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.

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la xalbo: These are the ones that I usually use. <tab class="wikitable"> *{…} 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}?) </tab>

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