me lu ju'i lobypli li'u 16 moi
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Number 16 - May-June 1992 Copyright 1992, 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. DOUBLE YOUR LOJBAN FUN -- TWO LOGFESTS THIS YEAR JUNE 26-28 AND AUGUST 14-17, 1992 NEW DC AREA LOJBAN CLASS STARTING -- SIGN UP NOW! DETAILS IN NEWS SECTION 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. 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. 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. Page count this issue: 48 + 40 enclosures = 88 ($8.80 North America, $10.56 elsewhere). Press run for this issue of ju'i lobypli: 2 265. We now have about 726 people receiving our publications, 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 contri- butions received thru 30 May 1992. 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 ($28/yr) C - Active Supporter 1 - Word Lists and Language Description ($15) (followed by expiration issue #) D - Lojban Student 2 - Language Design Information ($10) * indicates subscription prepaid E - Lojban Practitioner 3 - Draft Teaching Materials ($30) LK LK Subscription ($5/yr) R Review Copy (no charge) 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. 3 Contents of This Issue Important: Due to financial constraints, ju'i lobypli is converting to a full subscription basis, starting with the next issue (JL17). Please read the section on subscriptions for details. It's been a while since last issue, as we attempted to get our finances back on an even keel. Our financial health plan is taking effect, and we expect future issues of JL to resume quarterly appearance (if you are a subscriber, of course). (I also want to apologize to people who have had to wait an excessively long time for materials ordered during the last 6 months. Hopefully the order backlog will have been corrected when you get this issue.) As will usually be the case, this issue contains much 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. We continue to be flooded with Lojban text from several writers, and some of this material will be found in this issue. Several pieces in this issue relate to Lojban and computer applications, and our first research proposal is reprinted. The main body of this issue will be short, because we are including two long enclosures: a major paper by John Cowan on Lojban tense structures, and a major revision/improvement of the Diagrammed Summary of Lojban Grammar Forms, which is becoming the mainstay of our introductory materials. Some of the material originally prepared for this issue, including about 10 pages of discussion of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, will be delayed until JL17 (which, having this extra preparation done, is much more likely to come out on time!) Table of Contents Brief Glossary of Lojban Terms ---3 News Subscriptions and Finances ---3 Athelstan Injured ---4 Language Education ---5 Electronic Distribution ---5 Logfest 92 ---7 Language Development Status ---8 Status of Products --12 Schedule --19 Using the Language --19 Research Using Lojban --20 International News/Publicity --21 News From the Institute --21 le lojbo se ciska --22, 25, 31, 35, 37, 41 Text of the Court of Appeals Decision --23 lei lojbo --26 la lojbangirz.'s First Research Proposal --27 DLT - Esperanto-based Machine Translation --34 A Lojbanic Cultural Allegory --36 Morphology Algorithm --39 Translations of le lojbo se ciska --42 Next Issue --46 Sample Pages from Forthcoming Dictionary --46 Computer Net Information 4 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: listserv@cuvmb. cc.columbia.edu If you have problems needing human intervention, send to: lojban- [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 rafsi - affix combining forms explicitly identify people who are for the gismu; referred to by initials in JL, and lujvo - compound words built will regularly do so in this spot, from rafsi; immediately before the news sec- le'avla - words borrowed from tion. Note that 'Athelstan' is other languages; that person's real name, used in brivla - Lojban predicate words, his public life, and is not a consisting of gismu, lujvo. and pseudonym. le'avla. tanru - Lojban metaphors, the 'pc' - Dr. John Parks-Clifford, most productive and creative Professor of Logic and Philosophy expression form of the language; at the University of Missouri - sumti - the arguments of a St. Louis and Vice-President of la logical predicate; lojbangirz.; he is usually selbri - Lojban predicates which addressed as 'pc' by the commu- indicate a relation among one or nity. more sumti. A selbri is most 'Bob', 'lojbab' - Bob often a brivla or tanru; formerly LeChevalier - President of la called "kunbri" in error; lojbangirz., and editor of ju'i bridi - Lojban predications, the lobypli and le lojbo karni. basic grammatical structure of the 'Nora' - Nora LeChevalier - language; a bridi expresses a Secretary/Treasurer of la lojban- complete relationship: the selbri girz., Bob's wife, author of expresses the relation and the LogFlash. sumti express the various things 'JCB', 'Dr. Brown' - Dr. James being related; Cooke Brown, inventor of the selma'o - grammatical categories language, and founder of the of Lojban words; the basis of the Loglan project. unambiguous formal grammar of the 'The Institute', 'TLI' - The language. Traditionally and Loglan Institute, Inc., JCB's erroneously called "lexeme" in the organization for spreading his Loglan community. These version of Loglan, which we call categories typically have a name 'Institute Loglan'. derived from one word in that 'Loglan' - This refers to the grammatical category; the name is generic language or language all capitals, except that an project, of which 'Lojban' is the apostrophe is replaced by a small most successful version, and letter 'h'. 'Institute Loglan' another. 'Loglan/Lojban' is used in News discussions about Lojban where we wish to make it particularly clear Subscriptions and Finances that the statement applies to the generic language as well. This may be your last issue of 'PLS' - The Planned Languages ju'i lobypli. Server, a no-charge computer- We are converting JL to a sub- network-accessed distribution scription basis. This is the last center for materials on Lojban issue sent to those not explicitly (and other artificial languages). requesting (and in most cases paying for) a subscription. Brief Glossary of Lojban Terms At this point some 65 people have returned forms requesting a Following are definitions of subscription. Perhaps half of frequently used Lojban terms. these have sufficient balances to More complete explanations of the cover their subscription price. following are in the Overview of Our new special fund for Lojban. 'scholarship subscriptions' will cmavo - Lojban structure words not allow us to support more than gismu - Lojban root words; a few people on a non-paying currently 1337; basis, and these free 6 subscriptions will be reserved for deducting for JL16 (this issue), those who are actively working in your mailing label will have a the language, but cannot pay number between "JL 17" and "JL 20" (mostly international supporters). on it indicating that your sub- So here's where things stand: scription expires with the indicated issue. Your balance - For US and Canadian subscribers, will be deducted at a rate of $10 the subscription price will be per issue (substantially above the US$28 for 4 issues (hopefully 1 subscription price for US and year - but our commitment will be Canada recipients, less so for for a number of issues rather than overseas recipients), for up to 4 a date, just in case). For those issues, until your balance drops in other countries, the sub- below $10, or until we receive a scription price will be US$35 for form and/or other instructions 4 issues. from you. You will be given the lower-priced 4-issue subscription - If you have not returned a rate when we receive your signed subscription form, and have a subscription request form (and negative balance worse than $-10 preferably enough money to raise after deducting for JL16 (this your balance above the issue), your mailing label will subscription minimum). If you have a "JL 16" on it indicating cannot afford the subscription that your 'subscription' expires amount, you may request with the current issue. We must scholarship assistance on the receive a signed subscription subscription form. You will request form and enough money to receive highest priority after the cover the subscription price AND most active volunteers to gain at least 1/2 of your negative such assistance to fill out your balance. If you cannot afford balance to a 4-issue subscription. this amount, you may request scholarship assistance on the sub- - If you have returned a scription form, but you will be subscription form and have more lowest priority for such sub- than $10 in your balance after scriptions unless you are a very deducting for JL16 (this issue), active volunteer. Contributing your mailing label will have a some of the amount required will number between "JL 17" and "JL 20" raise your priority considerably. on it; your subscription expires with the indicated issue. You - If you have not returned a have either been given a full subscription form, and have four-issue subscription (if there between $-10 and $10 in your is enough in your balance to cover balance after deducting for JL16 the price), or a partial-year sub- (this issue), your mailing label scription prorated to your balance will have a "JL 16" on it amount ($7/issue for US/Canada). indicating that your The subscription price has been 'subscription' expires with the deducted from your balance, and an current issue. We must receive a "*" on the mailing label indicates signed subscription request form that your subscription has been and enough money to cover the paid. You need do nothing to subscription price. If you cannot continue receiving JL; we will afford this amount, you may notify you by direct mail prior to request scholarship assistance on your last subscription issue for the subscription form. Con- renewal. tributing some of the amount required will raise your priority considerably. - If you have not returned a subscription form, and have more than $10 in your balance after 7 - If you have returned a "JL 17" since you have received no subscription form and have less chance to send in a subscription than $10 in your balance after request form until now. Your deducting for JL16 (this issue), balance will be charged $10 for and you sent at least $40 in JL17 if we have not received a balance contributions between 1 form prior to that issue. Dec. 1991 and 15 April 1992, your mailing label will have "JL 20" on - When you stop receiving JL it. You have been given a full after the subscription expiration four-issue subscription. The issue, you will automatically be subscription price has been de- switched to a subscription to the ducted from your balance, and an newsletter le lojbo karni (LK - "*" on the mailing label indicates subscription price of around $5 that your subscription has been per year). We expect to cull the paid. You need do nothing to LK mailing list after the next continue receiving JL; we will fund-raising mailer, dropping notify you prior to your last those people with balances less subscription issue for renewal. than $-30. We haven't yet received enough - If you have returned a subscription forms to justify subscription form and have less applying for a 2nd class postage than $10 in your balance after (though we are close). The deducting for JL16 (this issue), highest subscription price has and you have sent less than $40 in been selected because we'll have balance contributions since 1 to pay 1st class/air mail postage December 1991, your mailing label rates for at least one issue, as will have a number between "JL 17" well as at least $275 to obtain and "JL 19" on it indicating that the 2nd class permit (about $4 for your subscription expires with the each subscriber) that will allow indicated issue. You been given a us to save postage costs there- part-year subscription. We have after. deducted the cost of this issue from your contribution (if any), Final financial results from and determined your prorated last year - Our 1991 income subscription period based on 1/2 totalled $14,462.59, with expenses of the remaining contribution (if of $14,746.31, for a net loss on any), with a minimum of 1 issue. the year of about $300. Of that The amount of the subscription has amount $10,725.73 was donations been deducted from your balance, (around $6000 of this was from and an "*" on the mailing label Lojbab and Nora). In total, only indicates that your subscription $3700 was contributed toward bal- has been paid. You need do ances from over 850 people on our nothing to continue receiving JL; mailing list. Only through our we will notify you prior to your end-of-year fund-raiser did we last subscription issue for even do this well. We received renewal. However, we ask that you $2500 during the last 20 days of contribute to bring your balance December, much of it as a result positive if possible. of the fund-raising drive, re- ducing us from a deficit of over - If you have returned a $2000 for the year that might have subscription form and asked for crippled us. scholarship support for your At the end of 1991, we owed subscription: we have not yet about $5800 in legal fees on the decided who will get such support, trademark battle, which we're but given the above policy, you repaying at $500 per month. This will at least receive JL17. is taking every penny that Lojbab, Nora and Jeff Prothero, who are - If you are an overseas financing the legal fees, can con- recipient of JL, then you are tribute. We must count on the slated to receive at least through 8 rest of you to keep the orga- Status this year - So far in nization going financially. 1992, we're losing money. Up to now, against some $2500 in income, we've spent around $2800; JL16 and LK16 will cost another $1200, and we have over $1500 precommitted towards future JL subscriptions. Thus, we expect to need another fund-raising drive within a couple of months. I hope to tie such a fund-raiser to the announcement of the first Lojban book. But please don't wait until then. Contribute now! We don't know yet how we will finance book publication, which will cost several thousand dollars. Our Numbers - Support for Lojban continues to grow at an outstanding rate; we lose few people (mostly people who move and forget to tell us their new address), while averaging 1 new person every 2-3 days for the last year. Following are our numbers by level of interest and sub- scription, as of this publication (numbers in parentheses include multiple persons per address): Level E - Practitioner (people who have actually produced Lojban text, are actively working with the language, and receiving materials from us) - 13 (17) Level D - Lojban Student - 95 (113) Level C - Active Observer - 139 (149) Level B - Inactive Observer - 627 (663) JL16 subscribers - 241 (272) JL17 subscribers - 114 (130) JL subscription request returned - 66 (72) Prepaid beyond JL17 - 55 (61) LK subscribers Total active mailing list 897 (965) Athelstan Injured Our efforts on Lojban here in the Washington DC area were dealt a severe blow at the end of February. Athelstan, one of la lojbangirz.'s Directors, received a head injury in an auto accident, causing severe brain damage. He 9 was in a coma for over 2 weeks, Given my close friendship with but has made good progress since. Athelstan, I have had to undertake Early in April, he was transferred commitments in helping his family to a rehabilitation hospital, and other friends support his where he is slowly regaining recovery; this has taken a fair memory and living skills; he is amount of time away from Lojban, expected to remain in the hospital though I now seem to be back in until at least mid-July. control of my schedule. Indeed, Regaining his full abilities is the incentive of knowing how uncertain, and doing so will take fragile our effort is while so few many more months, if not years. of us know the details of the Athelstan was one of the most language seems to have remotivated skilled of Lojbanists, and a major me to get the community of participant in our weekly Lojbanists who are expert in the conversation sessions here in the language up to a self-sustaining DC area. We have had to change level. Even amidst tragedy, there from conversation sessions to can be growth and progress. teaching, reading, and transla- tions sessions; the 3 remaining Language Education conversation-skilled people (Nora, Lojbab, and Sylvia Rutiser) are DC Class - Even before not enough 'critical mass' to keep Athelstan's accident, we needed to conversations lively and build up the activity of the local interesting. Lojban community. Now, local We've also lost Athelstan's teaching activities are even more contribution to the endless work vital. As such, starting in June, that is being done around here. we'll be trying to organize a new Athelstan had written up his oft- Lojban class here in the taught mini-lesson in text form, Washington DC area. The class and was in the middle of revising will probably meet in Fairfax VA it for publication when the (although a Rockville MD location accident occurred. I may be able is also being considered), on a to finish it, but not quickly - weekly basis starting near the end too much else to do. Athelstan of June and last throughout the was also one of the principal summer. A principal goal will be reviewers of ju'i lobypli and to raise the students' skill level other la lojbangirz. publications so that they can confidently that I and others write; we can participate in in-language only hope that the quality of our activities in the August LogFest, products is sustained without his and be able to continue in Lojban excellent efforts at catching conversation sessions or typos and more serious technical translation activities after the errors. class ends. The good news is that it appears Needless to say, if you will be that the damage has not destroyed in the DC area this summer, and Athelstan's capacity for language, are interested in participating in nor his interest in Lojban. In such a class, please contact me at mid-April, he responded to my the masthead address or telephone, "coi. .atlstan." with a hearty or via electronic mail per page 2. "coi." in return. At the end of our otherwise English-language Other education efforts - Most visit, I asked him if he remem- of our education efforts in the bered how to say goodbye; with last several months have been only minimal hesitation, he came through electronic mail on the back with a confident "co'o." computer networks. I've been able to delegate much of this teaching effort out to other Lojbanists who are active on Lojban List, and the numbers and competency of those attempting to write on Lojban List 10 has continued to grow with each Electronic Distribution passing month. The network has also served as a What is available and how - The testing ground for new teaching electronic distribution policy materials. Athelstan's draft text announced last issue has been version of his mini-lesson (see implemented, more-or-less. We below) was tried out by about 2 have been unable to place JL and dozen people who returned comments LK back-issues and a few other and answers to exercises. These longer materials on the Planned will be lead to a significantly Languages Server - our primary revised and improved version for electronic distribution point. We publication. have also been unable to implement Similarly, a draft of the the file verification program that Diagrammed Examples paper enclosed we intended because of with this issue has been incompatibilities between computer extensively distributed on the systems that causes such networks (as well as to many new techniques to fail. mail order Lojbanists) during the In spite of this, there is now a last 6 months. French-Australian lot of material available linguist Jacques Guy finally electronically, including most of culminated this review with some the now public domain language enormously detailed comments, definition materials like word leading to the major revision and lists and formal grammars. I've expansion included with this been told that some of this issue. material has been transferred to Even before this final version, Compuserve, and I'm hoping that the Diagrammed Examples, with more will be moved to that explanatory text, has proved in network, as well as to Genie and recent months to be the most other public computer networks. significant learning aid to new (Let us know if you do so, and Lojbanists actually attempting to what stuff you are posting where, learn to use the language. so we can report accurately to the Several Lojbanists used only this community as to what is avail- paper and word lists (that were able). generally obtained by electronic Following is a list of all distribution per the next sec- materials (and their filenames) tion), to self-teach themselves to available on the Planned Languages the level of being able to Server as of this publication translate Lojban text written by date, and instructions for more experienced Lojbanists. obtaining them from the Server. Then, with a few such efforts to __________________________________ give them experience, we have seen _____________ these Lojbanists start to write in Lojban, making relatively few and This is an updated version of minor errors given the lack of a the file posted to the PLS full teaching text. (Those who entitled "readme" which includes have study the draft textbook an annotated and categorized index and/or used LogFlash have done to all files on the list. still better, but the effec- Following the "readme" file is tiveness of this relatively brief an abbreviated set of instructions description has astounded several for obtaining files from the of us to the point of motivating server. Send the one line message this new version.) 'help' to: [email protected] to get the full help listing. While you can put multiple re- quests in a file, my experience has been that if there is any 11 error on any command, the entire the network is not free. la set is disregarded. I would lojbangirz. spent some $2000 therefore suggest getting 1 file during 1991 on network access, at a time until you are sure what supporting Lojban List, this you are doing. archive, and responding to people "gismu.lst" is the official, like you. We do not make a profit public domain baseline that many on our printed materials, so it is Lojbanists already possess in your donations that will allow us printed form. It has 40-character to continue to serve the network definitions of the Lojban gismu, community of Lojbanists and people and has been relatively unchanged curious about Lojban. for a few years now. Only minor The files listed following are corrections have been put into the the official postings of The posted file, and the 20 new words Logical Language Group, Inc. on adopted last year were never this server. All other postings added. should be considered unsanctioned, "logdata.raw" is a preliminary and possibly incorrect. version of the new gismu list Language design materials are baseline. I intend the new explicitly listed here and in the baseline to take effect shortly documents themselves as being in after the publication of JL16, the public domain. All other hopefully within a month. I would documents are copyrighted under recommend using the current the same heading listed above for "logdata.raw" file, and ignoring this document. the "gismu.lst" file, UNLESS it is Note on file names. All file vital to you to be using a public names ending with ".unf" may domain version. We won't object contain lines up to about 120 to any copying of the still characters long. Original copyrighted draft as long as the documents published by la copyright notice and the notice lojbangirz. are formatted using that it is a draft stays intact longer than 80 character lines, with the file. To all intents and and this wider line-length was de- purposes, the old 40-character termined to give a more readable file is obsolete. I would rec- text when that formatting was ommend that any new text be removed. File names ending with written using the "logdata.raw" ".txt" are generally under 80 place structures. (All text in characters in width. Other file this issue probably presumes this name extensions have no newer version.) implication. Questions on any file? Contact Many files are compressed using Bob LeChevalier at the masthead a rather simplistic program that address or via: tabifies every 8 characters INCLUDING A SINGLE SPACE IN A 0 [email protected] MOD 8 POSITION. We have since learned that some tab expanders See the file "epolicy.txt" for a will take a TAB in a 0 mod 8 more complete explanation of la position and expand it to 9 spaces lojbangirz. electronic instead of 1. This could cause you distribution policy. We ask that problems, which hopefully this no- users of these files consider tice will help you correct if it donating money for the support of affects you. We consider this a The Logical Language Group, Inc. failed experiment: when we next We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit send data to PLS for uploading we organization and such donations will send files without the tab are tax-deductible in the US, to compression, but this may be a few the extent they exceed the price months. of things we send you. While it The PLS has very limited disk costs us little for you to get a space. la lojbangirz. has con- copy of the files on this archive, vinced Mark and Jerry to post much 12 of the material we sent them, but pronounc.unf 9718 10-14-91 they do not have room for all of Pronunciation guide. Public it. In particular, back issues of domain. JL and LK, and a LOT of Lojban gismu.lst 88717 01-09-92 text could not be posted. I want Baselined gismu list. Public to see some or all of this mate- domain. Expected to be rial available, if only on a superseded soon by a modified limited time basis. Therefore, in version of "logdata.raw", which about 3 months, I will be asking will the be renamed "gismu.lst" Mark and Jerry to tell me the logdata.raw 115603 01-09-92 rates of access for Lojban Lojban gismu (root word) draft directory files. Seldom accessed update >80 characters wide files may be deleted to allow us roget.lst 40612 10-14-91 to make room for new stuff, as gismu sorted by Roget category. listed at the end of this doc- Draft. ument. So please don't delay too logdata3.cma 88312 10-14-91 long if you want to get a copy of Lojban cmavo (structure word) a file listed here. list. Public domain. cmavo order >80 characters wide File Name Bytes Date logdata3.lex 88312 10-14-91 Description Lojban cmavo (structure word) list. Public domain. selma'o Control documents (grammar category) order >80 characters wide readme 7668 01-09-92 lehavla.alg 2326 10-14-91 A version of this index. Draft proposal for borrowing epolicy.txt 2912 10-09-91 words. The la lojbangirz. Electronic Distribution Policy Introductory Materials in orderfrm.unf 9497 10-14-91 Suggested Order Current la lojbangirz. Product List & Order Form; Include Paper loglan.txt 8598 10-14-91 Postal Address on any order, Introduction and history for please. those familiar with other Loglan versions Language Design Materials and brochure.eng 62820 10-14-91 Drafts Basic Lojban Brochure - formatted for electronic dis- grammar.28 64552 10-11-91 tribution Baselined Lojban Grammar - YACC postbroc.txt 28312 10-14-91 version; Public Domain. Without An edited version of explanatory text included in brochure.eng abbreviated so as printed versions. to be more suitable for bnf.28 7872 10-11-91 electronic transmission. EBNF form of the Baselined minilsne.txt 30917 10-16-91 Lojban Grammar. Not verified. Draft introductory Draft Lojban Public domain. mini-lesson. Return answers to la lojbangirz. for correction. overview.unf 63143 10-14-91 Overview of the language and intro. to specialized ter- minology diagexam.unf 10851 10-09-91 Diagrammed Examples of Lojban Text (the original version of the one in JL16 - the new version will replace this file shortly, and is a much longer file) 13 Teaching Materials and Detailed unpublished draft review - Discussion Loglan 1 useoldl1.txt 15233 10-14-91 ---------------------------------- How to use 1975 Loglan 1 to -------------- study Lojban (partially correct The following unofficial files for 1989 version) are known to be in the lojban newrafsi.unf 77773 10-14-91 directory of the Planned List of Lojban rafsi (combining Languages Server: forms) and how to make compounds (lujvo). brochure.french 49403 05- negation.unf 127903 10-14-91 11-90 Negation in Lojban. Many A French translation of a examples. somewhat earlier version of the scrabble.unf 6098 10-14-91 Lojban brochure. Suggested game rules based on Description 2334 01-09-92 Lojban letter frequencies The official PLS description file of all files in the Lojban Why Lojban? directory. Not as detailed or as accurate as this file. whylojb.txt 198651 10-14-91 elecread.me 815 06-24-91 General discussion on 'Why An obsolete version of this file Lojban?' extracted from ju'i that should soon be deleted lobypli, Includes JCB on Sapir Index 1280 01-03-92 Whorf. Many contributors. The file list you get in mactrans.txt 12681 10-14-91 response to the command "index Lojban and machine translation lojban" by Patrick Juola lojbroch.e-o.tex 69755 09- moody.txt 18972 10-14-91 12-91 Lojban and other planned The draft Esperanto translation languages by Todd Moody of the Lojban brochure in lojb_esp.txt 180734 10-14-91 brochure.eng Comments and Lojban and Esperanto - JL suggestions welcome. discussions including comments metflidjimao-vedsia 23871 12- from Donald Harlow and Lojban's 19-90 'Answer' to the '16 Rules' welding-shop 27415 12-19-90 lojling.txt 18942 10-14-91 Jim Carter's 1984 Loglan short Lojban's relevance to story and English translation - linguistics and linguistics re- not Lojban compatible nor search consistent with the current TLI reply.txt 38747 10-14-91 language, it is still one of the 1991 Reply to Arnold Zwicky's longest Loglan texts written 1969 "Language" Review of Loglan originally in Loglan rather than 1 in translation. netdisc.txt 178912 10-14-91 Extracted Network Discussions of Forthcoming Material we hope to Lojban and Sapir-Whorf - mostly post this year 8-9/90 - 6 Draft Textbook Lessons - Lojban Text updated to 1992 language - New Draft Textbook Lesson 1 lordpray.unf 7781 10-14-91 - Esperanto Translation of Lojban Paternoster, updated to Lojban Brochure - Official Re- current language. A prosaic lease (the unofficial version. "lojbroch.e-o.tex" above is a draft version of this release) Other materials - Glossary of Lojban/linguistic terminology l1longrv.txt 70543 6-08-91 - Lojban and Sapir-Whorf Bibliography 14 - Lojban and Prolog "Path" is used to override the demonstration example from JL16 mail path that the archive server - Lojban gismu etymologies chooses from the header of your - Rebaselined gismu list mail message. You should use this - Revisions to the Lojban mini- whenever you know that the return lesson address of your message will not - the JL16 version of the be useful to the archive server. Diagrammed Summary of Lojban The archive server only knows - Synopsis of Lojban about domain style address. Orthography, Phonology, Morphol- ogy - updated to 1992 e.g. path - tense paper - introduction to [email protected] Lojban tense structures - attitudinal paper - updated send <archive> <file..