writing conventions

Some conventions used when talking about Lojban in English, for instance on IRC or in mailing lists. <tab class="wikitable"> {…} used to quote Lojban text. Alternatively Lojban text is written in bold. </tab>

la xalbo:

• These are the ones that I usually use.

*{…} used for incorrect Lojban text.

?{…} used for questionable text (either a subject of debate, or to quote without asserting correctness, for instance, asking a student what, if anything, the text would mean).

!{…} used for text that parses, but has a surprising or wrong meaning (one not intended).

[…] used to indicate words (usually terminators or {cu}) that can be included or omitted without changing the parse.

-…- used for quoting rafsi, like -mib-, the rafsi for {mi}

"…" used for quoting English. The , ?, and ! modifiers can be applied if needed.

⟨…⟩ used for quoting sequences of characters. "No, you couldn't use ⟨la⟩ in a cmevla pre-Dot Side."

† used to qualify a statement, to mean "This isn't actually true, but it's close enough for the current purposes." "cmevla can only† be used as names, but not all names are cmevla."

‡ used for "I don't know whether this is actually precisely true or not, but it's close enough for now." "You use ZOI, then any‡ Lojban word as a delimiter…" (Really? What about {bu}? What about {si}? What about {fa'o}?)

For other loglangs: <tab class="wikitable"> <…> used to quote Loglan text. ~…~ used to quote gua\spi text. \…\ used to quote toki pona text. </tab>