us to avoid question word goes for a better-
sumti-raising entirely using a reading English translation:
'cleft' x3 subject.
mi djuno le du'u la
mi djuno fi le djan. klama le
klama be le zarci I know the predication [John
I know (something) about the goes to the
goer to the store zarci .akau
[namely, identity]. le zdani
(3) store or-(correct value known)
the house] holds.
This was one justification for
the x3 place. I know whether John goes to the
"djuno"'s place structure does store or to the house.
not make up for the need for (5)
"tu'a" sumti-raising with other
brivla that have no 'subject' You might also choose to see
place. 'indirect questions' as
When the question word is not arestrictive relative clauses:
sumti, use the new "kau" marker
(memory hook: "pau"; "kau" mi djuno tu'a
belongs to selma'o UI). "kau" zo'ekau
marks the previous word as being (6)
a placeholder that identifies the poi klama be le zarci
selma'o of the correct value - itI know [something about]
need not actually be that value. the something unspecified
"kau" then indicates that the (correct value known)
speaker, or some other person
66
that goes to the store, namely "kaunai", the negated form of
identity. "kau", will need some semantic
exploration. In the above
or even more preferably as the sentence, I would interpret
simpler abstract bridi: "jikaunai" to cause the meaning:
mi djuno le du'u I know that John goes to the
zo'ekau store or to the house, but not
klama le zarci which.
I know the statement
the something unspecified However, "kaunai" is more
(correct value known) useful in a sentence even more
goes to the store. 'indirect':
I know who went/is going to the la .alis djica lenu
store. (7) Alice wants the-event that:
You can also express 'knowing' mi djuno le du'u la
more than one thing: djan. klama le
I know the predication [John
mi djuno le du'u goes to the
zo'ekau zarci jikaunai le
klama zo'ekau zdani
I know the statement store (Connection-unknown) the
the something unspecified house] holds.
(correct value known)
goes to the store. Alice wants me to know whether
John goes to the store or to the
I know who went/is going where. house (I don't). (10)
(8)
If "kau" had been used, the
Another case of indirect statement would imply that I do
question is the other know. Finally, by using the
interpretation of the English discursive operator "se'inai"
(4). This variety is more easily("other-centered") we could twist
handled: the meaning to imply whether
Alice knows.
mi djuno tu'a le
jei
I know [something about] the The role of BAI
truth-value of
la djan. klama le zarci ja Many of these changes are tied
le zdani to the use of selma'o BAI, and we
John goes to the store orwere forced to re-examine what
the house, [namely the these are. Although it was not
value]. the original intent, BAI has
I know whether John goes to the evolved towards being an exact
store or to the house. equivalent of the gismu which we
(9) selected as a memory hook, or as
an abbreviation for a specific
FIhO construct.
The original intent in creating
BAI was to decide on certain
useful or needed roles that could
or should be useful in expanding
bridi, and then to pick words for
them. As a basis for this we
used Jim Brown's earlier work for
Loglan, coupled with some
research into case theory, and
the everyday, if malglico
67
("English-biased"), analysis of mi nelci la .apasionatas. pe
English prepositional and cu'u la
subordinate phrases. artr. rubenstain.
Institute Loglan has TWO sets I love the Appassionata
of these - case tags that are performed (expressed) by
usable only to label place struc- Artur Rubenstein.
ture places, and 'modal relative
phrases' which are used to attach Note the "ne" vs. "pe"
non-place structure terms. Therecontrast, reflected in the
is some overlap and some English only in whether a comma
commonalty between these. The appears after "Appassionata";
two are not interchangeable - thethere is only one Appassionata as
case tags are more like our FA composed, but there are many
tags. We wanted to have the performances of which I am
capability that Jim Brown in- specifying Rubenstein's.
tended for 'case tags' without
the restrictions and duality. Loose Ends
BAI was formed with the intention
that every place structure place A couple of loose ends fell out
could be labelled more or less along with the above changes.
accurately with one of these. In addition to "co'e", we added
We've since decided that there the corresponding unspecified
can be no all-inclusive set of relation tag in selma'o BAI,
'case tags' for Loglan/Lojban "do'e". As with "co'e", a memory
since there is no theoretical hook is "zo'e", the elliptically
limit to the number of places in unspecified sumti.
a bridi, and each place must have
a different tag. "co'e" can be used as its own
As a result of this evolution, rafsi in compounds. Examples:
some members of selma'o BAI have
been dropped, and one fairly co'epre = "unspecified type
useful one has been changed to of person".
clarify its meaning and to make
it still more useful. The old This could be used in parallel
"ci'a" was eliminated, and "fi'e"and contrasting structures in
was assigned (the old "fi'e" was lujvo, such as:
moved elsewhere, as mentioned
above), tying the word to "finti" ti xaupre
("create/invent") instead of the This is-a-good-person.
malglico reference in the old
word to "ciska", whose keyword is ti xlapre
"write", but refers to the This is-a-bad-person.
"inscribe" sense of that word.
Some uses of old "ci'a" are ti co'epre
better expressed with "cu'u", This is-an-unspecified-
also in BAI and based on "cusku":person.
"cu'u" refers to the
"expresser", "fi'e" to the
"creator". Thus (example from
John Cowan, who proposed this
change):
mi nelci la .apasionatas. ne
fi'e
la betoven.
I love the Appassionata,
composed by
Beethoven.
68
le lojbo se ciska (continued)
jubme e lo loldi .ije mi viska
Next, a story written by long-
time Lojbanist Bob Chassell, with lo nu lo canko cu kalri
a couple of corrections by John
Cowan, and Bob and Nora .i mi catlu lo plita ke bartu
LeChevalier. But the corrections
were minor. The most significant drudi noi lo'e prenu cadzu
change is the incorporation of
the sumti-raising changes in one .i mi cusku fi la tam. noi pulji
sentence, which was a superb
example of where such sumti- ku'o fe <<lu pe'i le zekri
raising is needed to preserve the
logical character of the prenu pu cpare le plita ke
language. The translation
section later in this issue gives bartu drudi le canko pe le
some stylistic comments that
would make things clearer or kumfa li'u>>
perhaps more standard, but we
know the language is getting .i la tam. cusku <<lu ia. ie. .i
somewhere when comments are on
stylistics rather than communi- ko catlu le kevna be le bitmu
cating basic ideas. I'm
reasonably sure that most anyone be'o poi ke'a trixe le pixra
can understand this story with
word list and only a most basic .i le kevna cu vasru lo tanxe
understanding of the grammar. It
is thus printed double-spaced for .ije ri kunti zo'e li'u>>
those who wish to write
translation notes as they read. .i la tam. cusku <<lu ju'e le
(Note that "tu'a" is defined in
the preceding article.) tanxe pu vasru loi rupnu li'u>>
lo zekri .i mi catlu le vorme pe le tanxe
fi'e la bab. tcySEL. pe le bitmu
.i mi cusku <<lu ba'a le stela cu
.i mi cadzu pagre le vorme le
porpi .i .ua .ue mi facki lo
kumfa .i lo xadni pe le nanmu
za'i ge lo vorme gi lo stela na
cu vreta lo loldi
porpi li'u>>
.i mi viska le flecu be loi ciblu
.i mi cusku fi la tam. fe <<lu le
bei fo le xadni .i mi sisku
minra pu farlu lo bitmu lo
loi sinxa be le zekri
loldi gi'e pu porpi li'u>>
.i mi viska loi kevna pe loi
.i la tam. cusku <<lu pe'i le
danti ge'u be lo sefta be lo
morsi nanmu pu lacpu le minra
jubme .ije mi viska lo nu loi
lo loldi lo bitmu .i se'o mi'o
cukta pu farlu lo kajna lo
catlu lo sinxa da poi ke'a
vajni lo nu sisku li'u>>
69
of European civilization over the
.i la tam. cusku <<lu ra'u ju'e past couple of centuries to take
other cultures and their "world-
lo prenu poi ke'a pu sazri le views" seriously, not only as
curiosities of interest to
stela lo za'i kalri ku'o djuno scholars (especially
anthropologists), but as evidence
fi lo tadji be lo pu'u kalri of the range of possible human
experience. The formulation of
sazri le tanxe vorme li'u>> the hypothesis, associated with
the names of Edward Sapir and
.i mi cusku <<lu ganai tu'a le Benjamin Lee Whorf, had to await
what Noam Chomsky has called the
zekri prenu goi ko'a ge kalri "Boas tradition" of
anthropological linguists, early-
rinka le stela tanxe ginai twentieth century scholars
engaged in empirical studies of
spofu rinka tu'a ri gi ko'a cu American Indian languages. [See
Chomsky, "Linguistic
djuno fi lo pu'u kalri sazri leContributions to the Study of
Mind: Future," rpt. in Language
tanxe vorme .i .ua ru'a ko'a in Thinking: Selected Readings,
ed. Parveen Adams (Harmondsworth:
catlu le se minra be le nu Penguin, 1973), pp. 336ff.] The
hypothesis is emphatically not
kalri sazri le stela tanxe the a priori doctrine of
linguists seduced by a
vorme sepi'o lo darno ke catlu philosophical tradition, but a
proposal advanced by investiga-
cabra li'u>> tors who actually took the
trouble to confront "alien"
languages and cultures.
_________________________________ What does the Sapir-Whorf
______________ Hypothesis claim? If it were
true, what phenomena would we en-
Versions of the Theory of counter and be equipped to
Linguistic Relativity explain? In a fairly recent
by Robert Gorsch article in the American
Anthropologist (1984), Paul Kay
INTRODUCTION and Willett Kempton reduce the
Hypothesis to three propositions:
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis," I. Structural differences
which asserts that one's native between language systems will, in
language determines in some general, be paralleled by non-
fashion the nature of one's linguistic cognitive differences,
experience and that members of of an unspecified sort, in the
different linguistic communities native speakers of the two lan-
will necessarily inhabit guages.
different experiential worlds, II. The structure of anyone's
has its roots in the ideas of native language strongly
eighteenth- and nineteenth- influences or fully determines
century thinkers like the world-view he will acquire as
Giambattista Vico and Wilhelm vonhe learns the language.
Humboldt. [See George Steiner, III. The semantic systems of
After Babel: Aspects of Language different languages vary without
and Translation (London: Oxford constraint.
Univ. Press, c. 1975), pp. 73ff.]
The emergence of this hypothesis ["What is the Sapir-Whorf
reflects the growing willingness Hypothesis?" American
70
Anthropologist 1984 (86), 66. omissions, discourages other,
Kay and Kempton's formulation is logically possible distinctions.
based upon the thinking of Roger In short, according to the
Brown and, through him, Eric Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, one will
Lenneberg.] "see" what the structure of one's
As this series of propositions language asks one to see and one
suggests, one can distinguish twowill "see" -- as separate things
possible sources of "Whorfian -- what the semantic system of
effects": (1) differences in one's language defines as
"linguistic structure" and (2) discrete semantic units.
differences in "semantics."
(Strictly speaking, of course, Saussurean Sign-Theory
the "semantic system" of a It is sometimes thought that
language, the division of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis has
experience embodied in its been discredited and relegated to
lexicon, is a part of its "struc-the trash-heap of intellectual
ture." For, in linguistics, history. Certainly, it is true
"structure" is really a synonym that mainstream linguists, influ-
for "system.") Whorfians typi- enced by Noam Chomsky, tend to
cally emphasize linguistic dismiss the Sapir-Whorf
"structure" in a fairly limited Hypothesis no matter how
sense. Thus, they tend to argue judiciously it is reformulated.
that the structure of one's One could hardly expect any other
native language will, by response, since Chomskian
encouraging a particular manner linguists are committed almost as
of structuring one's report of a matter of faith to the notion
experience, have the effect of that the differences between
shaping one's perception of the human languages must be
world. One will tend to note in superficial and even trivial. If
perception, that which one's one accepts the Chomskian theory
grammar asks one to report in of a "universal grammar," one
utterance. "Structure" embodies,will be compelled to dismiss any
and imposes upon the speaker, a attempt, no matter how empirical
metaphysics. its grounds, to justify the
The semantic organization of Whorfian argument that "grammars"
one's language will similarly vary enough to affect the
shape one's experience of the structure of human experience.
world. This is the implication Whatever mainstream linguists
of Whorfian arguments that make say, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
appeal to such facts as the num- is alive and well in the popular
ber of words that the Eskimos mind and in the academic mind --
have for the English concept at least outside of the
"snow." If one approaches the discipline of linguistics. Many
semantic system of language in a feminists, for example, believe
Whorfian spirit, this system willthat the structure of English
be viewed as an arbitrary seg- imposes upon its speakers a
mentation of the experienced patriarchal metaphysics.
world. We divide up the (English customarily subsumes the
continuum of experience in feminine under the masculine in
"culturally pertinent" ways, to its pronoun system, as in
use a phrase borrowed from the expressions like "To each his
semiologist Umberto Eco, in own.") In the disciplines
accordance with our needs as customarily termed the humani-
members of cultural groups ties, particularly those that
confronting particular physical investigate literature and
and social environments. The culture, versions of the Sapir-
lexicon of our language, by the Whorf Hypothesis are widely taken
categories it defines, affords usfor granted; the Sapir-Whorf
ways to make distinctions in the Hypothesis, in some version, is
experienced world and, by its
71
the premise of many currently continuum of experience into
dominant methodologies. units -- "things," "states,"
Take for instance modern "sign-"processes," and so forth -- and
theory." Semiology or "sign- links these units, one to
theory," popularized by struc- another, in a web of relations of
turalism and post-structuralism, opposition and affinity. Green
embraces an equivalent of the is, for instance, differentiated
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Some from yellow on the one hand and
"sign-theorists" even look back blue on the other: green exists
to Whorf as a precursor. Modern as a unit in opposition to
"sign-theory," rooted in the workadjacent units in the same
of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand semantic field. At the same
De Saussure, posits an initial time, green is linked
moment when the human subject metaphorically, in relations of
enters "language" and at the sameaffinity, to units belonging to
time a certain culture-bound different semantic fields, for
experiential world. In first instance, such units as nature,
language acquisition an arbitrarylife, youth, and jealousy.
system for organizing raw In suggesting that "raw
experience begins to be imposed experience" -- what Whorf calls
upon the mind. Subjects learn "the kaleidoscopic flux of
how to segment experience into impressions" -- is organized by
the units specified by the the human mind after its embrace
language they acquire as infants;of a particular sign-system,
they divide the continuum of Saussurean sign-theory simply
experience into the "semantic reformulates the Whorfian
units" that semiologists call Hypothesis. According to this
"signifieds" -- i.e., the con- reformulation, the lexicon of
ceptual elements of "signs." one's native language imposes a
[According to semiological system of categories on one's
theory, every "sign" consists of experience; the lexicon imposes
a "signifier" or "expression" andon the speaker an arbitrary
a "signified" or "content": differentiation of the continuum
every linguistic sign, for of experience into semantic units
instance, unites a combination of-- or, in the terminology of
sounds or a series of written semiology, "signifieds" or
symbols (the signifier) with a "culturally pertinent units." At
concept (the signified).] the same time each language
Semiologists typically pay imposes on the speaker a network
special attention to the array ofof relations of affinity between
"signifieds" posited by a lin- these semantic units. This
guistic community, i.e., the system of categories and the
units into which the community accompanying network of asso-
divides the continuum of the ciations constitute the "map" of
experienced world, and to the experience offered by each
network of relations by which language to its native speakers.
these "signifieds" are
interrelated, i.e., the system of A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY
connotative links by which units
belonging to different semantic Note on the bibliography:
fields are linked with one In this bibliography I attempt
another. to trace the development of the
Thus, semiology takes for "Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis" from the
granted one of the crucial early decades of the twentieth-
corollaries of the Sapir-Whorf century to the present. The
Hypothesis, namely, that in items included in the
acquiring the semantic system of bibliography range in date from
a language one embraces a 1911 to 1990. While the bib-
particular "map" of experience. liography makes no claims to
A semantic system divides the completeness, it does represent
72
an attempt (1) to clarify the 1a. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:
role of earlier ethnologists, Formulation
including Boas and Sapir, in the
formulation of what is often Ben G. Blount, ed., Language,
called simply "the Whorfian Culture, and Society: A Book of
Hypothesis," (2) to chart the Readings (Cambridge, Mass.:
career of the Hypothesis from the Winthrop, 1974).
1940's to the 1980's, and (3) to This sourcebook includes
draw attention to the kindred important selections from Boas,
thinking of semiologists working Sapir, Whorf, and Hoijer.
in the tradition of Saussurean Franz Boas, "Theoretical
linguistics. Importance of Linguistic
The bibliography is not Studies," in "Introduction" to
alphabetical; entries are the Handbook of American Indian
arranged by category and date. Languages, F. Boas, ed.,
In compiling this working Bulletin 40, Part II, Bureau of
bibliography I have cannibalized, American Ethnology (Washington,
without shame, the following D. C.: Government Printing
lists of references: Wallace L. Office, 1911). Reprinted in
Anderson and Norman Stageberg, Blount, pp. 23-31.
eds., Introductory Readings on Lucien Levy-Bruhl, How Natives
Language (New York: Holt, Think (N.Y.: Knopf, 1925), pp.
Rinehart, and Winston, 1975), pp. 139-180.
38ff.; Ben G. Blount, ed., Willis D. Wallis, An Introduction
Language, Culture, and Society: A to Anthropology (N.Y.: Harper
Book of Readings (Cambridge, and Row, 1926), pp. 416-431.
Mass.: Winthrop, 1974); Ralph Edward Sapir, "The Unconscious
Dumain, "Bibliography on Language Patterning of Behavior in
and Thought," ju'i lobypli (The Society," in The Unconscious: A
Logical Language Group), March, Symposium, ed. E. S. Drummer
1990, 36-38; John J. Gumperz, (New York: Knopf, 1927).
"Reader" for "Interactional Reprinted in Blount, pp. 32-45.
Sociolinguistics (Anthropology - - - - - - , "Conceptual
270B)," University of California, Categories in Primitive
Berkeley, Fall, 1986; John Parks- Languages," Science 74 (1931).
Clifford, [Note], ju'i lobypli - - - - - - , "Language,"
(The Logical Language Group), Encyclopedia of the Social
Dec., 1989, p. 44; and Bob Sciences, ed. Seligman and
LeChevalier [and Alan Munn], ju'i Johnson (New York: Macmillan,
lobypli, March, 1991, pp. 57ff. 1933). Reprinted in Blount,
I want to thank Bob LeChevalier pp. 46-66.
and the Logical Language Group Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language,
for arguing incessantly about the Thought, and Reality: Selected
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and my Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf,
colleague Barbara Grant for loan- ed. John B. Carroll (Cambridge,
ing me a copy of Gumperz's Mass.: MIT Press, 1956).
"Reader." The most revealing essays are,
in my opinion, "Science and
Linguistics" (1940) and
"Languages and Logic" (1941).
Another interesting essay,
reprinted in Blount as well as
in Carroll's selection, is "The
Relation of Habitual Thought
and Behavior to Language"
(1939).
See also the essays "An
American Indian Model of the
Universe" (c. 1936), "A
Linguistic Consideration of
73
Thinking in Primitive Com- Paul Hanle, Language, Thought,
munities" (c. 1936), and Culture (Ann Arbor: Univ.
"Linguistics as an Exact of Michigan Press, 1958).
Science" (1940), and "Language, Summarizing the results of a
Mind, and Reality" (1941). conference held at U. Mich. in
1951-2.
