The Complete Lojban Language

John Woldemar Cowan  
A Logical Language Group Publication  
Version 1.1, Generated 2016-08-26

Table of Contents

• 1. Lojban As We Mangle It In Lojbanistan: About This Book

  • 1.1. What is Lojban?
  • 1.2. What is this book?
  • 1.3. What are the typographical conventions of this book?
  • 1.4. Disclaimers
  • 1.5. Acknowledgements and Credits
  • 1.6. Informal Bibliography
  • 1.7. Captions to Pictures
  • 1.8. Boring Legalities

• 2. A Quick Tour of Lojban Grammar, With Diagrams

  • 2.1. The concept of the bridi
  • 2.2. Pronunciation
  • 2.3. Words that can act as sumti
  • 2.4. Some words used to indicate selbri relations
  • 2.5. Some simple Lojban bridi
  • 2.6. Variant bridi structure
  • 2.7. Varying the order of sumti
  • 2.8. The basic structure of longer utterances
  • 2.9. tanru
  • 2.10. Description sumti
  • 2.11. Examples of brivla
  • 2.12. The sumti di’u and la’e di’u
  • 2.13. Possession
  • 2.14. Vocatives and commands
  • 2.15. Questions
  • 2.16. Indicators
  • 2.17. Tenses
  • 2.18. Lojban grammatical terms

• 3. The Hills Are Alive With The Sounds Of Lojban

  • 3.1. Orthography
  • 3.2. Basic Phonetics
  • 3.3. The Special Lojban Characters
  • 3.4. Diphthongs and Syllabic Consonants
  • 3.5. Vowel Pairs
  • 3.6. Consonant Clusters
  • 3.7. Initial Consonant Pairs
  • 3.8. Buffering Of Consonant Clusters
  • 3.9. Syllabication And Stress
  • 3.10. IPA For English Speakers
  • 3.11. English Analogues For Lojban Diphthongs
  • 3.12. Oddball Orthographies

• 4. The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology

  • 4.1. Introductory
  • 4.2. cmavo
  • 4.3. brivla
  • 4.4. gismu
  • 4.5. lujvo
  • 4.6. rafsi
  • 4.7. fu’ivla
  • 4.8. cmene
  • 4.9. Rules for inserting pauses
  • 4.10. Considerations for making lujvo
  • 4.11. The lujvo-making algorithm
  • 4.12. The lujvo scoring algorithm
  • 4.13. lujvo-making examples
  • 4.14. The gismu creation algorithm
  • 4.15. Cultural and other non-algorithmic gismu
  • 4.16. rafsi fu’ivla: a proposal

• 5. “Pretty Little Girls’ School”: The Structure Of Lojban selbri

  • 5.1. Lojban content words: brivla
  • 5.2. Simple tanru
  • 5.3. Three-part tanru grouping with bo
  • 5.4. Complex tanru grouping
  • 5.5. Complex tanru with ke and ke’e
  • 5.6. Logical connection within tanru
  • 5.7. Linked sumti: be-bei-be’o
  • 5.8. Inversion of tanru: co
  • 5.9. Other kinds of simple selbri
  • 5.10. selbri based on sumti: me
  • 5.11. Conversion of simple selbri
  • 5.12. Scalar negation of selbri
  • 5.13. Tenses and bridi negation
  • 5.14. Some types of asymmetrical tanru
  • 5.15. Some types of symmetrical tanru
  • 5.16. “Pretty little girls’ school”: forty ways to say it

• 6. To Speak Of Many Things: The Lojban sumti

  • 6.1. The five kinds of simple sumti
  • 6.2. The three basic description types
  • 6.3. Individuals and masses
  • 6.4. Masses and sets
  • 6.5. Descriptors for typical objects
  • 6.6. Quantified sumti
  • 6.7. Quantified descriptions
  • 6.8. Indefinite descriptions
  • 6.9. sumti-based descriptions
  • 6.10. sumti qualifiers
  • 6.11. The syntax of vocative phrases
  • 6.12. Lojban names
  • 6.13. Pro-sumti summary
  • 6.14. Quotation summary
  • 6.15. Number summary

