Welcome!1/en
Want a StackExchange website for asking questions and getting answers on Lojban? Help us make it real:
What is Lojban?
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 simpler than of most natural languages, but complex in its own unique way. Lojban is an experiment in thought, as well: its users aim to see how its unique language structures affect thought and understanding.
- Lojban allows the expression of tiny nuances in emotion, using words called attitudinals, which are essentially spoken emoticons.
- Lojban allows you to communicate concisely without unnecessary or undesired details. For example, you don't have to always think of what tense (past, present or future) to use in a verb when it's already clear from context.
- Lojban is machine parsable, which allows potential new explorations in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine translation.
- Lojban has a live community of speakers expanding its vocabulary day by day.
- Lojban is designed aiming at being neutral between cultures.
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?
More basic information ...
Learning Lojban
Unofficial and supplemental resources
Different non-authoritative learning resources have been created. They are said to be more beginner-friendly.
- A set of pronunciation guides
- Lojban in simple phrases, an introduction (also available in PDF)
- Wave Lessons, a popular textbook
- "The Crash Course", a draft of a textbook
- la karda, a rapid-fire overview of the grammar in small pieces
Official resources
- "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
Related things
- An unofficial list of simple definitions of gismu
- Example sentences at Tatoeba.org
Software tools
- Memrise.com offers on-line Lojban vocabulary flashcards. Anki is a downloadable alternative.
- la camxes is an automatic grammar of Lojban. It can help you to understand the structure and correctness of sentences.
- 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.
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 group by following the link: Lojban.
- Ask questions on Lojban in ckule group, talk in or about Lojban in Lojban group and talk only in Lojban in jbosnu group.
Slack
Using this method you will be able to read the history of the chat for the last ~7 days or so.
- Open https://slaka.herokuapp.com Submit your email and get an invite to http://lojban.slack.com to your e-mail inbox.
- Open http://lojban.slack.com
- Ask questions on Lojban in #ckule channel, talk in or about Lojban in #lojban channel and talk only in Lojban in #jbosnu 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, 
Reddit, 
Quora.
la jbotcan is an informal bulletin board which hosts images and discussions in Lojban and English.
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.