> to 1992 - logical connectives paper - "Send" mails to you the files in introduction to logical and non- the specified archive. All of the logical connectives files that you request will be - MEX paper - Lojban expression sent to you archived together of mathematical text possibly encoded and split up into - lerfu paper - expressing messages that are small enough to alphabets and special symbols in be mailed. You may have as many Lojban "sends" in the body of your mail - (papers are planned to cover message as you wish. other aspects of the Lojban grammar and will also be posted e.g. send lojban logdata.raw as available) - All published Lojban text; By default, files that are Not updated to current language. mailable are simply stuck together Mostly translated & with with the text "cut here" between commentary. Probably with some files and; non-mailable files are kind of difficulty and quality archived via Unix "tar". Non- grading to help you choose mailable files must be converted appropriate materials. to something mailable. By default this is done with "uuencode". Abbreviated instructions for the Some large or long-lined Lojban PLS server files may be considered non- mailable, and you will need to run To make the archive server do the companion program "uudecode" something you should send an which will decode a message that electronic mail message to: was encrypted using "uuencode". This is a standard Unix command; [email protected] Unix users should see your system administrator if you don't know Use a null subject line. The how to do this. On MS-DOS body of the message should consist machines, there are a variety of of one command per line. The case utility versions of the decoding of the text does not matter. tool; we have no information about Note, however, that the server other computer system versions. runs on a UNIX system, and thus, for filenames, the case DOES Logfest 92 matter, so be sure the files you request are properly capitalized. Because of Athelstan's injury and other schedule problems, we You can find out what files are have delayed LogFest 92, la available with the command "index lojbangirz.'s annual meeting and lojban". gathering of Lojbanists until August. The planned date for this path <mail-path> gathering here in Fairfax VA, is August 14-17, 1992. If you're 15 interested in coming, and espe- started, will eventually amount to cially if you will be travelling a complete and detailed from out-of-town, please let us description of the language. know. As usual, we can People have been justifiably accommodate several out-of-town frustrated by the continuing delay visitors as sleeping-bag guests in textbook and dictionary here at Bob and Nora's house. You publication. However, this state can get here via subway from all should not stop most people from major transportation services into being able to learn and use Washington DC, and you're unlikely Lojban. Indeed, with the possible to need a rental car. Thus, it's exception of Esperanto (and only a cheap weekend of Lojban fun - we then because so much has been ask only that attendees donate written about it in 100 years), it around $25-$40 or whatever to can safely be said that Lojban is cover food costs for the weekend. by far the most thoroughly defined Originally, LogFest was planned artificial language that has ever for the last weekend in June (June existed. And we continue to 26-28, 1992). Because some people refine that definition - not so already made plans to come in from much because people need such out-of-town, we will dedicate that details to learn the language, but weekend to Lojban activities as because linguists and computer re- well, and others are invited to searchers seeking to use Lojban come, too, making in effect a for applications need as much second LogFest this summer. This detail as possible to plan re- first gathering in June will be search activities. informal; since there will be no The final development activities formal meeting, there should be of significance are those that are plenty of time for a variety of tied to preparation of the first Lojban activities, especially Lojban book, which is a proto- activities for new people who want dictionary and reference book. to get started in learning the Preparing this book has required a language. Let us know if you are complete and detailed review of planning to come, so we can make the gismu list place structures, plans. trying to make them as clear and detailed as possible, given Language Development Status limited space. There also were some place structure changes The language has been quite needed as a result of the 'sumti- stable in the last several months. raising' change discussed last With the breakup of the USSR, we issue, and also as a result of have added cultural gismu for other design decisions made over "Ukrainian" and "Slavic". There the last few years. We also have been a few cmavo additions, wanted to add in multiple English and one or two deletions in synonyms where applicable, so that connection with work by John Cowan the English side of the resulting on papers describing the Lojban dictionary will no longer be tense system, mathematical limited to the sometimes- language, and representation of inaccurate unique English keywords foreign alphabets. that the gismu list currently is Far more significant has been based on. In a few cases, actual those papers themselves, which usage has pointed up a need for have greatly refined the change, either because the place specificity of the language structure was too vaguely defined definition in three areas that for use, or because the sumti have not been much used by people values that were required for some trying to use Lojban. John is place structure places were too continuing to work on papers, difficult to specify for 'real' which, added to (updated versions language use. As a result, there of) the negation and attitudinal are a lot of little changes to the papers that were done before he working draft versions of the 16 gismu list. The final draft is Weekend Meeting expected to go out for review within a couple of weeks after We finally knew for sure that this issue is mailed (over 1100 of the design of the language was the 1400 Lojban entries were solidified after an all-weekend completed and verified at this meeting that took place January writing). After a few weeks for 18-20, 1992. John Cowan came to that review, the first book will town, and several of us met, be assembled and published. settling nearly all open design questions. Following is a more thorough report on that meeting, what happened, and what design decisions took place. Attendees included Bob LeChevalier (lojbab), John Cowan, Nora LeChevalier, Athelstan, and Sylvia Rutiser, with pc joining in by phone a couple of times. The original agenda included: - A 2nd review of papers on the Lojban tense system and MEX (mathematical expressions) system, with the intent of having them ready, if possible, for publication with JL16. - Nora and John have been working on a formal statement of the Lojban morphology algorithm, and some issues needed resolution and decision. - Deciding on all open cmavo questions, to allow a baseline of that list. - Reviewing all open comments on the place structures and definitions of gismu - Review of the progress in switching JL over to a subscrip- tion basis and the current fund- raising drive - Preliminary decisions on book publishing - Determining a policy on efforts by Dave Cortesi, Bob Chassell, and others to put together Lojban reference books. - Including John in a Lojban conversation session (he has never before been able to participate in one, since no one else in the NYC area seems to be actively studying). John arrived late Friday night, and we started the weekend right by talking till 4 AM. Athelstan arrived about 2 AM to join the party. Most of Saturday was spent socializing and discussing 17 business matters, and various would be allowed under the new minor issues, and reviewing the grammar. Because we want people tense paper. Saturday night, we to stick with the current again quit late, around 5 AM this baseline, we are not going to time, with everyone rising in time distribute or talk much more about to be fully awake for the Lojban the next one until it is ready for conversation session. That ended adoption (at the time of up starting late, but the 5 of us publication of the first book), participated in fairly lively but people who have an early need discussion for about 2 hours. for the information can request John had no real trouble following it. I will summarize the changes what was said, and throwing his in store so people know what is own comments in. We then talked going on: in English for about an hour until Sylvia and Athelstan had to leave. 1) correction of a precedence After dinner, we started on error, so that EK+KE and GIhEK+KE place structures, and kept going bind more tightly than other until 5 AM again. We resumed connective structures; around 11 AM, and kept cranking 2) adding JEK+BO to parallel BO till 5 AM Tues. morning. connective structures for other Athelstan was there for all of logical connectives; Monday's discussions, Nora lasted 3) permitting free modifiers in until 10:30 PM, since she had to several new places; work on Tuesday. There was a long 4) adding selma'o ZEI to support a conversation with pc in the morphology algorithm change (see afternoon to resolve issues that below); he needed a voice/vote in. Monday 5) permitting "GEK sentence GI evening, we took a break from the observative"; x1's and x2's of place structures 6) in the current baseline gram- to work on the x's and y's of MEX. mar, it is impossible to use a On Tuesday, John and I woke PA+MAI free-modifier after a around 11 AM, and kept talking number even though it is till I dropped him at the bus apparently grammatically legal: station around 1 PM. Whew! the number will absorb the added Everything accomplished. PA values because there is no Now here is the summary of implicit "BOI" at the end of these effects: numbers. The problem was fixed by reworking the rules specifying how Grammar free modifiers attach to numbers so that BOI can be added to The grammar is of course separate them. baselined and frozen until we make 7) after long analysis, the updates and republish it in the relative-modifier logical connec- Lojban books. Because we want the tive selma'o ZIhE was determined books to reflect the grammar after not to be especially useful as a the books are done, we do our logical connective, and the group writing based on that next revi- has been stripped down to the sion of the grammar. There are single word "zi'e", which now sim- now 15 minor changes planned for ply indicates the attachment of that revision, all but 4 being multiple relative modifiers to a extensions to the language. When single sumti. The multiple we write and publish materials in logical connective grammar rules JL, they should be in accordance that were present for ZIhE were with the current baseline. Next- stripped down to a single rule baseline grammar changes will only supporting simple connection; be used in the unlikely 8) allowing I+BO-initial sentences circumstance that something needs at the beginning of text; to be phrased using a construct 9) allowing NAI at the beginning that is now illegal, but which of text; 18 10) allowing any kind of JOI non- Morphology logical connectives to be used in forethought, in parallel with John and Nora have resolved all forethought causal connectives: open issues regarding the JOI GI construct GI construct; morphology algorithm, and it is 11) POhO, which has been required included in JL16 for final review at the end of incomplete before publication in the sentences, will be eliminated; reference book. Problems included POhO was added at one point due to strings of vowels and lujvo problems found in some versions of involving le'avla. Since the YACC (including the one we were morphology is baselined, using) that caused a parser to technically any change is a falsely declare an ambiguity in baseline change, but all changes such incomplete sentences. POhO being considered are in areas not has been shown to no longer be well-defined in the existing in- necessary; formal 'Synopsis' that describes 12) NIhE, one of the converters the morphology. Highlights used to integrate MEX with the (again, these are post-book rest of the grammar, now permits baseline features.): an entire complex selbri construct to be converted; - Adding selma'o ZEI, with only 13) NAhE is disallowed in cmavo "zei", will eliminate forethought 'termsets'. The rule various other schemes of making permitting it had been erroneously lujvo using le'avla, all of which generated from a similar involved either tricky stress/- structure. Contrary negation of a pronunciation problems or had termset is not defined in the potential breakdowns of a nature negation paper. similar to the 'Tosmabru test' 14) Multiple I and/or I+BO are used in regular lujvo. The result permitted at the beginning of text would have been rules so un- (a benefit primarily for those who intuitively complicated as to make stutter); them impractical to use on-the- 15) Allow SE conversions of fly, when most such compounds will abstract and negated selbri be made. ZEI is processed in without KE/KEhE parentheses. advance of lexer rules (as is BU for lerfu and ZO, LOhU, ZOI, SI, If that list doesn't make a lot SA, and SU) as part of the met- of sense, don't worry about it. alinguistic grammar. It causes These truly are abstruse 'little' one word immediately before it and changes in the grammar that are one word immediately after it to unlikely to affect anyone's be considered joined into a single conversation and writing very construct equivalent to a BRIVLA. much, if at all. With the exception of some of those metalinguistic cmavo just listed, any Lojban word can be so joined to any other, allowing lujvo to be based on cmavo that have no rafsi, as well as le'avla. Many-part le'avla lujvo will have a ZEI between each pair of terms. Regular gismu and lujvo may also be used as terms in a ZEI lujvo. - cmavo space is now recognized to include certain structures with 0 or 1 consonant, followed by more than two vowels, with apostrophe used between every pair (except when diphthongs occur). Thus "zo'o'o'o" could be a legal cmavo 19 (with an obvious meaning of a more be changed, since "mz" is not a intense humor?) These will not be permissible medial. "djeimyz." is considered for defined use, but acceptable. are added to the experimental cmavo space. The grammar will cmavo treat all experimental and undefined cmavo as if they were The following cmavo changes are members of UI. made. Note that one the cmavo, "zei", has grammar contingent upon - When one word ends in a vowel, the next baseline. It will be in and the following begins with one, the next draft of the cmavo list a pause, and not a glide, must be anyway, even though the current used to pronounce them. This con- grammar will not handle it. firms the original design deci- sion. Actual usage has been that zei ZEI lujvo glue joins preceding some UI members have not been and following separated from each other and word into a other vowels by pauses, and this lujvo was determined to be too difficult for the resolver to handle, so it ne'o VUhU factorial reas remains forbidden. An example is signed from ".ua.ui" which has been pronounced "zei" to make "/wah,wee/", but must be pro- room for above nounced as "/wah.wee/". An example showing the problems that bu'u FAhA coincident with can result is ".ui.iu", which if space/time pronounced without a pause is tense equiva- indistinguishable from ".ui,u". lent of CA - Names will be permitted to have be'a FAHA north of from "la", "lai", and "doi" in them "berti" WHEN PRECEDED BY A CONSONANT. ne'u FAhA south of from This means that the 'd' or 'l' "snanu" must be the at-least-2nd in a con- du'a FAhA east of from sonant cluster such that the "stuna" preceding letter and the d/l form vu'a FAhA west of para a permissible cluster, or are llel with initial at the beginning of a "du'a" word. This means that a name (these are added for compatibility "zdoil." or "jdoil." is legal, and with languages/cultures that use a every consonant except another "l" fixed reference frame for is permitted before "la" and directions instead of a speaker- "lai". Thus while based one. A secondary if trivial "*nort.kerolainas." remains advantage is that a Lojban wind- illegal, it can easily be changed vane is more interesting, instead to "nort.kerlainas.". This will of having the letters B-S-S-S for then allow a certain erroneous the four cardinal points.) comic strip to be corrected, by naming the cat "mlat.", "*lat." voi NOI descriptive clause non- remaining illegal. It also veridical corrects the embarrassment that restrictive the other English name of the clause used to language - "loglan." - has been form com- an illegal name in "lojban." plicated le- like descrip- - Names are formally restricted tions using from having impermissible medial "ke'a" consonant clusters in them. The This is in a way similar to most significant effect of this is "goi"/GOI, but used with clauses to require the name "*djeimz." to (bridi) on the right. It defines 20 a sumti on the left as being the va'u BAI benefited by thing the speaker has in mind indication of a which fills "ke'a" in the clause. beneficiary Nick Nicholas asked for this in when formulated connection with an alternate ap- as "seva'u" = proach to sumti-raising that he "for the prefers to "tu'a". benefit of"; from "xamgu" Example: (replaces a ko'a voi lenu ke'a cisma useful function cu pluka mi cu zutse of the word The it1 whose smiling pleases "du'a", deleted me sits. last year as an The one whose smile pleases me is English-biased sitting down. member of BAI) to'a BY lower case bi'u BAhE de-emphasize shift reassigne next the d from current reverse of "voi"; from "ba'e" which "tordu" emphasizes the next word - ma'e BAI of material added in used to add a emulation of a material to a similar bridi more function word specific than in the Mon- the existing golian language "seta'i"; from Dagur "marji" ce'a LAU font shift chan de'a ZAhO pausitive even ge of selma'o; t contour for a indicates that temporary halt the following and ensuing character pause in a specifies a new process; from font (e.g. "denpa" italic, block di'a ZAhO resumptive even print, or manu- t contour for script). Super- resumption of a sedes old paused process "ce'a" and Example: "pe'e" which mi de'a citka ca lenu were too la noras. tavla limited; the I pausitively eat while latter is now Nora talks. unassigned. I stop eating while Nora talks. (In addition, the grammar changes vu'i LUhI the sequence described above also freed up converts other po'o, zi'a, zi'i, zi'o, and zi'u.) sumti types to sequences, even remaining unassigned (27): if the order is bi'a bi'e bu'o (bo'a bo'e bo'i vague bo'o bo'u) ce'e ce'u ci'a do'i ja'u ju'e mi'i na'a ne'e pe'e po'o re'u te'i va'e vu'o zi'a zi'i zi'o zi'u gismu 21 Keyword changes The following two gismu are proposed for addition to the The following constitute baselined list, and will be baseline changes, even though adopted pending no objection: there is no significant change of meaning. They will be considered vukro vuk vu'o Ukrainian x1 adopted unless there is objection. pertains to the Ukrainian All metric prefixes currently language/- have keywords of the form: culture/nation in aspect x2 megdo 10E6 slovo lov Slavic x1 pertains to It has been pointed out that this Slavic lan- does not conform to most guages/culture/- exponential notations. The ethnos in aspect keywords will be globally changed x2 to use "1" instead of "10" giving: (lovle'u Cyrillic x1 is a letter of megdo 1E6 Cyrillic al- phabet The following are being changed symbolizing x2) to make them consistent with other culture words by referring to the These have been reviewed by Ivan culture rather than to the Derzhanski, as our only active defining element of the culture. native-Slavic Lojbanist. The breakup of the Soviet Union, has budjo Buddhist x1 pertains to made Ukraine a large country with the Buddhist culture/- a Russian speaker base, one with a religion/nation in Slavic language of its own and a aspect x2 nationalistic interest in being dadjo Taoist x1 pertains to clearly distinct from Russia and the Taoist culture/reli- the ex-Soviet Union. (The gion/nation in aspect x2 definition of "softo" is being jegvo Jehovist x1 pertains to broadened to cover the old Russian culture/religion of the empire and the new Commonwealth, Judeo-Christian-Islamic but remains tied to the keyword deity in aspect x2 'Soviet' because there really is xriso Christian x1 pertains to no other distinct word.) Our the Christian culture/- standards for cultural gismu religion/nation in clearly put Ukraine in the group aspect x2 that should have a gismu. (The other republics, except Russia The change in keyword of "mukti" itself, will be covered with to "motive", part of the last le'avla.) baseline change, did not get into the Planned Languages Server file With two Slavic peoples for some reason, along with represented, the family name also appropriate definition wording requires a gismu (as "semto" changes. Some copies of LogFlash exists to cover Hebrew and Arabic were distributed with this change commonalties). As shown, this omitted. gismu will also be used to generate a lujvo for "Cyrillic", a rafsi better choice than "rusko" or "softo" for making a lujvo for "du" will be added to the list as that concept, anyway. a result of being assigned the rafsi "dub" and "du'o". "selci" is being given "sle" from "selfu", which in turn will be given "sef" 22 from "sefta". (Since the January - More care is being taken with meeting, we have compiled a list 'under conditions' places. In of all lujvo used thus far in many cases, an 'under conditions' Lojban text. This will be used to place may be appropriate to some generate a more accurate tuning of event/state within a single place the rafsi assignments to reflect of a bridi, rather than applying expected usage. A few additional to the main bridi itself. rafsi changes are likely to result, and will appear in the - The use of "du'u" abstractions completed book. is clearly distinguished in place structures dealing with truths. Place structures Some places dealing with knowledge and truth have been cleft paral- We cannot list all of the place leling the "djuno" place structure structure changes and definition change in JL15. changes being made for the new baselined list. Based on - All known cleft place structures decisions at the weekend meeting, have been reviewed, with more than about 20% of the words will have half eliminated by putting an some change from the draft event clause in x1. A few, such "logdata.raw" list posted to the as "simlu", are remaining cleft, PLS and distributed to advance but are worded so as to suggest recipients of the new LogFlash (We "ka" property abstractions instead were BUSY!). Most of these are of events in the cleft abstraction minor and clarifying. (The place. complete review that Bob is doing while typing in these changes has The following are particularly resulted in many more minor significant changes in meaning. changes, mostly clarifications in Since there is no keyword change, wording). these are not considered relevant Some general notes: to the baseline; place structures have never been frozen. The - Bob Chassell proposed a large wording is abbreviated and approx- set of synonyms be listed; these imate, and there may be further are being added to the definition changes before the list is finally field to make computer searches of frozen. For now, however, this the list easier. These synonyms will clarify the meanings of many will also show up in the words, and should give a good idea dictionary as additional English as to the nature of the most major entries. changes being made. - A clarification of sets and balvi x1 is in the future of/- masses and sequences and their later than/after x2 in time roles as place holders in bridi (ONLY; cf. lidne) caused many changes in wording. bilni x1 is military/- All places where these have been regimented/strongly identified as likely placeholders organized/prepared by system have been examined and will be x2 for purpose x3 identified if space permits. caxno (paralleling condi below) - Several 'properties' gismu which cfari x1 (nu) commences/- are generally considered begins/initiates/starts subjective, have gained a 'by (intransitive) [no change, but standard' place. The standard may cf. sisti) only the personal one of the cimde x1 is a dimension of observer, whatever that may be. space/object x2 according to Colors are NOT included in this rules/model x3 change. clupa x1 is a loop/circuit in/of material x2 defined by (set of points) x3 23 cmavo x1 is a structure word naxle (paralleling dargu having grammar exemplified by above) word x2 with meaning function pajni x1 judges/is a judge x3 in language x4 determining/deciding matter x2 condi x1 is deep in extent in (ka/ni/jei abstraction) x2 (ka) at locus x3 away from (estimate/evaluate) observation point x4 by panra x1 is parallel to x2 in standard x5 property/pattern x3 by stan- cpare x1 climbs/clambers/- dard/geometry x4 crawls/creeps on surface x2 in pikta x1 is a ticket entitling direction x3 using x4 (tools, x2 to privilege/entitlement x3 limbs) (nu) under conditions x4 danfu x1 is the answer/- platu x1 plans/designs/plots response to question x2 plan/plot/arrangement x2 for dargu x1 is a road with route state/process x3 x2 porsi x1 (sequence) is fancu x1 is a function/single- sequenced/ordered by compari- value mapping from domain x2 son/rules x2 on set to range x3 defined by rules (unordered) x3 x4 prami (paralleling xebni fasnu x1 is an event that below) happens/occurs prina x1 (agent) prints x2 on flalu x1 is a law specifying x3 using tool x4 x2 (nu) for community x3 purci (paralleling balvi (mass) under conditions x4 by above) law-giver x5 ritli x1 is a rite/ceremony/- funca x1 (nu) is determined by ritual/is formal(legal) for the luck/fortune of/for x2 purpose x2 under custom x3, gasnu x1 is agent in event x2; under rules/form x4 x1 'does' x2 selci x1 is a cell/atom/- gradu x1 (magnitude) is a molecule/unit of x2; x1 is an unit/degree of/on scale/- indivisible basic subunit of reference standard x2 (idea/- x2 (cf. English 'atom') si'o) measuring x3 (ka) simlu x1 appears to have gunma x1 is a mass/team/is property x2 to x3 under together, of components x2 conditions x4 considered jointly sirji x1 is straight/direct/- jbini x1 is between/among set line segment/interval between of boundaries x2 in x3 (ka) x2 and x3 jdika x1 is decreased/reduced sisti x1 (agent) ceases/- in x2 (ka) by amount x3 (no stops/halts doing/being x2 change but cf. zenba) (cf. cfari WHICH IS DIFFERENT) kancu x1 counts the number in skiji x1 is a ski/skid/skate/- set x2 to be x3 (ni/number) in runner for surface x2 (for) units x4 supporting skier/skater/sled/- karli x1 is a collar cargo x3 surrounding x2 of material x3 suksa x1 (nu) is sudden/abrupt krefu x1 is a recurrence/- at stage/achievement x2 in repetition of x2 (nu) for the process x3; x1 (ka) suddenly x3th (ni/number) time; x1 changes at point x2 over happens again interval x3 kusru x1 (person) is cruel/- talsa x1 (person) challenges mean to x2 x2 in x3 (ka) lacpu x1 pulls/tugs/drags x2 trene x1 is a train by handle at locus x3 (segmented-vehicle) of cars/- lafti x1 lifts/applies lift to units (mass/sequence) in x2 at locus x3 system/railroad/of owners x3 lidne x1 leads/precedes x2 in trina x1 attracts/lures x2 sequence x3 (person/action) with x3 (ka) 24 venfu x1 (person(s)) takes John Cowan writes the following revenge on/retaliates against as further explanation of the x2 (person(s)) for wrong x3 set/mass/sequence/individuals (nu) with vengeance x4 (nu) changes: vorme x1 is a door/gate between x2 and x3 of/in/- One of the aims of the place through structure x4 structure review was to examine xamsi x1 is an ocean/sea/- all the place structures that were gulf/atmosphere of planet x2 labeled "(plural/set)" to see of fluid x3 whether an actual set was wanted, xanri x1 (si'o) exists in the or merely one or more individuals. imagination of/is imagined In addition, sometimes a mass by/is imaginary/unreal to x2 seemed to be the right thing. The xebni x1 hates x2 (object/- new place structures which Lojbab abstract) is typing up will contain a good xendo (paralleling kusru deal of clarification. above) Essentially, a true set is xlura x1 (agent) influences x2 required if the relationship does into action/event/state x3 by not hold of each member but only influence/threat/lure x4 (cf. of the totality. For example, trina) "kampu", "cnano", and "fadni" are xrani x1 (nu) injures/harms/- all relationships between a set damages victim x2 in property and one of its members (or a x3 resulting in injury x4 property thereof). If I am (za'i/ka) typical of ("cnano") the set of zarci x1 is a market/store/- persons, that doesn't mean that exchange/marketplace selling the relation "typical-of" holds x2 operated by x3/with between me and every individual participants x3 (mass agent) person -- indeed, the idea of one zenba x1 is increased/- person being typical of another augmented in x2 (ka/ni) by makes no sense. amount x3 (parallels with On the other hand, we decided jdika) that "casnu" should have a mass, zukte x1 is an 'entity' rather than either a set or plural employing means x2 for/towards individuals, in its x1 place. end/purpose/goal x3 People may "casnu", or participate in a discussion, even though not all of them say anything. In many cases, "(plural/set)" came up where "between" or "among" was involved. Most of these we tried to reword to avoid the problem, which often resulted from excess generality. Thus a wall now separates exactly two things, and a door connects exactly two. (A wall may separate multiple pairs of things - my house from yours, my property from yours, Country 1 from Country 2 - all at once, but the relationship is still pairwise.) In addition, the phrase "ordered set" was changed throughout to "sequence", and the place structure of "porsi" is now something like "x1 is a sequence of the members of set x2 ordered by rules x3". Sequences do not have the same level of support in 25 Lojban as individuals, masses, and Mini-Lesson - Athelstan set the sets; however, we have long had material of his "Lojban Mini- the non-logical connective "ce'o" Lesson", an hour-long which constructs them item by presentation, down in text last item. In addition, we added summer and fall before his "vu'i", a converter of selma'o accident. We distributed draft LUhI, transforming a set into a copies electronically (the draft sequence, as well as individuals is available on the PLS - see into a sequence-in-extension. above), and some two dozen people It now seems that "fa'u", the from 6 different countries have non-logical connective for tried it and sent comments. Alas "respectively", may be taken to the revision effort was only generate a sequence-in-extension, partially done when the accident thus: occurred, so the mini-lesson, planned for this issue and at one mi fa'u do se cmene zo djan. fa'u time an excuse for its delay, zo lojbab. isn't yet ready. (I respectively-with you) are- People have in general found the benamed ("John" respectively-with mini-lesson to be a very good "Lojbab"). introduction to the language, as they found Athelstan's oral Using ".e" logical connection presentation similarly useful. will not do, as that would claim Alas, on paper it takes a good that each of us is named both deal more than an hour to work "John" and "Lojbab". through. People have generally said that there are too many Status of Products exercises and too few examples. A few of the examples and explana- We have a lot of products in the tions are perhaps too oriented to works, and a few of them are done English-native speakers, but we or nearly done. More signifi- haven't figured a good way to cantly perhaps, several new correct that. products have been identified, and Given the accident, it is likely are in progress and in some cases that I (Bob) will have to finish near completion. The variety of the revision, and it will thus not Lojban products continues to be ready until JL17 or even JL18. multiply as new people get in- The revised mini-lesson will also volved in its development. form part of the introductory One is of course the Diagrammed package. Summary of Lojban Grammar, included as an insert in this LogFlash - We have released the issue. This will form the major new version of LogFlash described language explanatory text about in the last several issues. Both the language for our introductory LogFlash 1 (gismu) and LogFlash 3 package. The Overview will be (cmavo) are being successfully recast to talk mostly about the used by several people. ideas of the language and not the For those who want to learn grammar, and a glossary will be rafsi, the older combined LogFlash added. Eventually, this package 1/2 will continue to be available will be assembled into one of our (LogFlash 2 teaches rafsi) until a several book publications. Now new version is created - a new for the other products: version of LogFlash 2 will be more difficult to develop than the other programs because the type of testing used in lessons is more diverse. The lujvo-making program will also be incorporated into the next revision of LogFlash 2. The priority of this revision depends primarily on people being in- 26 terested in obtaining it - if you only, but since the lists being are ready to start using this distributed are unofficial, people program, or expect that you will receiving them need to be fore- be within 6 months, let us know warned. Again, we will make and Nora will put more effort into updated files available to those this upgrade. The files for the who purchase copies now, probably old version are not being updated, at the time the first book is hence several newly-added rafsi released. assignments and the couple of The instability of the word changes that have been made are files affects LogFlash 3 a bit not reflected in this old version. more significantly because we are This has not proven to be a sig- more freely changing words and nificant limitation. keywords, as well as making a There are two 'problems' with small number of additions and the current release, neither of deletions to the cmavo list. The which prevents effective use. The changes being made are typically first is that we've had no time to minor, however, enough that we can rewrite the user documentation. finally feel comfortable in recom- There are now an enormously mending that people use LogFlash 3 increased number of user- without too much fear of having to selectable features in LogFlash, do a lot of relearning due to and documentation is needed to changes. intelligently choose among them. You can experiment or ask - most MacLojFlash - Both versions of of these functions are self-ex- LogFlash for the Apple MacIntosh planatory as to how they work, and are being updated for the new data playing around is not damaging to files. Each version already had your learning effectiveness some of the features now incor- (though it can be time consuming porated into the original MS-DOS given the number of options). version, and will probably add new However, explaining when and why ones to keep the different each option is intended to be used versions roughly comparable in takes a bit of work. Luckily, capabilities. The Hypercard Mac Nora has made the program version by Dave Cortesi is being effectively self-channelled - the upgraded to Hypercard II; Richard default option at each menu choice Kennaway's original MAC version progresses you through fairly doesn't use Hypercard, is somewhat optimal usage. I'd like to faster, but does not have voice promise the documentation soon, synthesis of the words, and but I'll have to admit that it supports both the gismu and cmavo keeps getting shoved off for other lists in one program. Richard's priorities. When more people program is basically ready, start buying the program, we will awaiting only reasonably final of course put high priority on word files. (Our difficulties in completing the support supporting the Mac continue, and documentation, and it will be we aren't going to release available free-of-charge to those incremental in-progress Mac ver- of you who have done without until sions of the word-lists as we are then. doing with the original program.) The other 'problem' is that The Mac programs are liable to be because of the above-mentioned cheaper than the MS-DOS versions, revision of the gismu list, partly because of the lower especially affecting place quality of support that we have structures, the version of the been able to provide. list we are giving out at any particular time is subject to Serious Volunteers Sought for changes. These changes don't LogFlash Research - The new generally affect the learning version of LogFlash (MS-DOS process since place structures are version only) is instrumented for provided for information purposes research into how well people 27 learn Lojban words. This finally Other teaching products - We allows testing of the 'word have contacted two firms that recognition scores' that were the commercially produce language basis of Loglan/Lojban word-making learning materials and gotten ever since the project started in interest in assisting the Lojban the 1950s, as well as formally project from each of them. One verifying the effectiveness of the produces software that teaches you LogFlash technique. words and structures as you read a We are looking for volunteers to story or stories in Lojban (not a use LogFlash in learning the simplified text - you would learn Lojban vocabulary. At this point to read most any Lojban text you we have no constraint on who can come across). The other, In- volunteer, as long as you can ternational Learning Corporation, state more or less honestly that produces a series of materials you don't yet know much of the called "The Learnables (tm)", Lojban gismu vocabulary. Later which are books of cartoons and on, we will have to add re- pictures associated with extensive strictions to ensure that our tapes. These materials are used statistics are valid, but for now effectively in college classes. we are looking for patterns in the Both products have been learning of individuals. recommended to us by more than one We have no funding for this Lojbanist. Both organizations experiment - we can't pay anyone have indicated that they would be to participate. You will even willing to license us to develop have to buy the copy of LogFlash Lojban versions of their products that you use to learn the words, at no cost to us other than the because we need the money to stay effort of developing the in business right now. What we materials. The resulting materi- can promise is that someone who als should be extremely effective volunteers AND STICKS WITH THE in teaching Lojban and offer the EXPERIMENT ENOUGH TO GIVE US confidence of having been used USEFUL RESULTS will be credited effectively with other languages. afterwards for the price of The down-side of these materials LogFlash and any other Lojban is that they will probably be more teaching materials you buy to expensive than our self-developed study while participating in the materials (for existing languages, experiment. We'll also give the software package costs around priority (subject to our limited $100 plus a small amount per funds) for volunteers who need story, while The Learnables costs financial assistance to obtain around $45 for a book and 6 tapes, Lojban materials. with 4 beginning and 4 advanced This isn't a lot to offer for a books covering the typical lan- commitment of 3-7 hours a week for guage - we can't promise to be 4-8 months (probably 100-150 hours able to sell Lojban materials for total, about the same as the any less than the prices these homework time for a typical organizations charge for other college class), but the work isn't languages). hard, and you will be doing it These are significant anyway if you are planning on opportunities to get awareness of learning the language. We need is Lojban out to a much larger people who will use LogFlash more audience, but we cannot justify or less daily for at least 1/2 the time to produce the materials hour a day (preferably an hour - unless there is some significant learning may go 3 times as fast or interest in the community in better, at this more intense study buying and using the resulting rate; you learn quicker, and the products. So we need to hear from experiment is shorter and more you if you think you would buy the likely to show expected results.) materials. 