• 7. Brevity Is The Soul Of Language: Pro-sumti And Pro-bridi

  • 7.1. What are pro-sumti and pro-bridi? What are they for?
  • 7.2. Personal pro-sumti: the mi-series
  • 7.3. Demonstrative pro-sumti: the ti-series
  • 7.4. Utterance pro-sumti: the di’u-series
  • 7.5. Assignable pro-sumti and pro-bridi: the ko’a-series and the broda-series
  • 7.6. Anaphoric pro-sumti and pro-bridi: the ri-series and the go’i-series
  • 7.7. Indefinite pro-sumti and pro-bridi: the zo’e-series and the co’e-series
  • 7.8. Reflexive and reciprocal pro-sumti: the vo’a-series
  • 7.9. sumti and bridi questions: ma and mo
  • 7.10. Relativized pro-sumti: ke’a
  • 7.11. Abstraction focus pro-sumti: ce’u
  • 7.12. Bound variable pro-sumti and pro-bridi: the da-series and the bu’a-series
  • 7.13. Pro-sumti and pro-bridi cancelling
  • 7.14. The identity predicate: du
  • 7.15. lujvo based on pro-sumti
  • 7.16. KOhA cmavo by series
  • 7.17. GOhA and other pro-bridi by series
  • 7.18. Other cmavo discussed in this chapter

• 8. Relative Clauses, Which Make sumti Even More Complicated

  • 8.1. What are you pointing at?
  • 8.2. Incidental relative clauses
  • 8.3. Relative phrases
  • 8.4. Multiple relative clauses: zi’e
  • 8.5. Non-veridical relative clauses: voi
  • 8.6. Relative clauses and descriptors
  • 8.7. Possessive sumti
  • 8.8. Relative clauses and complex sumti: vu’o
  • 8.9. Relative clauses in vocative phrases
  • 8.10. Relative clauses within relative clauses
  • 8.11. Index of relative clause cmavo

• 9. To Boston Via The Road Go I, With An Excursion Into The Land Of Modals

  • 9.1. Introductory
  • 9.2. Standard bridi form: cu
  • 9.3. Tagging places: FA
  • 9.4. Conversion: SE
  • 9.5. Modal places: FIhO, FEhU
  • 9.6. Modal tags: BAI
  • 9.7. Modal sentence connection: the causals
  • 9.8. Other modal connections
  • 9.9. Modal selbri
  • 9.10. Modal relative phrases; Comparison
  • 9.11. Mixed modal connection
  • 9.12. Modal conversion: JAI
  • 9.13. Modal negation
  • 9.14. Sticky modals
  • 9.15. Logical and non-logical connection of modals
  • 9.16. CV’V cmavo of selma’o BAI with irregular forms
  • 9.17. Complete table of BAI cmavo with rough English equivalents

• 10. Imaginary Journeys: The Lojban Space/Time Tense System

  • 10.1. Introductory
  • 10.2. Spatial tenses: FAhA and VA
  • 10.3. Compound spatial tenses
  • 10.4. Temporal tenses: PU and ZI
  • 10.5. Interval sizes: VEhA and ZEhA
  • 10.6. Vague intervals and non-specific tenses
  • 10.7. Dimensionality: VIhA
  • 10.8. Movement in space: MOhI
  • 10.9. Interval properties: TAhE and roi
  • 10.10. Event contours: ZAhO and re’u
  • 10.11. Space interval modifiers: FEhE
  • 10.12. Tenses as sumti tcita
  • 10.13. Sticky and multiple tenses: KI
  • 10.14. Story time
  • 10.15. Tenses in subordinate bridi
  • 10.16. Tense relations between sentences
  • 10.17. Tensed logical connectives
  • 10.18. Tense negation
  • 10.19. Actuality, potentiality, capability: CAhA
  • 10.20. Logical and non-logical connections between tenses
  • 10.21. Sub-events
  • 10.22. Conversion of sumti tcita: JAI
  • 10.23. Tenses versus modals
  • 10.24. Tense questions: cu’e
  • 10.25. Explicit magnitudes
  • 10.26. Finally (an exercise for the much-tried reader)
  • 10.27. Summary of tense selma’o
  • 10.28. List of spatial directions and direction-like relations