1b. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Roger Brown, Words and Things
Career (N.Y.: Free Press, 1958), pp.
229-63.
M. J. Herskovits, Man and His J. Fishman, "A Systematization of
Works (N.Y.: Knopf, 1947), pp. the Whorfian Hypothesis,"
440-457. Behavioral Science 5 (1960),
Clyde Kluckhohn, "The Gift of 232-39.
Tongues, in Mirror for Man: A James Cooke Brown, "Loglan,"
Survey of Human Behavior and Scientific American 202 (1960),
Social Attitudes (New York: 53-63.
McGraw-Hill, 1949), Chapter VI. Describes an effort in
John B. Carroll, The Study of linguistic engineering designed
Language (Cambridge, Mass., to create an artificial
1953), pp. 43-48. language that would permit the
Harry Hoijer, "The Relation of Whorfian Hypothesis to be
Language to Culture," in tested.
Anthropology Today, ed. A. L. John B. Carroll, "Language and
Kroeber (Chicago: Univ. of Cognition," in Language and
Chicago Press, 1953), pp. 554- Thought (Englewood Cliffs, N.
573. J., 1964).
Harry Hoijer, ed., Language in See especially 106-110 ("The
Culture, Comparative Studies of linguistic-relativity thesis"),
Cultures and Civilizations, No. which offers a critique of the
3; Memoirs of the American strong version of the Whorfian
Anthropological Association, Hypothesis.
No. 79 (Chicago: Univ. of James Cooke Brown, Loglan I
Chicago Pr., 1954). (Gainesville, Fla.: The Loglan
The proceedings of a 1953 Institute, 1966).
conference on the Sapir-Whorf Brown's book was revised in
Hypothesis. 1975 and 1989.
Harry Hoijer, "The Sapir-Whorf Dell Hymes, "Two Types of
Hypothesis" (1953), reprinted Linguistic Relativity," in
in Hoijer (1954) and in Blount Sociolinguistics: Proceedings
(1974). of the UCLA Sociolinguistics
R. Brown, "Linguistic Determinism Conference (1964), ed. W.
and Parts of Speech," Journal Bright, Janua Linguarum Series,
of Abnormal Social Psychology 20 (The Hague: Mouton, 1968),
55 (1957), 1-5. 114-167.
R. Brown and E. Lenneberg, Arnold M. Zwicky, Review of
"Studies in Linguistic Brown's Loglan I, Language 45:2
Relativity," in E. Macroby, T. (1969), 444-457. See also John
H. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley, Cowan (1991), below.
eds., Readings in Social Roger Brown, Psycholinguistics:
Psychology, 3rd edition (New Selected Papers (N.Y.: Free
York: Holt, Rinehart, and Press, 1970), pp. 235-256.
Winston, 1958), 9-18.
John B. Carroll and Joseph B.
Casagrande, "The Function of
Language Classification in
Behavior," in Readings in
Social Psychology (1958), 18-
31.
74
John MacNamara, "Bilingualism and selected and introduced by A.
Thought," Georgetown University S. Dil (Stanford: Stanford
Round Table on Languages and Univ. Press, 1979).
Linguistics 1970: Bilingualism "Friedrich disagrees with
and Language Contact, ed. by Whorf's views on language and
James E. Alatis (Washington: metaphysics, but accepts the
Georgetown University Press, strong thesis in the realm of
1970), pp. 25-45. poetic language and its
Critical of the Whorfian relation to the imagination"
Hypothesis. (R. Dumain).
Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, IdeologiesPaul Kay and Willett Kempton,
of Linguistic Relativity (The "What Is the Sapir-Whorf
Hague: Mouton, 1973). Hypothesis?" American
Includes consideration of the Anthropologist 86 (1984), 65-
sociological roots of the 79.
doctrine of linguistic relativ- Discusses the content of the
ity, including white guilt over Hypothesis and reviews
the extermination of the empirical research that
Indians. attempts to test it; reports
Noam Chomsky, Introduction to experimental confirmation of a
Adam Schiff, Language and modified version of the
Cognition (1964), tr. Olgierd Hypothesis in the area of color
Wojtasiewicz and ed. Robert S. perception.
Cohen (N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, Frederick J. Newmeyer, The
1973). Politics of Linguistics
Critique of the Whorfian (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Hypothesis. Press, 1986).
Adam Schiff, Language and A history of linguistic theory
Cognition (1964), tr. Olgierd that attacks the Whorfian
Wojtasiewicz and ed. Robert S. Hypothesis as racist.
Cohen (N. Y.: McGraw-Hill, David McNeill, "Linguistic
1973). Determinism: The Whorfian
Historical account of Hypothesis," in
linguistic theory (from the Psycholinguistics: A New
18th century on): background to Approach (New York: Harper and
the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Row, 1987), Ch. 6, pp. 173-209.
Ronald W. Langacker, "Semantic The Logical Language Group, ju'i
Representations and the lobypli (1988-1991).
Linguistic Relativity A variety of discussions of the
Hypothesis," in Foundations of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis from the
Language 14 (1976), 307-357. perspective of Lojbanists: see
The author "tries to formulate Aug.-Sep., 1988; Dec., 1988;
the hypothesis in a non-vacuous June-July, 1989; Nov.-Dec.,
manner, and ultimately rejects 1989; March, 1990; May, 1990;
the strong version, basing August, 1990; and March, 1991.
himself on a distinction John Cowan, "Loglan and Lojban: A
between primary conceptual Linguist's Questions and an
structures and the semantic Amateur's Answers," ju'i
representations into which lobypli (March 1991), pp. 21ff.
thought is coded" (R. Dumain). Responding to Zwicky's review
Danny K. Alford, "The Demise of of Brown's Loglan I.
the Whorf Hypothesis (A Major
Revision in the History of Lin-2. Semiology and the Thesis of
guistics)," Proceedings of the Linguistic Relativity.
4th Annual Meeting of the The following list by no means
Berkeley Linguistic Society, 4 represents the field of
(1978), 485-99. semiology as a whole; I have
Paul Friedrich, Language, limited myself to a handful of
Context, and the Imagination: texts that I have found useful
Essays by Paul Friedrich, in the classroom.
75
3. Related Studies
Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in
General Linguistics (1915), tr.B. Comrie, ed., The World's Major
Wade Baskin (New York: Languages.
Philosophical Library, 1959), Descriptive text used in the
pp. 7-17, 65-78, and 111-122. design of Lojban.
Seminal sections from Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Basic
Saussure's lectures, laying the Color Terms (Berkeley: Univ. of
foundations for modern sign- Calif. Press, 1968), esp. pp.
theory (semiology or 1-14.
semiotics). George Steiner, After Babel:
Pierre Guiraud, Semiology (1975). Aspects of Language and
A reasonably good primer, Translation London: Oxford
introducing sign-theory and its Univ. Press, c. 1975), esp. pp.
application to various areas of 73-109: Linguistic relativism
human experience. (including Whorf) vs.
Umberto Eco, "Social Life as a linguistic universalism
Sign System," Structuralism: An (Chomsky).
Introduction, ed. David Robey, Useful for its discussion of
(1973), pp. 57-72. the philosophical tradition
- - - - - , "How Culture that lies behind the Sapir-
Conditions the Colours We See," Whorf Hypothesis.
On Signs, ed. Marshall Blonsky Eleanor Rosch, "Classification of
(1985), pp. 157-175. Real-World Objects: Origins and
This essay and "Social Life as Representations in Cognition,"
a Sign System" provide a useful MS, University of California,
introduction to the semio- Berkeley, c. 1975.
logical equivalent of the Criticizes, on empirical
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. grounds, the idea that
Takao Suzuki, Words in Context: A experience is a continuum
Japanese Perspective on arbitrarily segmented by the
Language and Culture (1973), mind. Available from E. Rosch,
tr. Akira Miura (Tokyo: c/o Dept. of Psychology, Univ.
Kodansha International, 1978; of Calif., Berkeley, Berkeley,
rev., 1984). CA 94720.
A richly suggestive comparison George Lakoff and Mark Johnson,
of the languages and cultures Metaphors We Live By (Chicago:
of Japanese speakers and Univ. of Chicago Press, 1980).
English speakers. The book "The authors make an important
presents, and offers empirical study of the metaphorical basis
evidence for, a theory of lin- of language. In the final
guistic relativity similar in chapters they argue for an
spirit to those of Whorfians extreme relativism" (R.
and Saussurean semiologists. Dumain).
John Lucy, "Whorf's View of the Alfred H. Bloom, The Linguistic
Linguistic Mediation of Shaping of Thought: A Study in
Thought," in Semiotic the Impact of Language on
Mediation: Sociocultural and Thinking in China and the West
Psychosocial Perspectives, ed. (Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum,
E. Mertz and R. J. Parmentier 1981), pp. 13-36.
(Orlando: Academic Press, "The Distinctive Cognitive
1985). Legacies of English and
Chinese," especially the
sections "Counterfactuals in
English and Chinese" and
"Theoretical Extensions."
George Lakoff, Women, Fire, and
Dangerous Things: What
Categories Reveal About the
76
Mind (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago le lojbo se ciska (continued)
Press, c. 1987).
How human beings segment and Now for a lighter piece of
order their experience. Lojban text. The following bit
is from John Cowan, and he uses
CONCLUDING NOTE: This is only a "rinka" in the intended uncleft
working bibliography; I welcome place structures manner. He
the assistance of other inter- noted in submitting it that he
ested scholars. Please send made no grammatical errors - the
comments, criticisms, parser accepted it the first
corrections, and suggested time. For those trying to read
additions and deletions, to the it, "clupe'as. xarengus." is a
following address: Lojbanization of the Linnean bi-
nomial for "herring". A
Robert Gorsch translation will be found later
Department of English in this issue.
St. Mary's College
Moraga, Calif. 94575
pamoi xamrei ra'a lo verba
_________________________________
________________
ni'o la paf. cusku lu pau mazo'o
crino gi'e dandu le bitmu gi'e
siclu li'u
.i la ver. cusku lu .uanai mi na
djuno li'u
.i la paf. cusku lu .ui lo me la
clupe'as. xarengus. finpe li'u
.i la ver. cusku lu ia ri goi
ko'a na crino li'u
.i la paf. cusku lu fu'i le nu ko
gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba
crino li'u
.i la ver. cusku lu .iasai ko'a
ba'e na dandu le bitmu li'u
.i la paf. cusku lu fu'isai le nu
ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba
dandu li'u
.i la ver. cusku lu iacai ko'a
ba'e ba'e na siclu li'u
.i la paf. cusku lu fu'icai mi pu
cusku lo jitfa li'u
77
_________________________________ Each grammatical construct
________________ consists of a leading
LeftBracket token, a
On Loglan and Lojban Elidables trailing RightBracket token,
and some number of sub-
The following paper was written structures trapped between
by Jeff Prothero as an answer to these two tokens.
criticism of the use of elidable Every token is either a
tokens in Loglan formal grammars. LeftBracket or a
The argument applies to Lojban as RightBracket.
well as to any other version of No token is both a LeftBracket
Loglan grammar, provided that the and a RightBracket.
grammar abides by the defining Every LeftBracket has a unique
rules of Bracket Languages (I am matching RightBracket.
not sure that current Institute
Loglan still abides by these Note that we do not require that
defining rules - comment is each RightBracket have a unique
sought from anyone who has such matching LeftBracket.
knowledge.) The reference to GU
in the title is to the older Sample Bracket Language:
Loglan RightBracket selma'o that
in Lojban was changed to KU. Thestart -> bracket | broket |
title is thus a bit of a pun for mixed
Lojbanists, since the 'GU' is
gone from our selma'o list as bracket -> '[' ']'
well. | '[' start ']'
| '[' start start ']'
The GU is Gone!
Elidable Terminators in Logical broket -> '<' '>'
Languages | '<' start '>'
Copyright (c) 1989 Jeff Prothero | '<' start start '>'
Reprinted with permission from
the author. mixed -> '{' '>'
| '{' start '>'
The elision of trailing | '{' start start '>'
terminators has been a prime
problem for everyone seriously
working to understand the Lo**an
grammar. This paper is a first
attempt to deal with this
problem. The major questions to
resolve:
When can terminators be elided?
When would such elision
introduce ambiguity?
How does one recover the full
syntax of a sentence
containing such elisions?
The first step is to establish
a simple analytical model, which
exhibits the relevant problems
without extraneous detail and
complexity. We consider the
Bracket Languages BL, defined by
the following grammatical
properties:
78
This grammar specifies the added to BL as a result of the
infinite set of strings: Augmentation Rule.
[] Question 1: Does the
<> Augmentation Rule introduce
{> ambiguities?
[[]]
[[][]] Let us make the question more
[{><>] precise. Each e in E was derived
. . . from some parent p in BL (not
BL'!) by one or more applications
For terseness, we would like toof the Augmentation Rule. We
omit some of the trailing want to know if this derivation
terminators "when no ambiguity was unique, or if some such e has
would result". The problem is totwo possible parents in BL.
formally specify the latter Formally: can there exist a pair
constraint. <e,p>, e in E and p in BL with p
From a mathematical-linguistic -> (via repeated Augmentation
point of view, dropping some of Rule) e, such that r is in (BL-
the trailing terminators corre- p)'? If so our Augmentation Rule
sponds to adding various strings has introduced an ambiguity into
to the above language, such as: the language by erasing an
[ essential token, rather than
{ merely a redundant token.
[[]
[[][] Answer 1: No such ambiguity
[{><> is introduced by the
[{>< Augmentation Rule.
[{><]
. . . PROOF: Let us assume that such
an ambiguity exists. Then either
How do we specify the full set e, or some other string along the
of strings to be added? Given path from p to e, has two
such a string, how do we recover possible legitimate parents under
the full syntax? the Augmentation Rule. Let us
I propose the following call this child c, and the two
Augmentation Rule for adding the possible parents p0 and p1.
strings: Then we have:
p0 == "a]Bc" for some a,],B,c
IF "a]Bc" is in the language, p1 == "a>Bc" for some > != ],
where: same a,B,c.
"a" is any sequence of
tokens Now > and ] both match the same
"]" is any RightBracket LeftBracket in "a", since p0 and
"B" is any token p1 are both strings from our
"c" is any sequence of Bracket Language. But each
tokens LeftBracket has a UNIQUE matching
AND IF "aB" is not a prefix ofRightBracket, by our definition
any string in the language, of Bracket Languages, hence we
THEN we add "aBc" to the must have > == ], hence p0==p1,
language. hence no such distinct parent-
pair is possible. QED.
Given a Bracket Language BL,
application of the Augmentation Question 2: Is a LALR(1)
Rule until closure is achieved parser capable of detecting
results in a new language BL' such elided tokens?
which contains BL as a subset.
Let us call BL'-BL "E" (for "Eli- Answer 2: Yes.
sions"). These are the strings
79
If "a]Bc" has been reduced to
"aBc", then we must have the *le nanmu joi le ninmu
condition that "aB" is not a
legal prefix of any string in BL.is ungrammatical (though
But an LALR(1) parser has a tableperfectly understandable to
which tells it, at any given in- humans) because of the '1' in
stant, the legal set of lookaheadLALR(1).
tokens. If the current lookahead After "nanmu", "joi" is legal
token is not in that set, there and moves the grammar to a state
will be at most one RightBracket (using the formal grammar rule
in the lookahead set, by a simplefor "joikjeks") where it expects
variant of the above argument. a token valid in a selbri (i.e.;
The parser can then insert that it expects something like the
unique RightBracket in its input valid:
stream and continue.
le nanmu joi ninmu
_________________________________ = the hermaphrodite).
________________
Not finding a selbri word (of
How Elidables Work in which some 20 or 30 selma'o are
Loglan/Lojban legal in the first position by
by Bob LeChevalier SOME rule or another), it then
tries to stick in the elidables
I would love it if someone from shortest scope termination
could solve the problem of to longest. But none of these
specifying elidability rules, butare legal in the position AFTER
I can only do so in generalities joi where we are looking:
without making specific reference
to YACC's LALR(1) algorithm. *le nanmu joi ku/cu/vau/...
Specifically, the elidables are
optional if, using the YACC so the parser rejects the phrase.
algorithm, a parser looking at To non-logically join two sumti
the next token after an omitted with joi under the formal grammar
elidable, does not find it valid.rule for "joikek", the "ku"
Instead it performs error pro- cannot be elided before the "joi"
cessing which sticks in the and the following is grammatical:
elidable and this in turn moves
it to a new state. le nanmu ku joi le ninmu
Thus in "le nanmu klama le The team of the man/men joined
zarci", after "nanmu" a parser with the woman/women
will read "klama" and determine
that a tanru is continuing. It Presumably a LALR(2) (looking
reads "le", which is not legal ahead 2 tokens) parser would be
after "klama" by any rule, and able to handle this particular
inserts "ku". It inserts "ku" elision, but Lojban is defined so
and other elidable terminators as to satisfy LALR(1). There are
based on the order of constructs;other places that even 2 is not
it sticks in the 'tightest bound'sufficient, but they less often
elidable - in this case the involve elidables. Far more
terminator for the first "le" often, if you omit an elidable
construct. The result is a incorrectly, you will end up with
grammatical parse - as two sumti another sentence/fragment that is
without a selbri. valid but grammatically
Probably the speaker intended different. We thus recommend
"le nanmu cu klama le zarci", butthat where in doubt, or in noisy
the parser cannot determine this,environments, use the added
because YACC will not stick in anredundancy of including the
elidable unless it finds an elidable. We thus WANT the
invalid token. language to be defined so that
For another example:
80
elision is not mandatory if it isdo fine. There is no stigma
possible. against including in an elidable
Thus, the question: "Is there terminator unnecessarily.
always enough information for Because of this, you do not need
someone to decide exactly when a to know 'the whole grammar' to
"cu" or some other elidable is orspeak Lojban. Only in complex
is not required?" can be nested constructs which you
answered: yes, it is always pos-shouldn't be using if you don't
sible. But you must know the know most of the grammar, are you
entire grammar to always be able likely to find situations where
to decide. With an incomplete you might erroneously elide a
knowledge of the grammar, you mayterminator. Even there, by
end up incorrectly eliding, and concentrating on just a few
should err when uncertain on the 'most-frequent errors', you will
side of not eliding. seldom make an error.
This is not as bad as it seems,
because most problems that might _________________________________
arise (the "joi" problem is un- ________________
usual in this regard) occur
because of multiple elision. A History and Description of
Thus in: le'avla in Loglan and Lojban
by Bob LeChevalier
le nu mi klama le zarci cu xamgu
Those with 1975 dictionaries
the complete specification with will find every chemical element
all elidables added is: was included twice, as a name,
and as an 'S-prim' ("le'avla that
lenu mi klama le zarci ku vau keilooks like a gismu" if you are
ku cu xamgu new to the project).
Though JCB disagrees, I
and the "cu" separator, acting asbelieve it was a conversation
the longest scope elidable, makesbetween him and me in 1980 that
a wall that forces a parser to led to the "3rd lineage" of
keep sticking in all the borrowings (translation - the
optionals until there are none creation of a third form of
left. brivla besides gismu and lujvo -
If we had omitted the "cu", thethe le'avla).
parser would add in elidables His response proposal - the
only at end of text giving the birth of le'avla, was reported a
non-elided equivalent: month or so later in TL3/4.