28 Interlinear Glosser (and Parser) applications for which Lojban is - This new project of Nora's stems especially suitable is a Lojban- from four unrelated problems. to-English translator. Nora has Because of the massive volume of long been interested in producing Lojban text now being produced, a simple form of such a Nora and I can no longer read and translator, both for study of the check it all - our own command of problems of machine translation, the language is not thorough and as an effective teaching tool. enough for us to quickly check She first did a rudimentary trans- words and place structures, much lator, handling a subset of the less to comment the results grammar of single Loglan thoroughly. sentences, on a tiny TRS-80 home People writing Lojban text tend computer back in 1981. Updating to make word choice errors (e.g. this program to use with Lojban lujvo-making errors, has been difficult, because the misspellings), and find it hard to varieties of sentences that are catch these errors before typical for Lojban are much more 'inflicting' them on others. A numerous than for earlier Loglan simple computerized spelling versions. checker cannot fully solve this A few months ago, we discovered (even if you can build a a free-ware program called dictionary file easily) because "Shoebox" (Summer Institute of nearly all possible cmavo and Linguistics) that produces lujvo word-forms are plausibly interlinear glosses from one valid words. language to another, using a In addition, people using the simple word look-up technique and Lojban parser to check their work a specially designed word data- have found the outputs to be hard base. Mark Shoulson and others to use in an odd way. When there have set up this program to is an error, the parser tells you produce quite pretty glosses for (approximately) where the error Lojban text, but the translation occurred, and you know where to is rather difficult to read, even look. If it finds no errors, the when you know Lojban grammar - the rather lengthy fully-parenthesized words that are substituted are the output contains complete keywords of our word-lists, which grammatical structure information. are not intended necessarily to be Unfortunately, a lot of simple er- good translations; there is no rors, including misspellings provision for lujvo compounds, (noted above) and omitted ter- even though they are quite minators can lead to grammatically regular; several cmavo have no perfect text that means something valid English gloss because they quite different from what you serve purely grammatical roles; intended. Reading the parser and finally, Lojban's predicate output to find such errors grammar means that you need to requires great care, as well as a analyze the grammatical situation certain sense of what types of er- to know whether to interpret the rors to look for. It isn't being English equivalent of a Lojban done too well, and people have word as a noun, a verb, and found errors in text that seemed adjective, or an adverb - Shoebox perfectly valid, even to the is not sufficiently tailored to parser, when read carefully. Loglan/Lojban's unique (Though this might seem to be a regularities to take advantage of threat to Lojban's viability as a them to produce a readable output. understandable and logical Inspired by this, Nora started language, the types of errors that designing a grammar-smart are occurring seem to be of the interlinear glosser. Carl Burke types that fluent speakers has aided with some good design wouldn't often make.) ideas, and the project is well Finally, one of the easiest underway. Indeed, the program first steps towards the computer already produces better glosses 29 than the comparable Shoebox The Cowan Papers, or "The Lojban versions, even without many 'gram- Textbook Effort Grows Up" - 3 1/2 mar smarts', because it recognizes years ago (October 1988) I started Lojban word types, disassembles to write a technical description lujvo, recognizes numbers as a and reference for Lojban. 40 unit, and other simple Lojban- pages and the first descriptive specific functions. It processes cmavo list were completed. outputs from John Cowan's Lojban Reviewers at that point basically parser, separating a long text told me that the text was not into separate sentences and other working - most people did not know logical chunks for easier reading, the language well enough to use a and optionally retaining or reference that presumed basic deleting the structure bracketing knowledge of the grammar. The and inserted elidable marker words format was very poor as a teaching that the parser provides in its text. The result was the output. We also have developed a recommendation that I write a 'dictionary' suited for this pro- Lojban textbook. gram. From January through June 1989, If there is demand, we can make I wrote 6+ draft chapters of such the program available fairly a textbook while teaching the shortly in its in-development form first Lojban class. About 150 bundled with the parser (which it people have gotten those lessons requires). We'll set a tentative now, and a couple of dozen of price of $50 for the combination, these have studied the language partly because the program is well enough to write fairly incomplete; the final program may effectively in the language. be more expensive. John Cowan's These draft lessons remain parser by itself is available for available and are the most tho- $25 (and may be available for some rough teaching materials we have UNIX machines as well as MS-DOS). for those trying to learn the lan- People who are writing a LOT of guage. Lojban text, and sending it to us Alas, the draft lessons, though or posting it onto Lojban List, they've 'aged well', remain can probably convince us to incomplete. I stopped writing provide a test version of either when we realized that the basic or both for free (especially if structure of the course was not you cannot afford to pay for it) - working in the way we intended and we'd rather have you be checking it was getting harder and harder your text before we get it rather to write lessons that built than be doing it ourselves. The constructively on what had gone user documentation and support on before. The completed textbook these programs will be quite would be over 1000 pages, and sim- limited until the glosser is ply wasn't good enough to justify completed. that much effort. We are making these programs I started a new draft in 1990, available primarily because some but it got only to page 50. people are already finding them Throughout 1990 and 1991, as useful, not because we believe others learned the language, the they are optimal products yet - if advances in teaching technique you are working often with the outstripped my writing ability. language, the program limitations Indeed, under the able leadership will not much hinder their of Nick Nicholas, the last year usefulness. Also, frankly, we has shown a truly outstanding need people to contribute more for increase in the sophistication of our support, and having new our knowledge of Lojban products to sell gives you expression, its style, and its something for your money besides semantics. But that evolution, the good feeling of contributing and the dozens of little tiny to keeping this project alive. changes in the corners of the language were stresses that hurt 30 my confidence that I was teaching This lack of examples was a big the language appropriately to the hang-up in textbook writing, as ways it is coming to be used. well. I spent endless time trying I've also spent too much time to concoct meaningful examples of dealing with our unending fi- sentences that exemplified the nancial problems and simply points I was trying to make, which coordinating the rapid expansion were limited in vocabulary, but of our organization. still interesting. This is NOT my The reference materials of the strong skill. Still, the 50 pages language continued to evolve as of the new draft textbook has well, and, although the language dozens of examples and even more itself is quite stable, our exercises. published descriptions of the When John Cowan first became language have edged towards involved in Lojban, 2 years ago, obsolescence. The gismu list his first promised goal was the place structures were too short rather ambitious one of writing an and vague, but the words example sentence for every gismu. themselves were quite stable, as He then decided instead to write were the rafsi affixes. The cmavo one sentence for every cmavo, list was nearly as stable, but covering every variety of incessant little changes in the grammatical usage. grammar coupled with major A nice ideal, but far too advances of our knowledge of how ambitious, as John found out. to communicate in Lojban have made Some cmavo are permitted in a a simple list of cmavo inadequate. variety of usages but aren't The YACC-based formal grammar has pragmatically useful in most of similarly been quite stable; there them - at least not in a way that were little changes and we had to we English speakers can easily update the baseline a year later, recognize. For example, it seems and a new baseline will take place rather odd to contemplate the when the first book comes out mathematical number "pi" treated (though the number of grammar like all other numbers and used as change proposals in the second a digit, or to enumerate objects baseline year have been less than or events: "pi events of Mary half of those in the first year). going to the store" is irrational Since every example in the in more than one sense of the textbook must be accurate and word. consistent with the reference John's continuing work with the lists, the more examples I've put grammar has made him even more into the text, the shakier the expert in its details than I am. result has become. Simply He has performed the modifications checking every example in the to the YACC grammar for all the existing 6 chapters requires hours little changes of the last two of work - the new textbook has years. In developing that several times as many examples for expertise, he learned how each key grammar point. thoroughly the language is In addition, the YACC grammar is defined, while how little of that not too well understood by those design is yet set down on paper. who aren't used to that type of He set to remedy this problem in grammar definition. There are a the context of his previous goal, lot of trees, with no sense of the choosing to write a "selma'o forest. The shorter EBNF form of catalog" that would list all the the grammar is better for some grammatical components of the lan- people, but it is still formalized guage, giving explanations and and difficult for non-computer examples of the use of each of people. An especial lack is a them. Maybe he wouldn't find one series of examples showing all the example for every word in every various structures of the grammar, grammatical context, but at least and discussing why they were there would be an example of each present. such grammatical form, and the 31 result would show how the rules of understand the 'B' words, while the grammar interacted in actual 'C' requires knowledge of both 'A' usage (as opposed to the arcane and 'B', etc. formulae of the YACC grammar). Finally, although John created John spent several months on the over a hundred example sentences selma'o catalog, and created a for the selma'o catalog, this is very nice document that a few not nearly enough to exemplify the people have used effectively to entire Lojban grammar. learn about the language The selma'o catalog will appear structures. The document has in print, probably in the first remained a draft, though, for book to be published (see below). several reasons. Basically, However, it needs to be integrated though, John realized that his with other materials in that book, goal remained far beyond what he which will take a bit of work. It was capable of writing. I'm going unfortunately cannot serve the to exaggerate the negatives to purpose John originally set out make the reasons clear - as I for it - to exemplify the variety said, the document proved quite of cmavo and their usages in the useful and informative for the grammar. limited audience of reviewers who To accomplish the latter, John already knew a bit about the has undertaken and made excellent language. Everyone who read it, progress on a new approach. He including me, learned a lot from has divided the grammar of Lojban John's explanations. into some 15 topics. There will The draft selma'o catalog is a be a paper on each topic, covering couple of hundred paragraphs, with the cmavo used in the portion of a couple of hundred cross- the grammar that addresses that references; but the latter is not topic. A half dozen of these nearly enough. It turns out that papers are done or nearly so many of the structures are complete. redundant to each other that it is The topics are not an even difficult to write about division of the grammar - some individual word categories without topics can be covered in very few referring to what is said pages, while others need a lot of elsewhere, or without repeating explanation and examples. On the the same thing many times over. average, the topics are being John also had to make use of so covered to at least the level of many technical jargon terms that a detail as the "On Lojban Negation" explanatory glossary was going to paper, which was published a be needed that was fully as large couple of years ago with JL and is as the catalog text, in order for now distributed with "Package 3" the catalog to be understood by a for active language students. beginner. Finally, because John (John's writing in these new wrote the catalog from start to papers seems to me to be much more end, it reads fairly well as a readable then my own in the textual explanation of the negation paper.) Each paper has selma'o. dozens of examples; in some of However, as a catalog reference them, over a hundred examples may work not intended to be read from be found. start to finish, the document The most important of the papers failed. Individual entries are completed thus far is the tense hard to understand - even with all paper included with this issue. the cross-references, too much of One of the most thoroughly the text presumes that the reader analyzed and designed aspects of has read and understood what comes Lojban, as distinguished from 'before it' in the catalog. The earlier versions of Loglan, the result is like a dictionary tense system benefits from pc's wherein you must know and expertise in tense logic and its understand almost every word in expression in the languages of the the 'A' section before trying to world. 32 I've said that the Lojban tense suppose over a period of time, X system is overdesigned - it allows continues this cruel behavior, the the entire variety of tense- dog's condition deteriorates, and related expressions used by any of it dies. In English, we might say the world's languages, without that "X kept on: kept on hitting particularly favoring any one the dog too long, too long." But approach. But each natural lan- without the long-winded guage has evolved a highly explanation, you would almost specialized and often idiomatic certainly consider that sentence approach to expressing tense. The both ungrammatical and nonsense, English speaker tackling Russian when it is neither. (And there is or Greek or Irish, all Indo-Eu- no way to clearly punctuate the ropean languages, must learn sentence, either, as I just found elaborate tense systems involving out.) Lojban expresses this perfective tenses that work situation easily. entirely unlike those of English. Now think of one of those Making the matter even worse, most cartoons where the main character English speakers are ill-educated drives a motorboat across the as to the complexity of the tense lake, then continues up on shore structures of their own language, and across the land. This and the subtleties of nuance situation is expressed in Lojban implicit in various forms of ex- using a tense quite similar to pression. As a result, a major that of the last example: the failing people have in learning character kept on driving the foreign languages is that they are motorboat too far 'on' the lake. unable to grasp the new ways of There are all manner of other relating time and space embodied tense structures permitted in in the foreign language, and speak Lojban, some of which have no in a very stilted dialect that is parallel in natural language. difficult for natives to Lojban's tenses are symmetrical understand. (Most artificial with respect to time - you can languages have little or no talk about future events in as thought put into their tense elaborate detail as you can talk system, and probably never achieve about past ones, whereas some the subtleties of meaning conveyed natural languages (including by natural language tenses.) English) have only a very degen- The tense paper included in this erate grammar for talking about issue will likely stretch your things to come. mind to envision new relationships Will people find Lojban's tense in time and space as expressed in grammar enabling? Or will its language, relationships that are many unusual forms never find use, not easily conveyed in English, if and fall by the wayside. We'll at all. only come to know after people For example, at the moment I am have a chance to learn from a writing this, I say that "I am thorough explanation of the tense writing JL16". But since JL16 is system, such as John has now not yet published, it doesn't yet provided us. exist while I write it (except as Here is a list of the papers a figment of my imagination). In currently planned, and their Lojban, we can make this clear by status: stating that I am writing the - morphology, phonology, and inchoative JL16. orthography (written and Another example, long my published, needs stylistic favorite, was coined by pc. rewrite to match later papers); Suppose X has a dog which he hits - negation (written and published, in punishment whenever it chews needs minor update and reworking X's clothes. Indeed, he hits it to be stylistically consistent so long that it sustains lasting with later papers); injury, though a trip to the vet - attitudinals/metalinguistics remedies much of this damage. Now (written and published, needs 33 major rewrite adding many 1988, before the textbook was examples); conceived. - tense (written and published We have come full circle. In a with this issue); year, when the papers are complete - MEX: mathematical expressions and published, Lojban will be (written and internally reviewed well-documented, and the language - to be published with JL17); and its community will be much the - logical connectives (written and richer for it. in internal review); - text structure (written and in Bob and Nora Studying Russian - internal review); Nora and I have started an - lerfu (written and in internal intensive study of Russian. We review); are trying to adopt one or more young children from Russia, and Not yet written (though in some will have to travel to that cases planned in considerable country, deal with children who detail) are: have likely started to understand - abstraction; or even to speak Russian, and also - logical quantification; to teach those children about - sumti structures - anaphora, their heritage as they grow up. descriptions, names, quotes, (Yes, we also plan to teach our numbers; kids Lojban.) - places and place structures; What does this have to do with - selbri structures; Lojban? - tanru making; Our learning efforts started in - anaphora; April, and have already had a - elidable terminators; significant effect on the future textbook. Our situation in John will write most of these learning Russian is not too unlike papers. I (Lojbab) will probably the typical Lojbanist who wants to do a couple of them, possibly learn Lojban - we want to very including the major rewrite of the quickly acquire as much competency attitudinal paper, a lesser in the language as we can, but rewrite of the negation paper, and have minimal opportunity to take writing some or all of the papers formal classes or interact with on tanru, elidables, and ab- native speakers. straction. These papers will We've spent a good chunk of probably take another year to be money on textbooks, tapes, and completed, reviewed, and other learning aids; we've adapted integrated for publishing, but the LogFlash to the study of Russian resulting book will be a detailed vocabulary (surprisingly easy due explanation of all aspects of the to Nora's excellent program design Lojban grammar (called a foresight, even though Russian 'reference grammar' by linguists). uses a keyboard and alphabet These papers will be an rather different from what invaluable resource in creating normally appears on your computer examples and exercises to enrich screen). the long-delayed Lojban textbook. Only a month into the effort, Teaching of the intermediate and I'm learning what methods work for advanced aspects of the language rapid self-teaching, and which do that were not covered in the 6 not. draft lessons already written will When Nora and I learned Loglan/- be especially helped. Lojban, we acquired it slowly, As I went to describe John's over several years, without papers, and the role that they fit prepared materials to work from, in the documentation of the Lojban and our level of skill until the design, I realized that these last couple of years did not collected papers will be nothing approach a useful level. Our other than the Lojban technical experience was unlike what the new description that I started back in Lojbanist faces in trying to learn 34 the language, and even more language textbooks, their strongly different from the way we structure, and teaching tech- hope Lojbanists will learn the niques. I've read over a dozen language in the future after the books on standard and unorthodox books and other materials are language teaching methodologies complete. and on textbook writing for both However, our experience in commonly studied languages and for studying Russian from prepared little-known languages for which materials in a short time will native speaker materials are hard more closely approximate the to acquire. typical Lojbanist's situation. (You would be surprised how What have we learned? We need little agreement there is on many more examples and exercises - teaching methodologies among each of the books we are using language teaching professionals. gives dozens of very simple Simply speaking, there is no exercises for each point taught, methodology that has proven to several exercises requiring use of work effectively for the wide each vocabulary word to be added variety of student backgrounds and to the learner's 'active' goals. The best materials are vocabulary, and an incremental ap- those for learning English, but proach that adds new grammar English-speaking natives like me features quickly (at least at our cannot look at these materials and study pace) but only one at a truly understand the methods being time. We have also found that used, and how they might relate to tapes are useful and indeed im- designing materials for other portant to giving students languages - the best materials are confidence that they can actually quite unlike the ones native speak the language, as they copy speakers study in English grammar what is being said. Tape class.) exercises give practice in This reading means that I listening to the language, as well actually understand the techniques as correction of the errors and being used by the Russian textbook other problems that creep into the writers as they use them on me self-teaching student's (the best Russian textbooks on the pronunciation. market were written in Russia by I am also getting specifically professionals there, and then helpful samples of style: how translated and adapted for much explanation is appropriate English-speaking audiences). I and useful, and what type of can see which techniques work well wording is clearest. Indeed, some with a self-teaching student, and specific Russian pronunciation which would need two or more explanations will prove quite people, or even a class, to be useful in explaining similar effective. points about Lojban. It is no big surprise that the I've spent a lot of thought on techniques that work best on me the textbook writing problem, and are quite similar to the LogFlash sent out a questionnaire to flash card technique. It IS potential Lojban students on the significant, both to me, and computer networks. The problems potentially to people who design I've had in writing the textbook materials for other languages, how have included a lack of time, too valuable an understanding of WHY I many things to do, instability in am doing an exercise helps me do the details of the language, and that exercise better - I low morale. But the real problem concentrate on what is important, was that I was trying to write a and don't worry about the rest (I textbook with no real can tell this benefit because I understanding of what a language can see the problems that Nora is textbook needs to contain. having, not having had this I've spent a lot of time over background in language teaching the last 5 years examining theory.) 