Lojban

  • Constructed language plan language Loglan

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Jbo

Jbo

The constructed language Lojban [ loʒban ] ( language code from ISO 639-2: jbo ) was developed in 1987 by the Logical Language Group. It is based on the artificial language also Loglan. During the development, particular emphasis was placed on creating a usable, most comprehensive and freely available language. The vocabulary of basic words is formed of word stems of the six most widely spoken languages ​​according to a certain algorithm. This root languages ​​are Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi, Russian, Spanish.

A specific feature of Lojban is that the meaningful words are not distinguished in verbs, nouns, etc.. The grammar is built strictly according to aspects of predicate logic. The sentence structure is flexible by many structural words. Unlike the Germans have in Lojban numerus (number) and tense (time ) are not explicitly specified, while gender ( grammatical gender ) does not exist. In the event that the speaker attaches importance to this information, he can speak in detail with structure words.

  • 4.1 Changes in word order and argument structure
  • 4.2 Changes to the part of speech
  • 4.3 set of word strings
  • 5.1 Structure of word classes
  • 5.2 questions
  • 5.3 negation
  • 5.4 tense, aspect and location
  • 5.5 Prepositions
  • 5.6 abstractions
  • 5.7 Text structure

Formation

Lojban is a further development of the language Loglan, which was developed in 1955 by James Cooke Brown, to check the impact of language on the thoughts of the speaker. According to this theory ( Sapir -Whorf hypothesis) determines a language, thought what thoughts and what can not be thought. Loglan should allow the speakers with a logical and flexible grammar to take thoughts that are not formulated in natural languages.

The LLG (Logical Language Group ) ( jbo: la lojbangirz ) - a group from Washington DC - decided in 1987 with the " Loglan Institute " by James Cooke Brown to break down and start a separate project. This decision they took, because Brown refused for a long time to publish a preliminary version of his language, which they also could not try.

To avoid legal problems, the LLG constructed the Lojban vocabulary from scratch. Nevertheless, it came to the process in which Brown insisted on his copyright, but which ran out in favor of LLG. The grammar was used exactly to a large extent, but after that greatly expanded. The group worked for several years at the language until 1997, the complete grammar in the book "The Complete Lojban Grammar " by John Cowan has been published. Today, there are, according to the information on lojban.org 1,500 interested, more than 100 writers who regularly publish online texts, a few dozen who can speak more or less well, and a handful of people who really fluent in Lojban.

Writing and phonology

Lojban has a strictly phonological writing. This means that exactly one phoneme of the language can assign each letter. Specifically, an adapted Latin alphabet is used. Then there are the letters:

| A | b | c | d | e | f | g | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | x | y | z |. | '|

, and not used, but the letters are added. " > ( point) and <' > ( apostrophe).

The letters are all written as lowercase letters. Capital letters occur only as an indicator of a deviant emphasis of a word. Normally, the words to be emphasized on the penultimate syllable, but this may be undesirable, for example, proper names. So you would, for example "Paris" write on Lojban "Paris", otherwise the emphasis on the "pa" would fall.

The vowels can be long / short or stretched pronounced / unstrung, without changing the meaning. The consonants

can all as the most common realization in German are pronounced. The as / ʃ / ( school) as / ʒ / (journal ), like / v / (World), as / x / (roof), as / ə / (e - schwa as in " had " ) , such as / z / ( saws ), as / s / (ice ), < '> is pronounced as / h / ( dog), and <. > corresponds to a pause, or the glottal stop / ʔ / ( can be understood as the difference between " travel " / fɛʀɑɪzən / and " freeze " / fɛʀʔɑɪzən / ).

The letters . ' > <' > Are specific and include the morphological rules either as consonants or as vowels. In addition, where < '> never the word beginning or end.

In addition to these letters found in foreign words and proper names, words still ',' (comma) use to answer the standard rules to separate syllables from each other. Otherwise, the Lojban alphabet contains no punctuation or special characters. However, it is such symbols also allows for clarity in the text of this rider.

Morphology

Lojban has very strict morphological rules to ensure that every word should be categorized solely by its structure into one of three groups.

For information, the LLG attaches great importance to ensuring that the parts of speech are always referred to by their names in Lojban, so that they can be used terminology and avoid misunderstandings. Nevertheless, it is intentionally a German euphemism for the Lojban words used in this article in order to facilitate understanding. For more detailed information, particularly when discussing with others about the language, the original names of the LLG should always be used.