At the time of GMR, JCB moved
le nu mi klama le zarci xamgu ku MOST of the 'S-prims' into
vau kei ku vau borrowing space. The 'algorithm'
for le'avla was discussed in
It turns out that there is a TL6/1 (1983). JCB then launched
valid Lojban interpretation that what he called the "Sciwords"
is not the one intended if you project, to massively borrow
use any single one of those words from many fields into the
terminators besides "cu" in the language. If there were any
place where the "cu" would go. volunteers at the time, their
With no "cu" and two elidables, work was never reported because
you can get the correct TL folded followed by Lognet a
interpretation with "ku ku", "vauyear later after the 1983-4
ku", or "kei ku", but not with political squabbles.
"ku vau", "ku kei", or "vau kei". JCB continued to work on the
borrowings, and translated a few
But the average Lojbanists needparagraphs of Scientific American
not worry about these other forms(reprinted in 4th edition Loglan
- just use the "cu" when in even 1) that were heavy in scientific
the slightest doubt, and you'll jargon to be borrowed. He once
81
reported making borrowings for 50the elements to be borrowed from.
kinds of cheese one night after I still subscribe to this idea,
reading an article on the though John Cowan does not. Ger-
subject. There have been some man has made non-international
reports in recent Lognets that forms of some elements, and
others have made some le'avla andChinese, with its word-forming
that the Sciwords project finallyrestrictions, has non-in-
accomplished something, but no ternational forms for all (but
list has been published because they often try to make a word
of the Institute's trade secret that suggests the chemical
policy. symbol). The "Latinate forms"
When Rebecca Bach and I visitedare really the English/ French
JCB is May 86, we discussed forms, since those two languages
borrowings, and specifically have dominated the scientific
JCB's then current effort on publication field during the time
remaking the element words into of internationalization of sci-
le'avla as a test for his ence. We can't get around this
attempts to devise "fast-tracks 'Latinate bias', but feel that if
to borrowing" that would evade a truly international standard
the mind-stretching "*slinku'i" exists, we should use it.
test. They didn't. It turned After the 1986 visit to JCB, I
out that we went through all of went home, and reworked the
the elements and remade them, butelement words, which were left
found that there were few simple hanging. The UL2 publication was
guidelines. (We did notice that 4 months later. Other than a
-CVCV word-endings frequently discussion in JCB's Notebook 3,
give good le'avla, as well as and Loglan 1 4th edition, and
that it is easier to avoid ensuing responses to my criticism
"*slinku'i" problems by making of the latter, there has been
the initial consonant cluster notminimal discussion of le'avla
a permissible initial. Rebecca, until recently - although the
a Loglan novice, proved better culture words have been
than either JCB or me at questioned by many new Lojbanists
detecting flaws in le'avla- (who have generally been
making, but none of us were satisfied with my answers -
really good at it.) again, until recently).
JCB at this time made clear
that a standard for scientific Four Flavors of le'avla
le'avla making, unlike gismu, was
visual recognition rather than Here was my 1979 argument and
aural recognition, since proposal for 4 'flavors' of
technical words are used in borrowing. In attempting to
written language more than spokentranslate the song "Man of La
language. JCB introduced Mancha", which as I've reported
borrowing-and-name-only lerfu forwas my own first attempt to use
"W", "Q", "X", and "Y" to make Loglan, there was no word for
visually recognizable borrowings "trumpet", "gauntlet", etc. Even
easier. (His version of the if there had been, in the context
language uses "H" where we use of the song, these words convey
"x".) JCB's published examples specific cultural values that are
show the priority on visual not inherent to the musical
recognition of borrowings rather instrument or the piece of
than aural recognition, but some medieval armor. I tried to make
rules seem to contradict this a lujvo for each, but we're obvi-
trend. ously talking 6-7 terms - really
JCB also felt that the ugly!
beginning of the chemical element I had already noted that
words should reflect the interna-many/most of the gismu proposals
tional symbol - the closest thingbeing made were for plants/ani-
to an international 'word' for mals, etc. The limits on this
82
set were effectively infinite, not conflict with another
but gismu space wasn't. There 'official' meaning of the
did not seem to be any way to wordform. This is also a
determine which plants or animalssolution when you want to use an
should get gismu. existing word but are afraid that
I thus proposed to JCB a seriesyour place structure usage may be
of 4 steps to borrowing words. Itotally unlike the dictionary
still stand by these steps, definition.
though even in Lojban we haven't Though not an approved
gotten past the third for any practice, you could even make
words yet, (and shouldn't). The le'avla in the form of gismu or
element words and the culture lujvo if you mark them with
words are the most likely "za'e". The permitted word-forms
candidates to be the first for le'avla are defined primarily
le'avla of the fourth step: by exclusion (it can't break down
into two words, it can't be a
1. Most borrowings are little lujvo, or a gismu, it can't fail
more than names, and indeed are something called the "*slinku'i"
used as sumti. Thus to use a test), and coining nonce words is
current example, la kromium. willdifficult, so this freedom is
do for most instances of the worth something for spontaneity
concept "Chromium". In a rare in the use of Lojban by non-
instance where you need to use itfluent speakers. I do not recom-
in a selbri, you have "me la mend intentionally invading lujvo
kromium." space with le'avla because, even
in a nonce lujvo, the listener
2. When a borrowing will be will presumably try to take the
frequently used as a selbri, you word apart into component rafsi.
want to coin a word, but don't But let's face it; the people
want to go through the 6 (or 8 inmaking nonce le'avla will often
old Loglan) languages research be less than expert, and "za'e"
effort. So you just make up a allows a good bit of margin for
nonce word, probably borrowing error.
from your native language word It turns out that our design
for the concept, and then OVERTLYmade "za'e"-form le'avla a bit
mark it as a borrowing. The useless anyway. "za'e" will now
marker was to be an unassigned be used more with lujvo than with
cmavo, probably from the then borrowings because it turns out
partially unused 'hV' set. that it is virtually as easy to
This proposal survived into make step 3 le'avla as step 2
the initial Lojban design. A nonce forms as described next.
cmavo "le'a" (no longer used for Because step 3 forms are limited
this purpose) would mark the fol-to specific fields, and the
lowing word as a nonce borrowing.method for making them is so
This particular version lasted simple. it is not necessary to
until a couple of months ago whenmark these with "za'e". (It is
John Cowan proposed the general- of course permitted and may be
ization to mark ANY nonce word recommended that you do so if you
usage using (instead) "za'e", noware a using a word in a field in
in selma'o BAhE. which you are non-expert. This
This current design says that is like putting quote marks
you coin a word, which must be a around the word to show that you
legal brivla (a lujvo or le'avla,may be being non-standard in the
though one could coin an technical terminology.)
unofficial gismu as well, in
theory) and not break down into 3. Most of the le'avla you see
multiple words. Marking this nowadays are step 3 le'avla.
word by preceding it with "za'e" These are names for concepts in
means that you have just now specific semantic fields,
coined the word, it may or may Lojbanized into brivla-form by a
83
most trivial process, and then sound stream is ambiguous and the
marked with a classifier rafsi. listener hears "paslinku'i", a
Originally I proposed that valid lujvo. Since le'avla are
classifier rafsi go on the end, defined so as never to cause
making things look like lujvo: conflict with gismu or lujvo,
"kromium-xuki" (chromium- this form of le'avla is invalid.
chemical). This is the proposal The virtue of step 3, then, is
that was printed in UL2, the that almost anyone can make nonce
early version of JL from before le'avla with minimal learning.
the Institute/la lojbangirz. The resulting words are known not
split. The reaction to UL2 was to fail the "*slinku'i" test,
that people did not like the they are flagged so that a lis-
ending rafsi partly because thesetener knows he/she is hearing a
rafsi were CVCV form and were le'avla, that the word is some
thus a second type of rafsi that kind of nonce word, and that it
had to be memorized. I then cameis restricted to a specific
up with the current design, whichjargon field which is identified.
is described lightly in the This is often all that is needed
Synopsis. John Cowan has - since someone familiar with the
codified the current process for jargon field will recognize the
step 3 le'avla, and proposed a borrowed portion, and someone who
new list of chemical element doesn't can ask.
le'avla that are presumably valid Step 3 and step 4 le'avla can
by that process. (The list is be used in lujvo. However they
too long to reprint here.) are always joined to adjacent
Simply, the step 3 le'avla rafsi by the hyphen syllable
process is to use any standard "iy", and NO letters are deleted
rafsi, or even more than one likefrom the le'avla: the "rafsi"
a lujvo (with some restrictions),form of a le'avla is the le'avla
as a classifier. You then take aitself. The reason is shown by
Lojbanized form of the word to bean example Nora invented while
borrowed, which must have: reviewing the 4th edition of
- a final vowel Loglan 1 (1989), which had the
- no letter 'y' type 4 le'avla "protoni" and
- no impermissible medial "*nukli" (not valid in Lojban,
consonant pairs. hence the asterisk). Without
The classifier is 'glued on' "iy" hyphenation in le'avla-based
with a vocalic consonant 'l', lujvo, the le'avla compound
'n', or 'r', which also conve- "*protonynukli" breaks into rafsi
niently makes the first consonantas "pro-ton-nukli" and is thus
cluster in the word NOT a invalid.
permissible initial ('m' would be For easing recognition of
acceptable except when it might le'avla compounds, it has become
form the consonant clusters "ml" standard to surround the "iy"
or "mr"). Most of the problems joints with close-commas is
in le'avla coining result from print, ensuring that the hyphen
the possibility of parts of the is treated as a separate syllable
word absorbing sounds that are and aiding visual recognition.
supposed to be part of adjacent An example is:
words, with the combination then "djarspageti,iy,sanso"
breaking up into different words ("spaghetti sauce").
than you intend.
The most well-known (because 4. There are as yet no official
difficult to check for) such step 4 le'avla in Lojban,
le'avla problem is that associ- although some will probably be
ated with the aforementioned proposed as samples when we
"*slinku'i" test - "*slinku'i" publish the reference book in a
can be seen to be an invalid few months. An example might in-
le'avla because if you use it clude "protoni" ("proton"), as
with "pa": "pa slinku'i", the
84
mentioned above, which breaks no endeavor, that it violates Zipf's
rules. law to have such a frequent word
These words should be made by be as long as step 3 le'avla must
people skilled in Lojban word- inherently be. Step 4 le'avla
making, and familiar with the are a formal alternative to
previous body of such words to having Lojban suffer the
prevent conflicts. irregular Zipfean shortenings
The words need no classifier that occur in natural language -
rafsi, and may utilize any of thelike "teevee" for "television".
valid le'avla wordform space. As With no usage history yet,
stated above, there is no simple we've never bothered to make
algorithm for this space, and standards for step 4 le'avla.
making these words correctly is aRecent discussion of culture
trial-and-error-aided-by-growing-words suggests that any culture
experience process. whose name acquires any
Lojban currently disallows significant use in Lojban will
le'avla from invading gismu spaceget a step 4 le'avla, giving more
to allow type 4 words like equality with the historical
"*nukli". This is primarily an culture gismu. This will then
aesthetic principle, since gismu answer most, if not all of the
like the culture words are in criticisms of the cultural gismu.
effect just such le'avla. But we
call them gismu, and they gain _________________________________
the key advantage of gismu-form ________________
in having shorter rafsi.
(A secondary principle which
necessitates that any such The Culture gismu Revisited:
le'avla be made only under Cultural Neutrality and the gismu
tightly controlled conditions, is List
that gismu must be prevented fromby John Cowan and Bob LeChevalier
what is called 'packing', being (with comments by Arthur Hyun and
so alike in sound that noise or Bob Chassell)
slight errors in pronunciation
makes them easily misheard. Even The following breaks down the
with our experience in gismu cultural gismu, by category. All
making and with relatively simplethese words end in "-o" and we
rules on packing, we've needed a attempted to draw them from the
computer check on the gismu relevant language directly rather
making process that has found than being manufactured through
many conflicts missed by this the usual process of combining
tricky test.) the six source languages. Some
We have few useful standards words fall into more than one
yet for deciding that a word de- category.
serves this privilege enough to
invade gismu space, other than 1) Lojban itself:
the class decisions that were lojbo Lojbanic
made for culture words and
"cmavo" and "lujvo" which are 2) The words for six source
themselves self-borrowings from languages used in Lojban gismu-
malglico Lojban tanru - "cmalu- making:
valsi" and "pluja-valsi" for jungo Chinese glico
JCB's English "little words" or English
"LWs" and "complexes" or "Cpxs". xindo Hindi spano Spanish
So for a while at least, the bar rusko Russian xrabo
against gismu-shaped le'avla willArabic
continue.
The qualification for a step 4 3) The words for six other widely
le'avla is that it be a word used spoken languages that were on
sufficiently often, probably the list of candidates for
outside of a single field of gismu-making:
85
bengo Bengali fraso 4) xurdo Urdu
French is the name for Hindi written
dotco German ponjo in Arabic script. It is
Japanese culturally unacceptable to the
porto Portuguese baxso Moslem speakers of the language
Malay-Indonesian to refer to it as Hindi,
although linguists classify
(The word for Japan is from them as the same tongue.
"Nippon"; legal Lojbanizations
of that word starting with 'n' 5) Large countries (gugde) which
would not have been speak any of these 14
pronounceable by the Japanese languages, where their names
with buffering the consonant differ from the language names:
cluster. The word for Malay- 5a) glico gugde:
Indonesian is from their word merko American sralo
"bahasa" for "language", Australian
because they have no word for brito British kadno
their common heritage other Canadian
than that one.) skoto Scottish
5b) spano gugde:
gento Argentinian mexco
Mexican
xispo Hispanic (generic term)
5c) rusko gugde:
softo Soviet (The current
upheaval in the Soviet Union
may affect the usefulness of
this word, and may require a
few new rusko gugde words for
seceding states. We do not
expect to make official changes
before the reference book is
published.)
5d) xrabo gugde:
jerxo Algerian misro
Egyptian
rakso Iraqi jordo Jordanian
lubno Lebanese libjo
Libyan
morko Moroccan sadjo Saudi
sirxo Syrian
filso Palestinian (include
d for historical reasons and to
be neutral in the ongoing cul-
tural dispute in the Middle
East
5e) baxso gugde:
bindo Indonesian meljo
Malaysian
5f) porto gugde:
brazo Brazilian porto
Portuguese
5g) xindo gugde:
kisto Pakistani xindo India
(The Hindi name for India -
"Bharat" could not be used due
to rafsi packing.
6) The continents of the Earth:
86
friko African dzepo merko bangu merbau American
Antarctic English
xazdo Asiatic sralo merko kulnu merklu American
Australian culture
ropno European bemro North merko gugde mergu'e ter
American ritory of
polno Polynesian/Oceanian) American people
ketco South American merko jecta merjecta ter
ritory ruled by
7) A few smaller cultures with the American
widespread historical or cultural government
influence: merko natmi mernai American
xelso Greek xebro Hebrew ethnos/ nation
latmo Latin srito Sanskrit merko turni mertru American
government
8) semto Semitic merko ke ralju lidne
(Judeo-Arabic) merli'e American
is a major language family president
encompassing two of the major
cultures included in the list. These will typically used as
"Indo-European" is lujvo by assigning merko as a
internationally a compound word, gismu, and ensuring it has a
and was not given a gismu. rafsi, we make it easier to do
so. Such words will be shorter,
9) The major religions: and hence will satisfy the need
budjo Buddhist xriso of speakers who want/need them.
Christian We have taken the cultures that
xebro Hebrew muslo are part of Loglan/Lojban's
Islamic definition as being most populous
jegvo Jehovah/Yahweh(-ist) for such gismu. This is NOT for
= Judeo-Christian the purpose of denigrating Bul-
dadjo Tao(-ist) garia, Hungary, Persia/Iran, Swe-
(Note that the deities of theseden, nor Kurdistan or Moldavia.
religions are NOT represented While none of these have gismu,
by the gismu. "la jegvon." canand hence do not have rafsi, they
be the Judeo-Christian deity. can be made as le'avla, and those
Note that while the Islamic le'avla can be used in lujvo too,
deity "Allah" is considered thebut they won't be as short.
same as the Judeo-Christian Typically, as a Type 3 le'avla,
one, cultural reasons require these will incorporate the second
"la .alax." term of the above tanru as a
classifier. For example, in the
All cultural words have the placecase of Iran (we'll presume Farsi
structure: as the logical choice for
borrowing):
x1 is <adjective> in property x2
rupnrfarsi fepnrfarsi
but these words are expected to banrfarsi
be seldom-used as bare selbri. gugrfarsi kulrfarsi turnrfarsi
Instead, they will be used in etc.
tanru and lujvo.
The primary cultural
tanru/lujvo are the obvious ones.
For example:
merko rupnu meryru'u Ame
rican dollar
merko fepni merfe'i Ame
rican cent/penny
87
Things only get moderately gismu were the shortest content
'inequitable' when you have to words they should be used for the
make 'real' lujvo out of these most frequent concepts. He made
le'avla. If a Persian rug is a gismu for most of the first 1000
"kulrfarsi lolgai" as a lujvo it concepts, unless there was an
becomes "kulrfarsi,iy,lolgai" obvious 2-term lujvo based on
where as an "American rug" (if ithigher frequency words. He then
rated a lujvo) might be the continued to the 2000 and 3000
shorter "merlolgai". concept levels, and ended up with
The set of gismu is certainly about 750 gismu.
in one sense arbitrary - I can't From 1962-82 this list grew to
state any external standard about 950. Because there were no
justifying the entire selection, le'avla in the language design at
and indeed we do not claim that point, all of the elements
perfectly objective judgement. were added as gismu, and many
But I still claim that for all other rather idiosyncratic words
practical purposes the set is like 'billiards'; if someone
culturally neutral. Such a claimwrote something in Loglan and
is always relative - there could needed a word, a gismu was often
me 'more perfect' neutrality in the result. After the 1982
theory; I think we did a good revision of the language, there
job, and I do not think the list was the capability for le'avla,
is 'slanted towards a particular and some of these gismu were
culture', unless that culture is removed, but JCB's Loglan still
the non-existent Lojban culture. has a lot of historically
The set of gismu were derived idiosyncratic gismu which are
over 35 years. Jim Brown gismu only because they had no
selected the first set based on 3obvious 2-4 term tanru/lujvo 20
or 4 sources, including BASIC years ago.