35 It turns out that this new January weekend meeting discussed information will not affect the above led to a lot of changes in textbook writing I've done thus the gismu list place structures, far. We decided a long time ago and all other documents have to be to totally rewrite the materials reconciled with those changes. A in the draft 6 lessons in the new lot of progress has been made, textbook, which will have a though, and I can surely state different organization, as well as that, except for the time I'm a different style. The draft taking to produce this JL issue, lessons, updated to the current la lojbangirz. is decidedly in a language with minimal stylistic book-producing mode. changes, will still be put out as The number of books planned has a book later this year, because we increased as we produce the two can get it done quickly and originally identified. Here's the because people have proven able to current plan: learn from the book. The rewritten textbook has been Textbook - The existing draft stalled near the end of Chapter 1 textbook lessons will be updated for over a year - partly from lack to the current language and minor of time, more recently from changes put in to reflect specific reduced priority. Chapter 1 is an difficulties that people had with overview of the entire language, a an explanation. This revision big-picture summary that attempts will take time, but isn't too to get across the fundamental difficult. Some added tutorial differences between Lojban and materials, dealing with topics not other languages in hopes that when covered in the 6 lessons that are we turn to a detailed, incremental important to new Lojbanists will buildup of language skills in suc- be appended, and the first chapter ceeding chapters, people will have of the new draft textbook will a framework to build upon. (It is serve as an overview at the begin- rather difficult to properly teach ning. about Lojban sentence features Thereafter, work will commence without knowing that Lojban on writing the 'real' textbook, sentences themselves are using some of the ideas I've conceptually unlike English learned from teaching the language sentences.) It will take little since the first draft textbook was work to adapt Lesson 1 for this started in 1989, as well as from new approach, but I now, finally, our learning Russian, as described have some idea how to write Lesson above. This writing may take a 2 - which has been a significant year or two, so that the revised hindrance on my writing. draft textbook is what there will be until then. The full textbook Book Plans - Last issue, I may run to 2 volumes - I haven't expected that we would have one or yet seen a textbook that gives two books completed by the end of conversational fluency in a the year, those books being language in even two books. composed of updated versions of Lojban, while simpler than most already published materials. languages, still has a large Surprising few people, the books vocabulary to learn. There is a haven't yet happened. The minimum amount of vocabulary that distractions of the financial must be mastered to converse situation hurt both morale and fluently in any language. We have concrete progress. More had little success in convincing important, the documents that we people to get that head start on intended to incorporate into book the vocabulary needed to make form have lots of elusive little textbook learning flow smoothly. inconsistencies which are taking a The draft lessons averaged 100 new long time to resolve and document words per lesson, and people in so that we don't introduce new the first class did not do enough errors as we correct the old. The self-study of this vocabulary to 36 have the vocabulary keep up with text so far into lists (there have their grammar learning. The been over 2000 such lujvo actually answer is smaller, shorter used in Lojban text, which can be lessons, and some additional work added to some 5000 proposed words on vocabulary teaching and that are on paper and computer drilling techniques. But language disk from earlier Loglan work). I textbooks seem to set a target of expect that the slow production around 1000-1200 words for a process will allow me enough time typical textbook, and this is only to put a non-trivial sampling of enough for rudimentary these into the book. The communication in most languages, resulting lists will be less including Lojban. Thus we will thoroughly checked and standard need 2 books to get people to ac- than the well-analyzed gismu and tive use vocabularies of 2000+ cmavo lists, but the reference words, which is almost certainly book is now looking more like the the minimum needed for any real dictionary that people really want comfort in communicating. to see. Of course people using LogFlash It won't be the dictionary I can get to that 2000 word level WANT to produce, but it will have much more quickly, and without a more to it than most first book, since the gismu and cmavo in dictionaries of artificial LogFlash 3 together amount to languages, and will serve as a around 2000 words, and most of good start. these have some use in I have been calling this book conversation and writing. the 'proto-dictionary'. The proto-dictionary will also Reference Book/Dictionary - have the formal grammar in both Originally the dictionary was YACC and BNF forms, a glossary of going to come after the textbook. Lojban and technical/linguistic This has changed. As indicated jargon that often appears in dis- last issue, we decided to assemble cussion of Lojban, the morphology the various draft reference rules, and other useful reference materials into a single book re- material. I plan to include a placing our motley collection of form of the selma'o catalog printed handouts and reference started by John Cowan (described lists with a single cheaper volume above). that is also up-to-date. A more complete dictionary will Because we need up-to-date be built after this one is done, references in order to revise the but it again will take a couple of draft textbook, we decided last years - I've always known this was year that this book was to come a big project for one person, and first. It has turned out that without funding for more than producing it was not a simple myself to work on it, it will take assembly of old documents because a lot of time. bringing those documents into Nora has found a purse-sized consistency with the current gismu list that I prepared for her language has taken a lot of time. as an experiment to be very However, the added time has pro- useful. therefore, we are vided insights that will make the considering putting out a tiny new document better than origi- pocket version of the proto- nally expected. The revised gismu dictionary with word lists only. list, for example, now typically If you think such a book would be has 2 or more English glosses for useful enough for you to buy in each Lojban word, and the English addition to the full proto- order list will be much more dictionary, let us know - the useful for those looking up words. market for this book will We've had side projects going on determine whether it is produced regarding Lojbanization of names, in this generation of Lojban and are even starting to assemble materials, rather than waiting some of the lujvo used in Lojban 37 until there are more Lojbanists to buy it. Schedule - We may not be too good lately at meeting our Grammar Description - John schedules, being too dependent on Cowan's papers, described above, both time and money that are not along with the ones I have written under our control, but having a and will write in the future, will schedule helps us keep priorities form the third basic Lojban book. straight, and helps you know what he are doing to bring the language Introduction to Lojban - The to you. cost to us of our introductory Here are the current plans: package is quite high, and only some 10-20% of the people who ask (June 92) for information send us payment. LogFest 92A By assembling the introductory Printed: package into a small book, we can JL16 get better postal rates for LK16 mailing it, as well as reducing Diagrammed Examples of Lojban our printing costs. The savings Sentences is only a few hundred dollars a Tense Paper year, but every little bit helps, Electronic postings to PLS: and a lower price might encourage Diagrammed Examples of Lojban more to pay. Sentences Tense Paper Lojban Phrase Book - We started Mex Paper doing a phrase book for LogFest lerfu Paper draft last year, and a few dozen pages Text Structure Paper draft of materials have been assembled. Logical Connectives Paper draft The concept is similar to the Revised cmavo list standard 'Berlitz' phrase-books for travellers, recognizing that (August 92) the phrases a Lojbanist needs are LogFest 92B - Annual Meeting not quite the same as those that a Printed: traveller to a foreign country JL17 would want. LK17 Lojban Mini-Lesson Lojban Reader - We are still Mex Paper talking about this book, though it What is Lojban - la lojban. mo will likely be delayed because the Brochure (Esperanto version) other books are more important and Electronic postings to PLS.: the market for a reader is still lerfu Paper small. The amount of Lojban text Text Structure Paper that has been written or tran- What is Lojban - la lojban. mo slated is now enormous. However, Brochure (Esperanto version) checking the translations are slow - updated and inefficient; even small A comparison of Lojban and 1989 changes in the language require a Institute Loglan (Cowan) rechecking. We are also hoping Glossary of Lojban/linguistic that more Lojbanists will start terminology writing new things in the language rather than translating. Most (September 92) things people wish to translate Books: are covered by copyright, and Lojban Reference Materials/- tracking down of permissions to Proto-Dictionary reproduce such translations Lojban Pocket Dictionary commercially is something we Software: haven't figured out how to do Hypercard LogFlash/Mac - efficiently (along with the fact (Revised and New versions) that we might have to pay royalties). (November 92) 38 Printed: Using the Language JL18 LK18 The most heartening development Lojban Learning Materials (Book) of the last several months has Electronic postings to PLS.: been the spread of regular and Revised Draft Lessons 1-6 active Lojban work to several Negation paper (updated) people outside of the DC area. Attitudinal Paper (updated) These people, primarily in contact Synopsis of Lojban Orthography, with each other through the com- Phonology, and Morphology puter networks, are doing a (updated) variety of translations and other writings, games, and discussions. (Dec 92) The activities being undertaken Software often rely on advanced Lojban Lojban Parser (PC and some UNIX skills. That people are able to versions) do these activities without Lojban Parser/Glosser direction or instruction from Logflash 2 - rafsi (Revision 7) those of us who did the language design proves that the language Unscheduled But Planned has now been defined well enough Printed: that it is no longer totally Lojban Textbook dependent on Nora, pc, John Cowan Lojban Dictionary and myself for survival. Lojban Reader Even more significantly, the Lojban Phrase Book people participating in these ac- Printed and Electronic: tivities come from a variety of Lojban gismu Etymologies language backgrounds. Ivan Software: Derzhanski, in Scotland, is native Lojban Adventure Game Bulgarian. Nick Nicholas, in Australia, is native Greek/Eng- lish. Colin Fine, in the UK, of course uses British English, while Mark Shoulson uses American English (though he does most of his translating to Lojban from Hebrew). A new Lojbanist, Veijo Vilva is Finnish. Lojban Conversation Group - Before Athelstan's accident in February, the Lojban conversation group here in DC passed its first anniversary of regular weekly conversation sessions in Lojban. Without Athelstan, we have shifted to non-conversation activities such as translations to and from Lojban of simple texts, while teaching new Lojbanist David Young enough of the language that he can comfortably participate in conversation. As described above, we expect to merge the conversation group into a new Lojban class here in the DC area that will swell our numbers of conversant speakers. On the Net - Lojban List has remained steady at around 60-80 39 members, though the last few weeks post-game commentary, appear in le have shown a new group of people lojbo se ciska below. People par- joining in. While most of the ticipating in the game learn much subscribers to this list are from trying to find ways to 'lurkers' in net terminology (they rephrase what they receive. Nick read what's posted but seldom is hoping to increase the number contribute), the number who of participants in the next round. contribute to discussions has grown to a couple of dozen. Translations and other Writings The intensity of discussion - The volume of Lojban text, varies. Earlier this year, the mostly translations, continues to list was averaging a dozen grow. So does the diversity of messages a day, some of consid- translators and sources. Nick erable length. Lately, things Nicholas is still by far the have been quiet, with only one or leading translator into Lojban, two messages a day. with about 10 new efforts of The technical level of length comparable to that in JL15 discussions has increased. In- since that issue was published. deed, we've had a little problem Some of these translations are in that new subscribers who from Greek, both ancient and haven't received our materials modern, some are from Esperanto, tend to be a bit lost in the and even a couple from English. details of the fairly advanced Nick has also completed discussions, and very little is translating the text of the posted for beginning Lojbanists. original 'Adventure' computer I keep urging beginners to post game, known as 'Colossal Cave' questions, but few participate. (badbarda kevna), and we hope to have a Lojban version of this game Phone Game - The old party game available by the end of the year. called variously "the phone game" Ivan Derzhanski has translated or "whisper down the line" has two stories from Bulgarian into found a new incarnation in Lojban. Lojban. One of these will Originally started by Jack probably appear in the next issue, Bennetto, this game is just unless we get the final review completing its 3rd 'round'. done in time for this issue's Lojbanists are each given a deadline. Ivan has been message, originally in English. complimented for his 'natural' They translate it into Lojban and Lojban use that is very easy to pass it to the next person, who read. translates it back to English, Mark Shoulson has translated then the next back to Lojban, etc. sections of Genesis from the until the message has gone full original Hebrew, as well as some circle. The requirement is to traditional Hebrew songs. Colin translate about two lines once a Fine has translated the fairy tale week, so the time commitment is "The Princess and the Pea", and rather small. several songs, including one of Participants in the latest 5- his own. John Cowan has message round include Ivan translated a short tale from Derzhanski, Sylvia Rutiser, Mark Hakka, a rural Chinese dialect. Shoulson, Colin Fine, and Nora Veijo Vilva and And Rosta have LeChevalier, with Nick Nicholas each translated haiku poetry, and coordinating things and assembling Lojbab translated a Gilbert and the results. Sullivan song. Jamie Bechtel re- At the end of the game, Nick vised his translation of an Ursula collects comments from everyone on Leguin science fiction story, the obvious and not-so-obvious which we will print if we can get errors that creep into the copyright release. And of course translations, and they are posted the DC group has done a variety of to Lojban List. Two sample translations, mostly of simple messages from the 2nd round, with texts from the 19th century 40 schoolbooks called "McGuffy's Research Using Lojban Readers". Michael Helsem recently sent a As we have gained respect in the new poem written in Lojban, after linguistics community, a few several months of inactivity while linguists have offered ideas for relocating to Seattle. Thus far how Lojban would be useful in he's the only one emphasizing their work. I'll highlight three original writing in Lojban. key contacts. Alexis Manaster-Ramer - Alexis Discussions - Lojban List has is a noted linguist at Wayne State had discussions on innumerable University in Michigan. He is topics, and space is forcing us to active in a variety of linguistics leave most of these out of this arenas, and leads in international issue. These discussions have relations with the Russian been very helpful in resolving linguistics community, computa- some of the issues that come up as tional linguistics, and historical we clean up the loose ends in the linguistics (he has a forthcoming language documentation. Some of paper that will be the first in- the discussions are excerpted in depth technical review by American this issue, and more will appear linguists of the 'Nostratic' in later issues, but we can hardly theory of language evolution, start to include the volume of which has been much-discussed in material appearing on Lojban List. the popular press. Alexis has suggested that Lojban Linguist List - John Cowan and may be well-suited for use in Lojbab have also been active in semantic analysis of differing "Linguist List", a mailing list natural languages. Specifically, for professional linguists who are if you have, for example, a word conducting research. Our activity in Polish, and a word in English, has earned us, and Lojban, name they might be translated into two recognition in this critical com- separate words in Lojban, but then munity, and we have garnered using some of Lojban's features to considerable respect for Lojban's serve as a metalanguage for potential value in linguistics talking about the relationships research (see research news between the meanings. He says below). that linguists often make nonsensical claims/errors because Conlang - A third mailing list in dealing with glosses of words exists for people interested in from other languages, they often constructed languages in general forget that the gloss is not as opposed to Lojban or some other necessarily identical in meaning. particular language. Many of the (He cites as an example a guy participants are people inventing who did his thesis demonstrating their own languages, often for fun that English "if" was not a or for use in fiction. Lojbanists logical connection by examining contribute frequently on this how translations of "if" s forum, and we have gained several sentences into Tagalog were not new supporters as a result. logical connectives because the word used in Tagalog definitely doesn't ever act like such a connective. Alexis notes that this argument is silly - the Tagalog word was not necessarily identical in meaning to the English word, even if it WAS used in translation. Ideally you want to never assume that two words in different language map to exactly the same semantic space. 41 Another example, from Polish longer term goal need not even be (which is Alexis' native dealt with at first. language). 'Orange' in its Polish It is interesting that an incarnation is not as primary a opportunity like this comes up in color as it is in English. Even semantics, the area where we have though the archetype orange may be done the least work in Lojban, and similar or identical in the two yet the lack of work done is not a languages, the word for the handicap for the research Alexis concept covers a narrower band in has in mind. Polish, so some things English For the technically minded, calls 'orange' Alexis sees as a linguist David Elworthy attempted flavor of yellow and more rarely to reformulate my description in as red. Lojban has the more formal terms. In some ways capability, independent of the his version seems more clear than vaguely defined Lojban narju, to my presentation. David writes: add words glinarju and polskrnarju We are considering lexical for the two source language translation between two languages "oranges". Having different lg1 and lg2. Such a translation words, a Lojban-using analyst will only rarely be an wouldn't assume them to be isomorphism, in the sense that the identical in meaning, and would words (or whatever) in the perhaps also have the metalanguage language will have identical capability through adding BAI meanings; most of the time we have places and the like, to clearly a homomorphism, i.e. in going from distinguish the meanings and the lg1 to lg2 we discard some of the transformations needed to relate meaning and add in some extra bits the two. Each word would have an of meaning. The problem is that archetype and a range in both hue linguists and others who work with and saturation - the limits translations forget that they are between orange and other colors using a homomorphism and treat it being different in Polish than in as an isomorphism: hence the "if" English. in English and Tagalog example. Alexis thus sees in Lojban the The picture of what happens at the basis for a general or universal moment is thus: semantic theory after the concept that none other than Whorf had lg1 -----------------> lg2 (Whorf apparently thought that h gestalt psychology could serve as the basis of an independent (using h for the homomorphism). universal semantic theory). Lojban's cultural independence The proposal is to use a three (whether neutral or not, it is stage process: lg1 to the nearest relatively independent of other object (word, phrase) in Lojban, cultures through the need to some object in Lojban to lg2, and reformulate and reanalyze something to link the two Lojban virtually every concept for both objects, i.e.: syntactic and semantic place structure values when you lg1 ----> Lojban ----> Lojban ---- translate into Lojban), and its > lg2 extensibility allow for a lot of h1 h2 h3 power in semantic analysis. While the goal is some kind of such that composing the three universal semantic analysis homomorphisms h1, h2 and h3 gives capability, just the ability to you h. use Lojban to tackle small The suggestion is that Lojban is problems, like the color words, or a good tool for this because we Nootka sentence words or 57 Inuit can produce objects for the middle words for snow, would be a boon to stages which have a very precise linguists doing their work. The meaning (so we get h1 and h3 right), and furthermore that these 42 meanings can be reduced to members of a small collection of primitive Alan Libert - Alan is a linguist objects joined with well-defined at McGill University in Canada. connective. Hence we should be In April he gave a presentation at able to get h2. So we have the International Linguistics reduced h to simpler terms, and so Association meeting in Washington we can get a more precise under- DC, which I attended. Alan's standing of the original trans- paper was on the use of artificial lation. languages, especially those (like When I started to write this I Lojban) which do not attempt to was trying to work out why I felt copy the structures of some other skeptical about it, and I think I language or group of languages (a now find that I am less skeptical priori languages) to research in than I thought! The major language universals. He difficulty is in h1 and h3. To hypothesizes that those who invent know whether you have got these languages will unconsciously right, i.e. found or constructed incorporate true universals in the right Lojban objects, you have their language design even when to make reference to something they are trying to depart from outside the languages involved, their native language constraints. and this might just mean that you His initial efforts, dealing have replaced the need to do this with the well-known analyses of once (in h) with a need to do it word order in languages, were twice (h1 and h3). But perhaps inconclusive. However, we noted this is really the aim: to reduce in discussion of the paper that one hard problem to two easier such 'obvious' features of ones. language design are too well-known and hence likely to be an Ivan notes further that Lojban intentional choice on the part of may be most helpful where it is the language inventor. For important to forget about cultural example, the recently publicized concepts or about the Indo- "Klingon" language used in the Europeanish concept of parts of Star Trek movies was explicitly speech. He also mentions family invented to have Object before relationship words and tenses as Subject order, a rare feature fruitful areas of investigation. found only in a few Amazon-region Anyone interested in actively languages. keeping abreast of this research project should let us know. If International News/Publicity you have access to the computer nets, this is helpful, since that There is not much news in these is likely where most discussion areas that isn't already covered will take place as we attempt to elsewhere. With active Lojbanists focus this into a more formal now scattered around the world research proposal. We will of (indeed, while our mailing list is course keep people generally aware heavily concentrated in the US, of how this develops in JL. the people actually learning and using the language seem Ivan Derzhanski - Ivan is exceptionally spread out), news pursuing his own research in- about Lojban is often terests at the University of 'international'. Edinburgh. He plans to use Lojban In the publicity arena, we have significantly in his research. had some useful international Among other activities, Ivan has developments. The major written and submitted a paper international Esperanto monthly addressing the variety of Monato had a short article modification strategies that mentioning Lojban and giving our languages use in tanru (modifier/- mail and computer addresses. A modificand pairings). He includes couple of dozen have responded, some Lojban examples. almost all from outside the US, 43 and we hope to encourage this Given the wide overlap between TLI development into a further spurt supporters and readers of this of international Lojban use. publication and our computer net The second development is Nora discussions, there may be a reason and my eventual trip to Russia as for this. part of our adopting a child. The JCB has been especially nature of that process is such invisible the last several months. that we will not be able to do Having moved TLI to San Diego when much lead planning of the trip, he relocated there last summer, but I certainly intend to take ad- JCB has apparently spent the time vantage of our visit to promote since last November preparing and Lojban in that country, noted for sailing his yacht from Florida its diverse ethnic and linguistic around to his new home. heritage. (I'm hoping to have a Russian translation of the Lojban TLI Legal Appeal Rejected - As brochure and perhaps other reported last issue, TLI appealed materials before leaving). the US Patent and Trademark Office There is a good possibility that ruling in our favor that 'Loglan' la lojbangirz. will lose its ca- was not a valid trademark for pability to accept credit card TLI's "dictionaries and grammars" orders/contributions, which we because it is a generic name for a started primarily for the benefit language and not an indication of non-US supporters. We are now that the source of those products paying US$15/month minimum and no is TLI. This ruling, the result annual fee; this will rise in of a long dispute between us and October to US$50 per year and TLI, would allow us to use 'Log- US$25/month minimum. We will be lan' freely in our promotion of paying more in fees most months our materials, especially in than we gain in income from credit attempting to reach the people who cards. Unless we find a new, have heard of Loglan through the cheaper avenue for processing 1960 Scientific American article, credit cards, this service will Heinlein's reference in The Moon have to be dropped. We will still is a Harsh Mistress and other such be able to process non-US instances that predate or are denominated cheques using Thomas otherwise unrelated to TLI and its Cook, for a US$3.50 fee. If you products. The legal battle was are planning a credit card started in 1988 after TLI contribution, though, I recommend threatened legal action over our that you do so before summer ends. use of the term 'Loglan' in JL in ways they did not approve. News From the Institute Oral arguments on the appeal were held on 7 November 1991, The Loglan Institute (TLI) before three judges of the Circuit continues to survive, though this Court of Appeals for the Federal remains fairly invisible on the Circuit. Bill Herbert of Staas forums that we see. Since our and Halsey argued for la last issue, two more issues of lojbangirz., while Wesley Parsons Lognet have appeared. Each argued for TLI. JCB was present contains a short piece of Loglan in the courtroom, as were Athel- text, and discussions of various stan and myself. technical issues. Lognet seems to Oral arguments lasted only about look like some of our early JL a half hour; then a long wait for issues, only much smaller. the decision, which was finally Most entertaining is how users issued on 28 April. The decision of the TLI version are discovering was clearly and strongly in our many of the improvements we made favor, and makes further in creating Lojban 5 years ago, or likelihood that our position will have added since. Indeed, almost be refuted quite remote. Mr. Par- every change reported in TLI sons has filed a request for re- Loglan was already part of Lojban. hearing, as is often done, but the 44 appeals court rarely grants such through our attorneys to set up a requests. mediated discussion of differences The Circuit Court of Appeals is leading to a resolution of those normally the court of last resort differences. When TLI seemed to for trademark and other show interest, we hurriedly intellectual property cases. The drafted a lengthy proposal to only higher court is the U. S. serve as an agenda for such a Supreme Court, and they take meeting, indicating several perhaps one such case every options that could be pursued. several years; the grounds for However, TLI quickly rejected the such a Supreme Court appeal have proposal/agenda without comment, to typically require some and indicated that they found no particular controversy, a signifi- basis for mutual discussions. cant constitutional issue, or Thus, even though JCB and I were disagreement between lower courts in the same courtroom in November, (which cannot happen in trademark at his choice no meeting occurred. cases, since there is now only one appeals court that handles trade- le lojbo se ciska mark issues). These grounds are going to be particularly difficult Excerpt from the 2nd Round of the to find in the Loglan decision. A Phone Game Supreme Court case is also quite expensive to file for such a low Here is the first of two sample chance of success, and with this sentences from the phone game appeal decision, the courts have played on the computer nets. This started requiring TLI to pay some one communicated very well. of our costs in refuting their Commentary courtesy of Nick appeals. Nicholas. In discussing the appeal in Lognet, JCB made statements The original phrase was: suggesting that he was confident Hot?! Man, it was so hot, if you of victory and that it was just a cracked an egg on the sidewalk, matter of time until this it'd fry in ten seconds flat! occurred. As a result of these Honest! statements, our attorney has urged that we publish the Appeals Mark Shoulson translated this decision in full so that there is as: no question that TLI's case has xu pu glare paunai .i leni little on which to stand. We are glare zo'u lenu karpo'i da'i lo doing so below, omitting only sovda vi lo dzuklaji cu rinka legal case citations that wouldn't lenu ra bazi binxo lo se jukpa mean much except to lawyers (we'll ba'o lo snidu be li pano sa'e .i supply a copy of the decision, and ba'ucu'i of the original trademark cancel- lation decision to those wanting (Was it hot? (This is not a these details, at reproduction question). For the amount of cost). heat, (something) open-breaking (suppose) into an egg (pieces) One more settlement attempt at a walk-street causes that it rejected - While we continue to (the egg pieces) become a defend our right to use the term cooked-thing after 10 seconds "Loglan" in promoting the (exactly!). (Accuracy!)) language, we have continued, whenever avenues present Mark justified not explicitly themselves, to pursue more flagging exaggeration by saying: productive resolutions of our A little strange, in that the disputes with TLI. Discovering on speaker claims not to be ex- short notice that JCB was coming aggerating, but then that's the to Washington to attend the most common form of hearing, we initiated contact exaggeration. It hardly seems 45 likely to expect Lojban speakers snidu ja'e sequence doesn't make to be honest with their much sense to me. Well it does, attitudinals and lose the power but it circuitous. What's their hyperbole. Then again, we happening is: "it's a being-cooked can assume that the sentence lasting-n-seconds thing" which really is true, so that's okay. makes sense, sorta, but you're waiting to find out what n is, and The main blunder is with the instead of n being the second place structure of porpi: it has place (seljukpa snidu li x1 breaking into pieces x2, not su'epano), it shows up as a ja'e agent x1 breaking x2 into pieces place: "resulting in the number x3 (this is popygau or some 10". Now this could mean "it's an variant of popri'a). I like n-second cook ending up being 10 prenexes too, but I would put leni seconds" (cf.: it's a ten-second glare into an explicit BAI place wait) which is fine, but it in (ki'u...). fact ends up as "it's an n-second What I was in fact looking for cook resulting in the number ten." is the translation of "so hot In Lojban, of course, it's easier that..." suggested by Lojbab in a to deduce from the second phrase past JL: ".i glare seja'e lenu that the first was meant. I would co'eli'o". Are we sure that, if still, however, regard this use of the breaking of the egg is ja'e as anomalous, and dangerously hypothetical, that its effect vague. (it's being cooked) is also None the less, the meaning is hypothetical; ie. the Lojban still retrievable, and there doesn't necessarily imply "If you hasn't been any significant were to break the egg, it will distortion, as in other sentences. ca'a cook"? I suppose so. One may debate whether Mark's [Another phone game extract will translation was good Lojban be found below.] (personally, I think it was). In any case, it was excellent English Text of the Court of Appeals :), as Colin's translation shows: Decision WAS IT HOT! The heat - if you As stated above, this is the cracked an egg on the pavement text of the decision by the US it would be cooked in ten Circuit Court of Appeals for the seconds, no more, really! Federal Circuit in TLI's appeal of our successful petition for (I don't have any comment to cancellation of TLI's registered make: this is the first almost- trademark for 'Loglan'. The text fully successful message relay in is printed verbatim, except for this game). asterisks in brackets substituting Sylvia came up with: for multitudinous legal citations that mean little to the average .u'e glare .ije da'i lo sovda cu reader. selporpi di'o le dagysfe seri'a seljukpa snidu ja'e li su'e pa 92-1254 no Cancellation No. 18,026 THE LOGLAN INSTITUTE, INC., ((Wonder!) Heat. And (suppose) Appellant, an egg is broken at the locus of v. the road-surface causing (that: THE LOGICAL LANGUAGE GROUP, INC., {lenu} omitted) (something) is- Appellee. cooked lasting- -(some)-seconds result the number at most 10.) DECIDED: April 28, 1992 This has me a bit worried. The Before PLAGER, Circuit Judge, place of da'i in the sentence can SKELTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and be argued about, but the seljukpa LOURIE, Circuit Judge. 