Set of words

Set of words ( jbo: brivla ) include all meaning -bearing words. They always end in a vowel and a consonant cluster must contain within the first five letters. Set of words can be further divided into three groups:

Examples:

  • Gismu, lujvo and cmavo are basic words
  • Fu'ivla is a composite
  • Spageti is a foreign word

Structure words

Structure words ( jbo: cmavo ) satisfy certain syntactic tasks that are not covered by the set of the words ( cf. function words ). Lojban has compared to a lot of German words such as Lojban for one without flexion manages and on the other, words for functions exist that are expressed in English by a change in the tone of voice or written by punctuation. In addition, more words are needed to make the syntax clear. Structure words always have the current version of the forms: | V | VV | V'V | CV | CVV | CV'V |. ..

Proper names words

Proper names words ( jbo: cmevla ) always end in a consonant, and all the words that end in a consonant, are proper names. If words from other languages ​​should be taken as a proper name words into Lojban, is normally tries to imitate the pronunciation and not the spelling. If necessary, a consonant ( traditionally, but not necessarily, a ) are added at the end of the word.

Examples:

Stefan → Ctefan. Anna →. Anas. Basic Syntax

Lojban is based on predicate logic. This means, among other things, that each set must allow Lojban in a clear logical statement. However, this can only succeed if the syntax is clear from the outset, so the function of each morpheme can be uniquely determined. It is in Lojban of course still possible to talk nonsense or to unclear or ambiguous to express, even if the text is grammatically, as the much-cited " not misleading " Lojban does not work on semantic and certainly not on a pragmatic level.

Lojban avails itself of some funds that are unusual compared to natural languages. Each of the approximately 1600 base words has a clear predefined relation to the words that surround it. This is designed around a nearby possible semantic concept, which means that no in most cases closer to determining prepositions, affixes, inflections, or other morphological elements. That is, each base word can be called " verb" ( jbo: selbri ) are used to a predicate set ( jbo: Bridi ) express. Used at one to five points: - instead of " subjects" and " objects " - arguments ( sumti jbo ) In terms of a logical language.

Example:

The basic word klama ( en: go, come, move around ) requires a five -place relation. The five possible arguments (generally by the characters x1 to x5 expressed ) have the following meaning:

  • X1 is = moving object
  • X2 = destination
  • X3 = origin
  • X4 = place where the motion passes
  • X5 = transport

In the sentence:

  • Mi ( pronoun (pro- sumti ) "I " ) is the object that moves,
  • La Paris ( "Paris" ) to the destination ( the capitalization in the last syllable is for the sake of emphasis )
  • La xamburk ( "Hamburg" ) is the starting point of the journey,
  • La cles ( " Cologne " ) is a place that is traveled over the and
  • Lo Karce ( " by car " ) is the means of transport that is used for this.

In German the sentence would therefore have to be translated:

I'm going to Paris from Hamburg via Cologne by car. The structure of words la and lo are so-called " descriptors " that characterize the following words closer. la stands before proper names. lo indicates that the speaker is talking about one or more actual cars. ( Lojban does not distinguish between singular and plural. ) Le, however, refers to certain things or especially a certain thing, which denotes the speaker as a car that is not necessarily also a.

Other examples are:

( 2) la. Alis. viska la bob.      [Common Name: ] Alice see [Common Name: ] Bob      Alice sees Bob. The basic word viska requires a three -place relation, in indicating the x1, who sees something, and that x2 what is seen. The third digit ( the circumstances under which something is seen ) is omitted because it does not matter in this case. Dunda ( = "give" ) - as well as in German - three digits.

( 3) Dunda mi ti la bob.      [ Pronoun: I ] give [ pronoun: that - here] Bob      I admit that here ( at ) Bob. The word order is free in so far as that the verb may be arbitrarily far to the rear without changing the meaning. ( The verb must not be placed at the beginning of a sentence without further changes. Cf. example ( 6) ).

( 4) la. Alis. la bob. viska      [Common Name: ] Alice [Common Name: ] Bob see      Alice sees Bob. patfu (father to be) is 2 digits, with the x1 indicate who is the father, and x2, to whose father it is. In Lojban words are all structures that are formed in German with the Kopulaverb "his", illustrated with a simple sentence word.

