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== LESSON 1: Sounds, names and a few attitudes ==
limerick by [[jbocre: Goran Topic|Goran Topic]]


The first thing you need to do when you learn a foreign language is to
Mon, 5 Dec 1994 00:59:52 MET


become familiar with the sounds of the language and how they are
<pre>


written, and the same goes for Lojban.  Fortunately, Lojban sounds
tu'e


(phonemes) are fairly straightforward.
le cinla cu prenu bleplana


=== Vowels ===
gi'e fo lenu cy. cmana


There are six vowels in Lojban.
co simlu gi'e grasu


* ''a''~--~as in "f''a''ther" (not as in "hat")
kei roroi se ckasu
* ''e''~--~as in "g''e''t"


* ''i''~--~as in Italian "v''i''no" (not as in "hit")
ba lenu porpi lo ckana
* ''o''~--~as in "s''o''"


* ''u''~--~as in "c''oo''l" (not as in "but")
tu'u


These are pretty much the same as vowels in Italian or Spanish. The
.i .u'i.ua nu pemfi'i cu tcezdi


sixth vowel, ''y'', is called a "schwa" in the
zo'o co'o mi'e. goran.


language trade, and is pronounced like the first and last "A"s in
</pre>
 
"America" (that's English "America", not Spanish).  It's the sound that
 
comes out when the mouth is completely relaxed.
 
Two vowels together are pronounced as one sound (diphthong).  Some
 
examples are:
 
* ai~--~as in "h''igh''"
* au~--~as in "h''ow''"
 
* ei~--~as in "h''ey''"
* oi~--~as in "b''oy''"
 
* ia~--~like German "Ja"
* ie~--~like "yeah"
 
* iu~--~like "you"
* ua~--~as in "q''ua''rk"
 
* ue~--~as in "q''ue''stion"
* uo~--~as in "q''uo''te"
 
* ui~--~like "we", or French "''oui''"
 
Double vowels are rare.  Two examples are ''ii'', which is pronounced like English "ye" (as in "Oh
 
come all ye faithful") or Chinese "yi", and ''uu'',
 
pronounced "wu".
 
=== Consonants ===
 
Most Lojban consonants are the same as English, but there are some
 
exceptions:
 
* ''c''~--~"sh", as in "''sh''ip"
* ''j''~--~as in "mea''s''ure" or French "bon''j''our"
 
* ''x''~--~as in German "Ba''ch''", Spanish "''J''ose" or Arabic "''Kh''aled"
 
The English sounds "ch" and "j" are written as ''tc'' and ''dj''.<br /> Lojban
 
doesn't use the letters H, Q or W.
 
=== Special Characters ===
 
Lojban has no punctuation, but some of the characters normally used
 
in punctuation affect the way Lojban is pronounced.  A full stop
 
(period) is a short pause to stop words running into each other.  An
 
apostrophe separates two vowels, and is pronounced like an H.  For
 
example, ''ui'' is normally pronounced "we", but ''u'i'' is "oohee".
 
Commas are rare in Lojban, but can be used to stop two vowels blurring together when you don't want to
 
use an apostrophe (which would put a "h" between them).  No Lojban words
 
have commas, but they're sometimes used in writing non-Lojban names, for
 
example ''pi,ER.'' (Pierre).
 
Capital letters are not normally used in Lojban.  We use them in non-Lojban words (like
 
Pierre) when the stress of a word is different from the Lojban norm.
 
This is to put the stress on the last-but-one syllable, so, for example,
 
''kurmikce'' (nurse) is kur''mik''ce, not ''kur''mikce.  The name "Juliette" would be written ''DJUli,et.'' if pronounced in an English way, but ''julIET.'' if pronounced as in French.
 
=== "Correct" pronunciation ===
 
You don't have to be very precise about Lojban pronunciation,
 
because the phonemes are designed so  that it is hard to mistake one
 
sound for another.  This means that rather than one "correct"
 
pronunciation, there is a range of acceptable pronunciation~--~the
 
general principle is that anything is OK so long as it doesn't sound too
 
much like something else.  For example, Lojban ''r'' can be pronounced like the R in English, Scottish or French.
 