English, some studies of words This is the list we inherited
that are 'biologically primitive'when we remade the list for
in that they appear to be Lojban. Among the words were
primitive in most every language,culture words for the 8 source
etc. He then used the Helen languages for Institute Loglan,
Eaton study of the most (as well as separate gismu for
frequently used concepts in 4 the people and the culture) plus
languages some idiosyncratic cultures that
(English/German/French/Spanish). had been added haphazardly,
This list is of course European including Italian, Scottish,
biased, but it is the only such Roman, and Amerind. We decided
comparative study across several to regularize the set based on
languages for word/concept some external standard - the
frequencies, and Helen Eaton was culture words we used were those
doing so for AL research and was for JCB's 8 languages, and the
presumably aware of the other 4 we considered for Lojban
neutrality issue. In any case, (we once planned to use 12
there is reason to believe that languages instead of 6, then cut
the list is more biased in its back to 6 for several reasons).
obsolescence (being 60 years old)We added the religions that were
than it is toward a specific primary in the source cultures,
culture - key concepts in scienceand separate words for the sev-
and medicine are unknown in the eral countries that used the
list, while certain concepts no source languages. Because we had
longer important rate highly. Itle'avla, if we could not assign a
is still a standard, and the onlygood rafsi to any recognizable
one. form of a country's culture word,
Brown assumes that Zipf's law we left it out - the assignment
holds. Zipf noted that word of a short rafsi was the main
length was inversely proportion- justification for these words.
ate to word frequency. Since
88
The point of all this is that cover any concept that is
the culture words were added important across cultures
according to a standard that is (reasonable I set at about 4
inherent in the history of the terms, the longest lujvo ever
language and its design - thus nomade and used as a 'real word'
one really had to be an 'objec- for Loglan). Words that are
tive judge'. If it is accepted specific to one culture, or are
that our "Chicken MacNuggets" part of the international
word formation algorithm is vocabulary of science are
culturally neutral, being based relegated to le'avla.
on 6 languages, then the culture BUT, in going to this
words meet the same criteria of definition of our gismu coverage,
neutrality. In addition, the we did not claim the need to
words are not slanted towards oneeliminate every gismu that had no
culture - if so, we would have obvious intercultural use.
not used the Egyptian word for Indeed, if it was already made as
Egypt, the German word for a gismu, we kept it unless
Germany, etc. Yes, we had to someone explicitly proposed its
leave some cultures out, and somedeletion accompanied by (usually)
countries that have speakers of a 2-term lujvo for the concept.
the languages we do have. But About 20 odd words were so
the decision was not wholly deleted before the baseline.
arbitrary. There is no intent to delete any
The rest of the gismu were gismu prior to the 5-year usage
selected to complete various baseline, because the only
incomplete sets recognized by a meaningful criteria now are that
Roget-like study of the gismu by would justify a deletion in the
Paul Doudna. Later, when baseline period would be
Athelstan joined the project, we something like the word being
conducted two further reviews impossibly vague (not likely
against Roget's Thesaurus lookingsince we have place structures
to achieve 'completeness' in thatfor each). Arguments of usage -
the gismu could be used to form either potential or actual are
lujvo covering every concept in irrelevant; that is the point of
Roget. Roget is of course En- a usage baseline, to see whether
glish-biased, but it also they are used.
purports to be a comprehensive As a result of this long
survey of the semantic word spaceevolutionary process, it is clear
and it is in that mode that we that the list is not an arbitrary
used the list. representation of one or two
In the course of doing so we persons' biases. Being based on
recognized that the rationale forthe concept of 'semantic space',
gismu has changed since JCB firstwith some verification of
started Loglan (and in his usefulness in a few cultures, the
versions this is also true, list is close to comprehensive
though he has never so-stated). (occasional new words will be
At one point Brown thought his proposed when we find a gap).
words were in some absolute senseThe list is not angled towards a
'primitive', partly based on his specific one or even identifiable
biological primitive research. set of cultures, except that if
This is not the current practice some culture has a truly
in assigning gismu. gismu are inimportant concept that is not
no way assumed to be the 'most shared by any of the Eaton lan-
basic', 'most important', or guages, it may currently be
'most' anything for one or omitted. In which case, it will
several cultures. likely become a gismu later when
We now claim ONLY that the recognized. Beyond this, I do
gismu we have are sufficient, not see the claims that the Loj-
using the lujvo-making rules to ban list is biased in some
make reasonable length lujvo to recognizable way towards any
89
language. It can only be claimed developers, sufficient to meet
that it is possibly biased away what they think are the needs
from some less common of enough Lojban speakers and
languages/cultures in the most experimenters for Lojban to
trivial sense, since we are meet the purposes of the
talking about exactly one word language;
per such culture. No doubt if
any of these less common cultures* to extent:
develops a significant Lojban as best the developers can,
speaker base during the formative particularly with reference to
years of the language, the Zipfian and other practical
culture will be assigned a gismu. concerns.
The remaining element words may
plausibly be biased towards Arthur:
English or at least toward Euro- Whoever has to judge what is
pean cultures. These were "important" or less so will have
justified by their use in a bias.
metaphors before we had the now
clear policy against heavily Bob Chassell:
figurative metaphors. Even so, Yes, indeed. So therefore,
there are ways to define these whoever judges what to include is
words based on the properties obligated to do the best she can.
adjectivally attributed to the Since there is little desire to
substance in non-technical give everyone his own gismu, the
compounds, leaving the 'chemical question is "to whom to give
word' either for a lujvo (using gismu?" If the selected gismu
"curve" or "xukmi") or a le'avla.turn out to be sufficient for
Thus "nikle" is fine as is, enough of those who are experi-
"romge" is any highly reflective menting with and speaking Lojban,
non-tarnishing metal, "navni" is then the selection will have been
an inert gas (this one change wasOK.
adopted officially at LogFest), Of course, the decision is not
"kliru" can be used for all the easy; to me, the best beginning
halogens, (people put kliru is to use three criteria:
tergu'i on their cars), etc. population, wealth/power,
This eliminates the most obvious frequency of occurrence in the
part of the bias, but more kinds of speech the language
importantly allowing the words todevelopers anticipate for Lojban.
be useful. These criteria are obviously
_________________________________unfair, and they have a bias; but
_______________ enough Lojban speakers may be
sufficiently satisfied by them
Arthur Hyun comments: for Lojban to succeed.
The point is that if anyone
wishes to maintain the pretense Arthur Hyun:
of Lojban being "culturally neu- Therefore, either give up
tral", then every culture is trying to claim "neutrality" or
going to have to be considered treat them all the same.
the same.
Bob Chassell:
Bob Chassell responds: This statement is a
The consequence does not followmisunderstanding of what neu-
from the `if' clause. The trality is about. Neutrality is
predicate "culturally neutral" not and cannot be absolute.
has several places so far Consider as an analogy, Swedish
unexpressed. neutrality during WWII. At the
beginning of the war, when it
* by standards: appeared that Germany would
in this case, standards of become the hegemonic power in
mostly middle-class, American Europe, Sweden cooperated more
90
with Germany than with the
Allies. (Remember: the invasion Another way to tackle the issue
of Norway was designed to protectis to turn my questions around:
shipments of Swedish iron ore in
coastal freighters; very likely, * Is the current design of Lojban
the Swedish mining regions would too culture bound for
have been occupied by the Germans experiments relating to tense
if the Swedes had not in grammar to succeed?
cooperated.) When the Allied
coalition was seen to be winning,* Is the current design of Lojban
Sweden cooperated more with it, too culture bound for speakers
permitting, for example, people in Asia, Africa, and Europe to
such as Niels Bohr to be flown accept? (One possibility is
out of Sweden by the British. that Lojban's logical bias may
Similarly, Lojban cannot be be more significant than its
absolutely neutral, neither as a other biases.)
practical matter nor as a matter
of being able to define what
`absolute neutrality' means.
(Obviously, to me at least,
`treating them all the same' is
NOT neutral, but is very biased;
is that not apparent to you?)
Lojban has several goals
relating to cultural neutrality:
* to serve as a vehicle for
intercultural experiments;
For Lojban to be useful, this
means that the undesired
influences of Lojban should both
be small enough for the
experiments and be less than the
undesired influences of
alternative vehicles, such as
Urdu or Esperanto.
If you are testing some group
whose culture lacks a gismu,
perhaps you would invent a nonce
gismu; not all five-letter forms
are currently used, just as not
all shorter forms are assigned
cmavo.
* to serve as an international
language;
For Lojban to be useful, this
means that enough people must not
be overly offended by Lojban's
biases.
* to serve as a test for `logical
language';
This means that Lojban must be
biased towards logic in some way,
which biases it against languages
such as English.
91
le lojbo se ciska (continued)
And now, how about some poetry?
Michael Helsem sent me a translation of the first stanza of
the Esperanto Hymn into Lojban. The original (1), and Michael's
English translation (2) are given first. Then comes his Lojban
translation into a limerick! He made only minor errors, none of
them grammatical (e.g. the place structure of fasnu has changed,
making it non-useful for his purposes. So my correction of his
translation (3) is immediately after with Michael's intended
English translation (4) along with what he actually said. Finally,
I have a pronunciation guide for those who want to read it aloud.
(1) La Espero (2)
En la mondon venis nova sento, Into the world came (a) new
feeling,
Tra la mondo iras forta voko through the world goes (a) strong
call;
per flugiloj de facila vento by (the) wings of (a) gentle wind,
nun de loko flugu gxi al loko now fly it from place to place.
(3)
le cnino menjvinu goi ko'a
pu selfri le terdi ku .o'a
.i ta'i lo brife
ku leko nunjimpe
ca selbei fi role selvo'a
(4) (Intended) (Actual)
A new mind-view A (specific) new mind-view (ko'a)
happened on the Earth (pride!) is-experienced-by the Earth
(Pride!)
Like a breeze Having-form a breeze
let your understanding Your (imperative! - Make it true!)
thing_understood
be transferred to all the voiced-ones. now is-sent to all-the-
voiced_ones.
(5)
le cnino menjvinu goi ko'a
/leh,SHNEE,noh mehn,ZHVEE,noo goi,KOH,hah/
pu selfri le terdi ku .o'a
/poo,SEHL,free leh,TEHR,dee ku. OH,hah/
.i ta'i lo brife
/.ee,TAH,hee loh,BREE,feh/
ku le ko nunjimpe
/koo,LEH,koh noon,ZHEEM,peh/
ca selbei fi ro le selvo'a
/shah,SEHL,bei fee,ROH,leh sehl,VOH,hah/
But I wasn't happy with this. Not only might some
Esperantists take offense at having their song of great traditional
importance turned into a limerick (which in English culture is
almost universally used for non-serious verse), it was not a very
92
exact translation of the Esperanto. At Nick Nicholas's
instigation, I've lately been translating a bit of poetry, so it
was only natural that I tried to do this one. I was surprised to
find that my result was rhythmic (though not the exact same rhythm
as the original), and it was fairly easy to make it rhyme a little
bit too. My new translation is given as (6), and I've added
pronunciation and translation (7).
93
(6)
la'ede'e cu se pacna .i
le cnino selcinmo cu se lifri loi terdi
.isemu'ibo fe'eroroi vliki'a
.i .e'o ko sepi'o le mlibrife voknalci
fairbevri ru rode da'ada
(7)
The following is-hoped-for
The new thing-emotionally-felt is-experienced-by of-the-mass-of-
the-Earth
Therefore motivationally, everywhere powerful-cry_out
(Petition!) (imperative!) You, usingly, mild-breeze voice-wings
distribute-carry (the earlier) it from every-something to all-
other-somethings.
le cnino selcinmo cu se lifri loi terdi
/leh,SHNEE,noh sehl,SHEEN,moh shoo-seh,LEE,free
loi,TER,dee/
.i se mu'i bo fe'e ro roi vliki'a
/.ee-seh,MOO,hee-boh feh-heh,ROH,roi vlee,KEE,hah/
.i .e'o ko se pi'o mlibrife voknalci
/.ee .EH,hoh koh-seh,PEE.hoh mlee,BREE,feh
vohk,NAHL,shee/
fairbevri ru ro de da'a da
/fai-rr,BEHV,ree roo,ROH,deh dah,HAH,da/
But I didn't stop there. I'd been carrying the seeds of an
idea for an ode to Lojban, and this exercise got my writing urge
going. Within an hour, I had written my first original Lojban
poem, which can be seen to be both rhythmic and, with poetic
license, rhyming. This is given as (8) with pronunciation and
translation in (9).
This is the first 'original' poem I've written since 6th
grade, some 25 years ago. I'm actually quite pleased with it, and
with the fact that it was so easy. Maybe I'll even write more (and
inflict it on the world). But one thing is for sure: if >I< can
write Lojban poetry, anyone can.
(8)
doi bangu co satci joi ji'a na'e satci
do'u dunda le ko selkai co sidbo velcusku
loi terdi selvo'a noi nitcu lo nintadji
be lo nu menbenji fo loi prenu co simxu
.i doi selmenli co cfipu be le so'imei poi djica
leka jimpe do'u bevri ko le cfari lei zgatirna
.i .e'o ko cu klina selcusku gi'e jicla
le no'e farvi pe ri'a lenu seljimte loi malgerna
(9)
doi bangu co satci joi ji'a na'e
satci
/doi,BAHN,goo shoh,SAH,chee zhoi,ZHEE,hah nah-
heh,SAH,chee/
94
do'u dunda le ko selkai co sidbo
velcusku
/doh-hoo,DOON,dah leh-koh,SEHL,kai shoh,SEED,boh
vehl,SHOO,skoo/
loi terdi selvo'a noi nitcu lo
nintadji
/loi,TEHR,dee sehl,VOH,hah noi,NEE,choo loh-
neen,TAH,jee/
be lo nu menbenji fo loi prenu co
simxu
/beh,LOH,noo mehn,BEHN,zhee foh-loi,PREH,noo
shoh,SEEM,khoo/
O, language of-type exact mixed-with-in-addition non-exact
(something) gives your (imperative - make it true!) characteristic
of-type idea expression-mode
to of-the-mass-of-the-Earthly voiced-ones, who incidentally need
the new-method
of events-of mind-sending to of-the-mass-of-persons of-type mutual.
O, language, both exact and non-exact,
Let your characteristic mode of idea-expression
be given to the voiced ones of the earth, who need this
new method of mutually communicating between minds.
.i doi selmenli co cfipu be le so'imei poi
djica
/.ee-doi-sehl,MEHN,lee shoh,SHFEE,poo beh-leh,SOH-HI,mei
poi,JEE,shah/
le ka jimpe do'u bevri ko le cfari lei
zgatirna
/leh-kah,ZHEEM,peh doh-hoo,BEH,vree koh-leh,SHFAH,ree lei-
zgah,TEER,nah/
.i .e'o ko cu klina selcusku gi'e
jicla
/.ee .EH,hoh koh-shoo,KLEE,nah sehl,SHOO,skoo gee-
heh,ZHEESH,lah/
le no'e farvi pe ri'a le nu seljimte loi
malgerna
/leh-noh-heh,FAHR,vee peh,REE,hah-leh noo-sehl,ZHEEM,teh loi-
mahl,GEHR,nah/
O thought-about-things of-type confusing to-the-many-some who
desire
understanding-ness, (something) carries you (imperative! - make it
true!)
from-the initiators to-the observing-hearers (listeners)
(Petition!) You (imperative!) be clearly-expressed-things, and stir
the neutral-non-developing (stagnant) which-are-caused-by the-
event-of being
limited-by Derogative-Grammar.
O ideas which confuse the many who desire understanding,
95
Let yourself be carried from those who initiate you to those who
listen.
Please be clearly expressed, stirring
the stagnation caused by the limits of (Ugh!) Grammar.
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Another poem. Well, actually part of a song. The following is
Mark Shoulson's first Lojban translation attempt: the beginning of
the Doors' song People Are Strange.
loi prenu cu cizra .inaja do ca fange
.i loi flira cu simlu to'e melbi .inaja do ca na se kansa
.i loi ninmu cu mabla simlu .inaja do ca na se djica
.i loi klaji cu to'e xutla .inaja do ca badri fa'o
The English:
People are strange / When you're a stranger;
Faces look ugly / When you're alone.
Women seem wicked / When you're unwanted;
Streets are uneven / When you're down.
Bob's comments (mostly answers to questions from Mark):
A most excellent first effort! Bravo! I find little to
complain about. I might have used the less literal "pluta"
instead of "klaji", or even "tadji", thus conveying what I
think the intent is better, but this is 'stylistics', which
Lojban has none of yet. Of course, Nora found one big mistake
I missed (see below).
Mark: I use 'loi' all the time. Should it be "lo'i"? Or
something else?
Bob: You done good! This is about as good an English text for
"loi" as there is. "lo'i" would give you a set. Sets
generally are not ugly or wicked, and seldom are described as
strange or uneven - but you don't want the set anyway, but the
members.
96
Mark: I don't much care for ".inaja". I want a way to say "if
but not necessarily only if". I assume there's a better way.
I copied this usage from lojbab's translation of Language. [by
Suzanne Vega - see JL14].
Nora: With ".inaja", what you have is "IF people are strange,
THEN you are a stranger". I think you wanted ".ijanai":
"People are strange, IF you are a stranger." This seems a
virtually exact translation. The Lojban statement is false
only when people aren't strange but you ARE a stranger. It
makes no claims about what happens if you are not a stranger.
(Bob: I completely missed this - which may be why I did so
poorly in logic when I was in school.)
Mark: Does the use of "ca" make sense? I mean to get across
the sense that faces look ugly if you're down at the time
(hence the English "when").
Bob: Seems fine to me. You could also do something with one of the
"under conditions" modals (selma'o BAI), used exactly in the
same place you used "ca".
Mark: Should "mabla" in line 5 be "palci"? Am I using "to'e"
right? Is there a better way to express these things?
Bob: Yes, "mabla" is the right word, given the English semantics.
You certainly are not judging women as morally evil ("palci").
You might use "xlali", but the English use of "bitch" in such
situations is most certainly "mabla", not "xlali", and I
suspect that the usage here is more suggestive of such
cursing. "to'e" is fine.
Mark: Should I be using the tanru I use? What would be better?
Bob: I would have omitted "simlu" in both the second and third
lines, or I would have included them in all four; they are
implicitly there. You could have done a couple of things to
fiddle around. For example, the 2nd half of each line, rather
than being ".inaja ... ca ...", could have been a subordinate
clause attached to the selma'o BAI word for "under
conditions":
loi prenu cu cizra va'o le nu do fange
or you can even take out the "do" - the English really just
means "someone", and use the "observer" modal of BAI:
loi prenu cu cizra ga'a lo fange
or you can make all four based on "simlu", which has an under
conditions place and an observer. Note that "simlu" has a
cleft place structure and may need changing. x1 and x2 are
redundant, and a revision would be "x1 seems to be so to x2
under conditions x3". The first version following uses the
current cleft structure; the second version uses the possible
revised structure:
loi prenu cu simlu le ka ri cizra ku roda le nu da fange
x1 } simlu {x2 } x3 {x4 }
97
le nu loi prenu cu cizra cu simlu roda le nu da fange
{x1 } simlu x2 {x3 }
To me these last seem very analytical, not poetic, and I
prefer the "ga'a" version.
Mark: I realize that some selma'o UI words would probably
belong here, but I'm not positive which to use or even if I'd
want them there. There's something unsettling about the
unemotionality you get without them which fits the mood of the
song. Or not.
Bob: I personally think they don't belong, because the author has
used the impersonal "you"/"someone". If the pronoun had been
"mi", the attitudinals are vital. There are SOME attitudinals
that might apply anyway, and perhaps some discursives, but
there is no vital need for any.
98
One last poem:
Nick Nicholas's translation of a Greek poem
ko doi loi tarci na fegycrugunta mi mu'i lenu mi ru'inai sanga ca
le nicte .imu'ibo le nu mi cordri kei cei broda (to .u'anairo'i
doi lemi se xe'ikre toi) gi'e klama fi le zdani gi'e bacru lu'e
broda
Translation: literal Lojban
Imperative you, O Stars [make-it] not that [you] angry-utter-attack
[=scold] me motivated-by the-event I occasionally sing during the
night. Because the-event I am pain-sad in-the heart ((Emotional
loss!) O my black-haired one) and [I] come from the nest [=house]
and uttered the symbol for it (the event of me being pain-sad).
