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What is Lojban?
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Lojban is a carefully constructed spoken language. It has been built for over 50 years by dozens of workers and hundreds of supporters.
- Lojban's grammar is based on simple rules, and its linguistic features are inspired by predicate logic.
- Lojban allows the expression of nuances in emotion using words called attitudinals, which are like spoken emoticons. ue marks that you're surprised; ba'u marks that you're exaggerating.
- You can be as vague or detailed as you like when speaking Lojban. For example, specifying tense (past, present or future) or number (singular or plural) is optional when they're clear from context.
- Lojban is machine parsable, so the syntactic structure and validity of a sentence is unambiguous, and can be analyzed using computer tools.
- There is a live community of speakers expanding the Lojban vocabulary day by day.
Lojban means different things to different people
- a linguistic curiosity - a test-bed for language experimentation
- a challenging way to expand their minds or discipline their thoughts
- a new perspective on languages
- an entertaining medium to communicate with friends or create art
- a domain for exploring the intersection of human language and software
What will Lojban mean for you?
Learning Lojban
These are learning resources that are made by people speaking Lojban and that represent personal views of those authors:
A set of pronunciation guides + la karda, a rapid-fire overview of the grammar in small pieces
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search the dictionary
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| la camxes is an automatic grammar checker of Lojban utterances. It can help you to understand the structure and correctness of sentences. | |
Wave Lessons, a popular textbook
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Lojban guide
Provides hover translations of both sentences/phrases and words they contain. |
try searching for arbitrary words in
the database of sentences  Some of the sentences are not proofread by fluent speakers of Lojban. | |
Join the chat
 and try talking to other Lojbanists when they appear there. Try asking them questions. |
Also check out Aesop's Fables for Lojban Learners, a work in progress. The intent is to start from very basic knowledge of Lojban, gradually learning new features through translating Aesop's Fables.
This is the resource officially approved by The Logical Language Group:
- "The Complete Lojban Language", a reference grammar of Lojban. This book will help those who already understand some Lojban. It's the most complete reference of Lojban language by far. It does not, however, teach vocabulary, style, or colloquial language. Please note that since the initial publication of the reference grammar, some language reforms such as xorlo have become widely adopted.
Dictionaries
- la jbovlaste is a prescriptive, editable, multilingual dictionary. It is considered by many to be the current de-facto standard dictionary of Lojban. Many other dictionaries and tools are based on it.
- la vlasisku is an online English—Lojban dictionary, based on data of la jbovlaste; intended to be more user-friendly (note: it is only irregularily updated, la jbovlaste is more up-to-date).
- la sutysisku is an online multilingual Lojban dictionary (including English) that also works offline. Updated at least once a month.
- la slovlacukt, an alternative offline dictionary.
- Stardict dictionaries in some languages (usable with GoldenDict, Dictionary Universal, etc.)
- Multilingual gismu (root word) and cmavo (particle) lists in tsv and html formats
- Word lists ordered by frequency of use
- An unofficial list of simple definitions of gismu
Software tools
- Memrise.com offers on-line Lojban vocabulary flashcards. Anki is a downloadable alternative.
- A Lojban-to-English translator. It is not precise, it can sometimes fail to correctly translate from English to Lojban or vice versa. It can be used to get at least some understanding of how Lojban works.
Other learning materials ...
Connect with the community
Lojban is spoken by a vibrant community, producing literature, music, and art, and discussing questions about language and thought. The web comic xkcd said that, if you spoke Lojban, you'd have to speak with Lojbanists. That may not be such a bad thing!
Instant messaging (text chat)
Connecting quickly
To get connected to Lojban chat use any of the following methods (your and others' messages will be available in all of them no matter which method you use).
People involved in Lojban community usually read each day's backlog and will answer your questions within several hours and often even within minutes.
Facebook messenger
Using this method you will be able to read the history of the chat since September 2018.
- Install the free Facebook messenger app on your Apple, Android or your desktop device
- join main Lojban chat groups by following these links:
Telegram
Using this method you will be able to read the history of the chat since the beginning of 2016.
- Install the free Telegram messenger on your Apple, Android or your desktop device
- join main Lojban chat groups by following these links:
- Ask questions on Lojban in ckule group, talk in or about Lojban in Lojban group and talk only in Lojban in jbosnu group.
Discord
The chat is also connected to a Discord server.
- Ask questions on Lojban in #ckule channel, talk in or about Lojban in #lojban channel and talk only in Lojban in #jbosnu channel.
- Freely chat about anything to like-minded Lojbanists in the #jboselbau channel.
Direct web access
Using this method you will be able to see messages that are sent only while you are connected.
- Navigate to the web-based IRC client (Kiwi), choose a nickname you want yourself to be known as, and click "Start". Easy!
- Click on the channel you want (tabs on the top of the page), and type your text in the text bar at the bottom - the last line at the bottom of the chat page.
- Ask questions on Lojban in #ckule tab, talk in or about Lojban in #lojban tab and talk only in Lojban in #jbosnu tab.
You may alternately try other methods of connecting.
Mailing lists
The lojban-beginners mailing list is for questions about learning and understanding Lojban. You can subscribe to the list by sending a question to lojban-beginners@googlegroups.com.
The general-purpose lojban mailing list, which covers anything else related to Lojban, was founded in 1989, and has about 500 subscribers. You can subscribe to it by sending an email to lojban@googlegroups.com.
Social media
Lojban has a presence on many of the most popular web sites: 
Facebook, 
Google+, 
Reddit, 
Quora.
International Contacts
| Languages spoken | |
|---|---|
| la selpa'i seladwa@gmx.de |
English, German |
| la gleki bangu@lojban.org |
English, Russian |
| la ilmen ilmen.pokebip@gmail.com |
English, French |
| la tsani nictytan@gmail.com |
English, French |
| la xorxes jjllambias@gmail.com |
English, Spanish |
| la guskant gusni.kantu@gmail.com |
English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Esperanto |
| la remod rdentato@gmail.com |
English, Italian |
Lojban around the world - other ways of communication ...
What's next?
- Try reading Lojban texts. Start with something shorter and easier such as "Terry the Tiger" (audio is available) or "The Berenstain Bears and the Prize Pumpkin" (a parser suitable to those two texts). When you're ready, move on to "The Little Prince" (suitable parser: camxes) and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (suitable parser: maftufa).
- Try your hand at translating into Lojban, or write your own original texts: Poetry, prose, blogs, tweets, etc.
- Continue learning vocabulary using memorization software.
- Help expand the dictionary by translating Lojban words into other languages, or coin new compound words and add them.