Two things to be careful of, though, are pronouncing Lojban ''i'' and ''u'' like Standard
 
British English "hit" and "but" (Northern English "but" is fine!).  This
 
is because non-Lojban vowels, particularly these two, are used to
 
separate consonants by people who find them hard to say.  For example,
 
if you have problems spitting out the ''zd'' in ''zdani'' (house), you can say "zIdani"~--~the first
 
I is very short, but the second has to be long.
 
=== Lojban with attitude! ===
 
If you tried pronouncing the vowel combinations above, you've
 
already said some Lojban words.  Lojban has a class of words called
 
"attitudinal indicators", which express how the speaker feels about
 
something.  The most basic ones consist of two vowels, sometimes with an
 
apostrophe in the middle. Here are some of the most useful ones.
 
;''.a'o'':hope
 
;''.au'':desire
 
;''.a'u'':interest
 
;''.ie'':agreement
 
;''.i'e'':approval
 
;''.ii'':fear (think of "Eeek!")
 
;''.iu'':love
 
;''.oi'':complaint
 
;''.ua'':discovery, "Ah, I get it!"
 
;''.ue'':surprise
 
;''.u'e'':wonder, "Wow!"
 
;''.ui'':happiness
 
;''.u'i'':amusement
 
;''.uu'':pity, sympathy*
 
;''.u'u'':repentance, "I'm sorry!"
 
In English, people have started to avoid the word "pity", because it
 
has come to have associations of superiority. ''.uu'' is just the raw emotion~--~if you wanted to
 
express pity in this rather condescending way, you'd probably say ''.uuga'i''~--~"pity combined with a sense of
 
superiority," or ''.uuvu'e''~--~"pity combined
 
with a sense of virtue."  There again, you would probably just keep your
 
mouth shut.
 
You can make any of these into its opposite by adding ''nai'', so ''.uinai'' means "I'm
 
unhappy", ''.aunai'' is reluctance, ''.uanai'' is confusion ("I don't get it") and so on.
 
You can also combine them.  For example, ''.iu.uinai'' would mean "I am unhappily in love."  In
 
this way you can even create words to express emotions which your native
 
language doesn't have.
 
Attitudinal indicators are extremely useful and it is well worth
 
making an effort to learn the most common ones. One of the biggest
 
problems people have when trying to speak in a foreign language is that,
 
while they've learned how to buy a kilo of olives or ask the way to the
 
post office, they can't express feelings, because many languages do this
 
in a round-about way (outside group therapy, very few British people
 
would say outright that they were sad, for example!).  In Lojban you can
 
be very direct, very briefly (there are ways of "softening" these
 
emotions, which we'll get to in a later lesson).  In fact, these
 
attitudinals are so useful that some Lojbanists use them even when
 
they're writing in English, rather like emoticons (those e-mail symbols
 
like ;-)  :-( etc.).
 
==== Exercise 1 ====
 
Using the attitudinal indicators above (including
 
negatives), what might you say in the following situations?
 
# You've just realised where you left your keys.
 
# Someone treads on your toes.
 
# You're watching a boring film.
 
# Someone's just told you a funny story.
 
# You disagree with someone.
 
# Someone's just taken the last cookie in the jar.
 
# You really don't like someone.
 
# You are served a cold, greasy meal.
 
# Your friend has just failed a test.
 
# There is a large green beetle crawling towards you.
 
=== Lojban Names (''cmene'') ===
 
Watch any film where people don't know each other's language.  They
 
start off saying things like "Me Tarzan," which is as good a place to
 
start learning Lojban as any.  So here we go.
 
;''mi'e robin.'':I-am-named Robin; I'm Robin
 
''mi'e'' is related to ''mi'', which is "I", "me" and so on.  It's a good
 
example of the apostrophe separating two vowels, and sounds a bit like
 
"me hey".
 