( 5) we th patfu      I you father be -      I am your father. (6 ) ta xamgu      be good - the - there      This is good ( for someone on a specific standard ). xamgu is three digits with the structure " x1 is good for x2 by standard x3". However, it is possible to omit points from behind when they are unimportant or obvious from the context. However, the points remain implicit, a really absolute statement such as " That's good. ", Therefore is in Lojban without additional effort impossible.

If the predicate at the beginning of a sentence, applies the x1 as omitted:

( 7) Karce      Car be -      This is a car.      or even: "Caution, car! " Change of word order and argument structure

It is possible also basically any different from the rules set up now set position. However, this purpose must be specified with the help of additional structural words, as the sentence is to be understood. This is done with the help of fa, fe, fi, fo, fu, for " now follows the x1 ", " x2 now follows the " stand etc.. This is particularly useful to skip places that are actually in the middle.

( 8) klama fi la xamburk. fa mi      to - go [ x3: =] Hamburg [x1: = ] I      From Hamburg I come. Alternatively, one can intervene in the structure of a sentence and word swap functions of positions. This is done with the structure of words se ( x1 with x2 interchanged), te (x1 with x3), ve (x1 x4 ), xe (x1 to x5). So statements are possible, the most likely correspond to the passive in English. Can be formed from the set klama word thus following different statements.

(9 ) x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 klama      Walker goes to destination of ... over with      x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 se klama      Target is gone from walkers from ... over with      x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 te klama      of is assumed by destination of hikers on with      x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 ve klama      over is gone objective of ... from walkers with      x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 xe klama      with is gone objective of ... over by walkers By interchanging so the structure of the relationship is changed. The meaning changed only insofar as another object on the exposed x1 position is.

It is possible to consecutively perform a plurality of permutations to exchange other locations. setese exchanged about x2 and x3. This possibility is, however, made ​​little use.

Change the part of speech

A key feature of Lojban is that morphologically can not be distinguished between types of words such as noun, verb or adjective. This was deliberately set up to use no unnecessary Wortumbildungen as derived nouns and the like must. Nevertheless, set of words ( above all the basic words) can be interpreted depending on the position in the sentence as different parts of speech.

Thus, in example (1) is the basic word Karce used as an argument ( by car). If, however, this word in the sentence

(10 ) ti Karce le prenu       the - car - here his person       This is a car designed to carry persons used, acts the same word as a verb, because Karce can be used as up to three -place relation with the structure "x1 is a car ( motorized wheeled vehicle ) for the transport of x2 with x3 drive " can be used.

In the translation into German of the verb - character is of course lost (there is nothing " hot rod " ), but here is the grammatical function of the base word Karce the same as typical action verbs like " go " ( klama ) or "read" ( tcidu ). Compare the following examples:

(11 ) le cribe cu klama       Bear [ verb ] go       A bear walks. (12 ) le klama cu cribe       Walker [ verb: ] bear be -       The Walking is a bear. The structure of each word cu prevents that the set of words cribe and klama collide. Without cu a sentence word chain would occur within the effective range of the descriptor le.

The function words se, te, etc., can also be attached to set of words when they are used as an argument. One can form viska From the word for example lo se viska, then what about means what is seen:

(13 ) lo se cu viska melbi       Seen [ verb ] to be beautiful -       What is seen is beautiful. Set of word strings

When set word chains ( jbo: tanru ) several sentence words are strung together. This is in Lojban the common method to express that a particular word modifies the meaning of another. This is achieved in the German adjectives and adverbs, eg with or partially by compounds. Since Lojban no syntactic distinction is made at the meaningful words, such progressions can be used in all these places.

(14) gerku zdani      Dog - his house be -      This is a " dog house ". The importance of such chains is not clearly defined, but must be determined from the context. It could, for example, a question here of a dog kennel, a house that smells of dog, or a residential building in which the keeping of dogs is allowed.

Set of word strings can also be made according to noun phrases:

(15 ) lo gerku zdani cu xekri      Dog house [ verb ] be black -      The " dog house " is black. Cu is a separator that prevents the expression lo gerku zdani xekri and flow into each other. In other words, xekri is marked as a verb. Without this separator you would lo gerku zdani xekri " Dog House Black" interpreted as a kind.

This means that if multiple set of words follow each other, they are combined and interpreted from left to right (s: left grouping rule ).

