coi Hello!
Lojban is a constructed language that avoids ambiguity and reflects the principles of logic.
Lexical Ambiguity
In Lojban, every word has a unique meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. No two sentences are read or spoken the same way.
No knowledge of the vocabulary is required to read a text aloud or to transcribe speech back to writing without any loss of the text content.
Pronunciation
Sounds may only refer to a single character. Letters correspond to the International Phonetic Alphabet system of phonetic notation.
cutci shoe
karce car
fonxa phone
racli rational
kurfa square
rufsu rough
zoi gy dres gy dress
zoi gy mejr gy measure
zoi gy kamy gy comma
zoi gy lax gy loch
In natural languages, like English, the same text may refer to different sounds, or to different meanings.
lead (heavy metal element)
lead (to direct or conduct)
Speech Segmentation
The space between words is made explicit by putting stress on the second-to-last syllable of any word.
basna da emphasize
ba snada will succeed
In natural languages, segmentation may be ambiguous and must be assumed from context.
pull a long string
pull along string
Punctuation
Instead of special characters or emoticons, spoken words are used to denote case, punctuation, or the emotional content of sentences.
xu do dansu did you dance?
ui zgike music 😄
In natural languages, punctuation must be inferred by intonation.
tell me your name
tell me "your name"
Syntactic Ambiguity
Sentence structure is defined by formal grammar, making Lojban more easily describable by mathematical logic and computer science than other languages.
Automatic parsing of text can be done easily by machines, while natural language processing is more computationally complex.
Individuals with speech impairments may have less difficulty communicating when not dependent on melodic or rhythmic aspects of speech to resolve ambiguity.
Predicate Words
The vocabulary contains predicate words which define the placement order and relationship of terms to which they are applied. This is unlike natural languages where preposition such as 'to' and 'from' would be used.
mi klama lo briju I go to work
mi klama lo zdani lo briju I go home from work
Prepositions can cause ambiguity in natural languages.
I see a man with my glasses (I see using my glasses)
I see a man with my glasses (a man wearing my glasses)
Logical Connectives
Where natural languages use simple conjunctions like 'and', and 'or', Lojban takes concepts from formal logic to expand the expressiveness of language.
do .a mi citka lo nanba you and/or I eat bread
mi .o do citka lo nanba I eat bread if-and-only-if you do
Conjunctions can cause ambiguity in natural languages.
bacon or eggs and toast (toast, and either bacon or eggs)
bacon or eggs and toast (bacon, and either toast or eggs)
Lojban is a constructed, syntactically unambiguous human language.
mi na'e dansu ki'u lo zgike I didn't dance, because of the music
mi dansu ki'u nai lo zgike I danced, not because of the music
Natural languages may be ambiguous because the structure of sentences have multiple valid interpretations.
I don't speak English because it's ambiguous. (I don't, because it is)
I don't speak English because it's ambiguous. (I do, not because it is)
The Lojban community has translated texts, recorded rap songs, and are still exploring the possibilities of this unique constructed language.