I am lucky because my name goes directly into Lojban without any
 
changes. However, there are some rules for Lojban names which mean that
 
some names have to be "Lojbanised".  This may sound strange~--~after
 
all, a name is a name~--~but in fact all languages do this to some
 
extent. For example, English speakers tend to pronounce "Jose" something
 
like "Hozey", and "Margaret" in Chinese is ''magelita''. Some sounds just don't exist in some
 
languages, so the first thing you need to do is rewrite the name so that
 
it only contains Lojban sounds, and is spelled in a Lojban way.
 
Let's take the English name "Susan".  The two S's are pronounced
 
differently~--~the second one is actually a Z~--~and the A is not
 
really an "a" sound, it's the "schwa" we just mentioned.  So "Susan"
 
comes out in Lojban as ''suzyn.''.
 
You may have noticed the extra full stop (period) there.  This is
 
necessary because if you didn't pause, you might not know where the name
 
ended and the next word began.  In addition, if a name
 
'''begins''' with a vowel, you need a full stop there as
 
well.  For example:
 
;''.an.'':Anne
 
;''.axmet.'':Ahmet
 
;''.eduard.'':Edward
 
;''.IBraxim.'' or ''.IBra'im.'':Ibrahim
 
;''.odin.'':Odin
 
You can also put a full stop in between a person's first and last names
 
(though it's not compulsory), so "Jim Jones" becomes ''djim.djonz.'' .
 
An important rule for Lojbanising names is that the last letter of a ''cmene'' (Lojban name) must be a consonant.  Again,
 
this is to prevent confusion as to where a name ends, and what is and is
 
not a name (all other Lojban words end in a vowel).  We usually use S
 
for this, so in Lojban, "Mary" becomes ''meris.'' ,
 
"Joe" becomes ''djos.'' and so on.  An alternative
 
is to leave out the last vowel, so "Mary" would become ''mer.'' or ''meir.''.
 
A few combinations of letters are illegal in Lojbanised names,
 
because they can be confused with Lojban words: ''la'', ''lai'' and ''doi''.  So "Alabamas" can't be ''.alabamas.'' but needs to be ''.alybamas.'' , for example.
 
The final point is stress.  As we've seen, Lojban words are stressed
 
on the penultimate syllable, and if a name has different stress, we use
 
capital letters. This means that the English and French names "Robert"
 
come out differently in Lojban:  the English name is ''robyt.'' in UK English, or ''rabyrt.'' in some American dialects, but the French is
 
''roBER.''.
 
To give an idea of how all this works, here are some names of famous
 
people in their own language and in Lojban.
 
==== English ====
 
* Margaret Thatcher - ''magryt.tatcys.'' (no "th" in Lojban because most people around the world can't say it!)
* Mick Jagger - ''mik.djagys.''
 
==== French ====
 
* Napoleon - ''napolion.''
* Juliette Binoche - ''julIET.binOC.''
 
==== Chinese ====
 
* Laozi - ''laudzys.''
* Mao Zedong - ''maus.dzeDYNG.''
 
==== Turkish ====
 
* Mustafa Kemal - ''MUStafas.kemal.''
* Erkin Koray - ''.erkin.korais.''
 
==== German ====
 
* Ludwig Wittgenstein - ''ludvig.VITgynctain.''
* Clara Schumann - ''klaras.cuman.''
 
==== Spanish ====
 
* Isabel Allende - ''.izaBEL.aiendes.''
* Che Guevara - ''tcegevaras.''
 
==== Exercise 2 ====
 
Where are these places?
 
# ''niu,IORK.''
 
# ''romas.''
 
# ''kitos.''
 
# ''kardif.''
 
# ''.beidjin.''
 
# ''.ankaras.''
 
# ''prictinas.''
 
# ''keiptaun.''
 
# ''taibeis.''
 
# ''bon.''
 
# ''delis.''
 
# ''nis.''
 
# ''.atinas.''
 
# ''lidz.''
 
# ''xelsinkis.''
 
==== Exercise 3 ====
 
Lojbanise the following names:
 
# John
 
# Melissa
 
# Amanda
 
# Matthew
 
# Michael
 
# David Bowie
 
# Jane Austen
 
# William Shakespeare
 
# Sigourney Weaver
 
# Richard Nixon
 
# Quito
 
# Istanbul
 
# Madrid
 
# Tokyo
 
# San Salvador
 
=== Lojban words as names ===
 
By now you should be able to Lojbanise your own name.  However, if
 
you prefer, you can translate your name into Lojban (if you know what it
 
means, of course) or adopt a completely new Lojban identity.  Native
 
Americans generally translate their name when speaking English, partly
 
because they have meaningful names, and partly because they don't expect
 
the ''wasichu'' to be able to pronounce words in
 
Lakota, Navaho or whatever!
 
