First Steps in Lojban

We're almost halfway through! This is a great time to learn about abstractions—what we call "noun clauses" or "that…" clauses in English.

I see the pattern:

• lo nu [sentence] kei ku — the event where [sentence] happens.
• lo du'u [sentence] kei ku — the proposition that [sentence] is true.

Exactly. While English often just uses "that" for both, Lojban distinguishes between an event and a proposition (along with several others).

Wait, what exactly is a "proposition"?

Think of it as the "content" of an idea—the kind of thing you believe, doubt, or claim as true.

A bit fuzzy, but I think I get the gist.

Lojban dictionaries will tell you whether a word normally takes nu or du'u in its slots. You'll develop a feel for it as we go.

The general pattern is: lo [Abstractor] [sentence] kei ku

The word in the middle is called an abstractor (or a NU-series cmavo). We'll start with just nu and du'u.

There are several others like ka, ni, si'o, and so on, but let's stick to these two for now.

It still feels a little... well, abstract.

Let's have some practice!

Roughly:

1. I'm sad that the woman died.
2. Eating that apple pleases the bird.
3. The man is certain (of the proposition) that the apple is tasty.
4. Studying Lojban is interesting to me.
5. I think you are beautiful.

Excellent! You can think of them as building noun clauses with a clear closing tag (kei).

kei ku feels like a lot of typing... So nu [sentence] kei is basically a selbri by itself?

Technically, yes—abstractors take a full sentence and build a new predicate out of it. But in practice, you'll almost always see them wrapped in lo ... ku to turn them into arguments (sumti).

So nu means "...is an event" and du'u means "...is a proposition." If you say I don't need to overthink it, I won't!