46 On May 23, 1989, the Language LOURIE, Circuit Judge. Group petitioned the Board to cancel the Institute's The Loglan Institute, Inc. registration of the mark Loglan, (Institute), appeals the final alleging that Loglan is merely a decision of the Trademark Trial contraction of, or generic name and Appeal Board (Board) in for a logical language. The Cancellation No. 18,026 (February Language group also contended that 4, 1991). The Board granted The the application for registration Logical Language Group, Inc.'s had been fraudulently made, or, if (Language Group) motion for a trademark ever existed for summary judgement, holding that Loglan, the mark had been the Institute's mark, LOGLAN, is abandoned. After both parties generic and ordered the regis- moved for summary judgment, the tration cancelled. We affirm. Board granted the Language Group's motion and ordered cancellation on BACKGROUND the ground that Loglan is "a generic designation identifying a In 1955, Dr. James Brown language rather than a trademark invented a "logical language" to indicate the source of goods." which was designed to test the Additionally, the Board found that theory that natural languages the application had not been limit human thought. It has been fraudulently made and that the described by Dr. Brown as abandonment issue was moot. The "symbolic logic made speakable" Board refused to consider the which "derives its word-stock affirmative defenses raised by the impartially from the eight most Institute, stating that some were widely spoken natural languages not within the Board's and so is culturally and politi- jurisdiction and others were not cally neutral as well as suitable good defenses against a charge of for cross-cultural linguistic genericness. The Institute argues experimentation." Dr. Brown here that the Board erred in coined the word "Loglan" (derived holding that Loglan was a generic from logical language) to term and in refusing to consider designate the new language. He the affirmative defenses. first used the term Loglan in a publication in 1956; several years DISCUSSION later, in 1962, he formed the Institute to promote the A. Summary Judgment development and use of Loglan. On August 17,1987, the Institute The requirements for granting applied for registration of Loglan summary judgment in a trademark as a mark for "Dictionaries and cancellation proceeding are the Grammars." The registration same as in any other case, viz., issued on April 12, 1988. that there be no genuine issue of Apparently unhappy with the material fact and the movant be Institute's progress in developing entitled to judgment as a matter the language, a member of the of law. [*]. We review the Institute left and in November propriety of summary judgment de 1988 founded the Language Group. novo. [*] In February 1989, the Language The parties agree that the Group published a newsletter factual issues underlying regarding the progress of its genericness are undisputed. logical language. In the Though genericness itself has been newsletter, several references categorized as a question of fact were made to Loglan, prompting the [*], the parties have each moved Institute to threaten the Language for summary judgment on that Group with a trademark question. The Board considered infringement suit. the lengthy affidavits and numerous exhibits each party 47 submitted in support of its consideration in a determination motion, and concluded that Loglan of genericness [*]. was generic. Our review requires The Institute concedes that the us to determine whether, based on relevant public is "the small the evidence of record, the Board group of persons who have written was correct in that conclusion. about the language or have been After examining the record, we do involved in the invented language not believe the Board erred in research effort as well as those concluding that the Language Group to whom the Loglan language has was entitled to judgment as a been or is being marketed." The matter of law. Institute's definition of "relevant public" is consistent B. Genericness with this court's reading of the term as encompassing both "actual The Lanham Act provides for the [and] potential purchasers of ... cancellation of a mark which is or goods or services." [*]. Evidence has become the generic name for of what the relevant public goods or services [*]. While a understands the term to mean may trademark registration has a come from direct consumer presumption of validity, in a testimony, surveys, dictionary cancellation proceeding that listings, newspapers, and other presumption may be rebutted by publication [*]. Although in many evidence from the party seeking situation a survey is desirable to cancellation [*]. Before the establish the public's perception, Board, the Language Group given the limited size of the presented numerous pieces of relevant group here, the numerous evidence to show that Loglan is examples submitted by the parties used generically to designate a are sufficient to determine how logical language. the relevant group perceives the The parties do not dispute that term Loglan. if Loglan is used generically to The evidence indicates the Dr. designate a language, the term Brown himself has used the term cannot properly be registered as a Loglan only in a generic sense. trademark for "dictionaries and For example, in 1984, Brown stated grammars" any more than English to the Institute's membership: can be registered for a dictionary. That Loglan is not as I'm insisting on moving in the well known as English is right direction for Loglan immaterial. Because a language is whether this means losing not "goods" or "services" under control of the institute I the Act [*], a name originated for founded or not... Your can a new language is inherently not always write me if you still registrable for the language. By want to talk to me about Loglan, the same token, a generic name of or to help me in putting it to a language alone cannot function use. As a private person I as a trademark to indicate origin shall always be available to my of a dictionary describing that old Loglandian friends... language. Thus, our determination Loglan may not suffer very hinges on whether the Board was much... Health permitting I'll correct in concluding that the still write those couple of term Loglan is, "a generic books. Perhaps with my example designation identifying a others will too. language." The Institute argues that the His encouragement for others to relevant public does not perceive write Loglan books or books in Loglan as generic, but rather sees Loglan negates the claim now it as indicating a single source asserted of proprietary rights in of the language. The public's Loglan. perception is the primary Also, the Institute published a book, entitled "Loglan (1): A 48 Logical Language." Included in understand Loglan to be a generic the 1989 version is the statement term; this understanding did not arise only from actions of the In my English idiolect, as in Language Group. Rather, the Loglan and French, words like Language Group and the public "loglanist", "loglandic" and merely followed the generic usage "loglandical" are general terms of the Institute. like "cat" and "dog" (i.e., common nouns or adjectives) and C. Equitable Defenses therefore uncapitalized, whereas words like "Loglan" and As part of its answer, the "Loglandia" are singular terms Institute alleged various af- (words with single designata, firmative defenses, including the like "John" or "Greenland") and equitable defenses of unclean therefore capitalized. Both hands, estoppel, fraud, Loglan and French are more acquiescence, and waiver. The fastidious about such logical Board found that the unclean matters than Standard English. hands, fraud and estoppel defenses were based on allegation of trade As he stated, Loglan is a name for secret theft and infringement and a language like French or English. therefore were not within the Based on all this evidence, the jurisdiction of the Board. Board had adequate basis to Further, the Board stated that the conclude that both Brown and the equitable defense of acquiescence Institute adopted the term Loglan was not valid against the claim as the generic name of a language. that the mark was generic. We The Institute argues that no one affirm. else has used the term Loglan in a Application of these defenses generic fashion and that by must be considered in light of the capitalizing Loglan in its clear purposes of the Trademark newsletter, the Language Group Act that a registered mark may be itself treats the term in a non- cancelled at any time on the generic manner. We disagree. ground that it is generic [*], and Capitalization is the correct form also in light of the Board's for the name of a language, e.g., discretionary power to apply the English, French, or German [*]; defenses. this it is compatible with generic To support the defenses of use. Moreover, the Language unclean hands, estoppel, and Group's own logical language, fraud, the Institute pleaded that "Lojban", is referred to as a type the Language Group "wrongfully of Loglan. The Language Group acquired the trade secrets of the refers to "[Brown's] version of [Institute]..., and has converted 'Loglan'" and states that "Lojban and used such trade secrets to is indeed a Loglan." [Language Group]'s benefit... [and In addition to generic use of that the Language Group] wrong- the term Loglan by the Institute fully used the mark 'Loglan' in and the Language Group, others interstate commerce..., thereby have so used the term. Numerous infringing on [the Institute's] letters have been written to the trademark." As pleaded, these Language Group inquiring about defenses are essentially claims of Loglan, requesting to be main- trademark infringement and unfair tained on its Loglan mailing competition premised on the Insti- lists, and even inquiring about tute's assertion of trademark the status of the Loglan language rights in Loglan. The Institute being developed by the Language also alleges that after it de- Group. The fact that the manded that the Language Group "consuming public" would write to stop using its "mark," the latter someone other than the Institute acquiesced and ceased using Loglan regarding the Loglan language to designate its logical language. indicates that third parties 49 The Lanham Act specifically nection, and the mathematical provides that "[i]n all inter selbri words. partes proceedings equitable principles of laches, estoppel, ********************************** and acquiescence, where applicable ************** may be considered and applied" Examples of bridi logical [*]. While the Board must con- connection sider such defenses, we determine ********************************** that it properly exercised its ************** discretion in not allowing the mi dansu gi'e sanga defenses to prevail here. As the I dance and sing. Board stated, these defenses .i lenu mi dansu gi'e sanga cu cannot override the controlling nibli lenu mi dansu fact that Loglan is the generic (The event that I dance and sing) name for a language and that it logically necessitates (the cannot therefore be a trademark event that I dance). for dictionaries. The Board did My dancing and singing necessarily not err in declining to apply the implies my dancing. defenses, as the public interest .i lenu mi dansu gi'e sanga cu in a cancellation proceeding to nibli lenu mi sanga rid the register of a generic mark (The event that I dance and sing) transcends them. The Board may logically necessitates (the have erred in stating that it event that I sing). lacked jurisdiction over the de- My dancing and singing necessarily fenses, but that error was implies my singing. harmless under the circumstances. do limna gi'a bajra We, of course, do not rule on You swim or run. whether the Institute may have an .i la'edi'u goi ko'a cu na nibli action against the Language Group lenu do limna on any matters of unfair The event of the last sentence competition. The record here (ko'a) doesn't logically ne- simply show that the term Loglan cessitate (the event of you has never been a trademark, but swimming). rather entered the public domain This doesn't necessarily imply as a generic name from the time of that you swim. its inception. .i ko'a cu na nibli lenu do bajra It doesn't logically necessitate CONCLUSION (the event of you running). It also doesn't necessarily imply The decision of the Board is that you run. therefore mi djica lenu sipna gi'a citka I desire (the event of sleeping or AFFIRMED eating). __________________________________ I want to sleep or eat. _____ .i do djica lenu sipna ku gi'a citka le lojbo se ciska (cont.) I desire the event of sleeping, or eat. Back when I was writing the I either want to sleep, or I eat. draft textbook lessons, Nora was ti berti ta gi'o se snanu ta busily inventing examples for me. This is north of that if-and-only- I never finished writing draft if be-southed by that. Lesson 7, but Nora had plenty of This is north of that if-and-only- examples. Here are those if that is south of it. examples, without the textual ex- .i ti ta berti gi'o se snanu planation that was never finished. This, of that, is north if-and- As with most of Nora's examples, only-if be-southed. they stand quite well on their ro da jetnu gi'o na jitfa own, anyway. The primary topics All-somethings are true if-and- are abstraction, logical con- only-if not false 50 ro da jetnu gi'onai jitfa mi ba cuxna le xunre .a le xekri All-somethings are true exclusive- .i mi ba na cuxna le xunre .e le or false. xekri All-somethings are true or false I will choose the red or the (but not both). black. And I will not choose All-somethings are true if-and- the red and the black. only-if not false. .iseni'ibo mi ba cuxna le xunre ko gasnu gi'o se minde .onai le xekri (Imperative!) You! do if-and-only- Therefore-logically I will choose if as-commanded. the red exclusive-or the black. (Imperative!) You! Do Therefore I will choose the red or equivalently-to as-commanded. the black, but not both. Do as you are told, and ONLY as mi djica loi ladru .anai loi ckafi you are told! .i mi na nelci loi na ladru le bloti cu marce gi'u spofu ckafi The boat is a vehicle, whether-or- I want Milk, or not: Coffee. And not broken. I not: fond-of not: Milky- le ka prane cu se troci gi'u se coffee. kakne I want milk, if coffee. I'm not The quality of perfection is fond of things that aren't attempted, whether-or-not milked-coffee. within-the-ability. do ba viska la rik. .o la .alis. ti vinji nagi'a vofli ni'i lenu la rik. ba kansa la This is-an-airplane Not! or flies. .alis. This is-an-airplane only-if (it) You will see Rick if-and-only-if flies. Alice, logically-because (the If this is an airplane, then it event of Rick will be-with flies. Alice.) mi klama le lalxu nagi'a limna You will see Rick when Alice, I go-to the lake Not!, or swim/am- because Rick will be with Alice. a-swimmer. la djos. na.a la rut. ba zvati I go to the lake only if a mu'i lenu ri nelci ra swimmer. (Joe Not! or Ruth) will be If I go to the lake, then I'm a present-at, motivated by (the swimmer event of the latter is fond of ti blaci nagi'a ralci .i ti ralci the former). gi'anai blaci Joe, only-if Ruth, will be This is glass Not!, or delicate. present, because she is fond of And this is delicate or not: him. glass. If Joe (will be present) then Ruth This is glass only-if delicate. will be present, because she is And this is delicate if glass. fond of him. do kakne lenu cilre ku gi'anai troci lenu ti jubme gi'e bunre cu nibli You are able at (the event-of- lenu ti jubme .e lenu ti bunre learning) or not: trying. (The event of this is-a-table and You are able to learn if (you) is-brown) logically necessitates try. (the event that this is-a-table) and (the event that this is- ********************************** brown). ************** That this is a table and brown Examples of sumti Logical logically necessitates that this Connection is a table AND that this is ********************************** brown. ************** la rik. .e la .alis. cu klama le More examples below. cilre nu penmi Rick and Alice go-to the learner- (event-of-meeting). Rick and Alice go to class. 51 52 la lojbangirz.'s First Research 91-15 for innovative research in Proposal linguistics and natural language processing (NLP). We propose re- Following is the text of our search and development towards a first research proposal, a prototype NLP system based on Loj- preliminary project description ban, a human-speakable, made to the US defense agency syntactically unambiguous DARPA last August. DARPA is the predicate language. major funding organization for Lojban's design has numerous natural language processing within possibilities for enormous impact the US government. Our proposal on the processing of natural was rejected as being unlikely to languages. LLG proposes a win funding at this time; we research approach, using Lojban as obtained no other information. both tool and target language, The competition drew dozens of that maximizes the applicability proposals, and ours was probably of our results to potential DOD weeded out as being particularly applications, and advances the high risk or likely to need too state of the art by making Lojban much of the very limited money available to other NLP efforts. available for 'seed projects'. Research into NLP applications The project description is very of Lojban suits DARPA's mission, brief, in accordance with the and is the type of research sought constraints of the Request for under this BAA. The BAA is well- Proposal, but should give some timed for LLG; we are now ready to idea of how we envision approach- undertake such research, having ing the use of Lojban in natural just completed the prototype Loj- language processing. We welcome, ban parser after years of and indeed strongly encourage, research. Meanwhile, our novel comments on how we can improve approach makes obtaining tradi- this proposal, and also commit to tional funding for this next step support as best we can others that in Lojban NLP research difficult. wish to submit research proposals Applying Lojban to NLP is beyond to DARPA and other funding the scope of our current all- sources. volunteer effort, though such application has been a long-term Lojban Natural Language Processing research goal. LLG is proud of its efforts to PROPOSAL ABSTRACT 19 July 1991 date. What we have accomplished Submitted to: DARPA/SISTO, without funding speaks for itself, Arlington VA 22203-1714 In and we've demonstrated an ability Response To: BAA 91-15, by: to deliver a product on a very The Logical Language Group, Inc. tight budget. Several key 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax, VA 22031- personnel, including myself, are 1303 experienced in military systems Technical/Administrative Point of development and familiar with the Contact: Robert LeChevalier, 703- standards and practices expected. 385-0273 LLG has access to personnel with NLP experience and with 19 July 1991 demonstrated skill at producing Mr. Charles L. Wayne, DARPA/SISTO complete, working systems within Virginia Square Plaza schedule and budget constraints. 3701 N. Fairfax Drive I will be managing the overall Arlington VA 22203-1714 project and will technically lead several tasks, closely monitoring Subject: The Logical Language the others. I am confident that Group, Inc., Response to BAA 91-15 the results of this promising effort will contribute Dear Mr. Wayne: substantially to the state of the The Logical Language Group, Inc. art in natural language (LLG) is pleased to respond to BAA processing. 53 Very truly yours, While being used to develop such Robert LeChevalier, President practical NLP systems, Lojban can The Logical Language Group, Inc. be viewed as a simplified linguistic 'model' of a natural Section 1 - Innovative Claims language, providing insights that will enhance development of other- Lojban, an artificial human- language NLP systems. speakable (and hence 'natural') LLG's proposes proving our language with an unambiguous concept in a relatively small syntax based on predicate logic, effort that provides further has several potential applications innovative benefits that can be in natural language processing applied to other NLP efforts: (NLP). No prior attempt has been 1. Lojban's analytical semantics made to design such a language and allows LLG to research semantic apply it to NLP. The Logical regularities in word structures of Language Group, Inc. (LLG) has a language, such as the compound unique expertise in Lojban's morphemes of Chinese (similar to design and applications; its corps Lojban's compounds), seeking of volunteers will multiply patterns that will allow rapid efforts by funded researchers. expansion of the data base. LLG LLG plans to research and will investigate a variety of implement an NLP system that texts, and both English and non- processes Lojban, but which also English words and word-forms, in uses Lojban as a tool for NLP. building its data base. Using a highly regular yet 2. Because of Lojban's 'natural' language reduces the unambiguous syntax, a Lojban difficulty of NLP processing, parser is much simpler and faster resulting in a faster, more than parsers for other human accurate NLP system. languages. LLG will produce a Specific applications for a fast, portable parser for Lojban. Lojban NLP system include: using 3. Lojban's simple, unambiguous Lojban as an interface control isomorphism between spoken and medium for NLP engineers to more written forms make Lojban speech easily and accurately input know- recognition at least an order of ledge and dictionary information magnitude easier than for other into an NLP system; using Lojban human languages, allowing faster, as a systems requirements and higher accuracy real time pro- design language and using NLP cessing. LLG will implement a deduction to detect and query sys- module for its parser that tem design flaws; and partially converts phoneme and stress data, translating mass text from English derivable from a digital signal or other languages into an processor, into parsed text. unambiguous Lojban interlingua, 4. LLG will prove its NLP using NLP to intelligently select concept in a restricted, much- text and speech for detailed human researched application: designing analysis. and implementing a NLP text-to- Using Lojban in such systems data-base module to serve as a offers the unique potential for front-end for the dictionary data the system to understandably base; in this case, however, the explain decisions, interacting interface module will use the data with analysts in 'natural' lan- base it interfaces with. The mod- guage (not requiring intermediary ule will be expandable, by adding engineers or programmers) to heur- a knowledge engine and interactive istically evolve better criteria. heuristics, into the complete con- Lojban allows natural expression trol interface for NLP engineers in such interactions while or text analysts described above. enforcing non-ambiguity in the in- 5. A Lojban-interlingua machine put, simplifying NLP translator modelled after the implementation. Netherlands DLT effort would offer advantages over that system due to 54 Lojban's unambiguous syntax and implementation of speech special structures for recognition of Lojban. metalinguistics and discursive comments, tense and modality, and Task 4 - Parsed-Text-to-Data-Base speaker attitude and emotion. LLG NLP will build a Lojban-to-English translator based on its parser, a) A technical report will which will ease verification of document the design of the data inputs via the data base interface base interface module. LLG will just mentioned. discuss problems encountered, and conclusions regarding the Section 2 - Deliverables practicality of Lojban as an input language for NLP control LLG will produce the following interfaces. LLG will identify formal deliverables, subject to other NLP systems found to have funding of the corresponding commonalties allowing a Lojban tasks. Implementations of more control interface processor to be advanced applications described in integrated with those systems, Section 1 are options partially thus reducing the effort of dependent on initial results. incorporating Lojban into Formal delivery of software practical applications. produced during the research effort is also an option. Task 5 - Lojban-to-English Translator Task 1 - Lojban Dictionary Data Base a) A technical report will document the design of the Lojban- a) A Lojban dictionary data base to-English translator. LLG will will contain all root concepts and describe conventions used, and selected supplementary data sets identify prospects for producing supporting specific NLP refined English translations as an applications. enhancement. b) A technical report will describe the dictionary data base design, and the nature of the concepts included. LLG will report on patterns found in the analysis that provide insight into the process of NLP, or that suggest methods of accelerating or automating the building of dictionaries. Task 2 - Lojban Parser a) A technical report will document the design of the Lojban parser, and the formal grammar of Lojban as implemented therein. Task 3 - Lojban Speech-Recognition Stub a) A technical report will document the design of a Lojban speech recognition stub for the Lojban parser, and the Lojban morphology algorithm. LLG will report on analysis of identified issues that affect the practical 55 Task 6 - Final Technical Report - *Task 2 technical report - 10 MAC a) A technical report will summarize the research completed Task 3 - Start - 9 MAC as an integrated effort. LLG will - Lojban morphology algorithm - 10 report conclusions regarding the MAC practicality of Lojban's use in - Implementation of speech NLP of other languages as well as recognition front-end stub - 12 the capability for NLP of Lojban MAC text, and suggest options for - Front-end stub high-level design further research. document - 13 MAC - *Task 3 technical report - 14 Task 7 - Cost and Management MAC Reports Task 4 - Start - 4 MAC a) Formal progress reports will - Implementation of data base be submitted every 2 months. interface NLP processor - 16 MAC b) Formal cost reports will be - Data base interface high-level submitted every 2 months. design document - 17 MAC - *Task 4 technical report - 18 Section 3 - Schedule and MAC Milestones Task 5 - Start - 12 MAC Deliverables are marked with an - Lojban-to-English translator - asterisk. 22 MAC - Translator users manual and Task 1 - Start - 0 Months after high-level design document - 23 start of contract (MAC) MAC - Preliminary data base design - 1 - *Task 5 technical report - 24 MAC MAC - 1337 Lojban root predicates in data base - 4 MAC Task 6 - 4000 commonly used predicates in - *Final technical report - 24 MAC data base - 14 MAC - 1000 new predicates from American newspaper text - 16 MAC - 1000 new predicates from foreign English-language newspaper text - 18 MAC - 1000 new predicates from selected Chinese or other-lan- guage text - 22 MAC - *Task 1 technical report: Preliminary - 15 MAC, Final - 23 MAC - *Data base delivery - 24 MAC Task 2 - Start - 0 MAC - Enhancement of existing parser for error reporting - 2 MAC - Enhancement of speed of parser - 4 MAC - Enhanced output reporting for parser - 6 MAC - Investigation of error- detection/correction techniques for parser - 8 MAC - Parser user's manual and high- level design document - 9 MAC 56 Task 7 Archives, working documents, and - Weekly or bi-weekly informal software produced by The Logical reports will be prepared, as Language Group, Inc., or its desired by the contracting volunteers, and publications of organization. The Logical Language Group, Inc., - *Progress reports - 2 MAC, 4 not released into the public MAC, 6 MAC, 8 MAC, 10 MAC, 12 domain, and not produced directly MAC, 14 MAC, 16 MAC, 18 MAC, 20 on time charged to the Government, MAC, 22 MAC, 24 MAC and including all such documents - *Cost reports - 2 MAC, 4 MAC, 6 and software started prior to the MAC, 8 MAC, 10 MAC, 12 MAC, 14 start of funded tasking, are the MAC, 16 MAC, 18 MAC, 20 MAC, 22 property of The Logical Language MAC, 24 MAC Group, Inc., or the individual or collective authors. Since this LLG also plans to publish claim does not cover language articles regarding its work in design information, no effect on technical journals to enhance use of the results of this re- Lojban's credibility as a lan- search is anticipated. guage, a research tool, and a tool Rights in certain prolegomena of for NLP, and to validate LLG's NLP the current Lojban language are approach with other researchers. generally held as copyrights on Articles warranted by project published and unpublished accomplishments will be in- material. Such materials, corporated in the schedule so as sometimes associated with the not to interfere with project names 'Loglan', and/or 'The Loglan milestones. Project', are owned by Dr. James Cooke Brown, by The Loglan Insti- Section 4 - Proprietary Claims tute, Inc., by The Logical Language Group, Inc., by Linker No proprietary claims are Systems, Inc., or possibly by expected to interfere in the use other parties unnamed or unknown. of results of this research. Lojban is a version of the Loglan However, specific known claims language invented as part of the that might affect such applica- Loglan Project by Dr. Brown and tions indirectly are identified others, including all key herein. personnel on this project. None A founding principle of The of these materials should be Logical Language Group, Inc. is necessary for use of the results that all Lojban language design of this research, but LLG information that it produces is acknowledges the owners' rights. placed directly in the public The Logical Language Group, Inc. domain. This principle has intends itself to use the results motivated our volunteer force and of this research, reserving the is vital to our integrity as an right to produce, distribute, organization. For this effort, and/or sell to the public, language design information derivative works based on any of includes the dictionary data, as the tasks performed as part of opposed to the actual dictionary this project. These derivative data base produced in Task 1, the works will incorporate LLG's Lojban morphology algorithm specialized experience with produced for Task 3, and any Lojban. Rights to those works modified version of the Lojban will be owned by LLG and/or the formal grammar produced in support authors of those works. This of any task. This claim should claim should not affect the not affect the ability to use the ability of others to use the results of this research, and results of this research. indeed guarantees that potential use of Lojban will not be impeded by any proprietary claims on language design information. 57 Section 5 - Technical Rationale stead of following it as the rules of a computer language drive that Two points regarding LLG's language's use. Consistent approach to NLP must be filtering by experts in the lan- emphasized: guage will lead to an extensive, Uniqueness - Among artificial semantically regular vocabulary, languages, Loglan is unique in incorporated in the NLP data base. being designed principally as a As part of this review process, tool of research in linguistics. LLG expects to discover semantic The Lojban reimplementation has patterns in both Lojban words and incorporated recent gains in the source-language words that comparative linguistics, and NLP represent the Lojban concepts. In research. addition, while building the Professionalism - The Lojban dictionary data base, LLG will an- effort led by LLG, though staffed alyze texts particularly relevant by volunteers, differs from other to DARPA's mission. LLG will artificial language efforts in its extract concepts from those texts, professional approach, and in expressing them as new Lojban having linguists, computer words, while identifying scientists, and systems engineers additional semantic patterns. as leaders. Texts will include scientific and The approach described in technical texts, American and Section 1 takes advantage of our foreign English-language newspaper resources, builds on recent text, and vocabulary from foreign accomplishments in Lojban language dictionaries or text. development, and moves directly to LLG plans to emphasize Chinese show Lojban's relevance and vocabulary, from which we expect viability for NLP. The following to find particularly interesting addresses the five implementation semantic patterns. LLG will also tasks identified in that section. use volunteer linguists to study additional texts in Russian, 1. Dictionary Data Base Spanish, German, French, and/or Development and Related Research - Arabic. LLG seeks limited funding The first step in the research to support particularly promising effort is development of a Lojban studies by such linguists. dictionary data base. A language 2. Lojban Parser Enhancement - dictionary is vital to study and After fifteen years of volunteer use of that language by non-native efforts at formalizing Loglan/- speakers - and Lojban obviously Lojban grammar, LLG recently lacks native speakers. Thus, for completed a parser for the com- this and other Lojban-related plete Lojban grammar, based on a efforts, LLG needs to develop a YACC LALR(1) formal grammar spe- high quality dictionary. Our ap- cification. This formal grammar proach develops this dictionary in is the first complete speci- the form of a data base suitable fication of the grammar of any to NLP activities, later adding human-speakable language. modules to interface with this Extensive testing has found no system. limits to Lojban's expressive Thousands of words have been ability over the total range of generated during the Loglan human linguistic activity. project. This data must be The completed parser is a filtered and often modified for prototype. LLG must refine it, use; definitions must be specific checking Lojban text against the and conform to Lojban's predicate formal grammar, performing basic structure, and distinctions rel- error detection, correction, and evant to NLP must be codified. reporting, and passing completely Unlike preparing a data base for a analyzed text structures to appli- natural language, such work is cation software. The parser must language prescription and not be optimized for speed. Previous description; it drives usage in- experience suggests that current 58 processing times (1 minute for a sults of this study in its NLP 4K-byte text with a 386/25MHz) can effort. be easily reduced by a factor of Developing an NLP interface 4. module supporting the Lojban 3. Lojban Speech Recognition dictionary data base ties the Parser Module - Lojban is entire research effort together, audiovisually isomorphic, allowing simultaneously: phonemes and stress from a speech - implementing and demonstrating stream to resolve into a unique NLP of that restricted subset of string of words. This design was Lojban that is useful to such specifically intended to ease dictionary input; speech recognition (SR) - demonstrating an application processing. Application of this where Lojban is useful as an input design to SR requires specialized language for use by NLP equipment, and is not part of the processors; initial effort. However, imple- - enabling more rapid input and menting a front-end to the parser analysis of dictionary data, that turns phoneme and stress data including automated techniques into unambiguous parsed text will identified by LLG based on its both verify Lojban's design and analyses. justify later efforts to implement Aspects of Lojban minimize the use a Lojban SR system. of idiom and other difficult 4. Lojban Data Base Interface/- expressions in the language, and NLP Prototype - Processing Lojban help clarify queries to the user text through NLP is a useful when difficult expression occurs. research end in itself; LLG has Lojban's distinct metalinguistic determined that certain and discursive forms, analytical applications