.i .ai mi bacru lu'e broda ga'a loi tarci noi mipri gi'eji'a na
pante (to .uinairo'i do mo'u bapli mi ti toi) ca so'ilo cacra fi le
nuntirna fe'o
(Intent!) I utter the symbol for it (the event of me being pain-
sad) observed by Stars who keep-secret and-additionally not protest
((Emotional unhappiness!) you are-at-the-completion-of forcing me
to do this-here [presumably this poem]), during many hours, about
this event-of-hearing.
Literal English from the Greek
Stars, not-imperative me you-scold that I-sing the night because I-
had pain in-the heart (ach dark-diminutive-neuter my) and I-came-
out and it I-said.
To-the stars future-tense I-say the pain my that not it they-
witness [metaphorically, bear witness] that they-have and [also]
patience (ach how me you-rendered) with the hours and they-listen.
Colloquial English from the Greek, with notes
Stars, do not scold me, that I sing in the night. (clearly an
imperative. The "pou" in the original is no clearer that "that",
and sorta corresponds to "va'o" or "tesau", but of course means
"for singing") Because I had a pain in my heart (apostrophe: Oh,
my dark-haired little one), and I came out and uttered it (the
pain).
I will utter my pain to the stars, who don't betray it (present
tense; the verb literally means "witness", and implies that the
stars keep one's confidence) and which also have the patience
(apostrophe: Oh how you've rendered me/ Oh whata bad state I am in
because of you!) to listen for hours.
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
On Observatives Jim Carter writes:
by Bob LeChevalier in response to At the L.A. group meeting we
Jim Carter discussed "observatives",
Initially we had trouble anal-
99
yzing the meaning of the bare 'subject') adds strong emphasis
selbri "nanmu"; we concluded thatto the selbri as the critical new
it meant "manliness is happening information being pointed out in
here", but the distinction expressing the sentence.
between that and "a man", while Other than this strong
obviously real, is hard to emphasis, "nanmu" is treated as
explain. any ellipsized sentence is, all
unspecified sumti are still
You are correct that this is anactually there, but are
'observative'. unexpressed. They thus have the
For the benefit of those who implicit value of "zo'e"
may have old copies of The (something I'm not bothering to
Loglanist: in TL3, Scott Layson specify because it isn't
(supported by Chuck Barton) important in this pragmatic con-
proposed that the bare selbri be text.) In the normal observative
interpreted as an observative, case, with a physical "subject"
after the natural language usage ellipsized as for "fagri", a more
reflected in shouting "Fire" accurate specification of the
("fagri") upon sight of smoke (assumti would be "(pointing) ta
compared to the then current barefagri"). But "ta" would cause
selbri as an imperative, a the speaker to look at the
command). (At that time there pointer (to see what is pointing
was no clear way to declare an where, not look for the fire and
observative, though "le nanmu" run - in hearing the observative
and "da nanmu" (using current "karce" while standing in the
Lojban words) were considered. street, the distraction of having
(For newer Lojbanists, please to look at the pointer could be
forgive my extensive references fatal.)
to old Institute Loglan in this There thus is nothing about
response.) looking at some "manliness is
Scott and Chuck argued that in happening here". That would
most languages, an imperative is either be the observative "nu
in some way inflected, whereas nanmu" or "ka nanmu", which are
observatives are not. We in turn equivalent to
researched further in designing
the Lojban version and found thatzo'e [cu] {nu <zo'e
children first learn to speak [cu] nanmu [vau]>
essentially in observatives: [kei]}
"Mama!", "Doggy!", and occasion- Something is-an-event-of
ally in attitudinally inflected something (else)'s being-a-
observatives: "Milk?" (".au man.
ladru"). My invention of the im-
perative pro-sumti "ko" zo'e [cu] {ka <zo'e
solidified the change, and this [cu] nanmu [vau]>
is now one of the two major [kei]}
identifiable differences between Something is-a-property-of
Institute Loglan and Lojban, that something (else)'s being-a-
is not simply an expansion of the man.
language or a correction of
hidden syntactic ambiguity. where different "zo'e"s can have
"nanmu" is an observative different values. (I use
because the selbri has been "manhood" for "nu nanmu" and
atypically brought to the front "manliness" for "ka nanmu"; it is
of the sentence. (Indeed in thisnot clear from Jim Carter's
case it is the only thing in the example which he intends.)
sentence, but this is beside the "A man" would be "pa nanmu",
point. "klama le zarci" is also which is a shortened form of "pa
an observative.) This movement, lo nanmu" "One something that
and the explicit elliptical omis-really is a man". This is a
sion of the x1 sumti (the sumti, not a complete sentence.
100
We rejected such a bare sumti as snime cu carvi" = "The snow
a version of observative, as wellrains" and "loi mlatu je gerku cu
as "lo nanmu" and "le nanmu" for carvi" = "Cats and dogs rain." -
three reasons. the literal statement - NOT a
First, as incomplete sentences,figure of speech.)
the listener has to wait to be
sure that the speaker isn't just _________________________________
hesitating before continuing with ________________
a selbri: "pa nanmu ...", "lo
nanmu ...", "le nanmu ...". Predications and Identities
These are equivalent to the by Bob LeChevalier
trailing-off incomplete English
sentences "One man ...", "A man A discussion on Lojban List
..."/"Some men ...", "The man/meneventually hinged on clarifying
...". In Lojban such incomplete the differences between 'predica-
sentences are defined to be tions' and 'identities'. In his
grammatical, and are typically writings on Loglan, Jim Brown has
used to answer "ma" questions. long stressed this distinction,
The latter two English transla- which is basic to predicate
tions point out that Lojban logic.
descriptors make no It has turned out, however,
singular/plural distinction. that in both the Institute's and
The second reason is that the our versions of Loglan, there is
descriptors end up being the no grammatical difference between
first word heard, not the selbri.predications and identities. In
Shouting "A fire!" has less Lojban, we kept the two gram-
impact than shouting "Fire!". matically distinct until this
Finally, the versions with the last spring, when John Cowan
extra cmavo have just that littleshowed using his E-BNF that the
bit extra grammar and semantic distinction was illusory. Now,
interpretation implicit in the identity sentences look like
extra word. Observatives are predications and can be
generally used in situations understood like them, and one
where people don't want to take must recognize them by the use of
the trouble (or in the case of specific cmavo that indicate the
children, don't know how) to con-difference.
struct a sentence with more Jim Carter observed that Lojban
elaborate grammar, and/or don't "binxo" (keyword "become") could
want the listener to take the be seen as a kind of identity
time to interpret the grammar. claim, since in English, "become"
is a future tense of "to be".
Jim Carter: We must clarify that "binxo" is
But we came up with a better rather to be contrasted with
example: "cenba" ("vary") and "galfi"
carvi It's raining ("modify"). This trio of gismu
lo carvi Look, raindrops were assigned because old Loglan
"cenja" ("change") which means
The first English is a what "binxo" does, was often used
reasonable colloquial translationin tanru and lujvo as if it meant
of its Lojban. More exact is one of the other two words.
"[Something] rains", or "Rain!" Institute Loglan solved the
The second Lojban, a sumti, is problem by misusing its "madzo"
the incomplete sentence "A rain- for the 'transitive' "change" of
ing thing/Some rain ... [is doing"galfi"; "madzo" has the same
something]", whereas Jim's meaning as Lojban's "zbasu" (to
English would be expressed in make/construct ... out of ...).
Lojban as "ko catlu .i carvi We separated the English word
[dirgo]" or "ko catlu lenu carvi "change" into its three distinct
[dirgo]. (The thing(s) raining meanings.
need not be 'drops'. We say "lo
101
binxo changes into/becomes intending, but not saying "Bantha
... is a cat".
cenba changes/varies in
property ...
galfi changes ... into ...
The keywords were chosen to
maximize the distinction.
A similar problem was
recognized with "gasnu" "do"
last year. As noted in the
discussion of cleft structures
and sumti-raising above, "gasnu"
is clarified to mean that x1 is
the actor/agent in an event or
action x2. We kept the keyword
as "do" because "actor" and
"agent" are much more familiar in
English with meanings that have
nothing to do with the Lojban
"gasnu".
"du" IS an identity
'predicate', and its morphology
alone flags it as different from
other predicate words. It claims
that the two sumti on either side
are alternate and equivalent
designations for the same thing.
Translate it best as the
mathematical "=" sign.
"du", other than in a
mathematical context, has a
somewhat metalinguistic effect.
It equates two labels for the
same thing. No other words in
Lojban, other than the
relativizers "po'u" and "no'u",
and the assigners "goi" and
"cei", have this metalinguistic
effect.)
As Lojban has grown, the role
of "du" in Lojban has shrunk.
Most noteworthy, the practice of
using "du" for self-
identification as taught in draft
textbook lesson 1, is now frowned
on: use "mi'e. .atlstan.", or mi
se cmene zo .atlstan. (if your
name happens to Lojbanize as
".atlstan."). It isn't wrong,
but we do not want new Lojbanists
concentrating on the use of "du"
early in learning the language.
Otherwise we get such
unacceptable statements as:
la banthas. du lo mlatu
(1)
Bantha = a/some cat(s)
102
Here we have a and more experienced Lojbanists
legal/grammatical but probably try to answer. We prefer to see
false statement. "lo mlatu" is ayour attempts at expressing it,
description that can apply to a because 1) it means you tried and
cat, or the members of any this isn't a trivial question;
collection of cats, in the and 2) it helps us slant our
universe of discourse (possibly explanation to fit your needs.
including the non-domesticated Word translations need some
species). I doubt that there kind of context for them to be
exists anyone that would apply included in this feature. Thus,
the name "la banthas." to all of some questions from Ivan
these cats. If we were Derzhanski in his Lojban letter
expressing the Linnean are not answered here.
(Latin/Greek) name for the cat
family, well, maybe ... From Coranth D'Gryphon:
There is a 'predication' (as I have a few English statements
opposed to 'identity') "predicatethat I'd like the appropriate
word" that is near-equivalent to meanings for:
"du", and that is "mintu" - "x1
is identical to x2" ("du" while 1) some people (plural of person,
etymologically tied to "dunli" is referring to existing
not really related due to place individuals);
structure differences). There 2) some people (plural of person,
have been some probably referring to hypothetical
legitimate but inconclusive individuals);
debates about whether "du" and 3) people (the set of all
"mintu" are the same predicate. persons, treated as a lump
Nora and I currently feel that unit);
"mintu" can be used more broadly,4) people (the set of all
as in "this plate is the same as persons, treated as in-
that one", when the two are dividuals);
interchangeable for the intended 5) person (the set of all the
function. "du" would not be things that make up a person,
correct in translating such a considered a unit).
statement, since presumably "this
plate" and "that one" refer to Bob LeChevalier:
different objects.) These 5 mass statements are
Predicate logic does not write simple, but look carefully at the
identity sentences as predicates.quantifiers in my answer. I have
Lojban's predicate grammar put normally ellipsized
requires even an identity quantifiers in brackets - they
sentence to be phrased as a are needed to properly understand
predication. As such, Lojban is what is going on. Afterwards I
a mirror image of natural summarize the default quantifiers
languages. But the use of a for the 4 descriptors involved.
cmavo in an identity sentence Note that none of your examples
should alert you to the very realinvolve "lo'i" or "le'i" the set
difference between them. descriptors. "lo'i vinji" is the
set of all things that really are
_________________________________airplanes, and does not relate to
________________ their components.
How to say it 1. su'ore lo [ro] prenu
A New Regular? Feature or
su'ore le [su'ore] prenu
We are happy to take good ideas or
from the Loglan Institute, and su'ore da poi prenu
are thus instituting (!?) a new
feature, where you ask how do say2. Either of the first two above
something which is not obvious, for 1; "da poi ..." claims
103
actual existence of something Compare this with:
that meets the restrictive
bridi that appears after "poi".su'o lo ci mela studjez.
The distinction between "lo" su'o lo ci
and "le" is that "lo" refers to mela studjez.
things that have the relevant at-least-one of the-set-of-all-
property, whereas "le" refers Stooges (which set has
only to the speaker's intended cardinality 3)
referent which is presumed to
be understood by the listener ro le su'o prenu
or the speaker would have givenro le
more information to restrict Each of the-set-of-things-that-I-
the referent. We have also describe-as
given the two descriptors su'o prenu
different default quantifiers, persons (which set-in-mind has
as shown in the bracketed cardinality at-least-1)
values above.
3. piro loi [ro] prenu pisu'o loi ro prenu
4. ro lo [ro] prenu pisu'o loi
[ro] le ro prenu ro prenu
5. [piro] lei pa prenu at-least-some of the-mass-of-all-
Using "loi' with "pa" after the who-are-persons (cardinality
descriptor like this would 'all')
incidentally claim that there is
only one person in the universe).piro lei su'o prenu
piro lei
The big 'secret' in all of thisall of the-massified-set-of-the-
is the default quantifiers - the things-that-I-
numbers inside and outside of the describe-as
descriptor. The inside number su'o prenu
enumerates the set meeting the persons
description, while the outside (cardinality 'at least 1')
quantifiers selects from that
set. le/lei/le'i must have at least
Examples: one in the set.
lo/loi/lo'i need not have any in
su'o lo ro prenu the set (in which case the
su'o lo "su'o" means "at least 0" since
ro prenu "ro" is also = "0").
at-least-one of the-set-of-all-
who-are persons (which set has In normal usage, all of the
cardinality 'all') above implicit quantifiers are
left unstated. You only put in a
quantifier if it differs from the
default value. The resemblance
of "lo" to English indefinites is
purely a result of our choice for
the implicit quantifier. In
JCB's Loglan the equivalent word
was "lea" which had the default
quantifier "ro *lea ro prenu"
("all of the set of all who
really are persons") which is
only useful for logically risky
universal claims, whereas "lo" is
useful for indefinites, where the
speaker has no particular
referents in mind. But "lo" is
still not quite the same as
English indefinites ("a" or
104
"some" as articles). If you haveHow to say: "bias", as in "x is
even the slightest restriction onbiased/directed/ influenced in
the set of persons being direction y by applied force z";
described and do not make the
restriction explicit with John:
poi/pe/po'u etc., the you should I'm not sure if the physical or
use "le" instead of "lo", and usethe metaphorical sense of "bias"
explicit "su'o" to replace the is wanted here. For the latter,
implicit outside quantifier "ro":"se xlura" = "x1 is influenced by
"su'o le ro prenu" ("some of all x2 to do or be x3 under
persons that I have in mind") - conditions x4" seems to do the
usually shortened to "su'o le trick.
prenu".
Dave:
Dave Cortesi: How to say: tend, as in x tends
I ran off down the following toward y (naturally, of itself)
dead-end alleys and would
appreciate anybody's comments on Bob:
how to escape them... "jinzi" = "x1 is the innate
property of x2"
- How to say: "habit" and/or The other portion of the tanru
"habitual". could be either "lakne" = "x1 is
- How to say: "customary". likely under conditions x2"
tcaci = "custom"; is it enough to"tarti" = "x1 behaves as x2 under
use the quality abstractor "ka"? condition x3"
Is ka tcaci = "customary"? depending on context, or possibly
other choices.
John Cowan:
"Habit" and "custom" are the sameDave:
gismu: "tcaci". You would say How to say: "thoughtless".
"customary" by using this gismu Negation of "sanji" = "aware"?
in a tanru: "a habitual walker" And then abstracted?
= "lo tcaci cadzu". [Bob adds: How to say: "unwise". Negation of
You can also use "ta'e" as a "prije" and abstracted?
tense-like inflection for
"habitually".] John:
No need to abstract here.
Dave: Abstraction corresponds to things
How to say: "cultural", "x like "-ness" and "-ity". "lo
springs from culture y". Here "kana'e prije" = "an unwise person";
kulnu" is clearly not adequate. "lo na'e prije cusku" = "unwise
statements". "Thoughtless" has
John: several English meanings, I
"lo se kulnu" are the people who think.
exhibit a culture. [Bob adds:
loi kulnu can be used for some Bob adds: "ka sanji" is thus
portion or element of culture.] "consciousness" or "awareness".
"nu prije" and "ka prije" are
Dave: different interpretations of
How to say: "tilt", as in "x "wisdom". I would do most
tilts/leans at angle y in frame varieties of "thoughtless" as
z"; combinations of "claxu" = "lack"
and "pensi" = "think" or "kurji"
John: = "taking care of", or as "na'e",
"salpo" = "x1 is sloped/inclined "no'e" and "to'e" negations of
with angle x2 to horizon/frame the latter two.
x3"
Dave:
Dave: And here's a biggie: how do you
say "idiom"? An idiom is not
105
simply a metaphor, it's a best if space is too limited?
metaphor that through constant There are a lot of aphorisms that
usage has lost its metaphoric can be translated, and a lot of
indirection and simply means whatconcepts to explore Lojbanically.
it originally suggested. (Like The first exercise is a study
"red herring".) in happiness. It all started
with Nick Nicholas lecturing
John: about "happiness":
We don't have those in Lojban.
(zo'o) In fact, to bring in a
parenthesis, there is a massive
Bob: A lot of possible tanru history to the verb to be used
here. How about: corresponding to Happy. It
"se farvi smuni valsi" = alludes, of course, to the Sermon
"evolved_into-meaning-words" On The Mount. Now here are some
"kulnu smuni valsi" = "cultural- distinct types of happiness:
meaning-words"
"tcaci smuni valsi" = "customary-English Esperanto Greek
meaning-words" (Modern)
---------------------------------
_________________________________----------------
________________ Fortunate Felicxa Eutuxhs,
Eutuxismenos
le lojbo se ciska - Your turn Pleased (Kontenta)
Euxaristhmenos
Nick Nicholas has translated Happy Gaja Xaroumenos
the next paragraph of the ongoingJoyful Gxoja (can't
Jim Carter science fiction story,think of one)
but partly due to space, and Blissful (Sengxena) Makarios
partly because of the other large(cf. Latin Beatus)
translation here from Nick, we
are holding that for next issue. The Esperanto has 'Fortunate'
Instead, I'm going to put some because this makes the link
challenges to the readership (in between cause of happiness and
case all this text, and Ivan's the happiness explicit: Gxojas
requests for tanru or lujvo, tiuj, kiuj... would sound like
aren't enough. their joy was incidental to their
I seriously want to see as manyseeing God. It would be even
people as possible try one of theworse with Gajas tiuj, kiuj...
following two Lojbanic exercises.which reads somewhat like "Those
The first is merely an exercise who have seen God are running
in creative word manipulation, around smiling".
which any language lover can do. But the original Greek had
(You can complicate the exercise Makarioi, and the Latin
by using it as practice in lujvo-translation has Beati.
making, but this is not obliga- Admittedly some semantics would
tory.) The second is a set of have been influenced by the
aphorism translation exercises Church's use of the term; but Oi
that anyone can work on. Makarioi Nhsoi, the Isles of
We would like feedback on theseBliss, the late-pagan-Greek
exercises, whatever you choose toequivalent of heaven, predates
do with them. Are they in- Christian theology (I think).
teresting? Which did you try to What this implies to me is that
do, how well did you do, and how Christ meant something along the
do you feel about your level of lines of 'They will have no
success compared to your worries, no disquiet', not 'they
expectations? Do you want will run around smiling' (Happy)
exercises like this to be a or 'they will run around
regular feature of ju'i lobypli, hurrahing' (Joyful) or 'they will
and which exercises did you like
106
say "ain't we lucky"' (Fortunate, First you wander through the
Pleased). gismu list pulling out words
Does la Lojban distinguish related to the concept. I didn't
between these happinesses (it pull the following out in order,
doesn't have to, and I've heard but about 15 minutes gave me all
SapirWhorfish mumbles against of them. You can probably find
such distinctions), and which more using your own lists. As
would it have picked here? you will see, don't be picky -
_________________________________let your mind play word associa-
________________ tion games.
Bob: Yes and no. We can Some key source words (I'll use
distinguish between any concepts,the published gismu list; some
but no one has done so yet. The places of some of these are pro-
"SapirWhorfish mumbles" you heardbably going to change, but not to
are wrong - one of the areas significantly affect this
where Lojban may exhibit S-W exercise - feel free to suggest
effects is in the ability to makechanges, in fact):
such distinctions, and the
creativity that results from the Idea Place structure rafsi or
free combination of ideas. In lujvo
fact, I proposed a massive effortgleki x is happy about ygle gei
like the following way back in pluka x pleases y puk pu'a
the first issue of JL, under the se pluka x is pleased by y
name 'complexing'. In a sense, selpu'a
doing this is what made me salci x celebrates y sal
interested in Loglan enough to xalbo x is levity/non-serious
tackle the dictionary project about y -
(which is how I got started). (Izdile x is amusing to y zil zdi
love playing with words and their se zdile x is amused by y
corresponding ideas, to see how selzdi
they interact.)