(16 ) barda gerku zdani      (dog be - be big ) house be -      This is a house for large dogs. Note that although it is clear which word to which is related the importance but again can only be inferred from the context. The easiest way to force another grouping, the structure word bo, which summarizes the two next the words:

(17 ) barda gerku bo zdani      large - be (dog - house be be bo )      That's a big dog house. In addition, it is explicitly to bracket such as specific words possible structure specific parts or incorporate logical connectives in the series so that progressions can be very complex. A frequently cited example is that of the "pretty little girl school" - a term which can be very misleading in English. In German you would have to specify it automatically. ( " Beautiful little girl school ", " Beautiful school for little girls ", " school of small beautiful girl ", etc. ) In Lojban can choose from the set of word chain melbi cnino nixli ckule (nice - small - girl - school) solely via the Insert bo or similar structure words 40 different statements are made ( of which, of course, give the most no semantic meaning ).

Further syntax

Structure of speech

To make the syntax clearly interpretable, is uniquely defined for each word structure in which structures it may occur. Structure of words that behave syntactically equal, are in classes ( jbo: selma'o ) summarized.

Each class is named after one of their members, the name is conventionally written in uppercase. is regarded as the capital letter of < '>. In the Basic syntax, the following classes already occurred in parts:

  • Bo ( bo) - Gruppierungspräzedenzmarker
  • CU ( cu ) - Prädikatsseparator
  • Koha (mi, do, ti) - Pronouns
  • La ( La) - Namensdeskriptoren
  • LE (le, lo ) - Satzwortdeskriptoren
  • SE ( se, te, ve, xe) - Set word inversions

Ask

Truth questions are formed in Lojban with xu ( from class. UI). If xu at the beginning of a sentence, this is a neutral question about the whole sentence.

(18 ) xu la berlin. Dotco       [ it is true ] Berlin German his -       Is Berlin German? If xu further back, it is specifically asked about the previous sentence. This is often accomplished in German with a particularly strong emphasis.

( 19) la berlin. Dotco xu       Berlin German - be [ it is true ]       Berlin is German? Other questions are formed by special question words, take the place of the inquired part of the sentence. This means that the word order is not changed. Question words exist for most of the structural parts of speech whose members also have a semantic meaning. The simplest examples are ma ( from Koha, the class of pronouns ) and mo ( from Goha, the class of Proverben ):

(20 ) ma ma viska       [x1: Question ] see [ x2: Question]       Who sees what? (21 ) la berlin. mo       Berlin [ statement: Question]       Berlin is / does what? negation

The easiest way to negate a whole sentence, is to put before the verb na ( from NA). The most accurate translation is: "It is not the case that ... " well read "not " corresponds to the logical and therefore does not make any statements about a possible correction.

(22 ) le ninmu na tavla       Woman [ wrong: ] speak       The woman does not speak. ( She is silent ) Alternatively, it is possible to deny certain parts of sentences " scalar " structure words with the class close, so to imply an alternative solution. The most important example is NA'E itself:

(23 ) le ninmu cu NA'E tavla       Woman [ verb ] speak [ unlike ]       The woman does not speak. ( She writes, for example ) NA'E can be used within a set of word strings, so the cu can not be omitted.

Tense, aspect and location

Lojban has a rich vocabulary to represent tense and aspect of an action. Unlike the Germans a verb, however, need not be marked on these points; the corresponding structure words are for illustration only. The translations of the examples in this article are therefore only one possible interpretation. It might as well be in the appropriate places, for example past.

In addition to the three above-mentioned properties, Lojban also contains structure words to specify the spatial distance between the current situation of the speaker and the location of the action. The literature on Lojban is in this context of a " spiritual journey " the speech: the speaker leads the listener through time, space and reality to the place of action.

All of these words structure for temporal and spatial distance, type of action, etc. behave syntactically equal, but ordered for traditional reasons in different classes. Furthermore it is simply of "time markers " the speech. The default location is right in front of the verb

The following example is pu ( PU ) of the markers of the past, to ( from TO ), the marker for a long time and vi ( from VI ) the marking for a short physical distance (in each case, in the opinion of the speaker ).

( 24) le nanmu puzu vi cusku noda       Man [ past - away ] [ close ] say [ anything ]       A long time ago not far from here the man said nothing. As with na no cu is necessary in this time marks.

(25 ) le nanmu pu'i reroi co'i vi klama       Man [ proved: ] [ two times ] [ done: ] [ close ] to - go       The man is proven to successfully able to move twice in the vicinity. Note that the courts of klama are unoccupied except for the x1. While the whole movement takes place in the vicinity, but objective starting point, waypoints, and locomotion are unknown.