described in Section tense and modality, and 1 offer pragmatic benefits. Mean- expressions of speaker attitudes while, the Lojban NLP system, by toward the discourse, all help avoiding the ambiguities of nat- make Lojban a clear, concise means urally-evolved human languages, of expressing data for NLP use. will offer insights that aid in The data base interface module, bypassing the difficulties of while modeled on similar prior processing those ambiguities. work, is the most ambitious task LLG will capitalize on Lojban's in the research program. LLG unambiguous predicate grammar and plans to work for maximum func- its similarities to PROLOG, to tionality of this processor, but establish Lojban as a control to monitor the scope of the ef- language usable in NLP systems for fort, deferring aspects for later efficient entry and analysis of efforts rather than risk not data. This activity is a completing other portions of the miniature of the NLP problem as a research effort. whole, and a highly regular one. 5. Lojban-to-English Translation Users are aware of system Module - A Lojban-to-rough-English limitations and skilled at ex- translator is less risky to pressing concepts in restricted develop. A translator developed computer languages, and are thus for an earlier version of Loglan likely to avoid usages that make produced understandable results, NLP difficult. but was not based on a full- LLG expects to show that Lojban language parser. The translation is itself suitable for internal module will be well-integrated processing of NLP data, reducing into the total research effort, the front-end processing of Lojban being used to check data base inputs to a minimum. LLG will interface module processing and to study NLP systems based on verify Lojban text used to input predicate computer languages to dictionary data. It will use the determine if this approach is dictionary data base itself, viable. LLG will incorporate re- easing verification of that data, and provide a window into the 59 system for those not skilled in using punched-card sorting Lojban. LLG will investigate techniques. Brown 'verified' his techniques to improve translation language grammar as 'unambiguous' quality, and research whether this using manual techniques developed translator could serve as the by linguists. In the 1970s, basis of a machine translation computer science caught up with system similar to the Netherlands Loglan, and people started to see DLT project based on Esperanto. its potential for use in NLP. Funding for NLP research couldn't Section 6 - Previous be arranged, but the prospect has Accomplishments inspired volunteers from the computer sciences since then. The Logical Language Group was In 1976-77, Sheldon Linker first founded in 1987 to develop what it proposed using the Bell Labs calls "Lojban - A Realization of program 'YACC' to develop an Loglan". LLG incorporated in LALR(1) formal grammar of the November, 1989, and was approved language, thus formally verified by the IRS in 1990 as a non-profit to be unambiguous. Work by Linker educational/scientific or- and later by others proceeded ganization tax-exempt under I. R. slowly, as much of the language C. 501(c)(3). Prior to that time, grammar was reinvented from 1976- other versions of the language 81. Finally, a complete trial called 'Loglan' were produced in corpus of sentences was accurately an evolutionary effort led by Dr. parsed. James Cooke Brown. Brown first In 1981, Nora Tansky LeChevalier conceived of Loglan and started developed a Loglan random sentence work on the language as early as generator and a Loglan-to-English 1955. The original purpose of translator for a subset of the Loglan was as a test vehicle for Loglan grammar. The translator linguistics research, especially used the full 4000-word into the concept known as the dictionary. Despite primitive 'Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis'. equipment, the translator produced Early work in the language was understandable English. devoted to word-making and From 1981 through 1984, the developing the morphology and Loglan grammar and vocabulary predicate structure of the continued to evolve. After a language. The best-known political dispute within TLI, prolegomenon of the language, though, most volunteers became written by Brown, was published in inactive; little progress occurred the June, 1960 Scientific from 1984-86. Bob LeChevalier American. From 1962-64, research then set about revitalizing the was funded under an NIMH community. This proved to require linguistics grant to produce a setting up a community of Loglan dictionary and teaching volunteers separate from TLI; this materials. Brown published early community became LLG. editions of these materials from In creating Lojban, LLG analyzed 1965-69. Almost all work on and rebuilt the entire vocabulary Loglan and Lojban since 1964 has of Loglan, and redeveloped the been performed by volunteers; formal YACC grammar. These progress has been correspondingly efforts went much faster than slow. original efforts due to intense The Loglan Institute (TLI) volunteer work, better management incorporated as a non-profit of volunteers, and better organization in 1974; it published knowledge of the language. LLG a printed dictionary and language baselined the Lojban root description in 1975. vocabulary in 1988, and the YACC Most of the early work on the grammar in August 1990, and just language was done without re-baselined the grammar in June computers, although Brown 1991, while documenting other developed the first dictionaries aspects of the language, and 60 training the first speakers of Jeffrey Taylor, Voting Member, Lojban. The community interested LLG - 100% over the life of the in Lojban now exceeds 800, and in- project, subject to funding of cludes many AI and NLP re- Tasks 2, 3, 4, and 5. Less than searchers, several dozen sup- 25% participation in the 2nd year porters outside the U.S., and if Tasks 4 and 5 are not funded. dozens of active language stu- Mr. Taylor will lead the effort dents. LLG supports a quarterly for Tasks 2 and 3 and 5. Either journal, a newsletter, an he or Sheldon Linker of LSI will Internet-based mailing list, local lead Task 4. study groups, an annual gathering, Sheldon Linker, Vice President, and weekly conversation sessions LSI - Up to 100% during Tasks 4 at its primary office. and 5. Mr. Linker will share leadership of Task 4, and consult Section 7 - Key Personnel in overall system design and data base design. All technical personnel on this John Parks-Clifford, Vice project will work under consulting President and Director, LLG - agreements with LLG, either intermittent up to 30% working on directly or as employees of Linker all tasks over the life of the Systems, Inc. (LSI). LLG is project, primarily as a capable of staffing several linguistics and NLP consultant and additional positions with highly expert on Lojban, but also leading qualified programmers, linguists, production of technical papers. and engineers, many of whom have Dr. Parks-Clifford is an Associate experience in AI and NLP Professor of Logic and Philosophy applications. The key people lis- at the University of Missouri, St. ted below are the core team that Louis. will lead efforts based on their knowledge and understanding of Section 8 - Qualifications of Key both Lojban and our research Personnel approach. Robert LeChevalier, President Robert LeChevalier, President and Director, LLG - 60% time and Director, LLG - Mr. during year 1 and 50% during year LeChevalier has worked on the 2. He will work on project Loglan project since 1980, and management (Task 7), expertise in very actively since early 1986. Lojban, dictionary data base work He led the rebirth of Loglan as for Task 1, documentation and Lojban in 1987, and co-founded technical reports for all tasks LLG. He has led all tasks (Task 6), and task leadership for associated with the redevelopment Task 1, 6, and 7. Mr. LeChevalier of the language, and is the most also will manage a large corps of skilled speaker and writer of volunteers who will contribute to Lojban. He has been working full- the dictionary data base work at time on Lojban since May 1988. no cost to the Government. Mr. Mr. LeChevalier was a programmer LeChevalier's unfunded time will from 1974-81, then a systems engi- be as a volunteer worker for LLG neer and systems requirements doing work not covered under analyst from 1981 to the present. funded tasks. This work includes Mr. LeChevalier worked for Syscon editing and publishing the journal Corp. from 1975-84, and SDC/Unisys and newsletter and writing a Corp. from 1984-88. He worked on Lojban textbook. Navy systems development and Athelstan, Director, LLG - 100% design, and finally as SETA over the life of the project, engineer leading tasks supporting working primarily on the the Air Force on the GLCM program dictionary data base (Task 1), and until the program ended. He is providing expertise in Lojban for expert in systems documentation, volunteer workers. complex systems requirements analysis, operator-machine 61 interface, configuration man- John Parks-Clifford, Vice agement, and quality assurance. President and Director, LLG - Dr. He has a BS in Astrophysics, and Parks-Clifford has worked on is knowledgeable in comparative Loglan since 1975. He edited the linguistics. Loglan journal 'The Loglanist' Mr. LeChevalier also will work from 1975-84, and was President of on unfunded Lojban activities, and the Loglan Institute, Inc., from may seek additional grants or 1982-84. He is generally contracts. No proposals are acknowledged as second only to pending or specifically planned. founder J. C. Brown in expertise Athelstan, Director, LLG - on earlier versions of Loglan, Athelstan has worked on Lojban with several man-years total vol- since 1988, specializing in unteer effort. He was co-founder lexicon development, teaching, and of LLG, and consultant on all translation. He is knowledgeable aspects of the language redesign. in comparative linguistics, and is His degrees include BA Philosophy, a translator of Ancient Greek, MA Linguistics from UCLA, with Latin, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse. field work in India, and a PhD He is working on degrees in Philosophy from UCLA. He worked Mathematics and Linguistics. directly in NLP with Rand Corp. in Jeffrey Taylor, Voting Member, the 1960s, and now works in tense LLG - Mr. Taylor has worked on logic and logic education. Dr. Loglan since 1982, and is a co- Parks-Clifford is an Associate founder of LLG. His Masters Professor of Logic and Philosophy thesis included developing an SLR1 at the University of Missouri, St. parser for Loglan. He served on Louis. the Loglan 'Word-Makers Council' in 1986-87, becoming skilled in le lojbo se ciska (cont.) the lexicon. In 1988-89 he helped redevelop the Lojban formal gram- In keeping with the above mar and wrote a preliminary parser proposal, here is a demonstration as a test vehicle for that of Lojban's potential in the grammar. In 1989, he wrote a computer processing field. Some preliminary dictionary of the of the technical details will be Lojban structure word lexicon. of interest only to computer Mr. Taylor has 17 years programmers and logicians, but the experience in programming, Lojban in the following is a human specializing in compiler and language, not a computer language. parser development and later in But it also happens that, as task and project management, and cited in the proposal above, including extensive work in Lojban is so thoroughly defined as developing military systems. He to be a logical equivalent of has an BSEE and an MS in Prolog, a computer language that Electrical and Computer is one of those most frequently Engineering from University of used in artificial intelligence California, Davis. and natural language processing. Sheldon Linker, Vice President, To demonstrate this, John Cowan LSI - Mr. Linker has worked on prepared a couple of examples. Loglan since 1975. He led initial The first is an implementation, in efforts to develop a YACC grammar a Lojban "computer language" for Loglan from 1975-80, and has subset, of a complete Prolog algo- been less active in Loglan and rithm. Then John goes the other Lojban since then. He has 20 direction - from a Lojban years experience as a programmer translation of a complex English and software developer, including language 'logic problem' into a NLP experience. If his time is Prolog equivalent - showing the not fully funded, Mr. Linker will applicability of Lojban both as an be employed by LSI on efforts un- intermediate to computer program related to this effort. expression as well as logical analysis. John: 62 .ijebo dexire poirja'e Except for the universal daxire quantification at the beginning of .ijebo de poirvelmi'a dexipa each Lojban sentence (which is di ce'o dexire there because Prolog variables are implicitly quantified pau? li ci ce'o li pa ce'o li vo universally), the Prolog and the ce'o li pa ce'o li mu poirvelmi'a Lojban are formally equivalent. ma? Of course, Lojban is far richer li ci ce'o li pa ce'o li vo ce'o than Prolog -- it is a complete li pa ce'o li mu poirvelmi'a human language, which Prolog li pa ce'o li pa ce'o li ci ce'o surely is not. li vo ce'o li mu The following algorithm, expressed in Lojban, describes how The 'program' consists of to sort a list of numbers (or definitions of the following 3 anything comparable with "zmadu" functions, which use the place and "mleca") into least-first structures as indicated: order using Hoare's quicksort algorithm. It is a direct poirvelmi'a: x1 is the result of translation of a Prolog appending x2 to x3 equivalent, except that the skamrpartiti: x1 and x2 are a arguments have been re-ordered to partition on pivot x3 of list x4 bring results to the beginning, in [For non-technical people, this conformity with Lojbanic means that a list of values is conventions. divided into to sub-lists (greater and lesser) based on ni'o roda zo'u: comparison with a single value da poirvelmi'a la nil. da (the pivot). A complicated .i roda rode rodi rodixire zo'u: lujvo based on "fendi" could de ce'o dixire poirvelmi'a de perhaps have been used instead ce'o di da of this borrowing: x1 and x2 of .inaja dixire poirvelmi'a di this function correspond to the da x3 of fendi (joined together by a non-logical connective in the ni'o roda rodaxipa rodaxire rode latter case), x3 corresponds to rodi zo'u: the x4 of fendi, and x4 to the de ce'o daxipa daxire x2 of fendi] skamrpartiti de di ce'o da poirja'e: x1 is the result of .ijanai de mleca di ordering x2 .ijebo daxipa daxire skamrpartiti di da la nil. is the name of the null .i roda rodaxipa rodaxire rode list. rodi zo'u: daxipa de ce'o daxire skamrpartiti de di ce'o da .ijanai de zmadu di .ijebo daxipa daxire skamrpartiti di da .i roda zo'u: la nil. la nil. skamrpartiti da la nil. ni'o la nil. poirja'e la nil. .i roda rodaxipa rodaxire rode rodexipa rodexire rodi zo'u: de poirja'e di ce'o da .ijanai daxipa daxire skamrpartiti di da .ijebo dexipa poirja'e daxipa 63 Thus a translation of the first .i ro grusi je sulpo'e cu function is: bilmrsalergeni .i ro creka .e ro smoka .e ro ni'o roda zo'u: siptaxfu .e ro gerku .e ro For all-X, tcokumte cu lu'ircumki da poirvelmi'a la nil. da .i ro tergu'imi'i .e ro sfofa .e X is-the-result-of-joining that- ro mlatu .e ro skami cu named "nil" and X. nalylu'icumki .i roda rode rodi rodixire zo'u: .i lemi siptaxfu .e lemi sfofa .e For all-X, all-Y, all-Z, all-U: la totmes. poi mlatu .e la de ce'o dixire poirvelmi'a de milisent. poi tcokumte cu grusi ce'o di da je sulpo'e je selponse be mi Y ordered-with U is-the- .i ro ma jaurselylumci result-of-joining (Y ordered- .i ro ma sakcyselylumci with Z and X. .inaja dixire poirvelmi'a di Literal rendering of the Lojban: da only-if U is-the-result-of- All wash-possible and sick- joining Z and X. allergenic things are water-be- washed. append(X, nil, X). All non-wash-possible and sick- append([Y | U], [Y | Z], X) :- allergenic things are suck-be- append(U, Z, X). washed. All gray and wool-possessing Translation of the other two things are sick-allergenic. functions is left as an All shirts and all socks and all 'exercise'. The last two lines of sleep-garments and all dogs and the Lojban ask the correct sort all South-American-camels are order of a list of numbers, and wash-possible. present the correct sorted answer. All illumination-source-machines Prolog is effectively a subset and all sofas and all cats and of Lojban, using many of the same all computers are non-wash- concepts and terminology. The possible. following English word problem, My sleep-garment and my sofa and from John F. Sowa of IBM, neatly Thothmes who is-a-cat and illustrates the process that can Millicent who is-a-South- make Lojban machine-intelligible. American-camel are gray and Sowa's original English: wool-possessing and possessed by Washable allergenic things are me. washed. Nonwashable allergenic All what-things are-water-be- things are vacuumed. Everything washed? that is gray and fuzzy is All what-things are-suck-be- allergenic. Shirts, socks, washed? pajamas, dogs, and llamas are washable. Lamps, sofas, cats, and computers are nonwashable. Following are my gray, fuzzy possessions: my pajamas, my sofa, my cat Thothmes, and my llama Mil- licent. ... [D]etermine which of my possessions are washed and which vacuumed. A free Lojban translation of the English: ni'o ro lu'ircumki je bilmrsalergeni cu jaurselylumci .i ro nalylu'icumki je bilmrsalergeni cu sakcyselylumci 64 Formalized Lojban suitable for .i le siptaxfu cu jaurselylumci Prolog conversion: re'i .i la milisent. jaurselylumci ni'o roda zo'u: re'i da jaurselylumci fe'o .ijanai da lu'ircumki ni'o ma? sakcyselylumci .ijebo da bilmrsalergeni .i le sfofa cu sakcyselylumci ni'o roda zo'u: re'i da sakcyselylumci .i la totmes. cu sakcyselylumci .ijanai da nalylu'icumki re'i .ijebo da bilmrsalergeni fe'o ni'o roda zo'u: da bilmrsalergeni .ijanai da grusi .ijebo da sulpo'e ni'o roda zo'u: da lu'ircumki .ijanai da creka .i roda zo'u: da lu'ircumki .ijanai da smoka .i roda zo'u: da lu'ircumki .ijanai da siptaxfu .i roda zo'u: da lu'ircumki .ijanai da gerku .i roda zo'u: da lu'ircumki .ijanai da tcokumte ni'o roda zo'u: da nalylu'icumki .ijanai da tergu'imi'i .i roda zo'u: da nalylu'icumki .ijanai da sfofa .i roda zo'u: da nalylu'icumki .ijanai da mlatu .i roda zo'u: da nalylu'icumki .ijanai da skami ni'o mi ponse le siptaxfu .i le siptaxfu cu siptaxfu .i le siptaxfu cu grusi .i le siptaxfu cu sulpo'e ni'o mi ponse le sfofa .i le sfofa cu sfofa .i le sfofa cu grusi .i le sfofa cu sulpo'e ni'o mi ponse la totmes. .i la totmes. cu mlatu .i la totmes. cu grusi .i la totmes cu sulpo'e ni'o mi ponse la milisent. .i la milisent. cu tcokumte .i la milisent. cu grusi .i la milisent. cu sulpo'e ni'oni'o ma? jaurselylumci 65 Literal translation of the [New-topic] I possess that-called formalized Lojban: Thothmes. That-called Thothmes is-a-cat. [New-topic] For-all x: That-called Thothmes is-gray. x is-water-be-washed That-called Thothmes is-wool- if (x is-wash-possible possessing. and x is-allergenic). [New-topic] I possess that-called [New-topic] For-all x: Millicent. x is-suck-be-washed That-called Millicent is a if (x is-non-wash-possible South-American-camel. and x is-allergenic). That-called Millicent is-gray. [New-topic] For-all x That-called Millicent is-wool- x is-allergenic possessing. if (x is-gray and x is-wool-possessing) [Entirely-new-topic] What is- [New-topic] For-all x: water-be-washed? x is-wash-possible That-described-as-a sleep- if x is-a-shirt. garment is-water-be-washed. For-all x: [Ready-to-receive] x is-wash-possible That-called Millicent is-water- if x is-a-sock. be-washed. For-all x: [Ready-to-receive] x is-wash-possible [end-of-transmission] if x is-a-sleep-garment. [New-topic] What is-suck-be- For-all x: washed? x is-wash-possible That-described-as-a sofa is- if x is-a-dog. suck-be-washed For-all x: [Ready-to-receive] x is-wash-possible That-called Thothmes is-suck-be- if x is-a-South-American- washed camel. [Ready-to-receive] [New-topic] For-all x: [End-of-transmission] x is-non-wash-possible if x is-an-illumination-source- machine. For-all x: x is-non-wash-possible if x is-a-sofa. For-all x: x is-non-wash-possible if x is-a-cat. For-all x: x is-non-wash-possible if x is-a-computer. [New-topic] I possess that- described-as-a sleep-garment. That-described-as-a sleep- garment is-a-sleep-garment. That-described-as-a sleep- garment is-gray. That-described-as-a sleep- garment is-wool-possessing. [New-topic] I possess that- described-as-a sofa. That-described-as-a sofa is-a- sofa. That-described-as-a sofa is- gray. That-described-as-a sofa is- wool-possessing. 66 Sowa's original (English-based) been on the project staff. DLT is Prolog, converted from IBM to the machine translation system Edinburgh syntax: cited in the proposal above (see page 30) which uses a modified washed(X) :- washable(X), Esperanto as its interlingua. allergenic(X). Dan Maxwell, [email protected], vacuumed(X) :- nonwashable(X), responds to the following: allergenic(X). By the way, with all this discussion of interlinguas for allergenic(X) :- gray(X), computer translation, it might fuzzy(X). be interesting to hear from Dan Maxwell why BSO chose Esperanto washable(X) :- shirt(X). for their DLT project and not washable(X) :- sock(X). Loglan (which already had two washable(X) :- pajama(X). decades behind it at the time) washable(X) :- dog(X). or some other conlang, of which washable(X) :- llama(X). there are quite a number, or even one developed specifically nonwashable(X) :- lamp(X). for the purpose. Why they would nonwashable(X) :- sofa(X). choose a conlang instead of an nonwashable(X) :- cat(X). ethnic language seems more nonwashable(X) :- computer(X). readily apparent. possess(me, pj1). pajama(pj1). The decision to use Esperanto gray(pj1). fuzzy(pj1). was made by the creator of DLT, possess(me, sf1). sofa(pj1). Toon Witkam, back in 1979. As far gray(pj1). fuzzy(pj1). as I know, he never seriously possess(me, thothmes). considered another conlang, taking cat(thothmes). gray(thothmes). Esperanto as a given fundamental fuzzy(thothmes). property of the project, although possess(me, millicent). at the time he was not a speaker llama(millicent). of Esperanto. He probably knew gray(millicent). little or nothing about other fuzzy(millicent). possibilities, and maybe it never occurred to him to look into this. ?- washed(X) He is no longer with the former washed(pj1) DLT group, but is still on the BSO ; payroll. I can find out how to washed(millicent) contact him in BSO if anyone is ; interested. no Lojban seems to have certain theoretical advantages over ?-vacuumed(X) Esperanto as an interlingua. On vacuumed(sf1) the other hand, Esperanto has been ; more tested in practice (well, as vacuumed(thothmes) a language for humans at least) ; and had a larger pool of speakers no to draw the people in the project from. DLT - Esperanto-based Machine Hmm. Maybe the advantages and Translation disadvantages of Esperanto compared to Lojban are the same as As our last item on the topic of the advantages and disadvantages computer natural language of English compared to Esperanto. processing, we reprint a short Comments invited. report on the status of the Several people sent me questions Distributed Language Translator about DLT. So instead of writing (DLT) project in the Netherlands. individual responses, I decided to Dan Maxwell, who writes this, has 67 write a general one for all achieved what were in principle conlangers. reasonable results for the amount The use of Esperanto does not of money and manpower expended. solve all problems involved in But our prototype, like most machine translation - I hope that prototypes, needed to be re- we never claimed it would - but designed and expanded. does reduce some of them and pro- Unfortunately, we never got a vide an interesting framework for chance to test this, because our attempting to solve others. Even funding ran out. We had a six- though our modified Esperanto was, year grant from the Dutch we think, structurally government (matched by our unambiguous, this only gives us a company), but this ended in mid- way of representing alternative 1990. We had hoped to find an meanings (both lexical and struc- industrial partner to continue the tural) in the source language funding of the project by then, (This was English in our pro- but our search was unsuccessful. totype), not of choosing among We are still keeping our eyes them. open, but are not actively search- In order to choose among them, ing. we devised a module called SWESIL The modifications to Esperanto (Semantic Word Expert System In in the early planning stages the Inter-Lingua), which made use (early 1980s) were relatively of a probability-based algorithm radical, but perhaps about 80% of drawing on a knowledge bank about them were eliminated after the semantic relatedness in Esperanto. project started for real. This This is described in some detail all happened before I joined the (c. 250 pages) in Working with project in 1986. The move back Analogical Semantics: toward normal Esperanto was done Disambiguation techniques in DLT, mainly for a practical reason: we 1989, by Victor Sadler, Foris needed the support of the Publications, Box 5904, Dordrecht, Esperanto community. That is, we Netherlands. It is number 5 of needed Esperantists to work in the the DLT series. project, and this would be made You can also get a less detailed more difficult by changes which (30 pages) and less expensive hindered their understanding of summary of the entire project in: the language. Distributed Language Translation: The most important remaining A Multilingual Machine Translation modifications were: dividers Project, 1990., available from: between the morphemes within a Indiana University Linguistics word; e.g., "util'ig'ebl'a" Club, 720 Atwater St., instead of "utiligebla", and extra Bloomington, IN 47401. You can spaces to distinguish between the get it from the above address for readings of sentences like "I ate a few dollars. the fish on the table" and "old For Esperantists, there will be men and women". a paper by me called "Perkomputila Outside of these we had various Tradukado: la revo kaj la realo" lexical innovations like "antaw published in the series Oficialaj ke" (the subordinating conjunction Esperanto-Dokumentoj coming out in "before") instead of "antaw ol". a few months. This deals more "kaw" in place of "kaj" (and) if generally with the problems of the coordinated objects have the machine translation and is aimed same referent, as in "my friend at a wider (Esperanto) public than and companion". Compound tenses just linguists. But also the one written as one word from Indiana is fairly ("trink'ont'is"= "was about to nontechnical. drink" instead of "estis SWESIL was implemented on a trinkonta"). Many of these minor limited scale in our prototype modifications are in fact used by (first version 1987, second some Esperantists. A complete version 1988). We felt that it description of these is available 68 on paper in Esperanto, but not in are members of a four-some, are English. large. The two owners of the shoes (of le lojbo se ciska (cont.) which there are four), are large. More of Nora's examples from the incomplete draft lessons. vi le gusta At the restaurant: ********************************** A: do xomei ************** You are a how-many-some? Examples of numerical predicates How many in your party? ********************************** B: mi vomei ************** We are a four-some. 2 + 2 = 4 3 + 3 = 6 4 + ko poi romoi cu ganlygau le vorme 4 = 7 (Imperative!) You the all-th one!, closed-do the door. ti cimei sumji This is a three-some sum. .i le cimoi sumji cu na drani And the three-th sum is not: correct. .i le pamoi remei sumji cu drani And the one-th two-some sums are correct. do bimoi le liste be le cpedu le se detri be lenu cpedu You are two-th in the list of the requestors, ordered by date of the event of requesting. You are the second one to ask, in date order. .i la rik. so'imoi And Rick is the many-th. .i .uu mi romoi And (Pity!) I am the all-th (the last). .i lo romoi ba pamoi And the all-th will-be one-th. (The last shall be first.) le cutci remei cu barda The shoe two-some is large. The pair of shoes is large. .i le se remei be le'i cutci cu barda And the members of the two-some of the set of shoes are large. .i le se remei poi jadni le cutci cu barda And the members of the two-some which adorn the shoes are large. (The two things ornamenting the shoes are large.) .i le se remei poi ponse le cutci noi se vomei cu barda And the members of the two-some that possess the shoes, which 69 ti soso pivovo ce'isi'e curve You see me in-environment the This is-99.44%-portion pure achievement point of my being successful. ti botpi le plise pipasi'e jisra You see me at the point of This is-a-bottle of the apple-.1- success. portion juice. This bottle of juice is 10% apple da pu dicra leza'i do sipna juice. Something interrupted the state of you being asleep. lenu carvi cu pizemu cu'o Something interrupted your sleep. The event of rain is .75- probability. ********************************** ************** ********************************** A more complex example ************** ********************************** Examples of the less well-known ************** abstractors ********************************** mi ba logji cipra le za'i nelci la ************** rik. .e la .alis. mi pu nelci lesi'o mulri'a le I will logically-prove the state bangu .enai lepu'u mulri'a le of fondness for Rick and Alice. bangu .i pamo'o xu la rik. nelci la I was fond of the idea of .alis. completing the language, and- Section 1 - Is-it-true? Rick is not: the process of completing fond of Alice. the language. [Ed. note - this .i pamai roda na.a la rik. cu accurately reflects Nora's views nelci la .alis. on the drawn-out completion of 1. Everyone1 Not!, or Rick, is Loglan/Lojban.] fond of Alice. 