So let's do it. Let's see how These are 5 different basic
many ways there are to be happy 'kinds' of happiness. They can
(do happy?). I'll give some stand alone or modify each other:
hints and guidelines, and see
what our readers can come up
with:
salci gleki x is
celebratingly-happy about y salgei
gay/joyful
se zdile gleki x is
amusedly-happy about y selzdigei
one kind of enjoy, but see below.
Idea Place structure rafsi or
lujvo
gleki x is happy about y gle gei
pluka x pleases y puk pu'a
se pluka x is pleased by y selpu'a
salci x celebrates y sal
xalbo x is levity/non-serious about y -
zdile x is amusing to y zil zdi
se zdile x is amused by y selzdi
107
These are 5 different basic 'kinds' of happiness. They can stand
alone or modify each other:
salci gleki x is
celebratingly-happy about y salgei
gay/joyful
se zdile gleki x is
amusedly-happy about y selzdigei
one kind of enjoy, but see below.
But we needn't stop here. There are related words that are useful
for specific kinds of happiness:
bebna x is foolish in y beb
cando x is idle/at rest/inactive cad
cizra x is strange/bizarre to y in z ciz
cunso x is random/chance cun cu'o
dimna x is the fate/destiny/doom of y -
se dimna x is doomed to y seldimna
fenki x is crazy/insane in doing/being y fek
jgira x has pride about y jgi
kanro x is healthy ka'o
kufra x is comfortable in environment y kuf
lifri x experiences y lif fri
lijda x is the religion of people y with tenets z lij jda
se lijda x follows religion y with tenets z seljda
mansa x is satisfied with y -
panpi x is at peace pap
pensi x thinks about y pen pei
prije x is wise/sage about y by standard/observer z pij
racli x is sane/rational -
ranxi x is ironic in that y rax
sanga x sings y to z sag
siclu x makes whistling sound y with z sil
stodi x is constant/invariant in y tod sto
tarti x behaves/conducts self as y under conditions z tat tai
tcaci x is the custom/habit of y under condition z cac tca
tinbe x obeys/follows command y by z tib
xamgu x is good for y by standard z xag xau
zabna x is the ameliorative of y zan za'a
All 24 of these can be applied as modifiers to "gleki",
"selpu'a", "selzdi", "xalbo" and "salci", and in some cases each
other. That gives over 120. Many will bring to mind a situation
where they would be useful. Some, not all will suggest an English
word equivalent (or possibly to Esperantists an Esperanto word, or
to Nick, a Greek word.) All are valid tanru in Lojban. All more
or less mean "happy". All can be made into lujvo. Anyone want to
tackle the complete set systematically, giving us hundreds of words
for the dictionary in one fell swoop? If you aren't that ambi-
tious, try a few dozen, put together as you see fit (which may take
a while) or a systematic subset (after doing this for a few
minutes, you'll find you can't write them as fast as you can
analyze them and put them together).
I'll give several examples:
bebna gleki x is
foolishly-happy about y bebgei
one kind of giddy
108
fenki gleki x is
crazily/insanely happy about y fekygei
another kind
zabna lifri x
Experiences! y zanfri
enjoys (my preference for this English word in most
contexts)
siclu gleki x is
whistlingly-happy about y (whistling z with w) silgei
(think Snow White and the 7 Dwarves)
panpi kufra x is
peacefully-comfortable in environment y papkufra
content
panpi gleki x is
peacefully-happy about y papygei
serene
se lijda gleki x is
religiously-believing happy about y seljdagei
beatific
With the "happy" word first:
gleki panpi x is
happily-at peace (happy about y) glepanpi
blissful geirpanpi
Not enough? We have intensities:
carmi x is intense in y cam cai
milxe x is mild/gentle/unextreme in property y mli
mleca x is less than y in property z by amount w mec me'a
mutce x is toward the y extreme in property z mut mu'e
traji x is superlative in property y taj rai
zmadu x is more than y in property z by amount w zad zma mau
carmi gleki x is
intensely-happy about y camgei
implies a particularly emphatic happiness
mutce gleki x is very-
happy about y mu'egle
a little broader happiness than camgei, but still
extreme
gleki zmadu x is happy-
more than y is (about z by amount w) glemau or
happier geizma
zmadu gleki x is more-
happy about y (than z is by amount w) maugle or
zmagei
se gleki zmadu x is
happy_making-more than y (than z is by amt w) selgeimau
which can then be converted without lujvo making to:
se selgeimau x is made-
happy-more by y than by z by amt w
a proper and fairly exact lujvo is selkemselgei
mau
but the following will probably be adopted selselgeimau
because any other interpretation of "selsel-" is a
nullity
Finally, we can also define happiness in terms of what it is
not, or what it lacks:
to'e polar opposite (c.f. Esperanto mal- ?) to'e
109
no'e neutral scalar negation no'e
badri x is sad/depressed about y dri
claxu x lacks/is without y cax cau
dunku x is anguished/distressed by y duk du'u
fanza x annoys/irritates/bothers y by doing/being z faz
se fanza x is annoyed by y doing/being z selfanza
fengu x is angry at y for z feg fe'u
junri x is serious about y jur
pante x protests/objects/complains to y about z by doing w -
raktu x troubles/disturbs y by z ra'u
se raktu x is troubled by y doing z selra'u
steba x feels frustration about y under conditions z seb
xanka x is nervous/anxious about y -
Examples:
to'e badri x is polar-opposite of sad/depressed about y to'erdr
i
to'e pante x opposite-of-protests to y about z by doing w to'erpa
nte
compliments y ...
no'e pante x doesn't-protest to y about z by doing no'erpante
has nothing to complain about to y
is a reasonable interpretation of this as a lujvo,
but there may be others
se raktu claxu x is
troubled-lacking of y doing z selra'ucau
a specific kind of bliss or serenity suggesting:
x is blissfully unaware of y doing z
I'll close by listing some others Jim Brown had in his old
dictionary, (updated to Lojban standards). I don't always agree
with Brown's tanru but they may give ideas (a version of his
'English equivalent' is in parentheses):
gleki culno x is happy-
full of y (x is joyful about y) geiclu
gleki xendo x is happy-
kind towards y (x hearty/warm-hearted toward y) glexe'o
gleki rinka x is happy-
causer of y (x cheers y up giving) gleri'a
se rinka gleki x is
causedly happy about y by cause z selgleri'a
(x is cheered up/cheerful about y cheered by z)
(which we can use other causals in:)
se mukti gleki x is
motivatedly-happy about y by motive z selglemu'i
se krinu gleki x is
justifiedly happy about y with reason z selgleki'u
or even
se nibli gleki x is
logically-necessitated to be happy about y by logic z (?!) selglen
i'i
Most English words will map to more than one Lojban word,
because there are so many Lojban words. Thus we can make finer
distinctions in our words than English can!
For those not familiar with lujvo-making rules, here's the
easy version. Replace the final vowel of all but the last word
with 'y', and write it as one word. Thus the 'easy' form of
110
'bebgei' is 'bebnygleki', and the two word versions are absolutely
the same in meaning, place structure, etc.
If you want to try to shorten them, the following is a short
set of rules omitting a couple of special cases that you'll rarely
run into. See the Synopsis for complete rules. (For those few
people who have gotten the new issue of the rafsi list, these rules
are included).
Remember that the final rafsi must end in a vowel,
incompatible consonant junctures between rafsi (voiced/unvoiced
like "bp", same consonant like "bb", and both fricative "c, j, s,
or z", and a few others - see the Synopsis or the back page of the
Lojban-order gismu list) require a "y" 'hyphen' between the
consonants. Also a CVV form requires 'r' as a hyphen in the first
rafsi, unless immediately followed by a CCV affix (this to form the
mandatory consonant cluster - use an 'n' if the following affix
starts with 'r'). There are a few other rules, but if you get this
far your first try without making any mistakes, I'll be more than
******* (Well - you find the word I want!!!)
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Our other exercise is in translation of aphorisms. This can
be a game of almost any level of difficulty or skill required, so
we will provide both Lojban and English data so that it can be max-
imally used.
What follows are three sets of sentences:
- The first set of sentences consists of Lojban translations of
some aphorisms and other 'pithy sayings', the product of
various members of the Lojban conversation group that meets
here in the Washington DC area.
- The second set of sentences are the original English versions of
each of the Lojban translations, not in the same order as the
Lojban sentences. This set of aphorisms is graded in
difficulty from 1 (easiest) to 4 (hardest), in terms of amount
of Lojban skill needed to translate them into Lojban.
- The third set of sentences are also English aphorisms, but these
have no translations. They are 'exercises'. This set of
aphorisms is graded in difficulty from 1 (easiest) to 4
(hardest) as is the second set. These are estimates, since
the sentences haven't been translated.
The translation section at the end of this issue has the
complete set of matches between the first two sets of sentences, so
that you can study them in comparison to each other. Feel free to
comment on or criticize any of these translations, or try to do
better yourself.
Here's what you do with these sentences:
- The simplest exercise is to attempt to understand the first set
of aphorisms, matching them up with their corresponding members of
the second set.
- Slightly more difficult is to go the other way. Attempt to
translate sentences in the second set into Lojban sufficiently that
you can match them to the corresponding members of the first set.
You can also mix the two directions, trying some in each direction,
making sure you mark sentences off so that you don't repeat
yourself. Note that the Set #1 translations may not be the best
possible.
111
- You can attempt to fully translate the first set into English,
seeing if you can figure out colloquial translations of the Lojban.
You can compare your answer with the real quotation, which will
help you judge your skill in reading Lojban, and our skill in
communicating to you in Lojban.
- Still braver, you can attempt to completely translate the second
set of sentences into Lojban, and then compare your answer with the
one that our group came up with. If you don't agree, you may still
be correct - there is certainly more than one way to translate
these types of sentences. If you think your version is as good or
better, send it to us, and we may use yours when these are used as
exercises in the Lojban textbook or samples in the first Lojban
reader.
- Finally, you can translate the third set of sentences into Lojban
and send them to us. Include on a separate sheet the identifying
number or complete English for each translation. The conversation
group here will then attempt to back-translate your versions, which
will help us learn the language. We will collectively respond to
all submissions with comments and corrections of your attempts.
The best translations will appear in future la lojbangirz.
publications. We of course recommend working from easier aphorisms
to harder ones, but work at whatever level you feel comfortable.
- If you are studying together with at least one other Lojbanist,
you can also do exactly what our group did in developing the first
set. Cut individual English aphorisms into strips and put them
into a box. Each person takes a slip and translates their sentence
into Lojban. When all are done, say or write your results in turn,
and have the other(s) try to back-translate into English - then
compare with the original, and discuss the problems you
experienced. We successfully did this with people of a variety of
Lojban expertise at LogFest. You can do it too.
Set #1 - Pre-translated Lojban Aphorisms
Note: Two Lojban sentences below correspond to one single English
in Set #2. Thus there are 20 Lojban sentences, and only 19 English
ones in these two sets.
A. mi pu ricfu .ije mi pu pindi .i la'ede'u cu xagmau
B. le tordu temci morji cu traji se sinma sera'a le turni
C. le nu clira ckaklama gi'e clira ckacliva cu rinka le ka kanro
joi ricfu joi prije
D. le ka terpa cu me lo pa drani se terpa
E. le banli to'e jetnu cu zmadu le jetnu le ni se krici
F. lo ka krici le cevni cu noroi mintu lo ka prami le cevni
G. mi pagbu ro le se tcidu be mi
H. lo cevni ka'enai galfi loi purci .iku'i lo circtuca ka'e go'i
I. lo no'e cevni krici cu krici le nu ri cu snuti
J. te'inai mi zmadu djica le nu zvati la Filydelfias
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K. lo sidbo cu na fuzme le prenu poi krici ri
L. le clira cipni cu cpacu le curnu
M. na curmi le nu djuno roda
N. pa nunfenso pe ca lo zantemci cu fanta so nunfenso
O. fe le nu catra xaksu lo temci kei fa lo kamni nu penmi cu prane
xarci
P. ro le nu kusru cu se rinka le ka ruble
Q. da poi renvi sepi'o loi balre baca'a mrobi'o sepi'o loi sodva
vanju se pinxe
R. lo kumte cu simlu lo xirma poi se plafinti lo kamni
S. le verba poi terpa le manku ku'o ji le prenu poi terpa le se
gusni cu bebna traji
T. no da pe le turni cu dunli se sinma lo tordu ni morji
Set #2 - Difficulty-Sorted English Originals for Set #1
1. (1) An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it.
- Don Marquis
2. (1) The early bird gets the worm.
3. (1) I am a part of all that I have read. - John Kieran
4. (1) I've been rich and I've been poor; rich is better. - Sophie
Tucker
5. (2) A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee.
- Vogue magazine, July, 1958
6. (2) God cannot alter the past, but historians can. - Samuel
Butler
7. (2) An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident. -
Francis Thompson
8. (2) A stitch in time saves nine. - Benjamin Franklin
9. (2) To know all things in not permitted. - Horace
10. (2) All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca
11. (3) Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. -
John Kenneth Galbraith
12. (3) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
13. (3) On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia. - W. C. Fields
14. (3) Faith is never identical with piety. - Karl Barth
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15. (3) Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy,
wealthy and wise.
16. (3) A big lie is more plausible than truth. - Ernest Hemingway
17. (3) To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon. -
Laurence J. Peter
18. (4) Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the
man afraid of the light? - Maurice Freehill
19. (4) He who lives by the sword shall perish by the champagne
cocktail. - Saul Alinsky
Set #3 - No-Translations Given: Aphorisms in Difficulty Order
1. (1) A page of history is worth a volume of logic. - Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Jr.
2. (1) All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions. -
Leonardo da Vinci
3. (1) You can fool most of the people most of the time - P. T.
Barnum
4. (1) Examine the contents, not the bottle. - The Talmud
5. (1) History is only a confused heap of facts. - Earl of
Chesterfield
6. (1) I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand. - Chinese proverb
7. (1) If it is not erotic, it is not interesting. - Fernando
Arrabal
8. (1) Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. - Henry David
Thoreau
9. (1) Native ability without education is like a tree without
fruit. - Aristippus
10. (1) Not to decide is to decide. - Harvey Cox
11. (2) A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a
statistic. - Joseph Stalin
12. (2) Art is not a thing; it is a way. - Elbert Hubbard
13. (2) Doubt is not a pleasant mental state but certainty is a
ridiculous one. - Voltaire
14. (2) History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories
of man. - Percy Bysshe Shelley
15. (2) If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt
thought. - George Orwell
114
16. (2) If you scoff at language study ... how, save in terms of
language, will you scoff? - Mario Pei
17. (2) If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed
to say it. - Marcus Tullius Cicero
18. (2) In war there is no substitute for victory. - Douglas
MacArthur
19. (2) My father gave me these hints on speech-making: "be
sincere...be brief...be seated." - James Roosevelt
20. (2) Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be
understood. - Marie Curie
21. (2) No man is a failure who is enjoying life. - William Feather
22. (2) Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. -
Edgar Allan Poe
23. (2) Seeing is deceiving. It's eating that's believing. - James
Thurber
24. (2) Shake and shake / The catsup bottle, / None will come, /
And then a lot'll. - Richard Armour
25. (2) Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. -
Henri Bergson
26. (2) Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it. - George Santayana
27. (2) Those who write clearly have readers; those who write
obscurely have commentators. - Albert Camus
28. (2) The thoughtless are rarely wordless.
29. (2) These Macedonians are a rude and clownish people; they call
a spade a spade. - Plutarch
30. (2) The heart has its reasons which reason does not understand.
- Blaise Pascal
31. (2) There is nothing permanent except change. - Heraclitus
32. (2) To be a success in business, be daring, be first, be
different. - Marchant
33. (2) We are tomorrow's past. - Mary Webb
34. (2) What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions. -
Arnold Glasow
35. (2) Who shall guard the guardians themselves. - Juvenal
36. (2) You'll find in no park or city / A monument to a committee.
- Victoria Pasternak
37. (2) A belief is not true because it is useful. - Henri Frederic
Amiel
115
38. (2) A person gets from a symbol the meaning he puts into it. -
The United States Supreme Court
39. (2) All the fun's in how you say a thing. - Robert Frost
40. (3) Be obscure clearly. - E. B. White
41. (3) I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally. -
W. C. Fields
42. (3) Leadership is action, not position. - Donald H. McGannon
43. (3) Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread
it. - George Bernard Shaw
44. (3) Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers. -
Johann W. von Goethe
45. (3) Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. - Lord Acton
46. (3) The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, but that's the way to bet. - Damon Runyon
47. (3) Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things
before breakfast. - Lewis Carroll
48. (3) The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given
out. - Chinese Proverb
49. (3) Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for
themselves. - Abraham Lincoln
50. (3) The day will come when everyone will be famous for fifteen
minutes. - Andy Warhol
51. (3) We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is
overwhelming. - Wernher von Braun
52. (3) What is honored in a country will be cultivated there. -
Plato
53. (3) When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -
neither more nor less. - Lewis Carroll
54. (3) When an idea is wanting a word can always be found to take
its place. - Johann W. von Goethe
55. (4) 'Tain't what a man don't know that hurts him; it's what he
knows that just ain't so! - Frank McKinney Hubbard
56. (4) A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is
the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and
content according to the circumstances and time in which it is
used. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
57. (4) Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV
by candlelight? - Al Boliska
116
58. (4) For every person wishing to teach there are thirty not
wanting to be taught. - W. C. Sellar and R. Y. Yeatman
59. (4) It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards. -
Lewis Carroll
60. (4) Production is not the application of tools to material, but
logic to work. - Peter Drucker
61. (4) The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.
- James Russell Lowell
62. (4) The past always looks better than it was. It's only
pleasant because it isn't here. - Finley Peter Dunne
63. (4) The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two
words when one will do. - Thomas Jefferson
64. (4) When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he
noble. - Buddha
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
For our untranslated Lojban text this issue, I'll share the
floor with Ivan Derzhanski, who was studying in Boston when he
wrote the following letter. My answer follows. Ivan wrote his
text and understood mine with only level 1 materials. There ARE
grammatical errors in Ivan's letter, but I was able to figure out
most of what was intended, and my response corrects those errors.
coi lojbab. do'u
ni'o di'e pamoi xatra ci'a mi bau la Lojban.