• 11. Events, Qualities, Quantities, And Other Vague Words: On Lojban Abstraction

  • 11.1. The syntax of abstraction
  • 11.2. Event abstraction
  • 11.3. Types of event abstractions
  • 11.4. Property abstractions
  • 11.5. Amount abstractions
  • 11.6. Truth-value abstraction: jei
  • 11.7. Predication/sentence abstraction
  • 11.8. Indirect questions
  • 11.9. Minor abstraction types
  • 11.10. Lojban sumti raising
  • 11.11. Event-type abstractors and event contour tenses
  • 11.12. Abstractor connection
  • 11.13. Table of abstractors

• 12. Dog House And White House: Determining lujvo Place Structures

  • 12.1. Why have lujvo?
  • 12.2. The meaning of tanru: a necessary detour
  • 12.3. The meaning of lujvo
  • 12.4. Selecting places
  • 12.5. Symmetrical and asymmetrical lujvo
  • 12.6. Dependent places
  • 12.7. Ordering lujvo places.
  • 12.8. lujvo with more than two parts.
  • 12.9. Eliding SE rafsi from seltau
  • 12.10. Eliding SE rafsi from tertau
  • 12.11. Eliding KE and KEhE rafsi from lujvo
  • 12.12. Abstract lujvo
  • 12.13. Implicit-abstraction lujvo
  • 12.14. Anomalous lujvo
  • 12.15. Comparatives and superlatives
  • 12.16. Notes on gismu place structures

• 13. Oooh! Arrgh! Ugh! Yecch! Attitudinal and Emotional Indicators

  • 13.1. What are attitudinal indicators?
  • 13.2. Pure emotion indicators
  • 13.3. Propositional attitude indicators
  • 13.4. Attitudes as scales
  • 13.5. The space of emotions
  • 13.6. Emotional categories
  • 13.7. Attitudinal modifiers
  • 13.8. Compound indicators
  • 13.9. The uses of indicators
  • 13.10. Attitude questions; empathy; attitude contours
  • 13.11. Evidentials
  • 13.12. Discursives
  • 13.13. Miscellaneous indicators
  • 13.14. Vocative scales
  • 13.15. A sample dialogue
  • 13.16. Tentative conclusion

• 14. If Wishes Were Horses: The Lojban Connective System

  • 14.1. Logical connection and truth tables
  • 14.2. The Four basic vowels
  • 14.3. The six types of logical connectives
  • 14.4. Logical connection of bridi
  • 14.5. Forethought bridi connection
  • 14.6. sumti connection
  • 14.7. More than two propositions
  • 14.8. Grouping of afterthought connectives
  • 14.9. Compound bridi
  • 14.10. Multiple compound bridi
  • 14.11. Termset logical connection
  • 14.12. Logical connection within tanru
  • 14.13. Truth questions and connective questions
  • 14.14. Non-logical connectives
  • 14.15. More about non-logical connectives
  • 14.16. Interval connectives and forethought non-logical connection
  • 14.17. Logical and non-logical connectives within mekso
  • 14.18. Tenses, modals, and logical connection
  • 14.19. Abstractor connection and connection within abstractions
  • 14.20. Constructs and appropriate connectives
  • 14.21. Truth functions and corresponding logical connectives
  • 14.22. Rules for making logical and non-logical connectives
  • 14.23. Locations of other tables

• 15. “No” Problems: On Lojban Negation

  • 15.1. Introductory
  • 15.2. bridi negation
  • 15.3. Scalar Negation
  • 15.4. selbri and tanru negation
  • 15.5. Expressing scales in selbri negation
  • 15.6. sumti negation
  • 15.7. Negation of minor grammatical constructs
  • 15.8. Truth questions
  • 15.9. Affirmations
  • 15.10. Metalinguistic negation forms
  • 15.11. Summary – Are All Possible Questions About Negation Now Answered?