1. If everyone, then Rick, is la fred. na nelci lezu'o limna fond of Alice. Fred is not: fond-of the activity .ije remai la fred. cu nelci la of swimming .alis. And 2. Fred is fond of Alice. leli'i terpa cu rinka lenu morsi .ije cimai di'u cu nibli le za'i The experience of being-afraid de nelci la .alis. causes the event of being-dead. And 3. The last sentence Fear causes death. logically necessitates the state of someone2 being fond leli'i cortu le na zasti tuple cu of Alice. cizra .ije .ua leza'i la rik. cu nelci The experience of feeling-pain in la .alis. cu se nibli the not: existing-leg is And (Discovery!) The state of strange. [The experience Rick being fond of Alice is abstractor was proposed by a logically necessary. Lojbanist who has lost a leg, [Ed. note. Needless to say, noting that such amputees feel this proof is logically such 'phantom pains' in the non- flawed..] existent leg. "li'i" provides a way to talk about such personal experiences that may be otherwise distinct from 'reality'. lemu'e prane roda cu na cumki The achievement-point of perfection in everything is not: possible. do viska mi va'o lemu'e mi snada 70 .i remo'o xu la .alis. nelci la seen over thirty years - this rik. includes not only a month and a 2nd section Is-it-true? Alice is half of the conlang list, but also fond of Rick. the Hardins' "International .i pamai la .alis. cu nelci rodi Language Review," various mag- poi nelci ri azines published by proponents of 1. Alice is fond of everyone3 various language projects, etc. - who is-fond-of her. makes me think of a group of .ije remai la rik. cu nelci la would-be rock-climbers clustered .alis. ni'i le pamoi mu'e at the foot of El Capitan, a 1000- cipra meter sheer wall on the north side And 2. Rick is fond of Alice of Yosemite Valley, who are logically-necessitated by the arguing among themselves about the first achievement of proof. proper technique for starting .ije .ua la .alis. cu nelci la their climb to the top. Two or rik ni'i le puvi jufra remei three have actually tried to And (Discovery!) Alice is fond start; a couple got three meters of Rick logically necessitated off the ground and then fell back, by the previous-here sentence bruising their glutei maximi two-some. (gluteos maximos, but I don't want .i la rik la .alis. cu nelci gi'e to offend anybody by using an .ui se nelci accusative ending) in the process, Rick, of Alice, is fond and and one has actually attained the (Happiness!) is-be-fonded-by. twenty meter level, is gritting Rick is fond of Alice and vice his teeth in sheer determination, versa. and glumly contemplates the 980 meters ahead of him. Meanwhile, the only thing the ones on the A Lojbanic Cultural Allegory ground seem able to agree on is that the guy at twenty meters up For a lighter touch, comes the bought his equipment at a fire following, assembled by Nick sale and learned his climbing Nicholas from computer net technique in a sandbox. They may messages. The metaphors suggested be right; this is, after all, his by the allegory given have caught first climb, too, just as it is on among the most skilled theirs. One of them even shouts Lojbanists, those referred to in at him that if he had any the discussion. These include consideration, he'd rapelle back Nick Nicholas, Ivan Derzhanski, to the ground and make way for Bob LeChevalier, John Cowan, Colin some competent climbers. Fine, Mark Shoulson. Other names (I should add that there's a referenced in the text are gang of apes at the top who, every Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto, now and then when they see someone Jim Brown, founder of the Loglan actually climbing, will kick a 100 project, Schleyer, inventor of kg. rock down at him to try to VolapЃk, and Jim Carter, who in knock him off. They own the top addition to supporting Lojban, has of the cliff, and don't want you developed his predicate language. to forget it. If you doubt this, Bruce Gilson, has similar spurred read Ulrich Lins's La dan<gera a recent effort on the net to lingvo, all 500+ pages of it.) invent a 'predicate language with- As to proper climbing technique, out place structures'. the main question on which they cannot agree is this: is the best The following very interesting tool with which to start our climb exchange happened on conlang list: a three-legged stool, a kitchen chair, or a Sears & Roebuck by Don Harlow folding metal stepladder? <[email protected]>: Stools, chairs and stepladders Bear with me for a moment. Much all have their places in climbing of the conlang discussion I've - getting that book off the top 71 shelf, cleaning out the rain the Lojbo Jimbobs (not to mention gutters, getting to the faucet a fair few types clothed in elvish when you're three years old. But gear) aren't as fussed about the they're out of place at the foot wall as the others. They've found of El Capitan. In other words, a few relatively shallow pits, and the climbers are asking the wrong are usually happy to jump in and question. out of them. The Jimbobs like Similarly, if you're a somersaulting in their soft sand- scientific, experimental, liter- pit. The Silferistas go around ary, or simply curious conlanger, performing home improvement opera- questions about linguistic tions on their somewhat deeper structure, vocabulary sources, pit, taking advantage of the fact etc. are all important and valid that their pit has been boot camp ones. Not only that, they're fun for the Zamenhofos for a long to argue (if you don't make the time. Some of the stones hurled mistake of taking them too seri- by the apes have landed in this ously). But if you're a "global" pit; some even think that lends conlanger - a proponent of some the pit atmosphere. particular conlang, or even of I don't know how valid the just any old conlang, as a global analogy is; as for me, I receive interlanguage, they are ultimately mail at both pits, and am usually irrelevant, or at best only not that distressed about the marginally relevant. Yeah, that niches the mainstream Zamenhofos, stepladder's the best of the three yonder-ways, are carving into the - it'll get you two meters off the face of the wall with their ground, and leave you a mere 998 penknives. meters to go, using techniques Ugh. I don't do this analogy that have nothing whatsoever to do thing as well as you, Don :) In with stools, chairs or any case; it is not true that all stepladders. the subscribers of conlang eat, ... drink, and sleep the wall. Me, Incidentally, that guy's still I'm finding my sandpit a lot of twenty meters up and climbing; he fun. So does Ivan derJimbob, Mark learned early to use pitons. And Joulsonbob, and Colin Jinebob. he's a lot more worried about Bob LeJimbob doesn't hang around those apes at the top than he is our particular sandpit these days, about you. Maybe you can pass him but he isn't really at the wall while he's sleeping. Maybe he'll you're at, either. He's found fall off when he tries to sling a himself a 500 meter wall, and he's hammock. Maybe the apes will hit got rungs, but he's still waiting him with a rock. Maybe, once you for the hammers. As to whether actually start climbing, they'll your shouted instruction, from hit you with a rock! your wall across the sandpits to his, will help him (and those in by Nick Nicholas the sandpit), time will tell. <[email protected]>: (That and, as you say, the Don, a very good response there. skeleton of the "Schleyer ist Just a couple of clarifications. Herrgot" team-member you passed by Not everyone is going rock- in 1895). climbing up the wall you talk I really should lay offa them about. Some see the apes drugs. Apologies to anyone who abseiling down, for instance, and has felt offended by this very aren't that fussed. Sure, the confused analogy. apes tend to collide with each other. but they do tend to cover a lot of ground. A few members of the El Zamenhofo climbing team, on the other hand (schismatics led by Il Silferissimo), and more than half 72 by John Cowan in recent years say that he has <[email protected]>: become much subdued and hard to Nickbob writes: hear, and even (in one of his rare public appearances) completely Me, I'm finding my sandpit a lot inaudible. (The title of "First of fun. So does Ivan derJimbob, Digger" signifies only that in Mark Joulsonbob, and Colin meetings of the Jimbobs, he digs Jinebob. Bob LeJimbob doesn't first.) hang around our particular And so on.... sandpit these days, but he isn't really at the wall you're at, Nick responds: either. He's found himself a 500 meter wall, and he's got rungs, John McJohnbob, who always seems but he's still waiting for the (inexplicably) to get left out hammers. of these lists... John McJohnbob, who always seems Yeah, it is strange that I keep (inexplicably) to get left out of doing this, isn't it? Hm. If the these lists, is squatting in the conlangistanis will pardon the bottom of the sandpit, feverishly Lojban politics, part of the re-reading his three-foot shelf of reason is that you seem to be the climbing documentation (poorly only person around writing up bound, unindexed, and typeset shopping lists for climbing entirely in mono-spaced Flyspeck equipment (and toy shovels). In 3). In the other hand, he holds a that respect, you are, I daresay, much-marked-up list of needed a tad above the sandpit. After equipment. "Let's see: rope, all, when I tell Mum all the great hammers, pitons, crampons, friends I made at kindergarten tampons, clamp-ons, spit, chewing today, the Teacher doesn't spring gum....", he mutters. to mind, any more than does the And then we mustn't forget School Principal. Perhaps he Carter Jimbob, who sits at the should. Especially as Teach is no side of the pit with his back to stranger to the sandpit games, the the rest of the Jimbobs (he does latest of which involved Beowulf look over his shoulder :). [Editor's note - John Cowan occasionally). He is engaged in recently translated a small piece digging out a small but deep of Beowulf into Lojban] excavation with his bare hands, My hats off, though, for a and is sometimes heard to wonder brilliant sandpit tale, which why he can't seem to keep the sand deserves to get into a JL or from falling back in so fast. three. Next to him are Bruce Jilsonbob and his merry men, who are doing [Signed] Nick, splashing sand far the same with their larger but and wide, currently running a game much shallower hole. The sand is in which a circle of people pour falling back into their hole as the same cupful of sand into each well, but they are digging so fast other's hands (the phone game). they haven't really noticed yet. There is a rumor among the John Cowan responds to Nick's Jimbobs that somewhere in the pit, comments about his 'Jimbob name' or perhaps in a different pit of and kindergarten: the same size and shape (this question being hotly debated among John McJohnbob writes: the Jimbobs) there still exists (By the way, John, why the the legendary First Digger, Jim- "Mc"?) brownbob. But whereas the First Digger was formerly notorious for Is simple. "Cowan" is an Irish the volume of his voice, audible name, "Mac Eoin", where "Eoin" at every part of the pit, those (pronounced roughly "Owen") is the who claim to have spoken with him 73 earlier Irish form of "John". So (Oh sweet-beloved, (this I am John, son of John. sentence is expressed by Prince (uncertain) (was it?)) you After all, when I tell Mum all express everything which is the great friends I made at discussed by none other than a kindergarten today, the Teacher female friend to me who is doesn't spring to mind, any more (suppose) a girlfriend of you.) than does the School Principal. Perhaps he should. Especially as The "noi da'i fetypendo" is an Teach is no stranger to the excellent compression of the sandpit games... English. By the way, fetpendo is quite alright. The fault creeps That's what you say. When my in with the form of quotation four-year-old daughter actually used. Does the "xu" tie with the went to kindergarten, the first whole sentence (as intended) or friend she mentioned was the only with the name Prince? teacher. (I should mention that (Actually, both make sense.) More this is one-a-dem progressive importantly, is the "do" of the places wherein Teach is known as phrase the "do" Prince spoke to, "Julie" instead of "Ms. or the person I'm speaking to? I Kirkpatrick.") tend to favour the latter: the "cu'u la prins." is a tagged-on le lojbo se ciska (cont.) part of the sentence, and shouldn't, I feel, alter the Now here is Nick's summary of a referent of "do". And finally, is second 'phone game' message, one "doi titselprami" included in the that did not pass as clearly from quote or not? I see no reason why person to person. Note that the it shouldn't be included. The group is fairly tolerant of Lojban result thus comes out (assume I am grammar errors, which is after all talking to Kate, and Prince was one reason why errors in talking to Cat): 'transmission' can occur in the phone game. Since this is a game, I think Prince said this: it is desirable that some errors Sweetheart, do you, Kate... occur - that is how the participants (and you who read as opposed to: this) learn what is important in Lojban translation, which after I think Prince said this: all is a science in its early "Sweetheart, do you, Cat..." infancy. Here's Nick: but not I think (others may The second phrase to go through disagree): the phone game was: I think Prince said this, As Prince once said, sweetheart, sweetheart Kate: "Do you, (if I remember correctly) "If I Cat..." was your girlfriend, would you still tell me all those things This is critical. The conclusion, only girlfriends talk about". regrettably, is that "cu'u" is not the safest way of quoting in a Sylvia handled it as: sentence, unless the whole sentence is quoted - including doi titselprami cu'u la .prins "doi" (about UI I'm not sure), AND ju'ocu'i xu do cusku roda poi I still think "do" outside quotes selcasnu no de poi na fetypendo (even with a "cu'u" tag) stills ku'o ku'o mi noi da'i fetypendo refers to your addressee, not the do quotee's. Colin comments: 74 I think it's deeper - though in "titselprami"; I'd think that a way simpler - than your attaching figurative qualities argument. "cu'u la prins" is an such as "sweet" to a person adjunct not of the jufra, still would be cultural. I mean, is less the selcu'u, but strictly your sweetheart literally sweet? of the bridi. We have a selbri To the taste? I'd feel better "cusku" relating several sumti: with a culture-flag ("ku'u"?) or "do", "roda li'o" and "mi" ... "pe'a" or "zabna" or their rafsi AND "la prins." somewhere in there to clear things up. Or even drop it You express all that ... to entirely. 'Course, then sub- me who ... as said by Prince. sequent people wouldn't think "Sweetheart" where they did now, I started off writing this but remember we have the comment thinking that you were advantage of all having good basically right, and the Lojban colloquial command of English. did not work, but having written Something about "cu'u": It's the above, I think it does, and a BAI, so it attaches to the is very clever indeed (once the selbri, and thus in some sense I "xu" is moved to the proper see it as attaching to the x1. place). It is NOT a literal [Lojbab: No! A bridi is not translation, but it works for necessarily a claim about x1 in me. The basic bridi is saying particular among the sumti, but "Do you tell me all the things, about all of the sumti. The supposing ..." so the "cu'u" only special role of x1 in the phrase adds "As prince said, I language comes from its think, ..." I think your accessibility to "le" for making vocative stuff is missing the description sumti.] My point: "cu'u" cannot be translation probably didn't use asserting that anything in this logic, but consider it a particular was actually said by moment. "mi klama cu'u la bab." Prince, since (except in the This doesn't mean "Bob says, construction "pecu'u" etc.) "I'm coming". It means "I am-a- there isn't anything there to be goer with-expressor 'bob'", so the quotation. "mi" is the speaker (I guess I'm agreeing with you here, Nick). (Nick gripes that that's pretty I really don't know exactly what much what he was saying :) the semantics of this sentence would be, since "going" doesn't I notice that the translation make too much sense with an omits "still". "expressor" place; barely more than it would make with a Adds Mark: "chocolate" place (fi'o cakla). The original sentence is I don't think I trust "cu'u" in pretty convoluted to start with. this particular sentence (the Might have worked better with one I just said and the Prince "doi titselprami la prins. sentence). ju'ocu'ipei cusku lu xu do Oh, and grammatically the "xu" cusku... li'u", that is, use had to attach to "la prins.", lu/li'u to scope the quote. the way things were written.) Hence the problem with the "xu" getting attached to Prince. [Lojbab notes that the intent with Something is sorta strange about "cu'u" is to be used to quote "roda poi selcasnu no de poi na either directly or indirectly. fetypendo", but something in me Quote marks would indeed delimit a likes it. It's not literally direct quote most accurately, in what the original had, but I which case you must have didn't misunderstand it, and "cu'usa'a" to indicate that the it's elegant and logical. I'm a 'said by' isn't part of the quote little unsure about proper. Thus the tradeoff is 75 whether, in the original, the think" is lost. Furthermore, the quote is merely an accurate direct "doi titselprami" is assumed to be quote, or whether the intent is, part of what Prince is saying. as for most English speakers who Apart from that, it's an accurate quote famous sayings in analogy to guess, but Mark felt it more their own lives, that the meanings honest to rely on the text given, of referenced 'variables' be and chose the first alternative, adapted to the analogy. As an which Colin translated as: indirect quote, an expressor place makes plenty of sense. "mi klama doi selprami la prins. xu du le cu'u la bab." means "Bob says that cusku be ledu'u do ba cusku fi I went", not "Bob says 'I went'" mi fe ro te tavla befi da na.a An indirect quote is usually lo pendyfetsi va'o mi do intended to reflect fairly pendyfetsi da'i accurately what the speaker actu- ally said without trying for Beloved, was Prince the one who literal quotation. "du'o" is a expressed the sentence: you more vague source attribution that will tell me all the things is available, meaning 'according talked about by X only if a to'; it would typically be used girlfriend does, in the when reporting (in paraphrase) the environment of me, in the medium information content of the source of you, undefined argument: material.] girlfriend (suppose). Mark was in two minds between: The main error is the omission of "va'o lenu". "da na.a lo Sweetheart, was it Prince who pendyfetsi", surprisingly to me said you'd tell me everything after a half-minute's truth-table, that only girlfriends talk works well; but I don't know if about, if I were your it's that intuitable. I don't girlfriend? think the "be ledu'u" 'quoted' sentence is that elegant as a and: whole (the nesting and reordering seem unnecessary), but the meaning 'Sweetheart,' said Prince, is conveyed, though the "ba" seems 'Would you tell me everything to me misleading. discussed by only girlfriends if I were your girlfriend?' Colin comments: As often, there's a tension Nick: between precision and elegance. The first alternative points out "la prins xu cusku ledu'u" might the fact that the referent of "do" have done, but seemed to lose is still the addressee. It is, I the force of "Was it Prince feel, the more natural who". I tend to use "fi mi fe interpretation of the Lojban text. role ..." to get a light sumti It has the question hanging on the before a heavy one even when the identity of Prince rather than the original doesn't have that or- whole statement; again, this is der. what the Lojban text implies. "doi titselprami" refers to the addressee as does "do". The second alternative has Mark trying to guess what was really meant: namely, that "cu'u" was an attempt at literal quoting. Unfortunately, you can't have the "ju'ocu'i" tying to the name Prince and the "xu" to the main sentence; thus the "Prince, I 76 Correcting the omission: we immediately preceded by a started with: /la/, /lai/, /la'i/ or /doi/ as a marker, and it cannot As Prince once said, sweetheart, contain any of these markers (if I remember correctly) "If I unless the marker is was your girlfriend, would you immediately preceded by a still tell me all those things consonant. So, look only girlfriends talk about". backwards from the end of the piece for any of the allowed and ended up with: markers. If we don't find one (e.g. /jonz/), then the Beloved, was it Prince who said whole piece has been resolved that you would tell me as a name. everything talked about by b) If you do find such a people only if they're girl- marker, then check what friends, supposing that I was immediately precedes it. If your girlfriend? there is nothing (e.g. /ladjAn/), or if a vowel Close-ish, but not quite. precedes (e.g. /mivIskaladjAn./, break off Morphology Algorithm the marker as a resolved Internal Revision 4.1, 8 June 1992 piece (/la/), and what follows it is also a resolved The following will become the piece, a name (/djAn/), official baseline algorithm for leaving us with whatever resolution of Lojban text into preceded the marker, if individual words from sounds, anything, as still unresolved stress, and pause. As such, it is (/mivIska/). the ultimate standard of Lojban's c) If what precedes the unambiguous resolvability, which marker is a consonant (e.g. may make Lojban speech recognition /karoslAInas/) then ignore by computers more possible than the marker and continue for other languages. While the looking backwards. This algorithm looks very complicated, exception is allowed because almost all of it is resolving /karos/ with no following special cases, and performing what pause cannot represent a sep- error detection and correction may arate word. be possible. 2) ".y.", the hesitation: If the piece consists solely of /y/, then it resolves as We have a string representing the the hesitation word (which is speech stream, marked with stress required to be surrounded by and pauses. We want to break it pauses). up into words. 1. First, break at all pauses (cannot pause in the middle of a word). 2. Then, pick the first piece that has not been uniquely re- solved. A. The first thing is to deal with some constructs which are required to end with a pause: 1) Names: a) If the last letter of the piece is a consonant, we have a name. A name must have a pause before it UNLESS it is 77 3) Some lerfu words: /nu/ + /mi/ + /ba/ + /ca'a/). specifically, the last lerfu If there are no consonants, the word of a string if it ends in piece is a single cmavo. In a "y" (e.g. /abubycydy/ or either case, the piece is com- /y'y/) must be followed by a pletely resolved. pause: C. Now we have a piece which we a) If the "y" is preceded by are sure contains a brivla (a a consonant, break off the gismu, a lujvo or a le'avla). We consonant+"y" as a resolved know that a brivla must have a lerfu word (e.g. /abubycydy/ consonant cluster (CC or CyC) gives /abubycy/ unresolved, within the 1st five letters and /dy/ resolved as a lerfu (ignoring apostrophes in the word). Continue breaking off count), and must have penultimate any Cy pieces as lerfu words stress (ignoring "y" syllables, if they're there (e.g. unre- which are not allowed to be solved /abubycy/ gives unre- stressed). solved /abuby/ + resolved 1) First, let's check for a /cy/; then /abuby/ gives un- potential error (a form which resolved /abu/ plus resolved shouldn't arise): /by/). a) If the piece contains no Note that the Cy-type lerfu stress, but has a consonant words will NEVER come before cluster (CC or CyC), it is in the other lerfu word pieces error. The consonant cluster in a breath-group - the indicates it contains a "abu" and "y'y" types - brivla (gismu, lujvo or since they begin with le'avla), which requires vowels, they MUST be penultimate stress. The only preceded by pauses; and Cy place this MIGHT validly followed by anything but occur is inside a zoi-quote another Cy must be followed (and therefore need not be by a pause (because "y" is resolved at all). used as glue in lujvo, it b) However, if stress could cause resolvability information is not available, problems if not separate; assume the brivla ends at the e.g. /micybusmAbru/ would end of the piece. (This rule not uniquely resolve). gives the right behavior with b) If the "y" is preceded by canonical written Lojban, "V'" (e.g. /y'y/, break be- where spaces separate all fore the "V", and the "V'y" words except for some cmavo is resolved as a lerfu word. compounds and stress is c) If the "y" is preceded by normally not marked.) an "i" or "u" ("iy" and "uy" 2) Next, let's find the end of are reserved) the piece the first brivla in the piece: cannot be resolved. a) Find the first consonant d) If the "y" is preceded by cluster (CC or CyC) and then a vowel (V) other than "i" or the first stress after it "u", the piece is in error (the brivla is expected to and cannot be further re- end after the syllable solved. following the stress, ig- B. Next, see if the piece is noring "y" syllables). If composed entirely of cmavo. the stress is on a diphthong, 1) Check the piece to see if treat the entire diphthong as there are any consonant clus- stressed (So that "find the ters (a consonant cluster is of next vowel" will not get just one of the forms CC or CyC). If the second half of the diph- there are none, break up the thong). piece before each consonant, b) If there is no vowel in resolving each piece as a cmavo the piece after the stress, (e.g. /alenumibaca'a/ breaks it can't be a penultimate into the cmavo /a/ + /le/ + stress, so the piece is in 78 error (unresolvable). This 2] Repeat the above as many is also true if "y" is the times as we can (so, only vowel after the stress /lekArce/ becomes /le/ = (e.g. */stAsy/ is not a valid cmavo + /kArce/ = un- breath-group). resolved. Since /kArce/ has c) If the NEXT vowel a consonant cluster in the following the stress first five letters, we can't (skipping over "y"'s ) is go any further). immediately followed by "'V" 3] If the piece we have (as in /mlAtyci'a/), then the left starts with a vowel, syllable following the stress find the first consonant. cannot be the last syllable If the first consonant is of a word (since the 'V part of a consonant cluster cannot begin the next word). (only CC-form this time), Ordinarily we would count and this consonant cluster this as an error, but let's is NOT a valid initial clus- instead assume that this was ter, then we can resolve the a secondary stress and ignore entire piece as a le'avla the fact that there is some (e.g. /antipAsto/); stress on it. Go find the otherwise (if the first next stress to use as THE consonant is NOT part of a penultimate stress for this consonant cluster, or the brivla (e.g. in consonant cluster IS a valid /mlAtyci'abrIjuti/, assume initial cluster), break off the penultimate stress is before the first consonant "I", not "A"). as a cmavo (e.g. /a'ofArlu/ d) Having eliminated all the becomes /a'o/ = cmavo + potential problems with /fArlu/ = unresolved; or, finding the end, let's cut /aismAcu/ becomes /ai/ = the piece after the end of cmavo + /smAcu/ = un- the brivla: resolved). Find the first vowel (not b) What's left begins with a counting "y") after the consonant and has a consonant stress. If it is part of a cluster (CC or CyC) in the diphthong, break after the first 5 letters. The whole diphthong; otherwise, break thing may be a brivla, or after the vowel itself. there may be (at most) one 3) Now let's find the consonant-initial cmavo in beginning of the brivla in the front. Here are the pos- front part of the piece we just sibilities for the start of broke off: the piece, and their a) First, break off as many resolutions: obvious cmavo pieces off the 1] CC... : front as we can: Resolve whole thing as a 1] If there is no consonant brivla (a gismu, lujvo, or cluster (CC or CyC) in the le'avla). first 5 letters (ignoring 2] CyC... : apostrophes in the count), Invalid form. then, if the piece starts Unresolvable. with a vowel, break off be- fore the first consonant (e.g. /alekArce/ becomes /a/ = cmavo) + /lekArce/ = unresolved), otherwise break off before the second consonant (e.g. /vilekArce/ becomes /vi/ = cmavo + /lekArce/ = unresolved). The front piece is then resolved as a cmavo. 79 3] CVVCC... : (gismu, lujvo, or (Note: stressing a cmavo le'avla). For example, on the final syllable be- /selfArlu/. fore a brivla is not c] If there is a "y", we allowed.) need to look at the sub- a] If there is no stress piece up to the first "y": on the VV and the CC is a 1> If the sub-piece valid initial cluster, consists entirely of then break off the CVV, CVC's repeating (at and resolve it as a cmavo; least 2 needed: e.g. the remaining piece can /cacric/), and all the then be resolved as a CC's of the sub-piece brivla (see "CC....", are valid initial above). For example, clusters, then resolve /leiprEnu/ becomes /lei/ the initial CV as a = cmavo + /prEnu/ = cmavo, and the rest of brivla. the whole piece is a b] Otherwise (i.e. there brivla (a lujvo or IS a stress on the VV, or le'avla). the first consonant 2> Otherwise, if the cluster is not a valid sub-piece can be broken initial cluster), resolve down into a valid lujvo the whole thing as a "front" in front and any brivla (e.g. /cAItro/ = number (including zero) brivla) of valid lujvo "middles" 4] CV'VCC... : thereafter, resolve the (Note: stressing a cmavo whole piece as a brivla. on the final syllable be- a> Valid fronts (we've fore a brivla is not eliminated all but allowed.) those starting with a] If there is no stress CV): CVC CVCC on the final vowel of the b> Valid middles: CVV V'V) and the CC is a valid CV'V CVC CCV CCVC CVCC initial cluster, then 3> Otherwise, the front break off the CV'V, and CV should be resolved as resolve it as a cmavo; the a cmavo, and the re- remaining piece can then maining piece is be resolved as a brivla resolved as a brivla (a (see "CC....", above). lujvo or le'avla) For example, /so'iprEnu/ d] If there is no "y": becomes /so'i/ = cmavo + 1> If the piece /prEnu/ = brivla. consists of CVC's b] Otherwise (i.e. there repeating (at least 2 is a stress on the final needed) up to a final CV vowel of the V'V, or the (e.g. /cacricfu/), and first consonant cluster is all the CC's of the sub- not a valid initial piece are valid initial cluster), resolve the clusters, then resolve whole thing as a brivla the initial CV as a (e.g. /cA'Itro/ = brivla) cmavo, and the rest of 5] CVCC... (This is the the piece is a brivla (a hard one. Is the front CV a lujvo). separate word?): 2> Otherwise, if the a] If the whole piece is piece can be broken down CVCCV, then the whole into a valid lujvo thing resolves as a gismu. "front" in front and any b] If the CC is not a number (including zero) valid initial cluster, of valid lujvo "middles" then the whole piece can followed by a valid be resolved as a brivla lujvo "end", then 80 resolve the whole piece me lo fetcinfo .e lo lorxu as a brivla (a lujvo). .i lo fetcinfo noi se ckasu lo a> Valid fronts (we've lorxu lenu ra roroi se jbena lo eliminated all but pamei cu bacru <<lu go'i lo pamei those starting with noi ku'i cinfo li'u>> CV): CVC CVCC ni'o xe ctuca fi ledu'u loni b> Valid middles: CVV xamgu cu .ei se merli fi lo klani CV'V CVC CCV CCVC CVCC na.e leni srana loka vrude c> Valid ends: CVV CV'V CCV CCVCV CVCCV 2. 3> Otherwise, the front me lo resprtestudine .e lo CV should be resolved as cicractu a cmavo, and the re- .i lo resprtestudine kuce lo maining piece is cicractu leni sutra cu dabysnu resolved as a brivla (a .isemu'ibo le go'i noi tugni jdice le'avla). tu'a le detri .eji'a le stuzi cu ba sepli bajra simjvi .i le zu'u cicractu noi ki'u leke'a rarna ka sutra cu na'eke se mukti jundi __________________________________ lenu bajra ku'o ca'o lenu vreta _____ te'e le dargu cu sipna .i le zu'unai resprtestudine. noi sanji le lojbo se ciska (cont.) leke'a ka masno na sisti lenu bajra .ije seki'ubo le go'i noi It's time for our feature texts bajra zo'a le cicractu noi sipna of this issue. cu mo'u klama le co'e pe lenu The real test of an artificial cnemu fi lenu jinga language is how well it can convey ni'o tu'a le selsku cu xe ctuca ideas from a variety of cultures fi ledu'u le rarna se ckaji poi se and languages. This issue, we na'eke se mukti jundi ku'o lenu present tales translated directly troci cu so'eroi se tervlimau from two languages that few Lojbanists know. The first several texts are 6 of the moralistic tales of the classical Greek fabulist Aesop, translated from the Ancient Greek by Nick Nicholas. The first thing you will undoubtedly note is how brief the stories are, as originally written. This makes each story a pleasant little chunk of Lojban to translate, and since you will likely find the stories at least a little familiar, you should be able to work through the occasionally difficult result of Nick's efforts at matching the Greek syntax and style. You will need a complete cmavo list, including the changes reported in JL14 and JL15, to completely succeed with these texts, though most of the text will be understandable without all of the updates handy. Here's Aesop: 1. 81 3. gi'e zanru skicu le cipnrkorvo. ri me lo lorxu .e lo vanjba lo dratra bo selxadni joi melbi .i lo lorxu noi xagji ku'o ca gi'eji'a bacru lu'e ledu'u ge ra lenu viska loi vanjba gunma noi nu'o turni .ei lei cipni gi le dandu lo tricu cu djica lenu cpacu da'i nu ra cu se voksa lo xamgu cu ra gi'eku'i naka'e cpacu .i le nibli lenu pu'i turni .i le go'i ca lenu cliva cu cusku fi cipnrkorvo noi djica lenu jarco fi vo'a fe <<lu lei jbari cu slari le lorxu fe lenu pu'i se voksa lo li'u>> xamgu cu renro le rectu gi'e cladu ni'o si'a so'i prenu poi naka'e krixa .i le lorxu cu bajrykla xagmaugau lei cuntu ki'u loka gi'e bacru ba'o lenu kavbu le ruble cu pantypai le tcini rectu kei <<lu doi cipnrkorvo noda fau le da'i nu do se menli lo xamgu cu fanta lenu do turni roda 4. li'u>> me lo danlrkankre .e lo mamta be ni'o le prenu poi bebna ku'o le ri se cusku cu pilno se xamgu .i <<lu ko na na'emo'ica'u cadzu seisa'a lo danlrkankre le mamta cu The next piece is a little se tavla .iji'a le cilmo rokci tougher, since the story is un- leko xadni mlana na te mosra familiar to most readers, as is li'u>> .i ke'unai le danlrkankre the Chinese culture from which the cu bacru <<lu doi mamta ko noi ca story comes. The text is John ctuca cu mo'ica'u cadzu .ija'ebo Cowan's translation of a short mi fau lenu viska do cu smizu'e tale from Hakka Chinese. li'u>> Hakka is a rural dialect spoken ni'o xe ctuca fi ledu'u lei in inland Southeast China. As pajni cusku cu .eiro'a vrude tarti shown in the translation section, je cadzu sa'enai cei bu'a Hakka Chinese has a different .iba'ojenaipubo .ei ri cu ctuca fo tonal structure, and the text has lenu bu'a many roots quite unlike that of standard Mandarin Chinese. Indeed, John had to go to great 5. lengths to find suitable me lo cinkrkikada .e loi manti informants who could explain .i ze'aca loi dunra lei maxri subtle points of Hakka semantics, noi se prucimri'a ku'o loi manti since John, of course, doesn't goi ko'a cu se sudgau .ike'unai know Hakka Chinese either. lo cinkrkikada. goi ko'u noi xagji John deserves a lot of credit, cu cpedu loi cidja ko'a .i lei indeed! I like his philosophy manti cu crusku fi ko'u fe <<lu that good translation, especially ki'u ma? ca le crisa do si'anai na of cultural ideas, requires jmaji loi cidja li'u>> .i ko'u translation from the original. bacru <<lu mi pu gunka nagi'eku'i Thus, he did not use an available zgike sanga li'u>> .i ko'a noi ca colloquial English translation of cmila cu bacru <<lu do sanga the story, choosing instead to ze'aca le crisa .ije .uunai ko ca work from the English and Mandarin le dunra cu dansu li'u>> glosses found below in the ni'o tu'a le lisri cu xelctu fi translation section (asking lots ledu'u xamgu fa lenu gunka jundi of questions of knowledgeable roda kei fi lenu badri najenai informants, when appropriate). selckape Here is John's text. Enjoy! ni'oni'o di'e se tcita <<lu le 6. bruna cu kenkakpa sepi'o lo me lo cipnrkorvo .e lo lorxu cnadakfu .ije le mamta cu pensi .i lo cipnrkorvo noi ba'o kavbu selraktu li'u>> lo rectu cu ca'o zutse lo tricu .i lo lorxu noi viska ra gi'e .i tu'e djica lenu cpacu le rectu cu sanli 82 la .asun. jo'u la .aniis. bruna .i vofli ze'abaku .i ti'e ca'o ro remei .i la .asun. jbena le purci crisa ko'i rolnicte sanli le tricu mamta .ije la .aniis. jbena le forca gi'e cusku zoi <<.xakkas. cabna mamta .i le cabna mamta goi go1 zy3 cok8 cok8 oi1 zy3 pak8 ko'a cu to'e lanxe tarti .i ci'o sok8 .xakkas.