It is also possible time markers to use with a set of word that is made by a descriptor to the noun.

(26 ) le be'avu cusku       [ north - far ] Speaker       the far north of here speaking Furthermore, time markers can also be linked by logical connectives.

Prepositions

Lojban generally requires fewer prepositions than the German, since the space structure of many sentence words prepositions unnecessary. Prepositions are words used only when additional information is to be found in the sentence.

A typical application is information about time and place. In this case, simply the time markers are prepositional needed. The spiritual journey is then made ​​according to the specified location and time.

(27 ) vi la xamburk. pu li 1995       [ Close: ] Hamburg [ time - before ] [number: ] 1995       near Hamburg before 1995 li ( from LI) is the descriptor for pure numbers.

Other prepositions are derived from the set of words. Using the word fi'o structure can be extracted from each set word a preposition. Ciska has the structure " writes x1 x2 x3 with writing implement x4 on ", so no room for color. fi'o Skari means " in color ".

(28 ) mi Ciska because fi'o Skari le blanu       I write [ indefinite pronoun ] [ preposition: ] in color Blue       I write something in blue. To avoid many elongated fi'o constructions, there is a set fixed prepositions are derived from especially important sentence words. construction is the preposition for bangu ( "x1 is the language used by x2 to x3 express ").

(29 ) mi Ciska bau la lojban.       I write [ in language ] Lojban       I am writing to Lojban. So Lojbanische prepositions have a much narrower meaning than German prepositions such as "on " or "in".

Abstractions

When abstractions are special constructions that replace in Lojban abstract nouns and subordinate clauses. An abstraction always consists of an abstractor ( a word structure of the class NU ) and a complete set. nu itself means " is the event of ... ".

(30 ) ti nu prami le mamta       the - here [Event: ] dear mother       This is a mother's love. Literally, the example as: "This is love an event of the mother. " Abstractions behave exactly like a simple set of words. In particular they can be used, for example, descriptors:

(31 ) lenu la brutus. . e la longinus. Catra la kaisar.       [Event: ] Brutus and Longinus kill Caesar       the assassination of Caesar by Brutus and Longinus In addition to nu there are still a number of other abstractors, such as ka ( " the property ...") or du'u. du'u means " the statement ... " and corresponds most closely to the German " that".

(32 ) mi djuno ledu'u la kaisar. se Catra       I know [ statement ] Caesar [x1: x2] kill       I know that Caesar was killed. text structure

Since Lojban aims to keep the spoken and written text as similar as possible, the vocabulary also contains structural words that come closest to German punctuation.. i ( from I) separates two sentences from each other. A. Text i am beginning or end, although grammatically incorrect, but also not necessary. It must otherwise stand between each set. Find a speaker change in a conversation instead, the new speaker can his speech. I initiate, but this must not be done.

Instead. I can also ni'o and no'i be used ( from HiLo ). Both words correspond to about a paragraph, which indicates ni'o a new topic and no'i the resumption of a theme. Larger cuts can be characterized by repetition of ni'o or no'i (eg ni'oni'o ).

. y. ( from Y ) indicates a hesitation of the speaker and corresponds to the German " Uh " or "Um ". The word fa'o ( from FAhO ) indicates that no more text follows. It is to be noted however that fa'o is not intended for everyday linguistic communication, but serves to signal the end of a command computers.

Use

Loglan, the precursor of Lojban was designed to examine the Sapir -Whorf hypothesis. This idea, however, came more and more into the background with increasing criticism of the hypothesis. Nevertheless, the language forms an interesting area of ​​research for linguistics.

The IRC is chatting in and Lojbanic and there are some translations of various texts on the Internet (eg on the website of the LLG ). The podcasts " jbocradi " on and on Lojban be put online since September 2005 at irregular intervals.

Because of their unmistakable grammar it could be used in the judiciary or similar areas where an exact expression is crucial. Hartmut Pilch it is already a part in documentation pages of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. Lojban could serve as an intermediate language, and so reduce construction costs for machine translators.

Speech sample

To get an idea how a text looks on Lojban, followed by a quote from the translation of the famous speech "I Have a Dream" (English: " I have a dream " ) of Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963 on Lojban:

Remna ro cu jikydunli co'a lenu ri se zbasu li'u

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