Lojban Through Dialogues

Lesson 3. What's Your Name?

Linto arrives at the meetup — the introductions go deeper. Lifri shows two question words that come up in almost every Lojban conversation.

Lojban	English
la linto coi .i mi'e la linto .i ma cmene do	Hello! I'm Linto. What is your name?
la lifri zo lifri cmene mi	My name is Lifri.
la lifri do mo	What are you up to?
la linto mi milxe se bangu la .lojban.	I'm speaking a little Lojban.
la lifri .i mi nelci la .lojban. i xu do nelci la .lojban.	I like Lojban. Do you like Lojban?
la linto go'i	Yes!

New words

Lojban	Meaning
ma	question word for nouns — "what?" or "who?" — fills the slot where the answer would go
mo	question word for predicates — "what are you doing?" / "what's going on?"
zo	quotes exactly one following Lojban word (the word itself, not what it refers to)
cmene	x₁ is the name of x₂ — to ask someone's name, put ma in x₁: ma cmene do; to say your name: *zo word* cmene mi** ("the word word names me")
nelci	x₁ likes x₂

Grammar note:

ma is a placeholder: put it exactly where the answer would go.

do nelci ma asks "you like what?"

— replace ma with the answer: mi nelci la .lojban.

mo asks about the predicate itself:

do mo = "you — what?" — a natural casual greeting meaning "what's up?"

Names with cmene:

The predicate cmene has place structure "x₁ is the name of x₂."

So ma cmene do asks what sumti is your name. To say what you're called, put the word of your name after zo:

zo lifri cmene mi — zo quotes one word only. That is different from mi'e la lifri in Lesson 1, which is a vocative self-introduction. Use both patterns.

Practice dialogue

Linto tries asking questions too.

Lojban	English
la linto coi .i ma cmene do	Hello! What is your name?
la mentu zo mentu cmene mi	My name is Mentu.
la linto do mo	What are you up to?
la mentu mi milxe se bangu la .lojban.	I'm speaking a little Lojban.
la linto do nelci ma	What do you like?
la mentu mi nelci la .lojban.	I like Lojban.