Lojban

**Lojban** is a constructed language that some people speak. It is an unusual language because it is based on predicate logic, and because it is made to have no syntactic ambiguity. These qualities make many people call Lojban a "logical language."

People from all countries can learn and speak Lojban. A person who speaks Lojban is sometimes called a _lojbanist_.

Lojban was made between 1987 and 1997 by an organization called the "Logical Language Group". The rules (grammar) of Lojban are written in a book called _The Complete Lojban Language. _This book was published in 1997, and written by John Woldemar Cowen. Lojban grammar terms are ordered in a structure:
- **lojbo gerna** _Lojban grammar_
- ├ **jufra** _sentence, in view of etymology from Chinese 句 jù, Spanish frase, Russian фра́за_
- │└ **bridi** _predicate structure_
- │   ├ **selbri** _verb construction consisting of brivo_
- │   │└ **tanru** _consists of more than one brivo, derived from English metaphor, Chinese 隐喻 yǐnyù, Hindi रूपक rupak_
- │   │   ├ **seltau** _left word in a tanru_
- │   │   └ **tertau** _right word in a tanru_
- │   └ **terbri** _argument structure_
- │       └ **sumti** _argument, equalling subject/object_
- │           └ **gadri** _initiating article such as la, le, lo, derived from Chinese 冠词 guàncí, Arabic أداة adah, Spanish artículo_
- └ **valsi** _word, derived from Hindi वचन vachan, Russian слово, Chinese 词 sí_
-     ├ **cmavo** _structure word, from ‘cmalu valsi’ = small word_
-     │├ **selma'o** _cmavo class_
-     │└ **terma'o** (or **cmavo smuni**) _cmavo meaning_
-     ├ **brivo, brivla**
-     │├ **gismu** _5-letter root word, from Chinese 根基源 gēnjīyuán, Hindi मूल mul_
-     │├ **lujvo** _compound word made from ‘rafsi’_
-     ││├ **rafsi** _affix, suffix, prefix, derived also from Hindi प्रत्यय pratyay, Chinese 词缀 sízhuì_
-     ││├ **reljvo, cibjvo, vonjvo, ...** _lujvo consisting of 2, 3, 4, ... rafsi_
-     ││├ **jvotau** (or **veljvo**) _tanru or metaphor construct (without shortenings to rafsi) of lujvo_
-     ││├ **zevlyjvo** _lujvo formed from zi'evla via a morphological extension using -(')y(')- hyphens_
-     ││├ **nibysucyjvo** _implicit-abstraction lujvo_
-     ││├ **(sizy)jvomi'u** _(concept of) equivalent, alternative lujvo form(s) with equal meaning, from ‘(si'o) lujvo mintu’_
-     ││├ **jvova'i** _lujvo score, from ‘lujvo vamji’_
-     ││└ **xlajvo** _bad / poorly-made lujvo, from ‘xlali lujvo’_
-     │└ **fu'ivla** _loanword, from ‘fukpi valsi’ = copied word_
-     │   ├ **pavyfu'ivla** _in stage 1 the original word’s spelling is kept_
-     │   └ **zevla, zi'evla** _(zifre valsi = ‘free word’)_
-     │       └ **relfu'ivla, cibyfu'ivla, ...** _in higher stages foreign spellings are changed_
-     └ **cmevo, cmevla** _property word ending in a consonant, ‘cmene’ is a cmevo word(s) construction_
-         └ **jvocmevo** _lujvo-like cmevo_

Lojban is based on an earlier language called Loglan. Loglan was the first "logical language". It was created by a man named James Cooke Brown, who wanted to test a hypothesis called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says that languages affect and limit how their speakers think.

## Goals

As with Loglan, one of Lojban's goals is to test the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Lojban is meant to change how people think. This is because it is unlike any natural language, and because it forces its speakers to focus on the logic of what they say.

Another goal of Lojban is to be simple and easy to learn, so Lojban only has 1300 main words. Anyone can combine these "root words" to make more complex words.

If you speak Lojban correctly, it is unlikely for someone else to be confused by what you are saying. This is because one goal of Lojban was to eliminate syntactic ambiguity from language.

One of the problems with natural languages like English is that they have very much ambiguity. This means that not everything a person might say has one clear meaning in these languages.

Linguistic relationships are always very clear in Lojban, so such ambiguity cannot exist in the language.

## Examples

Here are some examples of words and sentences in Lojban:
|**Word**|**Meaning**|
| --- | --- |
|_coi_ (sounds like _shoy_)|Hello|
|_coi rodo_ (sounds like _shoy row-doe_)|Hello, everybody|
|_mi'e_ ... (sounds like _me-heh_)|My name is.. (see below)|
|_co'o_ (sounds like _show-hoe_)|Goodbye|
|_pe'u_ (sounds like _peh-who_)|Please|
|_ki'e_ (sounds like _key-heh_)|Thanks|
|_go'i_ (sounds like _go-hee_)|Yes (see below)|
|_nago'i_ (sounds like _nah-go-hee_)|No|
|_mi na jimpe_ (sounds like _me nah zheem-peh_)|I do not understand|
|_xu do se jbobau_ (sounds like _khoo doe seh zhboh-bow_, bow rhymes with now)|Do you speak Lojban?|

_mi'e_ is used when you are telling somebody your name. There is no country where everyone speaks Lojban, so nobody is born with a name in Lojban. But, some Lojbanists make up lojban names for themselves that they use. Because they know most other people do not speak lojban, they usually keep their real name as well, and only use their lojban name when speaking to other lojbanists. If someone is telling you their real name, they usually say _mi'e la'oi_ (sounds like _miheh lahoy_) followed by the name.

_go'i_ means "yes, I agree with you". Sometimes in English, the word 'yes' is used to mean other things. For example, you might say "Yes" (or "OK" or "uh-huh") to tell someone that you heard what they are saying. In Lojban you do not say _go'i_ for this; instead you say _je'e_ (sounds like _zhehheh_). This is part of the idea of lojban: to make words easier to understand by making sure that one word can only mean one thing.

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Lojban
- **image**: Lojban flag public domain.svg
- **imagesize**: 200px
- **creator**: Logical Language Group
- **created**: 1987
- **setting**: a logically engineered language for various usages
- **fam1**: constructed languages
- **fam2**: engineered languages
- **fam3**: logical languages
- **script**: Latin script, Latin and others
- **posteriori**: Loglan, Láadan
- **iso2**: jbo
- **iso3**: jbo