.i .oinai.o'u mi cpacu le'i pelji
ni'o mi sidju ledo nu zbasu le reno valsi
.i ku'i baze'inai la'edi'u ne ki'u ca nu mutce cutyzu'e
ni'o .a'ocai do pu'i jimpe se mi ciska
.i u'u na mi mutce djuno Lojban. .ije lerci .ije mi tatpi
.i .au.a'u mi cpacu zoi <draft textbook lessons> zoi
co'omi'e .iVAN.
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
.ue do xamgu troci lenu cusku bau la Lojban.
.i la nik. ji'a puzi cpacu le selprina du'i xaunro'i (xamgytroci
ta'unai)
.i mi jimpe ledo selsku .iku'i do milxe srera .ijeseku'ibo mi na
birti le smuni be ledo vomoi jufra noi pilno le pluja ke temci
cmavo .iku'i mi smadi
.i lo lojbo cmene cu nitcu lo cmene valsi tcita .iseni'ibo le do
xamoi jufra cu se srera .ije do pu djica <<lu .i .u'u na[ku]
mi mutce djuno la Lojban. li'u>>
.i xu do djica lenu mi ca benji le zasni tadycku kei ji lenu mi
denpa ledo benji le krasi bangu selfanva terfanva
.i mi djica lenu do cmima binxo le lojbo ke skami xe mrilu po'u la
lojban. list.
117
.ije ko benji le notci poi vasru ledo skami judri fo zoi <<.uniks.
[email protected] .uniks.>> .i ko cpedu bau la
gliban .uu ki'u la erik. na tadni la lojban
.i mi djica lenu do mrilu lo fukpi be le do xatra joi le mi se
spuda xatra le lojbo ke skami girzu po'u zoi <<.uniks. lojban-
[email protected] .uniks.>>
.i .u'u mi puza srera .ije ledo pamoi se mrilu cu te mrilu zoi
<<.uniks. [email protected] .uniks.>>
.i ko ranji lenu troci le lojbo cusku
.i co'omi'e lojbab.
[Note that the network address is no longer correct. See page 2 of
this issue for the new address.]
Those letters were written in April. In July, Ivan, now back
in Bulgaria, sent me a postcard and the following letter. The
letter is virtually perfect, having only three minor errors that
hardly affect understanding. 1) Ivan had a "zo" quote on the name,
which I've replaced with lo'u/le'u quotes since there is more than
one word. 2) Lojbanized names should end in a consonant, but
inside 'ungrammatical Lojban text' quotes, this does not matter.
3) Ivan's original: "pa le tercfi lemi natmi beme'e zo ..." meant
that his nation, and not the author, had the indicated name.
118
A portion of the text is embedded English. Ivan asks for help
in expressing some concepts, which will be obvious in the text,
even if you can't read the Lojban. Please suggest tanru or lujvo
for any or all of them. If you are not confident at lujvo-making
from a tanru, but feel that the concept should be expressed in a
single word, put the Lojban words together separated by a hyphen.
I encourage that proposed lujvo come with a plausible place
structure. I'll collect the suggestions and send them to Ivan.
I note in passing that "LogFest" has the impermissible medial
'gf' which makes it a bad Lojbanized name. Maybe it is time we
switch the name to Lojban since people are starting to write about
it in Lojban. What do people think of "la jbosalci"?
de'e xatra tu'i la pijyta'u de'i li pa pi'e ze pi'e sopa
coi lojbab.
ni'o mi rinsa do tebe'i lemi tcadu no'u le la bulgariax. ralta'u
.i .oiru'e mutce lenku .i le djacu carvi cu na sisti
ni'o mi troci ke lojbo fanva lo lisri be ci'a pa le tercfi pe lemi
natmi zi'e peme'e lo'u XRISto. SMIRnenski. le'u be'o
.iku'i pi su'o loi selsku cu dukse nandu mi .i mi benji lo pagbu
be ri do .i .e'o ko stidi le lojbo velsku
.i zoi. problem.
(1) dedicate (a story) to (sbd.)
(2) clench one's fist; fist (n.)
(3) bribe; ransom
(4) betray
(5) tear, rend (cloth); rag (n,
(6) bend, lean over (sbd.)
(7) threat, menace (n.)
(8) rush, dash
(9) shrill, piercing (sound)
.problem.
ni'o.a'o la LogFest. pe le cabnanca pu snada
co'omi'e .iVAN.
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Nick Nicholas, our Australian/Greek/Esperantist Lojban star is
interested in exploring Lojban stylistics. Although he has worked
on learning Lojban only a few months, he has a command of the
language about as good as anyone has. Perhaps too good - his
writings may be beyond the capability of most readers' following.
This is sad because the stylistic variation in the Lojban that he
was trying to achieve is quite obvious. Equally important, it is
quite interesting.
I urge everyone willing to spend a bit of time to try various
portions of the text (some are more difficult than others). Feel
free to liberally cheat and look back at the translation section,
or perhaps just read the text with translation there. Skip around
and sample the five sections, and see if you too can perceive the
stylistic variation in the Lojban.
119
A warning with a suggestion - this is not an easy text;
indeed, it goes far beyond the draft textbook lessons in use of the
grammar. Do not get too hung up if you cannot figure out a word
(Nick even uses a couple that are not in the published cmavo list,
but are noted in the JL14 change pages, or in the discussion above
on sumti-raising. I've tried to identify these and work around
this problem, but may have missed something.) Try to get the gist
of what is being said, and the words may become clear from context.
And don't get hung up on one sentence too long - move on to the
next one.
The following is translated from modern Greek. Freddy
Germanos, (1934- ) is a newspaper columnist, and this is taken from
a book collection of his columns for the Mesimvrin'i (Midday) pa-
per, printed in 1967 by Galaxias publishers. The title of the book
is 'To Dhis Examartein' ('Sinning Twice' - alluding to the ancient
Greek saying, "Sinning twice is not [a characteristic] of a wise
man". The parody is on pp. 12-13 of the 7th edition, dated March
1974, by Grigoris Publishers, 73 Solonos St., Athens. There is no
copyright notice on the book.
lonu reroi pacnunzu'e cu na se ckaji lo prije
ni'oni'oni'oni'o la fredis. germaNOS. pu finti .i la kir. pu
te pinxe pamo'o .i memi'a poi te prosa
ni'oni'oni'o nuzba
ni'oni'o le briju cu so'iroi se klama so'olemi pendo poi co'a
se jibri zu'i po mi gi'e preti cpedu le tarmi po'e lo nuzba nu
cusku
ni'o .i'a loi nuzba ne semau roda vajrai ci'elo karni nu cupra
.iku'i cinri fa lo karni poi mu'i lenu ke'a pilno ku cusku le go'i
.i rolo karni cu ckaji leri tadji be le nuzba nu cusku .i la'edi'u
nibli lenu ra se tcidu co frili gi'a se tcidu naku
ni'o mupli lo nuzba poi mutce sampu .i lo nixli be li mu ca
lepu'u kelci levo'a bolci cu farlu lo skuro poi karbi'o se kakpa
lei gunka pole ta'utru
.i tarmi le ve cusku be le nuzba bei pi'o la karni be de'i roboi lo
djedi be'oku (to la roldei toi) .i
<<lu di'o lo paboi te kruca be le klaji poi se cmene la
.adriaNOS. vauku'o bei le klaji poi se cmene la paleologos.
ku'obe'oku ko'a goi paboi lo nixli be muboi lo nanca be'oku
ge'u pu se xrani ca lepu'u ko'a cu kelci da noi ke'a se tarmi
lo bolci vauku'ovaukeivau .i le nu xrani vaukei cu diklo
fe'eba'o va paboi le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon.
be'oku noi la kamBUroglus. pu skicu ke'a ta'i lo se ciska ku
tai loka lanli vaukeivauku'ovau .i la'edi'e cu cizra zo'e
lenu fasnu vaukei ne sekai leka na xlura vaukeige'uvau .i
paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku pu binxo le
120
speni be paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku poi na
du vo'a ku'o soivo'avo'e se'u be'oku vi le zdani be lai
varvatis. be'oku noi jibni le zdani be lai paleologon.
benizelon. be'okuvauku'ovau .i le nixli ki na se ckape vau
li'u>>
.i ke'unai vecu'u la akROpolis. le nuzba cu ka'e ckaji loka zmadu
cinri bo cfipu .i
<<lu pu zgana ne'i lo skuro lo se xrani. goi ko'a poi mebrai
nixli gi'e jarco lo frili se viska jalge be lonu vlile .i
ri'anai lenu le zekri lifri po'u ko'a na pujaca skicu fi lei
pulji kei ca cipra fa ri lejei na'e snuti (to pupu jinvi
to'ebori toi) gi'e cinse zekri .i lo kamni poi se cmima le mi
karni zbasu caca'a cipra fi le tcini mu'i lenu djica co danfu
fo re preti ra'u po'u di'e .i pamai xu le nixli pu cinse
vlile lifri .i remai fau lenu ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri
kei ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri ki'u ma li'u>>
.i li'a vecu'u la cermurse [see the new gismu added this issue]
sesau se basna fa loi drata tcila .i
<<lu nixli .i ko'a pe leni slabu .i ri du mu nanca .i xrani
ca le purlamdei .i farlu lo skuro po la ta'utru ca lenu kelci
le bolci .i ko'a ze'iba tavla palemi karnypra .i ko'a fatci
xusra .i
<<lu mi farlu le skuro .i ni'ibo mi na citka ca re djedi
.i besna se cfipu .i lemi mamta cu selfu seljibri .i
lemi patfu cu na'e dinycpa .i ni'ibo ri roroi pantydzu
li'u>>
li'u>>
121
.ice ka'e zgana cusku fo la natmi nu'arki'a
<<lu lenu xrani cu se rinka lonu pimo'ale skuro cu te sabji lo
gacri .i ni'inai lenu na catni se xusra cu cusku lenu fuzme
fa relo gunka pe le ta'utru ge'u zi'e noi ze'u .o'onai
kaurposysi'orpre .i lei pulji cu cipra lejei zasti fa loi
flana'etinbe gripre noi pu zukte lo drata nu jecyselxrazei
li'u>>
.i romai la deimid. cfari le ni'onrai tarmi be loi nuzba
.i <<lu se tirna fa lo voksa .i se viska fa lo xance poi se
desku tai loka ti'e pacna zi'epoi cpedu lenu sidju .ibabo
smaji .i ?ma pu fasnu .i mi ciksi .i lo nixli pu sakli
mo'ine'i lo skuro .ibazabo le nixli cu bacru
<<lu mi farlu ri'a lenu la paf. na di'i tcidu la deimid.
li'u>>
li'u>>
Nick asked for a return of "lei lojbo", Nora's comic strip.
In honor of Nick's efforts, and his Esperantist background, enjoy
the following page. Esperanto text was aided by David Twery.
122
lei lojbo by Nora LeChevalier
123
Translations of le lojbo se ciska
lo zekri fi'e la bab. tcySEL.
A crime, created by Bob Chassell
Probably just "zekri", an observative, would be better.
Stand-alone sumti in Lojban suggest an answer to a "ma"
question. With the "fi'e" author label, "me la'ezo zekri ..."
might be still better.
.i mi cadzu pagre le vorme le kumfa
I walkingly pass through the door into the room.
We need a word for doorway, probably as a place of "vorme". I
doubt that the door itself was passed through.
Bob several times uses "lo" and "le" in ways I can't quite
figure out. As a reader, whenever I see "le" attached to a
new description, I expect to see some restrictive relative
clause that tells which one "the" door is, and which one "the"
room is. When I don't, as here, I get narrative suspense,
which may be the intent. But one normally expects the
suspense will resolve. I have made the English translate in a
literal fashion that suggests what Bob's descriptor choices
would be interpreted as.
.i lo xadni pe le nanmu cu vreta lo loldi
A body of the man reclines upon a floor.
"pe" is an unnaturally loose 'possessive' for this relation.
Bob could have used "be" since the man could be the x2 of
"xadni". Normally one thinks of a body as inalienably
associated with a particular person, so "po'e" would seem more
natural than "pe".
.i mi viska le flecu be loi ciblu bei fo le xadni
I see the current of Blood flowing from the body.
Bob C.'s Note: I suggest that "flecu" be given the same form
as "fall":
"x1 flows to x2 ..." instead of the current:
flecu fec fle flow current of/in..flowing
to..from..'flush'
Bob L. responds: That would be a different, and narrower
meaning of "flow". This is the 'noun' version of "flow",
which can include oceanic currents, etc.
.i mi sisku loi sinxa be le zekri
I seek Signs/Symbols of the described-as-a (alleged)
crime.
.i mi viska loi kevna pe loi danti ge'u be lo sefta
be lo jubme
I see Holes associated with Bullets in a surface
of a table.
Presumably the bullets made only one hole each, so "lo kevna"
and "lo danti" might be better than "loi". "lo" can apply to
plural things, as long as the statement is true of each sepa-
124
rate item. can apply to plural things, as long as the
statement is true of each separate item.
.ije mi viska lo nu loi cukta pu farlu lo kajna
lo jubme e lo loldi
And I see an event that Books fell from a shelf to
a table and a floor.
There is no inference permitted that this "lo loldi" is the
same floor as the one that the body was on. This is one
problem with "lo", which is never restricted unless explicitly
so.
.ije mi viska lo nu lo canko cu kalri
And I see an event that a window is open.
125
.i mi catlu lo plita ke bartu drudi noi lo'e prenu
cadzu
I look at a flat , exterior roof which a typical person
walks (on it).
.i mi cusku fi la tam. noi pulji ku'o fe lu pe'i
le zekri prenu
I say to Tom, who-incidentally polices, " I
think [I opine] the crime person
pu cpare le plita ke bartu drudi le canko pe le
kumfa li'u
climbed over the flat , exterior-roof to the window of the
room. "
.i la tam. cusku lu ia. ie.
Tom says " Yes (belief), I agree.
.i ko catlu le kevna be le bitmu be'o poi ke'a trixe le
pixra
Look at the cavity in he wall which it is behind the
picture.
.i le kevna cu vasru lo tanxe .ije ri kunti
zo'e li'u
The cavity contains a box and The last referent is empty
of something unspecified."
.i la tam. cusku lu ju'e le tanxe pu vasru
loi rupnu li'u
Tom says, " I conclude that the box contained [full of]
Money. "
The "full of" is not implied in the Lojban. Perhaps "vasru
culno" would do so.
.i mi catlu le vorme pe le tanxe pe le bitmu
I look at the door of the box in [associated with] the wall.
Again, "vorme be le tanxe" seems better. ('Use the place
structures, Luke')
.i mi cusku lu ba'a le stela cu porpi
I say " I expect the lock is broken.
.i .ua .ue mi facki lo za'i ge lo
vorme gi lo stela na porpi li'u
(Discovery! Surprise!) I discover that the state of both a door
and a lock is not broken."
.i mi cusku fi la tam. fe lu le minra pu farlu lo bitmu lo
loldi gi'e pu porpi li'u
I say to Tom, " The mirror fell from a wall to a
floor and broke. "
.i la tam. cusku lu pe'i le morsi nanmu pu lacpu le
minra lo loldi lo bitmu
Tom says " I think [I opine] the dead man pulled the
mirror to a floor from a wall.
126
.i se'o mi'o catlu lo sinxa da poi
ke'a vajni lo nu
sisku li'u
I have a hunch you and I are looking at a sign of something
that [it] is important for an event of seeking." ("se'o" is
listed in the JL14 changes.)
.i la tam. cusku lu ra'u ju'e lo prenu poi
ke'a pu sazri le stela
Tom said, " Most important, I conclude the person who
(he/she) operated the lock
lo za'i kalri ku'o djuno fi lo tadji
be lo pu'u kalri sazri
with goal of a state-of-being open knows about a method
of a process of open operating
le tanxe vorme li'u
the box door. "
I made some minor changes to Bob's original of this and the
line so it would fit the place structure of "djuno" described
in the sumti-raising article above.
.i mi cusku lu ganai tu'a le zekri prenu goi ko'a
ge kalri rinka le stela tanxe
I said " If (in doing something) the thief (x1)
both open caused the lock box
ginai spofu rinka tu'a ri
and did not broken causes it (the lock box) (to be
something; i.e., broken).
gi ko'a cu djuno fi lo pu'u kalri sazri le
tanxe vorme
then he knows about a process of open operating the box
door.
This is an excellent example of both forethought logical
connectives (which Bob figured out how to properly do even
though that textbook lesson has not yet been written), and of
the necessity for sumti-raising (I added the "tu'a"s).
Without marking the sumti-raising, it is especially easy to
see that "spofu rinka ri" does not translate properly:
"ri", the lock box is the x2 place of "rinka", an event
caused.
.i .ua ru'a ko'a catlu le se minra be le nu
kalri sazri le stela
(discovery!) I postulate x1 looked at the reflected of the
event of open operating the lock
tanxe vorme sepi'o lo darno ke catlu cabra
li'u
box door using tool a far type-of looking-at apparatus
[telescope]."
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Following is the translation of John Cowan's story:
pamoi xamrei ra'a lo verba
127
first funny-question associated-with a child
ni'o la paf. cusku <<lu pau mazo'o crino gi'e dandu le bitmu gi'e
siclu li'u>>
(New subject) Dad says "What (funny!) is-green and hangs-on the
wall and whistles?"
.i la ver. cusku <<lu .uanai mi na djuno li'u>>
Kid says "(Confusion!) I do-not know".
.i la paf. cusku <<lu .ui lo me la clupe'as. xarengus. finpe li'u>>
Dad says "(Happiness!) A Clupeas-harengus type-of fish [a
herring]".
.i la ver. cusku <<lu .ia ri goi ko'a na crino li'u>>
Kid says "(Belief!) That-last, or it1, is-not green".
.i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'i le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba
crino li'u>>
Dad says "(Easy!) The event-of you (Imperative!) acting is-the-
cause-of the event-of it1 will-be green".
.i la ver. cusku <<lu .iasai ko'a ba'e na dandu le bitmu li'u>>
Kid says "(Belief-moderate!) It1 does-not hang-on the wall".
.i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'isai le nu ko gasnu cu rinka le nu ko'a ba
dandu li'u>>
Dad says "(Easy-moderate!) The event-of you (Imperative!) acting
is-the-cause-of the event-of it1 will hang".
.i la ver. cusku <<lu .iacai ko'a ba'e ba'e na siclu li'u>>
Kid says "(Belief-intense!) It1 does-not whistle".
.i la paf. cusku <<lu fu'icai mi pu cusku lo jitfa li'u>>
Dad says "(Easy-intense!) I (past) express a false-thing."
________________________________________________________
Matches between Set #2 and Set #1 Aphorisms
1. (1) An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it.
- Don Marquis
K. lo sidbo cu na fuzme le prenu poi krici ri
2. (1) The early bird gets the worm.
L. le clira cipni cu cpacu le curnu
3. (1) I am a part of all that I have read. - John Kieran
G. mi pagbu ro le se tcidu be mi
4. (1) I've been rich and I've been poor; rich is better. - Sophie
Tucker
A. mi pu ricfu .ije mi pu pindi .i la'ede'u cu xagmau
5. (2) A camel looks like a horse that was planned by a committee.