>> .i cusku pu'o ko'a le jbebersa be ko'a cu dirba lenu le molko'a cu ciblu vikmi .i ro bu'a zo'u: la .aniis. cu djica lenu bu'a .inaja bu'a .i tu'u la .asun. te cinmo to'ebo la'edi'u .i la .asun. goi ko'e citka Translations of le lojbo se ciska nalculno gi'e dasni nalglare .iji'a so'iroi darxi ko'e .i le Translation of lei lojbo cabna mamta ta'e plafinti lenu catra la .asun. Katrina: mi xatra be la .alis. ciska bau la lojban. .i .e'o ko .i paroikiku le cabna mamta cu sidju lenu fanva cuxna re so'etsi .i pa so'etsi cu I (letter-to-Alice)-write in- nalseljukpa .ije pa so'etsi cu language Lojban. (Petition!) seljukpa .i dunda le seljukpa la You! (Imperative!) assist the- .asun. .ije dunda le nalseljukpa event of translating. la .aniis. .i cusku I've written a letter to Alice in <<lu re ko cu mo'ine'i klama le Lojban. Please help me kevna poi betfu le barda tricu .i translate it (to English). ko pilno loi cilmo dertu lo tagji gacri be le so'etsi .i ko poi Sam: .ui .oinai leke'a so'etsi cu pamoi derjbe cu (Happiness! Pleasure!) pamoi zdaxru li'u>> I'd be happy to! My pleasure! .i ba lenu dzukla fo pimu le dargu Katrina: <<lu xu? la teris. cu se kei la .aniis. zgana lenu le le pluka le cukta poi ri te dunda bruna ku so'etsi noi badmau cu fi mi li'u>> farlu "Is it true? Terry is-pleased with .ibazibo fo le bruna cu canja .i the book(s) which he/she was bazuku le la .asun. so'etsi cu given by me? pamoi derjbe .i ko'e morji le se Did Terry like the book(s) I gave cusku be le mamta .isemu'ibo ko'e him/her? pamoi zdaxru .i le mamta cu zgana lenu le jbebersa be ko'a na xruti Sam: pamai: ma? te kancu le cukta .i na kurji lejei ko'a jmive .i Firstly, what-value? is-the- sutra sutra bajrykla mu'i lenu counted-value of the books. facki lejei la .asun. lidne da First: How many books are there? [to know whether to translate .i lo cmana cevni cu makfa tisna "cukta" as singular or plural]. le tricu kevna loi dertu .i le cabna mamta ba cusku fi la asun. Katrina: li ci .i ku'i mi na fe jimpe le mukti be lenu do <<lu ko cuxna lo cnadakfu gi'e terpreti .oi klama fa'ertisna le tricu kevna Three. However, I not: understand li'u>> le motive of the event of your asking. (Complaint!) .i ca lenu kenkalri noda nenri .i Three. But I don't understand why pa cipni goi ko'i cu vofli cliva you ask such an irrelevant gi'ecabo klaku cusku zoi question! <<.xakkas go1 zy3 cok8 cok8 oi1 zy3 pak8 sok8 .xakkas.>> no'u <<lu Sam: le'onai mi troci lenu sidju le bruna cu kenkakpa sepi'o lo (Defensive!) I try to assist. cnadakfu .ije le mamta cu pensi I'm only trying to help! selraktu li'u>> Katrina: .o'ocu'i .e'o ko go'i .e'u 83 (Mere tolerance!) (Petition!) a singleton, which incidentally, You! (Imperative!) do-the-pre- however, is a lion". vious. (Suggestion!) Grrr! Then DO so, for Pete's sake! Sam: ta'onai la teris. cinse ma? (Returning to main point!) Terry exhibits sexuality/sexual- orientation of-what-kind? OK. Getting on with it, what gender is Terry? [to determine the gender of the pronoun translating "ri".] Katrina: .i'anai se'inai .i ka'u do bilga lenu na terpreti de'u .a'unai (Blame! Other-directed!) (I know culturally!) You are-obliged to the-event-of not: asking the recent utterance. (Repulsion!) Arrgh! You aren't supposed to ask such disgusting questions! Katrina: ju'i mamta la sam. cusku lo cinse preti .i'enaicai Attention, Mother! Sam expressed a sexual question (Strong disapproval!) Hey Mom!!! Sam just asked me a dirty question! [Needless to say, Nora was playing around with the problems of machine translation between language, while also trying to show how fluent speakers might use the Lojban attitudinals to very expressively communicate feelings that don't record too accurately on paper. We hope everyone enjoyed!] Translation of Aesop 1. me lo fetcinfo .e lo lorxu Pertaining to a lioness and a fox. .i lo fetcinfo noi se ckasu lo lorxu lenu ra roroi se jbena lo pamei cu bacru <<lu go'i lo pamei noi ku'i cinfo li'u>> A lioness, who incidentally is mocked by a fox about the event of giving birth to a singleton, utters "Yes, I did (give birth) to 84 ni'o xe ctuca fi ledu'u loni compete. The, on-the-one-hand, xamgu cu .ei se merli fi lo klani hare, who incidentally justified na.e leni srana loka vrude by his natural quality of Teaching-method for the fact swiftness other-than motivatedly that the amount of goodness is attends-to the event of running, (Obligation!) measured in units a during the reclining alongside the quantity Not! and (but) in amount road, sleeps. The, on-the-other- of pertaining to qualities of hand, tortoise, who incidentally virtue. is conscious of his quality of slowness, not: ceases the event of Lioness and Fox. A Lioness running. And justifiably being mocked by a fox on always therefore he (the tortoise), who giving birth to one, said "One, incidentally runs past the hare, but a lion." who incidentally sleeps, That the good should not be completitively comes to the measured in quantity, but in its [thing] pertaining-to the event of relation to virtue. rewarding for the event of winning. The only difficulty in this last ni'o tu'a le selsku cu xe ctuca story is the "go'i" within the fi ledu'u le rarna se ckaji poi se quotes, which technically should na'eke se mukti jundi ku'o lenu not refer to text outside the troci cu so'eroi se tervlimau quote (which the lioness couldn't The expression being something have 'heard' to refer back to). (told) is a teaching method for This is poetic license of a type the fact that the natural that makes sense, though, since characteristics which are other- she is responding to ridicule that than motivatedly attended-to, by might indeed have used the the event of trying, is usually presumed relation "gave birth to a as-conditions-of-having-power,-is- singleton". exceeded. Tortoise and Hare. A tortoise 2. and a hare argued on their speed. me lo resprtestudine .e lo So, having agreed on the date and cicractu the place, they ran raced apart. Pertaining to a tortoise and a The hare, on the one hand, who be- hare (wild-rabbit). cause of its natural speed did not .i lo resprtestudine kuce lo take pains with its running, cicractu leni sutra cu dabysnu having lied down by the road .isemu'ibo le go'i noi tugni jdice slept. The tortoise, on the other tu'a le detri .eji'a le stuzi cu hand, being aware of its slowness, ba sepli bajra simjvi .i le zu'u did not stop running. And thus cicractu noi ki'u leke'a rarna ka it, running past the sleeping sutra cu na'eke se mukti jundi hare, arrived at the trophy of lenu bajra ku'o ca'o lenu vreta victory. te'e le dargu cu sipna .i le The word shows that natural zu'unai resprtestudine. noi sanji quality which has not had pains leke'a ka masno na sisti lenu taken over it is often overpowered bajra .ije seki'ubo le go'i noi by effort. bajra zo'a le cicractu noi sipna cu mo'u klama le co'e pe lenu cnemu fi lenu jinga A tortoise, a hare, about the amount of swiftness, do combatively-discuss. Motivationally therefore they, who incidentally agreeingly decide (something about) the date and- also the site, do afterwards separately-runningly mutually- 85 3. Also, the moist rock, by Your! me lo lorxu .e lo vanjba (Imperative!) body-side not: is Pertaining to a fox and a/some rubbed" Continuing, the crab grape(s). utters "O Mother!, You! .i lo lorxu noi xagji ku'o ca (Imperative!), who incidentally lenu viska loi vanjba gunma noi now teach forward-movingly walk. dandu lo tricu cu djica lenu cpacu Resultingly, I on-the-event-of the ra gi'eku'i naka'e cpacu .i le event of seeing you, similarly- go'i ca lenu cliva cu cusku fi act-with-purpose." vo'a fe <<lu lei jbari cu slari ni'o xe ctuca fi ledu'u lei li'u>> pajni cusku cu .eiro'a vrude tarti A fox, who incidentally hungers, je cadzu sa'enai cei bu'a simultaneous with the event of .iba'ojenaipubo .ei ri cu ctuca fo seeing of the mass of Grape lenu bu'a Masses, which incidentally hang Teaching method for the fact from a/some tree(s), desires the that the-mass-of judgemental- event of getting of-them (the expressors (critics) do Masses and-but not: is-innately- (Obligation-social!) virtuously capable-of getting. He (the fox), behave and walk (loosely- simultaneously with the event of speaking), which is equivalent to leaving, expresses to him(self) some-relation1. Aftermathly-and- "The mass of berries are sour". not-previously (Obligation!) they ni'o si'a so'i prenu poi naka'e (the mass of judges teach about xagmaugau lei cuntu ki'u loka the event of it-relation1. ruble cu pantypai le tcini Similarly, many persons who not: Crab and Mother. Not to walk are-innately-capable of good-more- crooked, a crab was told by its bringing- about (improving) mother, nor to rub its sides on affairs justified by qualities of the wet stone. And it said: weakness, protestingly-judge "Mother, you who teach walk (blame) the situation. straight, and watching you I will imitate." Fox and grape bunch. A hungry That it is meet for the critical fox, upon seeing bunches of grapes to live and walk straight, and hanging from some trellis, wished then to teach the same. to obtain them and could not. Removing itself it said to itself: They are sour. Thus too some people unable to improve things because of weakness blame the times. 4. me lo danlrkankre .e lo mamta be ri Pertaining to a crab and a mother-of-it. .i <<lu ko na na'emo'ica'u cadzu seisa'a lo danlrkankre le mamta cu se tavla .iji'a le cilmo rokci leko xadni mlana na te mosra li'u>> .i ke'unai le danlrkankre cu bacru <<lu doi mamta ko noi ca ctuca cu mo'ica'u cadzu .ija'ebo mi fau lenu viska do cu smizu'e li'u>> "You! (Imperative!) not: other- than-forward-movingly walk [A crab, by the mother is talked-to]. 86 5. time of the summer sang [The Greek me lo cinkrkikada .e loi manti actually says "played the flute"], Pertaining to a cicada and of- dance in the winter." the-mass-of Ants. The myth shows that it is not .i ze'aca loi dunra lei maxri meet that one should neglect any noi se prucimri'a ku'o loi manti thing, so that s/he may not be goi ko'a cu se sudgau .ike'unai saddened and imperiled. lo cinkrkikada. goi ko'u noi xagji cu cpedu loi cidja ko'a .i lei manti cu crusku fi ko'u fe <<lu 6. ki'u ma? ca le crisa do si'anai na me lo cipnrkorvo .e lo lorxu jmaji loi cidja li'u>> .i ko'u Pertaining to a crow and a fox. bacru <<lu mi pu gunka nagi'eku'i .i lo cipnrkorvo noi ba'o kavbu zgike sanga li'u>> .i ko'a noi ca lo rectu cu ca'o zutse lo tricu cmila cu bacru <<lu do sanga .i lo lorxu noi viska ra gi'e ze'aca le crisa .ije .uunai ko ca djica lenu cpacu le rectu cu sanli le dunra cu dansu li'u>> gi'e zanru skicu le cipnrkorvo. ri For-a-medium-time-interval- lo dratra bo selxadni joi melbi during Winters, the mass of wheat, gi'eji'a bacru lu'e ledu'u ge ra which incidentally was previously- nu'o turni .ei lei cipni gi le moistened, by some-of-the-mass-of da'i nu ra cu se voksa lo xamgu cu Ants (them1) is dryly-brought- nibli lenu pu'i turni .i le about. Continuing, a cicada cipnrkorvo noi djica lenu jarco fi (it5), who incidentally hungers, le lorxu fe lenu pu'i se voksa lo requests of-the-mass-of Food of xamgu cu renro le rectu gi'e cladu them1. This-mass-of ants ut- krixa .i le lorxu cu bajrykla teringly-expresses to it5 gi'e bacru ba'o lenu kavbu le "Justified by what? simultaneous rectu kei <<lu doi cipnrkorvo noda with the summer you dissimilarly fau le da'i nu do se menli lo not: gather of the mass of Food?" xamgu cu fanta lenu do turni roda It5 utters "I worked Not! and-but li'u>> musically-sang." They1, who A crow, who incidentally in-the- incidentally simultaneously with aftermath-of capturing some meat, this (statement) laugh, utter "You is-in-the-middle of sitting-on a sing for-a-medium-time-interval- tree. A fox, who incidentally during the summer. And (Cruelty!) sees it (vague - probably the You! (Imperative!), simultaneous meat, but possibly the crow) and with the winter, dance." desires the event of getting the ni'o tu'a le lisri cu xelctu fi meat, stands and approving ledu'u xamgu fa lenu gunka jundi describes the crow to it (the roda kei fi lenu badri najenai crow) as a <correct-form be-bodied selckape mixed-with beautiful> thing and- The expression being something also utters the-symbol-for the (told) is a teaching method for fact that both it (the crow) is- the fact that [it] is-good, that capable-of-but-hasn't governed the event of workingly attending (Obligation!) the mass of birds, to all-things, by standard-of- and the (Supposing-that!) event of goodness the event of being-sad it (the crow) was be-voiced by the Not! and not: being-endangered. good-thing logically-necessarily- entails the event of actually Cicada and Ants. At the time of governing. The crow, who winter the ants dried the incidentally desires the event of moistened grain. And a cicada showing to the fox of the event of hungering asked them for food. actually being be-voiced by the And the ants said to it: "For good-thing, throws the meat and what reason in the summer did you loudly cries-out. The fox not gather food as well?" And it runningly-goes-to and utters in- said "I wasn't working, but I sang the-aftermath-of capturing the musically." And they having meat "O Crow!, Nothing, in-the- laughed said "But if you at the 87 event-of the (Supposing!) event of - "un" is "u"+"n", not equivalent you are be-minded by the good- to "uen".Hakka tones 7 (high) thing, prevents the event of you and 8 (low) are associated with governing everything." syllables ending in "-p", "-t", ni'o le prenu poi bebna ku'o le or "-k". se cusku cu pilno se xamgu The Standard Chinese version (in For the person who is foolish, Pinyin) is a cross between a the expression is usingly-being- literal translation and a list good. of etymological correspondences. A dash (---) represents a Hakka Crow and Fox. A crow having morpheme for which no Standard snatched some meat sat on some equivalent could be found. tree. And a fox seeing it and English-1 is a list of English wishing to obtain the meat, having words roughly corresponding to the stood praised it as well- Hakka morphemes, not a proportioned and beautiful, also translation. saying that it should indeed be English-2 is a literal translation king of the birds, and that this of the Lojban. would have happened, if he had a voice. And it wishing to show it I wish to gratefully acknowledge that it also had a voice, having the invaluable assistance of the thrown off the meat shouted following: loudly. And it having run to it Lojbab (Lojban reviewer), Nora and having snatched the meat said: LeChevalier (Lojban reviewer), Jim "O Crow, and if you had brains Carter and Alice (Wang2 Yi3) too, nothing would be lacking for Carter (Mandarin informants), Hua you to be king of everything." T. Lin (Hakka informant). The word is opportune for a Of course, the responsibility foolish man. for any errors or infelicities remaining is solely mine. The Hakka Translation Title: "Brother Bored With A Chisel, Mother Worried In Vain" Source: Yuan Jiahua et al., Hanyu fangyan gaiyao [An Outline of the Chinese Dialects], quoted in S. Robert Ramsey, The Languages of China. [This latter is a much recommended non-technical book for those interested in learning about Chinese.] Translation by: John Cowan Format: Lojban Hakka Standard Chinese (Mandarin - Pinyin Romanization) English-1 English-2. The Hakka is transcribed as follows: - initials are as in Pinyin; - rhyme vowels are as in IPA, except that "y" is schwa; 88 ni'oni'o di'e se tcita According-to her1, the birth-son [Totally new topic] The following of her1 is-dear. is labelled .i ro bu'a zo'u: la .aniis. cu <<lu le bruna cu kenkakpa sepi'o djica lenu bu'a .inaja bu'a lo cnadakfu .ije le mamta cu a1 nyi4 oi4 mak7 ge4 ciu4 mak7 pensi selraktu li'u>> ge4, Go1 zy3 cok8 cok8, oi1 zy3 pak8 a1 yi4 ai4 --- de jiu4 --- de, sok8 Anyi want something then something ge1 zi3 zao2 zao2, mu3 zi3 bai2 -- For-all <predicate> [If] Anyi - desires the event-of <the brother chisel bore mother waste predicate> then <the predicate>. thoughts "The brother hole-digs with-tool a .i la .asun. te cinmo to'ebo spade-knife. And the mother is la'edi'u thinkingly-betroubled." dui4 a1 sun4 sim1 gon1 ciu4 m2 he4 an3 yong4. .i tu'e dui4 a1 shun4 xin1 gan1 jiu4 bu4 Start of utterance-block xi4 yi1 yang4. toward Asun feelings then not be .i la .asun. jo'u la .aniis. bruna this-way remei About Asun is-felt the-opposite-of A1 sun4 tung2 a1 nyi4 he4 liong3 the-referent-of-the-previous- hiung1 ti4. sentence. A1 shun4 tong2 a1 yi4 xi4 liang3 xiong1 di4. .i la .asun. goi ko'e citka Asun with Anyi be two brothers. nalculno gi'e dasni nalglare Asun in-common-with Anyi are-a .iji'a so'iroi darxi ko'e brotherly twosome. A1 sun4 syt8 m2 bao3, cok7 m2 sao1 han2 sy2 song2 da3 gi2. .i la .asun. jbena le purci mamta A1 shun4 shi2 bu4 bao3, zhao2 bu4 .ije la .aniis. jbena le cabna --- hai2 shi2 chang2 da3 ta4. mamta Asun eat not full wear not warm A1 sun4 he4 cien2 oi1 giung1 ge4, also often hit him a1 nyi4 he4 heu4 oi1 giung1 ge4. Asun (he2) is-eater-ly non-full A1 shun4 xi4 qian2 mu3 sung4 de, and is-wearerly non-warm. Also a1 yi4 xi4 hou4 mu3 sung4 de. often hits him2. Asun be before-mother bear 's Anyi be stepmother bear 's Asun is-born-to the past mother. And Anyi is-born-to the present mother. .i le cabna mamta goi ko'a cu to'e lanxe tarti Heu4 oi1 zo4 nyin2 m2 gung1 tao4, Hou4 mu3 zuo4 ren2 bu4 gong1 dao4, stepmother behavior not just The present mother (she1) opposite-of in-equilibrium-ly behaves. .i ci'o ko'a le jbebersa be ko'a cu dirba ci1 ga1 ge4 cin1 sen1 zy3 ciu4 kon4 zo4 bao3 bi4, zi4 jia1 de qin1 sheng1 zi3 jiu4 kan4 zuo4 bao3 bei4, oneself 's one's own son then regard-as treasure 89 .i le cabna mamta ta'e plafinti vong2 teu4 yung4 nai2 tun2 gin3 lenu catra la .asun. ki4, Heu4 oi1 cung3 siong3 hoi4 si3 a1 huang2 dou4 yong4 ni2 --- jin3 sun4. qu4, Hou4 mu3 zong2 xiang3 hai4 si3 a1 soybean use mud cover tight go shun4. You! [imperative] use of-a-mass-of stepmother always think murder Wet dirt as-a snug cover for the Asun soya-seed. The present mother habitually plan-creates the event-of .i ko poi leke'a so'etsi cu pamoi killing of-Asun. derjbe cu pamoi zdaxru li'u>> kon4 man3 nyin2 ge4 sien1 bao4 .i paroikiku le cabna mamta cu nga2, ciu4 man3 nyin2 sien1 zon3 cuxna re so'etsi vuk7 ha1. Yu1 it7 bai3, heu4 oi1 na1 liong3 kan4 --- ren2 de xian1 bao4 ya2, zak8 vong2 teu4, jiu4 --- ren2 xian1 zhuan3 wu1 You3 yi1 ze4, hou4 mu3 na1 liang3 xia4. zhi1 huang2 dou4, see who 's first sprout then who exist one time stepmother take two first return home seed soybeans You! [imperative] such-that your One time [sticky] the present soya-seed first is-dirt-born, mother chooses two soya-seeds. shall firstly home-return." .i pa so'etsi cu nalseljukpa .ije .i ba lenu dzukla fo pimu le dargu pa so'etsi cu seljukpa kei la .aniis. zgana lenu le le it7 zak8 sang1 ge4, it7 zak8 suk8 bruna ku so'etsi noi badmau cu ge4, farlu yi1 ge sheng1 de, yi1 ge shu2 de, Hang2 do4 ban4 lu4, a1 nyi4 kon4 one seed raw 's one seed cooked 's do3 gia1 go1 ge4 teu4 zy3 go4 One soya-seed is-non-cooked. And tai4, one soya-seed is-cooked. Xing2 dao4 ban4 lu4, a1 yi4 kan4 dao3 ta4 ge1 de dou4 zi3 guo4 .i dunda le seljukpa la .asun. da4, .ije dunda le nalseljukpa la walk to half road Anyi see fall .aniis. his brother 's bean pass big suk8 ge4 bun1 a1 sun4, sang1 ge4 After the event-of walkingly-going bun1 a1 nyi4, by-route half-of the road, Anyi shu2 de fen1 a1 shun4, sheng1 de observes the event-of the fen1 a1 yi4, brother's soya-seed, which-in- cooked 's give Asun raw 's give cidentally-is bigger, falling. Anyi Gives the cooked to-Asun. Gives .ibazibo fo le bruna cu canja the non-cooked to-Anyi. ciu4 tung2 gia1 go1 gao4. jiu4 tong2 ta4 ge1 ta4. .i cusku <<lu re ko cu mo'ine'i then with his brother trade klama le kevna poi betfu le Then-shortly-after, with the barda tricu brother, exchanges. vong3 gi2 liong3 ge4 nyin2 do4 tai4 su4 lung1 du3 li3 ki4, ciao4 ta4 liang3 de ren2 dao4 da4 shu4 long2 du3 li3 qu4, tell them two thing person to big tree hole belly inside go Expresses "Two of You! [imperative] inwardly go-to the cavity that bellies the big tree. .i ko pilno loi cilmo dertu lo tagji gacri be le so'etsi 90 .i bazuku le la .asun. so'etsi cu .i lo cmana cevni cu makfa tisna pamoi derjbe le tricu kevna loi dertu Go4 e2 ho3 giu3, a1 sun4 ge4 teu4 san1 syn2 tu3 ti4 sy3 e2 fap7, su4 zy3 sien1 bao4 nga2, lung1 set7 bet8 e2. Guo4 la4 hao3 jiu3, a1 shun4 de shan1 shen2 tu3 di4 shi3 le fa3, dou4 zi3 xian1 bao4 ya2, shu4 long2 sai1 diao4 le. pass -ed really long Asun 's bean mountain god earth use -ed magic first sprout tree hole fill-in away -ed [future] [long time] Asun's soya- A mountain god magically stuffed seed is-first from-dirt-born. the tree hole with-a-mass-of dirt. .i ko'e morji le se cusku be le mamta .isemu'ibo ko'e pamoi .i le cabna mamta ba cusku fi la zdaxru asun. fe <<lu ko cuxna lo gi2 ciu4 zao4 gia1 me1 ge4 fa4 cnadakfu gi'e klama fa'ertisna sien1 zon3 vuk7 ha1 ki4 e2. le tricu kevna li'u>> ta4 jiu4 zhao4 ta4 mu3 de hua4 Heu4 oi1 ciu4 vong3 a1 sun4 na1 xian1 zhuan3 wu1 xia4 qu4 la4. it7 ba3 cok8 zy3 ki4 cok8 kai1 he then reflect his mother 's su4 lung1 loi2, speech first return home go -ed Hou4 mu3 jiu4 ciao4 a1 shun4 na2 He2 remembers the expressed-thing yi1 ba3 zao2 zi3 qu4 zao2 kai1 by the mother. Motivated-by- shu4 long2 lai2, that, he2 firstly-home-returns. stepmother then tell Asun take one-handle chisel go bore open .i le mamta cu zgana lenu le tree hole come jbebersa be ko'a na xruti The present mother [future] Gia1 me1 kon4 do3 ci1 ga1 ge4 cin1 expresses to Asun "You sen1 zy3 mo2 zon3 loi2, [imperative] choose a spade- Ta4 mu3 kan4 dao3 zi4 jia1 de qin1 knife and goingly reverse-stuff sheng1 zi3 mei2 zhuan3 lai2, the tree hole." his mother see fall oneself 's one's own son not return come .i ca lenu kenkalri noda nenri The mother observes the event-of mang2 di1 cok8 kai1 loi2 mak7 ge4 the birth-son of her1 not ya1 mo2. return. --- zhi1 zao2 kai1 lai2 --- de ye3 mei2. .i na kurji lejei ko'a jmive .i where know bore open come sutra sutra bajrykla mu'i lenu something even not-exist facki Simultaneous-with the event-of ciu4 miang4 nga1 m2 mai4 e2, giak8 hole-opening, nothing is-within. giak8 zeu3 ki4 kon4. jiu4 ming4 ye bu4 ai4 le, guai4 .i pa cipni goi ko'i cu vofli guai4 zou3 qu4 kan4. cliva gi'ecabo klaku cusku then life even not want -ed quick Zong3 yu1 it7 zak7 diao1 zy3 bi1 quick run go see cut7 loi2, giao4 den3, Not taking-care-of the truth- Zong3 you3 yi1 zhi1 niao3 zi3 fei1 value-of her living. Swiftly- chu1 lai2, jiao4 zo1, swift runningly-goes with-motive assemble exist one head bird fly the event-of discovering emerge come call -ing One bird [it3] flyingly leaves lejei la .asun. lidne da and-then weepingly expresses Mang2 di1 zy4 a1 sun4 cut7 loi2 heu4, zoi <<.xakkas go1 zy3 cok8 cok8 --- zhi1 zi4 a1 shun4 chu1 lai2 oi1 zy3 pak8 sok8 .xakkas.>> hou4, no'u <<lu le bruna cu kenkakpa where know from Asun emerge come sepi'o lo cnadakfu .ije le after mamta cu pensi selraktu li'u>> the truth-value-of Asun preceding "Go1 zy3 cok8 cok8, oi1 zy3 pak8 someone. sok8!" 91 "Ge1 zi3 zao2 zao2, mu3 zi3 bai2 - Next Issue --!" brother chisel bore mother waste Next issue (for those who have thoughts sent in your subscription forms the-expression "go1 zy3 cok8 cok8 and money at least), includes a o1 zy3 pak8 sok8" which- lengthy discussion of the Sapir- incidentally-is "the brother Whorf hypothesis and related hole-digs with-tool a spade- aspects of linguistic research knife. And the mother is think- from the point of view of several betroubled." linguists. We also plan to publish John Cowan's paper on .i vofli ze'abaku Lojban expression of mathematical bi1 do4 ban4 tien1 ki4 e2. expressions (MEX), a story fei1 dao4 ban4 tian1 qu4 le. translated from Bulgarian by Ivan fly to half day go -ed Derzhanski, as well as more of A-flyer [for-a-medium interval] Nick Nicholas's extensive work. [into the future]. Sample Page from Forthcoming .i ti'e ca'o ro crisa ko'i Proto-Dictionary rolnicte sanli le tricu forca Tang1 gong3 mi1 nyian2 ge4 ha4 I wanted to give the community gi2, gi2 ya4 ya4 a1 diao4 den3 some feeling that we actually are su4 va1 hong4, getting somewhere on the long- Ting1 jiang3 mei3 nian2 de xia4 promised books. The best way I ji4, ta4 ye4 ye4 --- diao4 zo1 know to do this is to show you. shu4 cha4 shang4, The following page is the first hear say each year 's summer he section of the gismu list, night night even drop -ing tree starting with the letter 'B' as it crotch top has been expanded and formatted [I hear!] During all summers it3 for the dictionary. While this is each-nightly stands-on the tree still a draft, it should give a fork good idea of our intentions. We of course would like comments on gi'e cusku zoi <<.xakkas. go1 zy3 whether the print size is cok8 cok8 oi1 zy3 pak8 sok8 adequate, as well as the .xakkas.>> explanations (there is some limit giao4 den3, "Go1 zy3 cok8 cok8, to what we can do to improve the oi1 zy3 pak8 sok8!" latter without delaying jiao4 zo1, "Ge1 zi3 zao2 zao2, mu3 publication, but I still would zi3 bai2 ---!" like to know what people think). call -ing brother chisel bore The larger margins on the back mother waste thoughts page reflect the actual dimensions and expresses "go1 zy3 cok8 cok8 of the pages of the book (standard o1 zy3 pak8 sok8". 5.5" x 8" trade paperback). .i cusku pu'o lenu le molko'a cu ciblu vikmi oi4 giao4 dao4 zoi4 gok7 teu2 cut7 hiat8 zang4 m2 giao4. ai4 jiao4 dao4 zui3 jiao3 tou2 chu1 xue3 zai4 bu4 jiao4. want call until mouth corner bleed finally not call Expresses up-until the event-of the mouth-corner blood ex- creting. tu'u End-of-utterance-block. bacru 92 berti B bakri chalk - x1 is a bacru quantity of/- utter - x1 utters contains/is made of verbally/says/- chalk from source phonates (vocally x2 in form x3 makes sound) x2; baktu (cf. krixa, cusku); bucket - x1 is a rafsi: cru bucket/pail/can/- badna deep, solid, wide- banana - x1 is a topped container of banana/plantain contents x2, made (fruit) of of material x3; species/breed x2 (cf. botpi, patxu, badri tansi) sad - x1 is sad/- balji depressed/dejected bulb - x1 is a about x2; rafsi: bulb (body-part) of dri plant/species x2; bajra (metaphor: rounded, run - x1 runs on bulgy; (cf. punli); surface x2 using rafsi: baj; limbs x3 with gait cognate: 'bulge' x4 balni bakfu balcony - x1 is a bundle - x1 is a balcony/overhang/- bundle/package ledge/shelf of (shape/form) con- building/structure taining x2, of x2; (cf. kajna) surrounding balre material x3; blade - x1 is a cognate: 'pack' blade of tool/- bakni weapon x2; (cf. bovine - x1 is a dakfu); rafsi: ba'e cow/cattle/kine/- balvi ox/(bull)/(steer) future - x1 is in (beef-producer/- the future of/later bovine) of than/after x2 in species/breed x2; time (only); (cf. rafsi: bak; lidne); rafsi: bav cognate: 'ox' bacru 93 berti ba'i; cognate: banxa 'later' bank - x1 is a bancu bank at location x2 beyond - x1 owned by x3 for exceeds/is beyond banking function(s) x2 in property x3 x4 (event); rafsi: (ka); (cf. dukse, bax ragve) banzu bandu suffice - x1 defend - x1 suffices/is (event) defends/- enough/sufficient protects x2 for purpose x2 (object/state) from under conditions threat/peril/- x3; (cf. dukse, potential x3 claxu, nitcu); (event); x1 wards rafsi: baz x3; rafsi: ba'u bapli banfi force - x1 (force amphibian - x1 is - ka) forces/- an amphibian of compels event x2 to species/breed x2 occur; x1 de- bangu termines property language - x1 is x2 to manifest; a/the language/- (cf. jitro, rinka, dialect of krinu, zukte); people(s) x2; rafsi: bap bai; rafsi: ban bau cognate: 'compel' banli barda great - x1 is big - x1 is big/- great/grand in large in property/- property x2 (ka) by dimension(s) x2 standard x3; (cf. (ka) as compared barda, nobli, se with standard/norm sinma, pluja); x3; (cf. banli); rafsi: bal; cog- rafsi: bad; cog- nate: 'grand' nate: 'large' banro bargu grow - x1 grows/- arch - x1 arches/- expands into x2 curves over x2 from x3; (cf. (made of x3); x1 is farvi); rafsi: bar an arch over/around bacru 94 berti x2 of material x3; pose x3, made of rafsi: bag material x4 barja bavmi bar - x1 is a barley - x1 is a tavern/bar/pub at quantity of barley x2 serving x3 to (grain) of audience/patrons species/strain x2 x4; (cf. gusta) baxso barna Malay-Indonesian - mark - x1(s) is x1 reflects Malay- a/are mark/marks on Indonesian common x2 of material x3; language/culture in rafsi: ba'a aspect x2; (cf. bartu meljo, bindo); out - x1 is on the rafsi: ba'o; cog- outside of x2/- nate: 'Bahasa' exterior to x2; bebna rafsi: bat foolish - x1 is basna foolish/silly in emphasize - x1 event/action/- emphasizes/gives property (ka) x2; emphasis/stress to x1 is a boob; x2 by [action] x3; rafsi: beb; cognate: 'accent' cognate: 'boob' basti bemro replace - x1 North American - replaces/- x1 reflects North substitutes for x2 American culture/- in circumstance x3; nationality/- rafsi: bas; geography in aspect cognate: x2; rafsi: bem 'substitute' bende batci crew - x1 is a bite - x1 bites x2 crew/team/gang/- on/at x3; rafsi: squad/band/or- bac chestra of persons batke x2 directed/led/- button - x1 is a conducted by direc- button/knob/- tor/leader/con- (handle) on/for ductor x3 organized item x2, with pur- for purpose x4; bacru 95 berti rafsi: bed be'e; cognate: 'band' bengo Bengali - x1 reflects Bengali culture/- nationality/lan- guage in aspect x2; rafsi: beg be'o benji transfer - x1 transfers/sends/- transmits x2 to receiver x3 from transmitter/origin x4 via means/medium x5; (cf. muvdu); possibly "sharing"; no (complete) alienation from origin is implied); rafsi: bej bei; cognate: 'send' bersa son - x1 is a son of mother/father/- parents x2 (not necessarily biological); rafsi: bre berti north - x1 is to the north/northern side (right-hand- rule pole) of x2 according to frame- of-reference x3; rafsi: ber besna 96 brodo besna ports ordered as brain - x1 is a/- well); rafsi: biz the brain (body- bidju part) of x2; bead - x1 is a (metaphor: bead/pebble intelligence, men- (shape/form) of tal control); material x2 rafsi: bes bifce betfu bee - x1 is a abdomen - x1 is bee/wasp/hornet of a/the abdomen/- species/breed x2; belly/lower trunk rafsi: bic (body-part) of x2; bikla (metaphor: whip - x1 whips/- midsection); (cf. lashes (a sudden canti); rafsi: bef violent motion); be'u; cognate: rafsi: bik; 'belly' cognate: 'beat, betri lash' tragedy - x1 is a bilga tragedy/disaster/- obliged - x1 is tragic for x2; bound/obliged to/- rafsi: bet; has the duty to cognate: 'tragic' do/be x2 in/by bevri standard/- carry - x1 agreement/frame x3; carries/hauls/bears x1 must do x2; cargo x2 to x3 from rafsi: big x4 over path x5; bilma rafsi: bev be'i; ill - x1 is ill/- cognate: 'bear' sick/diseased with bi symptoms x2 from 8 - digit/number: disease x3; rafsi: 8 (digit); rafsi: bi'a biv bilni bi'i interval - military - x1 is non-logical military/- connective: un- regimented/is ordered interval strongly orga- between (rafsi sup- nized/prepared by system x2 for besna 97 brodo purpose x3; rafsi: positive that x2 is bil true; rafsi: bit bindo bisli Indonesian - x1 ice - x1 is a reflects Indonesian quantity of/is made culture/national- of/contains ice ity/language in (frozen crystal) of aspect x2; rafsi: composition/- bid material x2; rafsi: binra bis insure - x1 bitmu insures x2 (person) wall - x1 is a against x3 (event) wall/fence for fee x4 separating x2 and providing x3 (unordered) of/- benefit(s) x5 in structure x4; (event) rafsi: bim bi'u binxo blabi become - x1 white - x1 is becomes/changes white/very-light into x2 under colored (color conditions x3; (cf. adjective); rafsi: cenba, galfi); lab rafsi: bix bi'o blaci birje glass - x1 is a beer - x1 is made quantity of/is made of/contains/is a of/contains glass amount of beer/- of composition x2 ale/brew brewed blanu from x2 blue - x1 is blue birka (color adjective); arm - x1 is a/the rafsi: bla arm (body-part) of bliku x2; (metaphor: block - x1 is a branch with block (at-least-2- strength; cf. dimensional shape/- jimca); rafsi: bir form) of material birti x2, dimensionality certain - x1 is x3; rafsi: bli certain/sure/- bloti boat - x1 is a besna 98 brodo boat/ship (vehicle) box bo'o; cognate: for carrying x2; 'foil' rafsi: lot blo lo'i boxna bo wave - x1 is a short scope link - wave (periodic pat- short scope joiner; tern) in medium x2, attaches two ad- wave-form x3, wave- jacent words into length x4, single unit; causes frequency x5; right grouping in rafsi: bon bo'a tanru; rafsi: bor bradi bolci enemy - x1 is an ball - x1 is a enemy/opponent/- ball/sphere/orb/- adversary of x2 in globe (shape/form) struggle x3; (cf. of material x2; x1 damba, jamna, is a spherical darlu); cognate: object (made of 'adversary' x2); rafsi: bol boi bratu bongu hail - x1 is bone - x1 is a/the hail/sleet/freezing bone (body-part) of rain/solid x2; (metaphor: precipitation of calcium); rafsi: material/- bog bo'u composition x2; botpi (cf. carvi, snime); bottle - x1 is a this is the sub- bottle/jar/urn/- stance, not the act closable container or manner of its for x2, made of falling, which is material x3 with carvi lid x4; (cf. brazo baktu); rafsi: bot Brazilian - x1 bo'i reflects Brazilian boxfo culture/- sheet - x1 is a nationality/- sheet/foil/blanket language in aspect (2-dimensional x2; rafsi: raz shape/form flexible bredi in 3 dimensions) of ready - x1 is material x2; rafsi: ready/prepared for besna 99 brodo x2 (event); rafsi: assignable variable red re'i predicate bridi brodi predicate - x1 predicate var 3 - (du'u) is a x1 is the 3rd predicate assignable variable relationship with predicate relation x2 among brodo arguments predicate var 4 - (sequence/set) x3; x1 is the 4th rafsi: bri assignable variable brife predicate breeze - x1 is a brodu breeze/wind/gale predicate var 5 - from direction x2 x1 is the 5th with speed x3; assignable variable rafsi: bif bi'e predicate briju bruna office - x1 is an brother - x1 is office/workplace of brother of/- worker x2 at loca- fraternal to x2 by tion x3; rafsi: bond/tie/standard/- bij; cognate: parent(s) x3; (not 'bureau' necessarily brito biological); rafsi: British - x1 bun bu'a reflects British/- bu'a some selbri 1 - United Kingdom cul- logically ture/nationality in quantified aspect x2; (cf. predicate variable: glico, skoto, some selbri 1; merko); rafsi: rit rafsi: bul broda budjo predicate var 1 - Buddhist - x1 x1 is the 1st pertains to the assignable variable Buddhist culture/- predicate religion/ethnos in brode aspect x2; rafsi: predicate var 2 - buj bu'o x1 is the 2nd bukpu cloth - x1 is an besna 100 brodo amount of cloth/- bunre fabric of type/- brown - x1 is material x2; rafsi: brown/tan (color buk bu'u adjective); rafsi: bumru bur bu'e fog - x1 is burcu foggy/misty/covered brush - x1 is a by a fog/mist of brush for purpose liquid x2; rafsi: x2 (event) with bum bristles x3; (cf. bunda komcu); rafsi: buc pound - x1 is x2 bru local weight burna unit(s) (non- embarrassed - x1 metric) (default is embarrassed/- 1), x3 subunits disconcerted/flus- (e.g. ounces), tered/ill-at-ease standard x4; rafsi: about/under bud conditions x2