Answers to exercises

1. .i mi ba pu'o fekpre

2. .i mi ca ba'o tcidu le cukta

3. .i la djiotis. ca ca'o klama le gusta

4. .i la ranjit. pu ca'o citka loi ri/vo'a cidjrkari

5. .i la suzyn. pu pu'o kansa mi'a gi'e ku'i bilga lenu stali le barja

6. .i mi pu ba'o klama le spita pu lenu do troci lenu do tavla mi

To explain the peculiar Lojbanisations of place names below, we have helpfully supplied IPA transcriptions in brackets afterwards.

1. Moscow (St. Petersburg [sanktˈpɛtɛrspurg], Moscow [məsˈkfa])

2. Munich (Munich [ˈmynçɛn], Cologne [ˈkœln])

3. Florence (Florence [fiˈrentse], Venice [veˈnetsia])

4. Between New Orleans and Cheyenne (Cheyenne [ʃĉˈjɛn], New Orleans [ˈnɑlɪnz]. OK, we aren't necessarily serious about the last one.)

5. Canton/Guangzhou (Shanghai [ʂaŋxai], Canton/Guangzhou [kuaŋtʂow])

6. The bar ([le ˈbarʒa]). Of course.

1. 1. be'e ("Will Jyoti receive my message?", although ju'i could also be used, as someone is trying to draw Jyoti's attention.)

   2. re'inai (Jyoti is not ready to receive any messages.)

2. 1. fi'i (the English is a classic formula for offering hospitality; it may not always be literally meant!)

   2. je'e (the simplest response is simply to acknowledge what has been said to you; "Much obliged!" is doing pretty much the same job as "You're welcome!" You could respond with vi'o "That's exactly what I'll do!"; but vi'o is a response to an explicit request, and fi'i isn't really a request. It would also make sense to respond with ki'e.)

3. 1. mu'o ("Please respond", which is pretty much the same thing as "It's now your turn to speak.")

   2. ke'o (unless you're sneakily trying to say "No", which would be more like vi'onai "I refuse to comply with your request.")

4. 1. pe'u (because the primary thing you're doing is making a request; but "Excuse me" is also initiating an exchange the other person wasn't expecting, so you could also use ju'i, ta'a, be'e, or even coi.)

   2. fi'i, because you're offering a service, although vi'o is just as good, because you're carrying out a request.

1. bangrkokni

2. cidjrpitsa (Remember, fu'ivla are done by pronunciation, not by spelling.)

3. cmacrderivativi (Or, if you know about Interlingue and ablatives, cmacrderivativo. But that's a long story...)

4. zgikrnadadjio or zgikrxadadjio, depending on what your favourite consonant is.

5. bilmrsaikopati, if you're borrowing the word from English; bilmrpsikopati or bilmrpsikopatia, if you want something closer to Greek (and thus presumably more recognisable to at least some non-English speakers.)

6. cidrndeuteriumu (or cidrndeuterio, if you know about those ablatives I'm not going to explain here...) Of course, you can't use r as the joining consonant, since cidr- already ends in r.

7. jemnrnametisti or jemnrxametisti. (As it turns out, jemnrametisti would have also been acceptable as a fu'ivla.)

8. zgiknralentando (Remember, the word already starts with r, so you have to use n to join the two parts of the fu'ivla together instead.)

1. 1. la djiotis. me lo ninmu.

   2. la djiotis. du lo ninmu is possible, but frowned on, as discussed.

   3. As for the other two alternatives, even if we tucked away the is-clause after po'u or no'u, we would be left with no selbri at all. So we can't get away with them.

2. 1. la djiotis. .e la suzyn. cu me le re ninmu poi klama fu le karce po la djiotis.

   2. la djiotis. joi la suzyn. du lei re ninmu poi klama fu le karce po la djiotis (note the masses! If you'd used .e, you would be saying that Jyoti was the two women, and Susan was also the two women!)

   3. There are two selbri here, but you can't really tuck one away with po'u and be left with a selbri for the rest of the sentence.

3. 1. la djiotis. .e la suzyn. me le ninmu poi la jan. jinvi le du'u ke'a pendo ri.

   2. la djiotis. .e la suzyn. du le ninmu poi la jan. jinvi le du'u ke'a pendo ri is possible but frowned on.

   3. A version with no'u is not really possible, because there would be no selbri left for the main bridi.

4. 1. la ranjit. noi me lo pendo be la djiotis. cu me lo xadba dotco.

   2. Frowned on but possible: la ranjit. noi du lo pendo be la djiotis. cu me lo xadba dotco.

   3. Frowned on but possible: la ranjit. no'u lo pendo be la djiotis. cu me lo xadba dotco.

5. 1. le vi blanu karce poi me le pritu be le mi karce cu me la ford. karce

   2. le vi blanu karce poi du le pritu be le mi karce cu me la ford. karce (The first is does indeed act as an equality sign: you're describing a car two different ways, to narrow it down. But the brand of a car is a class, so the second is is not an equality sign.)

