The Complete Lojban Language

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la xunre cukta

The Complete Lojban Language (also referred to as The CLL, The Red Book, and The Refgram), originally published in 1997, is a complete description of the artificial language Lojban. It serves as a reference grammar for the language, offering an overview of the language, as well as linguistic details on every aspect of the language. This book serves as the standard defining the language design.

Though this description may sound imposing, technical and formal, the book is written in a light, often humorous style that teaches the reader about the Lojban language, about logic, and about linguistics in general.

Obtaining

The Logical Language Group, Inc. takes great pride in publishing The Complete Lojban Language, by John Woldemar Cowan.

This book has two editions. The latest edition is CLL v1.1, generated 2016-08-26; its ISBN-13 is 978-0966028324. Revisions of this version are tracked by date of production; you can see details of each revision in the changelog. It is available, in its entirety as published, in the following formats:

The older edition, the original Red Book, has ISBN 0-9660283-0-9 and can be distinguished by the cover lettering being gold rather than white. It is available in the following formats:

  • An online draft version
  • It used to be available for purchase on Amazon and from the LLG, but all copies have been sold. Send email to lojban@lojban.org if you'd like to try to get a copy anyway.
  • PLEASE NOTE that the most the LLG has *ever* sold *any* version of this book for is about $50 USD. If you see it offered for much more than that, it is *not* us, and we won't be getting any of that extra money (we've seen copies on sale on Amazon for up to $1,000 USD!).

Ongoing Work

The language design described by the first edition was declared frozen for a minimum 5 year period so that anyone who learned the language from this book could be assured that it wouldn't change unexpectedly. This period ended in 2002.

Further Description

Lojban is a current version of Loglan, the artificial language project described in the June 1960 Scientific American article of that name. "Loglan" was also referred to by name in Robert Heinlein's classic novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, as well as in other novels.

Loglan/Lojban is a language designed for several purposes, including linguistics research (especially involving a proposed test of the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis), foreign language instruction, artificial intelligence research, machine translation and related human/computer interaction applications, and as a stimulating educational and entertaining mental exercise. A few people are interested in Lojban as a prospective international auxiliary language. An international community of aficionados has appeared, writing in and about the language, primarily on the Internet.

Other names

CLL is known jocularly as the Codex Woldemar, The Red Book, Woldy Codex, The Woldy and Lojbanically as la braxu'e (Big Red Thing), or le gencukta.

General Information About The LLG

The Logical Language Group, Inc. is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) scientific- educational organization, and donations may be tax deductible within the U.S. We acknowledge all donations over $250 in accordance with IRS regulations, and other donations by request.

Please make your donations by sending a cheque to the address above, or by donating through PayPal to the LLG.

We can accept Internet advance orders via e-mail, but you must followup with verification via postal mail or telephone within 2 weeks. No C.O.D. orders. We require prepayment on purchase orders.

Queries should be addressed to the LLG Secretary at the above address or via email to lojban@lojban.org