• 16. “Who Did You Pass On The Road? Nobody”: Lojban And Logic

  • 16.1. What’s wrong with this picture?
  • 16.2. Existential claims, prenexes, and variables
  • 16.3. Universal claims
  • 16.4. Restricted claims: da poi
  • 16.5. Dropping the prenex
  • 16.6. Variables with generalized quantifiers
  • 16.7. Grouping of quantifiers
  • 16.8. The problem of “any”
  • 16.9. Negation boundaries
  • 16.10. bridi negation and logical connectives
  • 16.11. Using naku outside a prenex
  • 16.12. Logical Connectives and DeMorgan’s Law
  • 16.13. selbri variables
  • 16.14. A few notes on variables
  • 16.15. Conclusion

• 17. As Easy As A-B-C? The Lojban Letteral System And Its Uses

  • 17.1. What’s a letteral, anyway?
  • 17.2. A to Z in Lojban, plus one
  • 17.3. Upper and lower cases
  • 17.4. The universal bu
  • 17.5. Alien alphabets
  • 17.6. Accent marks and compound lerfu words
  • 17.7. Punctuation marks
  • 17.8. What about Chinese characters?
  • 17.9. lerfu words as pro-sumti
  • 17.10. References to lerfu
  • 17.11. Mathematical uses of lerfu strings
  • 17.12. Acronyms
  • 17.13. Computerized character codes
  • 17.14. List of all auxiliary lerfu-word cmavo
  • 17.15. Proposed lerfu words – introduction
  • 17.16. Proposed lerfu words for the Greek alphabet
  • 17.17. Proposed lerfu words for the Cyrillic alphabet
  • 17.18. Proposed lerfu words for the Hebrew alphabet
  • 17.19. Proposed lerfu words for some accent marks and multiple letters
  • 17.20. Proposed lerfu words for radio communication

• 18. lojbau mekso: Mathematical Expressions in Lojban

  • 18.1. Introductory
  • 18.2. Lojban numbers
  • 18.3. Signs and numerical punctuation
  • 18.4. Special numbers
  • 18.5. Simple infix expressions and equations
  • 18.6. Forethought operators (Polish notation, functions)
  • 18.7. Other useful selbri for mekso bridi
  • 18.8. Indefinite numbers
  • 18.9. Approximation and inexact numbers
  • 18.10. Non-decimal and compound bases
  • 18.11. Special mekso selbri
  • 18.12. Number questions
  • 18.13. Subscripts
  • 18.14. Infix operators revisited
  • 18.15. Vectors and matrices
  • 18.16. Reverse Polish notation
  • 18.17. Logical and non-logical connectives within mekso
  • 18.18. Using Lojban resources within mekso
  • 18.19. Other uses of mekso
  • 18.20. Explicit operator precedence
  • 18.21. Miscellany
  • 18.22. Four score and seven: a mekso problem
  • 18.23. mekso selma’o summary
  • 18.24. Complete table of VUhU cmavo, with operand structures
  • 18.25. Complete table of PA cmavo: digits, punctuation, and other numbers.
  • 18.26. Table of MOI cmavo, with associated rafsi and place structures

• 19. Putting It All Together: Notes on the Structure of Lojban Texts

  • 19.1. Introductory
  • 19.2. Sentences: I
  • 19.3. Paragraphs: NIhO
  • 19.4. Topic-comment sentences: ZOhU
  • 19.5. Questions and answers
  • 19.6. Subscripts: XI
  • 19.7. Utterance ordinals: MAI
  • 19.8. Attitude scope markers: FUhE/FUhO
  • 19.9. Quotations: LU, LIhU, LOhU, LEhU
  • 19.10. More on quotations: ZO, ZOI
  • 19.11. Contrastive emphasis: BAhE
  • 19.12. Parenthesis and metalinguistic commentary: TO, TOI, SEI
  • 19.13. Erasure: SI, SA, SU
  • 19.14. Hesitation: Y
  • 19.15. No more to say: FAhO
  • 19.16. List of cmavo interactions
  • 19.17. List of Elidable Terminators

• 20. A Catalogue of selma’o

  • 20.1. A Catalogue Of selma’o

• 21. Formal Grammars

  • 21.1. EBNF Grammar of Lojban

  • 21.2. EBNF Cross-Reference

  • Lojban Word Glossary

  • General Index

  • Lojban Words Index

  • Examples Index