Getting started with Lojban (alpha)

Description sumti

Okay, so now we know how to use prenu as a selbri, and this lets us express sentences such as "I am a person" (mi prenu). But how can we say "I am talking to a person"? For that, we would need prenu to act as a sumti.

This is achieved by using the word lo, as in the following examples.

Sentence	Possible translation
mi tavla lo prenu	I am talking to a person.
mi dunda lo mlatu do	I give the cat to you.
mi tavla lo dunda	I am talking to the donor.

You simply place a selbri after lo, and it takes anything that can fill the x1 of that selbri and turns it into a sumti. So while prenu means "is a person", lo prenu means "someone who is a person", or simply a person / the person. Similarly, lo mlatu means "something which is a cat", or simply a cat / the cat. And lo dunda means "someone who donates/is donating", or a donor / the donor.

How would you say something like "The house is yellow"? It would not be lo zdani pelxu. For reasons we'll see later, this does not contain a main selbri. It is just a single sumti containing both words zdani pelxu.

In order to separate the selbri from any preceding sumti, the cmavo cu is used. You can think of it as starting the selbri, the word immediately after it is always the selbri of a sentence.

If there is a pro-sumti immediately before the selbri, cu is not necessary.

cu separates selbri from preceding sumti.

Sentence	Possible translation
lo zdani cu pelxu	The house is yellow.
lo ctuca lo mlatu cu nelci	The teacher likes the cat.
mi (cu) prenu	I am a person. (cu is not required here)

It is now time for you to attempt a few more translations. You will need the following definitions:

ctuca x₁ teaches audience x₂ ideas/methods/lore x₃ (du'u) about subject(s) x₄ by method x₅ (event).

nelci x₁ is fond of/likes/has a taste for x₂ (object/state).

gerku x₁ is a dog/canine/[bitch] of species/breed x₂.

melbi x₁ is beautiful/pleasant to x₂ in aspect x₃ (ka) by aesthetic standard x₄.

First, translate the following sentences from Lojban into English:

Sentence	Possible translation
lo gerku cu melbi	The dog is beautiful.
lo ctuca cu nelci lo mlatu	The teacher likes cats.
mi dunda lo pelxu	I donated something yellow.

Now, translate the following sentences from English into Lojban:

Sentence	Possible translation
You are teaching the dog.	do ctuca lo gerku
The cat is beautiful.	lo mlatu cu melbi
I like the teacher.	mi nelci lo ctuca

Skipping places

There are several ways to play around with the order of the sumti inside the bridi. The easiest one is by using the words fa, fe, fi, fo and fu.

fa Tags the following sumti as filling x₁.

fe Tags the following sumti as filling x₂.

fi Tags the following sumti as filling x₃.

fo Tags the following sumti as filling x₄.

fu Tags the following sumti as filling x₅.

Notice that the vowels are the five vowels in the Lojban alphabet in order. Using one of these words marks that the next sumti will fill the x₁, x₂, x₃, x₄ and x₅ respectively. The next sumti after that will be presumed to fill a slot one greater than the previous.

To use an example: dunda fa do ti do – Giving by you of this thing to you. fa marks the x1, the giver, which is "you". ti is the thing being given, the x₂, which is "this". Sumti counting then continues, meaning that the last sumti fills x₃, the object receiving.

Sentence	Equivalent sentence	Possible translation
fe mi zdani	zdani mi	Something is a home to me.
mi tavla fi do	mi tavla zo'e do	I was talking about you.
mi fi do tavla	mi tavla zo'e do	I was talking about you.

Reordering sumti

There is another mechanism for reordering sumti, which is also very useful for making description-like sumti (the kind of sumti with lo). Consider the sentence "I ate the gift", which might be appropriate if that gift is an apple.

citka x₁ eats/ingests/consumes (transitive verb) x₂.

To translate this, it would seem natural to look up a selbri meaning "gift" before continuing. However, if one looks carefully at the definition of dunda, "x₁ gives x₂ to x₃", one realizes that the x₂ of dunda is something given – a gift.

So, to express that sentence, we can't say mi citka lo dunda, because lo dunda would be the x₁ of dunda, which is the donor of the gift. Cannibalism aside, we don't want to say that. What we want is a way to extract the x₂ of a selbri.

This is one example where it is useful to use the word se. What se does is to modify a selbri such that the x₁ and x₂ of that selbri trade places. The construct se + selbri is considered one selbri on its own.

dunda x₁ gives x₂ to x₃ (without payment).

se dunda x₂ gives x₁ to x₃ (without payment).

se dunda x₁ is given from x₂ to x₃ (without payment).

Let's try with ordinary sentences:

Often, but not always, bridi with se-constructs are translated to sentences in the passive voice, since the x₁ is often the object performing the action.

se has its own family of words. Each of them swap a different place with the x₁.

se	swap x1 and x2
te	swap x1 and x3
ve	swap x1 and x4
xe	swap x1 and x5

Note that s, t, v, and x are consecutive consonants in the Lojban alphabet.

Exercises

Translate the following sentences from Lojban into English:

Sentence	Possible translation
lo se dunda cu melbi	The gift is beautiful.
mi nelci lo xe ctuca	I like the teaching method.
lo gerku cu pendo	The dog is friendly.

Now, translate the following sentences from English into Lojban:

Sentence	Possible translation
Cats are liked.	lo mlatu cu se nelci (= nelci lo mlatu)
I find the dog beautiful.	mi se melbi lo gerku
I taught about dog species.	mi ctuca fo lo se gerku

Practice

As usual, before proceeding to the next lesson, get some practice with interactive exercises – look for the "Practice" button nearby!

Beware that exercises loop indefinitely, so feel free to stop once you feel you've had enough. And be sure to revisit exercises on different days, to benefit from the spacing effect.