- Vogue magazine, July, 1958
R. lo kumte cu simlu lo xirma poi se plafinti lo kamni
6. (2) God cannot alter the past, but historians can. - Samuel
Butler
H. lo cevni ka'enai galfi loi purci .iku'i lo circtuca ka'e go'i
7. (2) An atheist is a man who believes himself an accident. -
Francis Thompson
I. lo no'e cevni krici cu krici le nu ri cu snuti
8. (2) A stitch in time saves nine.
N. pa nunfenso pe ca lo zantemci cu fanta so nunfenso
128
9. (2) To know all things in not permitted. - Horace
M. na curmi le nu djuno roda
10. (2) All cruelty springs from weakness. - Seneca
P. ro le nu kusru cu se rinka le ka ruble
11. (3) Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory. -
John Kenneth Galbraith
B. le tordu temci morji cu traji se sinma sera'a le turni
or
T. no da pe le turni cu dunli se sinma lo tordu ni morji
12. (3) The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin
Delano Roosevelt
D. le ka terpa cu me lo pa drani se terpa
13. (3) On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia. - W. C. Fields
J. te'inai mi zmadu djica le nu zvati la Filydelfias
14. (3) Faith is never identical with piety. - Karl Barth
F. lo ka krici le cevni cu noroi mintu lo ka prami le cevni
15. (3) Early to bed and early to rise / Makes a man healthy,
wealthy and wise.
C. le nu clira ckaklama gi'e clira ckacliva cu rinka le ka kanro
joi ricfu joi prije
16. (3) A big lie is more plausible than truth. - Ernest Hemingway
E. le banli to'e jetnu cu zmadu le jetnu le ni se krici
17. (3) To kill time, a committee meeting is the perfect weapon. -
Laurence J. Peter
O. fe le nu catra xaksu lo temci kei fa lo kamni nu penmi cu prane
xarci
18. (4) Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the
man afraid of the light? - Maurice Freehill
S. le verba poi terpa le manku ku'o ji le prenu poi terpa le se
gusni cu bebna traji
19. (4) He who lives by the sword shall perish by the champagne
cocktail. - Saul Alinsky
Q. da poi renvi sepi'o loi balre baca'a mrobi'o sepi'o loi sodva
vanju se pinxe
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________
Nick's translation of a Greek newspaper
lonu reroi pacnunzu'e cu na se ckaji lo prije
ni'oni'oni'oni'o la fredis. germaNOS. pu finti .i la kir. pu
te pinxe pamo'o .i memi'a poi te prosa
ni'oni'oni'o nuzba
ni'oni'o
[Title] Events of twice sinning [evil-events-of-acting] are not
characteristic of the wise ones.
[Author] Freddy Germanos created.
[Section] Kir is Drunk From, Section I. We Who Write Prose.
129
[Article] News
130
le briju cu so'iroi se klama so'olemi pendo poi co'a se jibri zu'i
po mi gi'e preti cpedu le tarmi po'e lo nuzba nu cusku
The office is oftentimes come-to-by several of my friends who
initially are be-jobbed by that typical of us and who
questioningly-request the form which is inalienable to news
expressings.
To the office often come friends who are just getting started in
our profession, and who ask me how to write news.
ni'o .i'a loi nuzba ne semau roda vajrai ci'elo karni nu cupra
.iku'i cinri fa lo karni poi mu'i lenu ke'a pilno ku cusku le go'i
.i rolo karni cu ckaji leri tadji be le nuzba nu cusku .i la'edi'u
nibli lenu ra se tcidu co frili gi'a se tcidu naku
(Acceptance) News, more than all-other-somethings is superlatively-
important in-system journal-producing. However, interesting is the
journal which, motivated by it using, (something) expresses News
[the x1 of the previous bridi]. Each journal is characterized by
its method of news-expressing. This [that they are so
characterized] necessitates that it [uncertain - could be the news-
expressing, the method, each journal] is a read-thing of-type easy,
or is a read-thing not-so.
News is of course the Alpha and Omega of journalism [Greek: public-
writing]. But what's important is which paper you write it for.
Each paper has its own style of writing news. This results in them
being read more easily - or not at all.
Bob: "News, more than all-things, is superlatively-important."
- This is highly redundant. There are alternate phrasings
using the places of "traji", but the minimal change is "loi
nuzba ne semau da'ada vajni" = "News, more than all-other-
things, is important."
I modified one phrase, where Nick used "lo karni poi jaipi'o
cusku le go'i", since the usage is not on anyone's cmavo list,
and was so vague, I had trouble figuring it out WITH knowledge
and the English. "jaipi'o" is the new tagged-sumti-place
converter/extractor (the equivalent of a SE conversion)
intended to help clarify sumti-raising. Since Nick's version
elliptically omitted the "ke'a", you have to guess where it
was supposed to go. I made the following transformations,
which are the obvious deductions and equivalences:
"lo karni poi <jaipi'o cusku le go'i>"
"lo karni poi <ke'a jaipi'o cusku le go'i>" (inserting "ke'a"
at the beginning)
"lo karni poi <pi'o ke'a cusku le go'i>" (The "jaipi'o" means
that "ke'a" is the "pi'o"-tagged sumti of the selbri
(which is "cusku")
"The journal which used by it [something] expresses the x1 of
the previous sentence (News)".
This can possibly be interpreted to mean the colloquial
English, but has more the sense of "which paper uses your
writing". Clearly the emphasis in this article is on the what
the writer writes and why, and the motivational implication
("mu'i") of "who you write it for" is lost. Even if Nick's
131
original means what he wanted, the "jaipi'o" is far more
opaque than the equivalent "pi'o ke'a".
ni'o mupli lo nuzba poi mutce sampu .i lo nixli be li mu ca
lepu'u kelci levo'a bolci cu farlu lo skuro poi karbi'o se kakpa
lei gunka pole ta'utru
Example of a news item which is much simple. A girl of age #5,
simultaneous with the process of playing with x1's [her] ball,
falls to a groove which open-becomingly is-dug-by workers owned by
the city-government.
Let's examine a very simple news item. A girl, aged 5, while
playing with her ball, falls into a trench opened by a Municipal
crew.
The age place on "nixli" seems wrongly-expressed. I think
more correct is "lo nixli be lo nanca mumoi", optionally
omitting the "nanca".
132
[There follow five different reports, one upper-class in archaic
prose concentrating on the famous socialites living next door to
the trench, one sensationalist speculating on rape, one communist
calling for a class struggle, one anti-communist hinting at Red
sabotage, and Germanos' own paper claiming she fell in because her
father did not buy said paper.]
.i tarmi le ve cusku be le nuzba bei pi'o la karni be de'i roboi
lo djedi be'oku (to la roldei toi)
Form of the medium of expression of the news, used by the-one-
called Journal Associated with Date Each-Day (The Each-day).
[Here's] how you'd write the news in the Daily.
[Bob: I changed Nick's journal title to match the style of the
newspaper. Nick had originally used the parenthetical name]
{Very archaic Greek follows. I've emulated it by expanding all
tanru, and lots of terminators.}
.i <<lu di'o lo paboi te kruca be le klaji poi se cmene la
.adriaNOS. vauku'o bei le klaji poi se cmene la paleologos.
ku'obe'oku ko'a goi paboi lo nixli be muboi lo nanca be'oku ge'u pu
se xrani ca lepu'u ko'a cu kelci da noi ke'a se tarmi lo bolci
vauku'ovaukeivau
"At the locus of the single crossing-point of the street which is
named 'Adrianos' with the street which is named 'Paleologos', it1,
defined as one girl of age 5 years was-injured, simultaneous with
the process of it1 playing with something, which it has form of a
ball.
"At the intersection of Adrian and Palaeologus streets a five year
old maiden was injured while she did ludificate with her sphere.
.i le nu xrani vaukei cu diklo fe'eba'o va paboi le zdani be lai
paleologon. benizelon. be'oku noi la kamBUroglus. pu skicu ke'a
ta'i lo se ciska ku tai loka lanli vaukeivauku'ovau
The event of injury is local to beyond [something] near one of the
nests of the mass called Paleologon-Benizelon, which [house]
Kamburoglus described it in form inscribed, in manner analytical.
The accident occurred directly opposite the domicile of the
Palaeologus-Benizelos family, about which [the house] Kambouroglou
has written analytically.
.i la'edi'e cu cizra zo'e lenu fasnu vaukei ne sekai leka na xlura
vaukeige'uvau
That referred by the following utterance is bizarre to unspecified
one(s) in occurrence characterized-by not-influencer-ness.
By a most strange coincidence,
133
.i paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku pu binxo le speni
be paboi lo reboi rirni be la kamBUroglus. be'oku poi na du vo'a
ku'o soivo'avo'e se'u be'oku vi le zdani be lai varvatis. be'oku
noi jibni le zdani be lai paleologon. benizelon. be'okuvauku'ovau
One of the two parents of Kamburoglus became the spouse of one of
the two parents of Kamburoglus which was not = x1 [the first 'one
of the two parents of Kamburoglus'], and x2 to x1 [or "vice versa";
the latter became the spouse of the former, too] at the nest of the
mass called Varvatis which is near the nest of the mass called
Paleologon-Benizelon
The parents of Kambouroglou were bewedded in the Varvatis domicile,
which is next to the P-B domicile.
134
.i le nixli ki na se ckape vau li'u>>
The girl is presently not imperiled."
The maiden is out of danger."
.i ke'unai vecu'u la akROpolis. le nuzba cu ka'e ckaji loka zmadu
cinri bo cfipu
Continuing, in medium the Acropolis, the news can be characterized
by more interestingly-confusing.
On the other hand, in the Acropolis the news item could take on a
more enigmatic character. {Note very dreadful tanru in the
following.}
.i <<lu pu zgana ne'i lo skuro lo se xrani. goi ko'a poi mebrai
nixli gi'e jarco lo frili se viska jalge be lonu vlile
"Observed, inside a groove, an injured, hereinafter it1, who is
beautiful-mostly girlish, and displays easily-seen results of
events of violence.
"There has been found wounded, in a ditch, a most beautiful maiden
bearing obvious signs of abuse.
.i ri'anai lenu le zekri lifri po'u ko'a na pujaca skicu fi lei
pulji kei ca cipra fa ri lejei na'e snuti (to pupu jinvi to'ebori
toi) gi'e cinse zekri
Despite the-event the crime-experiencer who is it1 not before-or-
now describes to the police, simultaneously testing by them [the
police] the truth value of other-than-accidental (had earlier
opined opposite-of-this [accidental]) and sexual-crime.
Although the victim has not yet made her statement, the police is
investigating whether this was no accident, as had been thought
initially, but a crime of a sexual nature.
.i lo kamni poi se cmima le mi karni zbasu caca'a cipra fi le tcini
mu'i lenu djica co danfu fo re preti ra'u po'u di'e
A committee which is bemembered by our journal-makers is presently
testing among the situation motivated by the event of desiring of
type answers to two questions, chiefly, which follow.
A team of our editors is already investigating the matter to answer
two main questions.
.i pamai xu le nixli pu cinse vlile lifri
First, Is it true that the girl was a sexually-violent-experiencer?
a) was the maiden raped?
135
.i remai fau lenu ko'a na'eke cinse vlile lifri kei ko'a na'eke
cinse vlile lifri ki'u ma li'u>>
Second, in the event of it1 [the girl} other-than sexually-violent-
experiences, it1 other-than sexually-violent-experiences justified
by what?"
b) if the maiden was not raped, why was she not raped?"
136
.i li'a vecu'u la cermurse sesau se basna fa loi drata tcila
Clearly, in media-of-expression the-one called morning-twilight,
necessarily, are-emphasized Other Details.
Of course in the Dawn other points must be emphasized. {Very
folksy/dialectical Greek follows}
.i <<lu nixli .i ko'a pe leni slabu .i ri du mu nanca .i xrani
ca le purlamdei .i farlu lo skuro po la ta'utru ca lenu kelci le
bolci
"Girl. It1 [not defined, but obvious. This fits the style.]
associated with age. Age = 5 year-intervals. Injury simultaneous
with the past-adjacent-day [yesterday]. Faller to a groove owned
by the-one(s)-named City-Government, simultaneous with the playing
with the ball.
"A li'l girl, 5 yr old, got hurt yesterday, falling, while she was
playin' with her ball, into a City ditch.
.i ko'a ze'iba tavla palemi karnypra .i ko'a fatci xusra
It1 after-the-momently talks to one of our journal-producers. It1
factually asserts.
Talking later to one of our editors, she put things straight.
There is current debate going on that may change the
interpretation of "ze'iba". I left it unchanged on the basis
of the published cmavo list. Whatever is eventually decided
will be reflected in the in-progress paper on interpreting
tenses, and in updates to the cmavo list.
.i <<lu mi farlu le skuro .i ni'ibo mi na citka ca re djedi .i
besna se cfipu
"I fall to the groove. Logically-necessary because I not eat
during 2 days. Brainily-confused-by.
'I fell in that ditch cause I hadn't eaten for two days. I bin
dizzy.
.i lemi mamta cu selfu seljibri .i lemi patfu cu na'e dinycpa .i
ni'ibo ri roroi pantydzu li'u>> li'u>>
My mother is servant bejobbed. My father other-than money-gets.
Logically-necessary because he always [Nick had a complex tense
here that wasn't quite right, added nothing, and seemed like more
than a 5-year-old's mouthful] protest-walks.'"
My momma works as a servant. My poppa can't get a day's wages
cause he's always on protest marches.'"
.ice ka'e zgana cusku fo la natmi nu'arki'a
137
And next (not in any order) can observing-express in-medium the
National News-Crier.
While in the National Herald it could be noted that:
<<lu lenu xrani cu se rinka lonu pimo'ale skuro cu te sabji lo
gacri
The event of injuring is caused by an event of too-little-of the
groove being supplied with a cover.
"The accident is due to the incomplete covering of the ditch.
138
.i ni'inai lenu na catni se xusra cu cusku lenu fuzme fa relo gunka
pe le ta'utru ge'u zi'e noi ze'u .o'onai kaurposysi'orpre
Logically despite [Note how Nick has both political extremes prone
to invoking "Logic" in attacking each other. Very cute, Nick!] the
event of it-being-false that [something] is-authority-asserted,
[something] expresses the-event-of Responsible are two workers
associated with the city-government and incidentally, for-a-long-
time (Anger!) common-owner-idea-persons.
Although there has been no formal announcement, it is said that
those responsible are two City workers, who are longtime
communists.
Nick had omitted the "zi'e", which made the second relative
clause apply to "le nu fuzme". Multiple relative clauses and
other sumti modifiers attached with selma'o GOI and NOI is one
place that the language can get clumsy, and you can easily
make errors. So I recommend using "zi'e" to join such
multiple modifiers.
Nick's lujvo for "communists" is not the best I've seen. JCB
used "ownerly-common-believer". I think this is close, but
backwards - this is best shown by using the inverted form of
the tanru: it should be "ownership of type common", and not
"common things of type owner". I prefer the similar "common-
owner-believe" or better-by-massifying: "community-owner-be-
lieve". However from the standpoint of the conservatives who
wrote this article, perhaps "worker-own-believer" or "public-
owner-believer" might convey some of the apparent distaste for
the 'lower-class' orientation. (Anyone want to work on lujvo
for a variety of political and social credos? What is the
linguistic difference between "Democrats" and "Republicans"?
I also think "mabla" (or "mal-", I'm sure the newspaper would
use it enough to lujvo-ize it) on the front of whatever the
word for "communists" would be better than the attitudinal,
which seems rather to fit the style of the sensationalist
tabloid. (Incidentally, I think all quoted text from
supposedly 'real people' would be richer in attitudinals in
all versions of the story. We use a lot of attitudinals in
conversation here. This would heighten the distinction
between the repertorial voice and the voice of the people
being interviewed.)
.i lei pulji cu cipra lejei zasti fa loi flana'etinbe gripre noi pu
zukte lo drata nu jecyselxrazei li'u>>
Police are testing the truth of existence of Law-non-obeying Group-
People [massed] who acted at other events of state-injured-crime."
The police is investigating whether this is an illegal network,
which has acted out other acts of sabotage in the past."
Nick should consider variations and compounds of "sisku"
("seek") or fakro'i ("discover-try") or "lanli" ("analyze")
"cliro'i" ("learn-try") for "investigate", which he has
translated as being the same as "test" in all versions of the
story. I liked his 'conservative' translation of "sabotage"
139
as a crime that injures the state, though I added the "sel"
rafsi to make sure that no one thinks that the polity did the
injuring.
.i romai la deimid. cfari le ni'onrai tarmi be loi nuzba
Finally, the-one-called Day-Middle initiates the new-most form of
News.
The Midday has established a totally new style in news:
140
.i <<lu se tirna fa lo voksa .i se viska fa lo xance poi se desku
tai loka ti'e pacna zi'epoi cpedu lenu sidju
Is-heard, a voice. Is-seen, a hand which [it?] is-shaken-by by-
method a quality (I hear!) of hope and-which requests the-event-of-
help.
"A voice was heard. A hand was seen floundering desperately,
asking for help.
Nora suggests "slilu" for "se desku" but I'm not sure I agree.
The "tai loka ti'e pacna" meant nothing to me. (What did
people who tried reading this guess it meant? This kind of
feedback will be helpful to Nick, and indeed to all of us, in
learning to think from the listener's point of view. I
welcome such comments on any other places in the text where
you read something different in the Lojban than Nick or I
represented in our translations. Help us learn Lojban!) I
would suggest using "mutnitcu" ("much-needer") instead of
"pacna" for "desperate", "seci'o" for "tai", and moving the
attitudinal to show that it is the emotion expressed that is
hearsay. "se desku seci'o ti'e loka mutnitcu" is "shaken-by
[something] expressing-emotion (I hear!) much-need".
.ibabo smaji .i ?ma pu fasnu .i mi ciksi
And-then silence. What occurred? I explain.
And then, silence. What was happening? [I answer my own
question:]
.i lo nixli pu sakli mo'ine'i lo skuro .ibazabo le nixli cu bacru
<<lu mi farlu ri'a lenu la paf. na di'i tcidu la deimid. li'u>>
li'u>>
A girl slid moving-to-the-inside a groove. And a bit later the
girl uttered 'I fall because the-event Pop not regularly reads the
Day-middle'".
A girl had slipped into a ditch. Later the girl said: 'I fell,
because Dad doesn't read the Midday!'"
An awesome effort, comparable to and perhaps as germinal as
Athelstan's translation of Saki's "The Open Window" (see
JL10). Let's hear a round of applause for Nick, such that he
might hear it Down Under.
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Translation of "lei lojbo"
Nora: (Completion!) I am able to go, justified by Hope taking care
of Katrina.
Friend: (I hear!) Hope speaks Esperanto and not Lojban.
Nora: True. But Katrina, also, speaks Esperanto.
Friend: Approval!
Hope: (in Esperanto) Takingly-pull (imperative).
141
Sam: (to himself) "prEnutrEne" is-the same-as "prenu trene" (=
"person-train"). (Confusion!) I don't sense that
represented by this [text].
Sam: (aloud) The station is excessively far.
Katrina: (in Esperanto) Mystery
Sam: (To himself): "mistEro" is-the same-as "mi stero" (= I am
measured in steradians as (ellipsized amount).
Sam: (thinking) Katrina expresses the symbol for a falsehood.
This state-of-affairs is bad for Computers.
Sam: (aloud) Users! (pejorative) (which sounds in Esperanto like
"less than")
Hope: (in Esperanto) Less than what?
Till next issue. co'o.