Lexical Order

Alphabetical order is ASCII order
ASCII table

Dvorak Keyboard

('), (,), and (.) occur in order on the Dvorak keyboard

Dvorak keyboard

QWERTY keyboard

Phonology - Vowels

Vowel	Sound
a	father
e	pet
i	eat
o	goat
u	moon
y	gun

Note: The English words given represent their sounds as pronounced in US English.

Diphthongs

		palatal on-glides		labial on-glides
Vowel	Sound	Vowel	Sound	Vowel	Sound	Vowel	Sound
ai	pie	ia	yarn	ua	wobble	iy	young
ei	pay	ie	yes	ue	wet	uy	one
oi	boy	ii	Ye	ui	weed
au	how	io	yoke	uo	woke
		iu	you	uu	woo

Note: The English words given represent their sounds as pronounced in US English.

English Consonants

Consonant	Sound	Consonant	Sound
b	boy	p	pop
d	dog	s	suck
f	fog	t	tick tock
g	golf (NOT judge!)	v	vomit
k	kick	z	zoo

Note: The English words given represent their sounds as pronounced in US English.

Non-English Consonants

Consonant	Sound	Consonant	Sound
c	shell, shore	.	pause - silence, no sound
x	Bach, Loch, Jose (k with "scrape")	'	English "h" ("bu'i" is pronounced "boohee")
j	azure, leisure, measure, pleasure, vision, illusion	,	N/A - syllable separator, not pronounced
tc	choose (English "ch")	r	any rhotic sound
dj	judge (English "j")

Morphology

Two basic kinds of words:

• gismu - root words - CVCCV or CCVCV
  1342 gismu
  Examples: nanmu (CVCCV), snuji (CCVCV)
• cmavo - structure words - V VV V'V CV CVV CV'V
  a few hundred cmavo
  Examples: .e (V), .ui (VV), je (CV), ju'o (CV'V)
• lujvo, cmene, and fu'ivla - more complicated letter patterns

festival

• festival - general-purpose multi-lingual speech synthesis system from University of Edinburgh Centre for Speech Technology Research
• C++ API
• built-in SIOD Scheme interpreter
• my homemade festvox (penultimate stress, missing "x" phoneme)
• a festvox by Arnt Johansen ("x" phoneme, missing penultimate stress)
  (README, WAV files )

Synthesis Examples

• using my festvox:

  $ festival
  (voice_kal_diphone_jbo_us1)
  (SayText "i semo le lojbo")
  

• using the LLG festvox:

  $ festival
  (load "/wherever/ljb_diphone/festvox/lojban_diphone.scm")
  (voice_lojban_diphone)
  (SayText "i semo le lojbo")
  

"Let There Be Light"

Lojban translation of Genesis 1:1-5.

ni'oni'o
ca lemu'e krasi ku finti fa la cevni le tsani .e le terdi
.i le terdi cu na'e seltarmi je kunti
.ijebo manku vi ga'u le condi
.ije le pruxi be la cevni cu fulta ga'u loi djacu
.i bacru fa la cevni lu .e'o gusni li'u
.ijebo gusni
.i zgana fa la cevni le gusni fi'o se jinvi loza'i xamgu
.i fedri'a fa la cevni fo le gusni ku ce le manku (ku)
.i te cmene fa la cevni le gusni zo dinri
 gi'e te cmene le manku zo nicte
.i vanci .i cerni .i pamei djedi

Synthesized Vocabulary Tracks

• festival can be used to synthesize vocabulary training tracks
• using scripts which I wrote
• some example MP3s
• these are prototypes ONLY - not yet ready for production

Lojban Grammar - selbri

selbri are like cup holders

sumti

sumti are like cups

bridi

bridi (phrases) establish a relationship

bridi

selbri + sumti = bridi

+ =

some selbri and sumti

gismu gloss bajra to run tavla to talk viska to see citka to eat plise to be an apple crino to be green cinse to be sexual nanmu to be a man ninmu to be a woman

sumti gloss mi me/we do you/y'all ti this/these ta that/those (near) tu that/those (yonder) da something zo'e something unspecified/obvious

simple bridi

• ti plise
  This/these is/are apple(s).
• mi tavla do
  I talk to you.
• mi cinse
  I am sexy.

descriptions

• description = [optional number] + gadri + selbri
• numbers:

  0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	many	last/all
  no	pa	re	ci	vo	mu	xa	ze	bi	so	dau	fei	gai	jau	rei	vai	so'o	ro

• gadri (like English articles):

  gadri	Meaning	English analogue
  lo	that which really is (veridical)	a
  le	that which I describe as (non-veridical)	the
  (others)	I'm not gonna tell you!

Description Examples

Description	Meaning
lo nanmu	one or more men
le plise	the (one or more) apples
ro le plise	all of the (one or more) apples
ci lo bajra	three runners
papa le ninmu	eleven of the women
so'o lo ninmu	many women

tanru = "binary metaphor"

• tanru = ( selbri + selbri ) + ...
• read "type-of" or "kind-of"
• semantically ambiguous!
• left-associative (can be overriden with cmavo)
• Examples:

  Description	Meaning
  lo cinse nanmu	a sexy man/men
  lo crino plise	a green apple/s
  lo crino plise nanmu	a green apple man/men (maybe a man eating a green apple)

bridi with descriptions and tanru

• le nanmu cu nelci le plise
  The man likes the apple.
• ci lo plise cu crino
  Three apples are green.
• ro lo ninmu na cinse
  Not all women are sexy.
• mi djuno roda
  I know everything.
  (roda is a kind of sumti-based description)
• le cinse bajra cu tavla re lo nanmu
  The sexy runner talks to two men.

Attitudinals

Lojban has cmavo to express emotion/attitude.

Attitudinal Meaning .ui happiness .u'i amusement .uu pitty/sympathy .u'u repentance .ei obligation .ue surprise

Suffix Meaning cu'i neutral attitude ru'e weak attitude sai strong attitude cai extreme attitude nai opposite attitude

Suffix Meaning re'e spiritual ro'a social ro'e mental ro'i emotional ro'o physical ro'u sexual

Example Attitudinals: .uisai = very happy, .uinai = unhappy, .uinairo'o = physical unhappiness, .eire'e = spiritual obligation

Example Bridi: .ui mi citka re lo plise = [Happiness!] I eat two apples.

Machine Grammar

• Lojban grammar defined by YACC grammar [version 233] (EBNF translation [version 233])
• some pre-/post-processing
• proven to parse unambiguously
• official LLG parser

• $ echo le ninmu cu viska le plise | ./node
  2;5;33moi ke lojbo genturfa'i
  Copyright 1991,1992,1993 The Logical Languages Group, Inc.  All Rights Reserved
  ({le ninmu KU} cu {viska <[le plise KU] VAU>})
  Space used: 5600 bytes for tokens, 100 bytes for strings
  Time used: 0 seconds