   3. le vi blanu karce po'u le pritu be le mi karce cu me la ford. karce (Since you're narrowing down what the car is, you need a restrictive rather than a non-restrictive clause.)

      Note: This use of me is pretty standard to get a cmene into a tanru. There are often times when you will want to use a name to describe a class of things, rather than a unique thing. This in turn means you have to treat a cmene like a selbri, entering into domains like tanru. In fact, as an extension of this, Type 1 and 2 fu'ivla are merely cmene converted with me to selbri: Type 1 involves the undigested cmene, with la'o (e.g. me la'o gy. curry gy.), while Type 2 Lojbanises it, using la (e.g. me la karis.).

1. After they have finished eating, the three friends are now discussing. (Aspects can be used as sumti tcita, just like tenses can. ba'o means pretty much the same as ba here, but emphasises that they had finished eating when they started talking again.)

2. While they were doing so, they went to the disco [which is] The Funky Chicken (Aspects can also be used to connect sentences, just like tenses can. .i ca'o bo means that the second sentence took place while the first sentence was still going on. The fu'ivla considers Funky to be a kind of music: 'The Funk Chicken' is probably more accurate.)

3. Susan says "Jyoti, please turn the radio down."

4. "I've stopped hearing Ranjeet."

5. Jyoti says "Come again, Susan? I didn't hear you because the radio is loud", and completes turning it down. (i.e. she turns it down to completion — all the way down.)

6. Ranjeet says "Heheh, thanks! I now start hearing myself!" (This is a more pedantic rendering of what in English would be more like "I can hear myself think again". The do'u is necessary, because otherwise Ranjeet would be addressing himself: "Thanks, Me!")

7. Jyoti says "Unfortunately, so can I."

8. Ranjeet says "Don't repeat, Jyoti. I like Eurythmics songs, but my own voice more. (or: I like my own voice more than Eurythmics songs.)" (Ranjeet, too clever a Lojbanist for his own good, is playing around with his vocatives.)

9. Susan says "I was about to say that." (The full tense would have been pu pu'o, but you don't have to state the tense as well as the aspect when you think it is obvious from context.)

10. Jyoti says "Don't repeat, Susan." (Two can play at that game!)

1. .i la djiotis. .e la ranjit. .e la suzyn. mo'u klama le dansydi'u ti'u li no pi'e muno (Not co'u klama, which would have had them stop on the way; nor ba'o klama, which would mean that they had already arrived at 0:50.)

2. .i la ranjit. cusku fi la djiotis. joi la suzyn. fe lu ju'i redo mi bilga lenu mi klama le banxa (or: mi .ei klama le banxa. Since Ranjeet speaks to Jyoti and Susan as a unit (together), joi is more appropriate, though .e is strictly speaking correct.)

3. .i mi pu pu'o bevri loi jdini gi'e dukse jundi lemi se cradi li'u (A more pedantic version — in keeping with Ranjeet's style — would be: .i ku'i lenu mi jundi le se cradi pe mi cu se dukse)

4. .i ca'o lenu la ranjit. na zvati kei la djiotis. cusku lu be'e .suzyn. la ginter. no'u la banli ticygau co'u prami do (co'u is the only really good aspect to use; it's somewhat more controversial to think of love as something with a natural ending point (mo'u), and Günter — though he has turned Susan off some perfectly acceptable beverages — had not necessarily reached that point, anyway. If you wanted to keep the umlaut, you could also use la'o dy. Günter dy., or something like that. We presume this is the only Günter they know, so his nickname isn't being used to distinguish him from other Günters; hence, no'u instead of po'u.)

5. .i semu'ibo mi pu jinvi ledu'u do ca'o xebni ro lo dotco li'u (or: ro dotco, since lo is assumed after numbers. ro da poi dotco is also correct.)

6. .i la suzyn. cusku lu .i je'e do'u ku'i le kanla be la ranjit. cu mutce zmadu le kanla be la ginter. le ka melbi li'u (Kind of a baptism by fire for you with that new gismu. Sorry about that. You can't avoid do'u here, otherwise Susan would be speaking to Ranjeet's eyes: "That's right, O eyes of Ranjeet's."

   By the way, the cu is necessary; otherwise, kanla be la ranjit. mutce zmadu would be taken as a single tanru — individual gismu within a tanru can still have their own sumti attached with be.)

7. .i vu le ninmu la jan. cladu cusku lu .i coi pendo li'u la ranjit. (A pure greeting, of course; Zhang is not actually asking Ranjeet 'how he is doing' anything. He might want to know what he is doing there; but that's the next chapter of the saga...)