All Lojban words end in a vowel, and although you
 
'''can''' use them as names as they stand, it's common to
 
leave out the final vowel to make it absolutely clear that this is a
 
name and not something else (Lojban goes for overkill when it comes to
 
possible misunderstanding).  So if your name or nickname is Cat (Lojban
 
''mlatu''), you can either add ''s'' like a normal ''cmene'' to
 
make ''mlatus.'', or just chop the end off and call
 
yourself ''mlat.''.
 
Here are a few examples:
 
* Fish - ''finpe'' - ''finp.''
* Bear - ''cribe'' - ''crib.''
 
* Green - ''crino'' - ''crin.''
* Mei Li (Chinese = beautiful) - ''melbi'' - ''melb.''
 
* Ayhan (Turkish = Moon Lord) - ''lunra nobli'' (= ''lurnobli'') -
 
''lurnoblis.''
 
=== Answers to Exercises ===
 
==== Exercise 1 ====
 
# ''.ua''
 
# ''.oi''
 
# ''.u'inai''
 
# ''.u'i''
 
# ''.ienai''
 
# ''.oi'', ''.i'enai'', or even ''.oi.i'enai''
 
# ''.iunai'' Probably ''.a'unai.oi'', unless you like cold greasy food, of course.
 
# ''.uu''
 
# Depends on your feelings about beetles.  ''.ii'' if you have a phobia, ''.a'unai'' if you are merely repelled by it, .a'u if you're an entomologist, and so on.
 
==== Exercise 2 ====
 
# New York
 
# Rome
 
# Quito
 
# Cardiff
 
# Beijing (note the ''dj'' - the BBC always get this wrong!)
 
# Ankara
 
# Prishtina
 
# Cape Town
 
# Tai Pei (note ''b'', not ''p'')
 
# Bonn
 
# Delhi
 
# Nice
 
# Athens
 
# Leeds
 
# Helsinki
 
==== Exercise 3 ====
 
There are usually alternative spellings for names, either because
 
people pronounce the originals differently, or because the exact sound
 
doesn't exist in Lojban, so you need to choose between two Lojban
 
letters.  This doesn't matter, so long as everyone knows who or where
 
you're talking about.
 
# ''djon.'' (or ''djan.'' with some accents)
 
# ''melisys.''
 
# ''.amandys.'' (again, depending on your accent, the final ''y'''s may be ''a''
 
# ''matius.''
 
# ''maikyl.'' or ''maik,l'', depending on how you say it.
 
# ''deivd.bau,i''. or ''bo,i'' (but not ''bu,i'' - that's the knife)
 
# ''djein.ostin.''
 
# ''.uiliam.cekspir.''
 
# ''sigornis.uivyr.''
 
# ''ritcyrd.niksyn.''
 
# ''kitos.''
 
# ''.istanBUL.'' with English stress, ''.IStanbul'' with American,  ''.istanbul.'' with Turkish.  Lojanists generally prefer to base ''cmene'' on local pronunciation, but this is not an absolute rule.
 
# ''maDRID.''
 
# ''tokios.''
 
# ''san.salvaDOR.'' (with Spanish stress)

Revision as of 17:07, 4 November 2013

limerick by Goran Topic

Mon, 5 Dec 1994 00:59:52 MET 


tu'e

le cinla cu prenu bleplana

gi'e fo lenu cy. cmana

co simlu gi'e grasu

kei roroi se ckasu

ba lenu porpi lo ckana

tu'u

.i .u'i.ua nu pemfi'i cu tcezdi

zo'o co'o mi'e. goran.
Retrieved from "https://mw-live.lojban.org/index.php?title=nu_porpi_lo_ckana&oldid=75711"