Láadan

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Láadan (in Lojban banludunu), a women-specific artlang, invented by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982. Lojban's evidentials are inherited from it (although of course, Láadan in turn got them from Amerindian human languages).

The language was created to perform another test of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, among other things to determine if a language reflecting the way women think would be able to shape a new culture. A close hypothesis was that Western natural languages may be better suited for expressing the views of men than women.

The language was included into Elgin's Native Tongue science fiction series.

Grammar

As for evidentials unlike in Lojban most Láadan sentences contain three particles: 1. The speech-act particle – this occurs at the beginning of the sentence and marks it as either a statement (bíi), a question (báa), etc. In connected speech or writing, this particle is often omitted.

According to Elgin, this requirement is to counter "male-centered" language's limitations on women, who are forced to respond "I know I said that, but I meant this".

word translation Lojban equivalent
Bíi Indicates a declarative sentence (usually optional) ju'a
Báa Indicates a question xu
Bó Indicates a command; very rare, except to small children e'i
Bóo Indicates a request; this is the usual imperative/"command" form e'o
Bé Indicates a promise nu'e
Bée Indicates a warning e'u nai

2. The grammatical tense particle occurs second in the sentence.

word translation Lojban equivalent
ril present tense ca ku
eril past tense pu ku
aril future tense ba ku
wil hypothetical da'i

Without the tense particle, the sentence is assumed to have the same tense as the previous sentence which in Lojban can be expressed using i ca bo.

3. The evidence particle occurs at the end of statements and indicates the trustworthiness of the statement.

Láadan Evidence Act Morpheme translation Lojban equivalent
wa Known to speaker because perceived by speaker, externally or internally za'a, se'o, ju'a
wi Known to speaker because self-evident li'a
we Perceived by speaker in a dream se'o
wáa Assumed true by speaker because speaker trusts source ia ti'e
waá Assumed false by speaker because speaker distrusts source; if evil intent by the source is also assumed, the form is "waálh" ia nai ti'e
wo Imagined or invented by speaker, hypothetical da'i, ru'a
wóo Used to indicate that the speaker states a total lack of knowledge as to the validity of the matter ju'o nai
waálh malicious intent ia nai ti'e iu nai dai
wáo ju'o cu'i, pe'i cu'i

This brings up an interesting question:

  • What is the correct evidential in Lojban (assuming normal experiences) for a sentence like mi xagji? za'a? se'o?

Phonology

Tones

Unusually for constructed languages, Láadan is a tonal language. It utilizes two distinct tones:

  • lo – /lō/ or /lò/, a short, medium or low tone, represented by a single unmarked vowel
  • ló – /ló/, a short, high tone, represented by a single marked vowel

The word "Láadan" has three syllables: "lá-" with the short vowel /a/ plus high tone; "-a" with the short vowel /a/ and no tone; and "-dan".

Láadan does not allow any double [i.e., long] phonemes. Whenever two identical short vowels would occur side by side in a single morpheme, one of them has to be marked for high tone. When adding an affix would result in two identical vowels side by side, an epenthetic /h/ is inserted to prevent the forbidden sequence. The language will allow either "máa" or "maá," but not "maa". These combinations can be described as:

  • loó – /lǒː/, a long, low-rising tone, represented by a double vowel, the second of which is marked
  • lóo – /lôː/, a long, high-falling tone, represented by a double vowel, the first of which is marked

Some people analyze these tone sequences as tonemic as well, for a total of four tones.

Elgin prefers an analysis of the language as having no long vowels and a single tone, the high tone (distinguished from "neutral, baseline pitch"), but she acknowledges that linguists using other formalisms would be justified in saying that there are two tones, high and low (or unmarked or mid).

Vowels

Láadan has five vowels:

Consonants
Labial
Dental /Alveolar
Postalveolar/ Palatal
Glottal
Central
Lateral
Nasal
m /m/
n /n/
Plosive
b /b/
d /d/
Fricative
voiceless
th /θ/
lh /ɬ/
sh /ʃ/
h /h/
voiced
zh /ʒ/
Rhotic
r /r/
Approximant
w /w/
l /l/
y /j/

Láadan lacks the consonants /p, t, k, ɡ, s/. However, it uses b, d, sh (/ʃ/), m, n, l, r, w, y (/j/), h with the same phonetic value as English. In addition to these, three digraphs require further explanation:

Syntax

Láadan is a verb–subject–object (VSO) language. Verbs and adjectives are interchangeable. There are no articles, and the object is marked by the -th or -eth suffix. The plural number is shown only by the me- prefix to the verb (wo- is used in some versions of the language). The particle ra following a verb makes it negative.

Basic sentences

Láadan
literal translation
idiomatic translation
bíi ril áya mahina wa statement present-tense beautiful/beautify flower observed-truth The flower is beautiful
báa eril mesháad with question past-tense plural-go/come woman Did the women go/come?
bíi ril lámála with ruleth wa statement present-tense stroke/caress woman cat-object observed-truth The woman strokes the cat
bóo wil di le neth request hypothetical speak/say I you-object I would like to speak with you, please.
bíi aril meleyan ra lanemid wáa statement future-tense plural-be-brown negative dog received-truth I hear the dogs will not be brown

Morphology

Láadan has an agglutinative morphology, and uses a number of affixes to indicate various feelings and moods that many natural languages can only indicate by tone of voice, body language or circumlocution.

Affix
meaning
example
(-)lh(-) disgust or dislike hahodimi: "pleasantly bewildered"; hahodimilh: "unpleasantly bewildered"
du- to try to bíi eril dusháad le wa: "I tried to come"
dúu- to try in vain to bíi eril dúusháad le wa: "I tried in vain to come"
ná- progressive aspect bíi eril dúunásháad le wa: "I was trying in vain to come"
-(e)tha natural possessor lalal betha: "her mother's milk"
-(e)tho customary or legal possessor ebahid letho: "my husband"
-(e)thi possessor by chance losh nethi: "your money (gambling winnings)"
-(e)the possessor by unknown provenance ana worulethe: "the cats' food"
-id denotes male (otherwise female or gender neutral) thul: "mother/parent"; thulid: "father"

The "speech act" particle, at the beginning of a sentence, can also carry several suffixes, which expand on the overall state of the sentence. For example, bíi begins a statement, but bíidebegins a statement that is part of a narrative; bóoth begins a request made in pain; báada begins a question that is meant in jest.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Láadan are built up from a number of constituent parts. The consonant l marks the first person, n the second person and b the third person. Usually, these are followed by the vowel e. However, the vowel a is used to designate someone who is loved (lhe- is prefixed to describe someone who is despised). The suffix -zh is used to mark a plural pronoun for numbers up to four, and -n for numbers beyond that. Therefore, lazh means "we, several beloved", and lheben means "they, many despised".

See also

Discussion

  • la kreig.daniyl.:
    • What does it mean for a language to have a gender? --
      • It has words for womanly things. That doesn't make it womanly, just gender-neutral. English may be "male" in some way, but Láadan strikes me as neither.
      • Láadan is clearly feminine; the pretty purple they used for the web page looks like a breast cancer site.
      • But is the vocabulary purple also? The vocabulary is indeed worth examining; it has specific terms for things like "discord in the home", "anger, for good and not futile reasons", "pain or loss which comes as a relief by virtue of ending the anticipation of its coming", "contentment despite negative circumstances", "the female sexual act", and "the act of relinquishing a cherished / comforting / familiar perception".
      • The foundational assumption of Láadan is that women's perception of the word is fundamentally incommensurable with men's. So if purple meta-means what I think it meta-means, the answer is yes.
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