LOGLAN 1: A LOGICAL LANGUAGE

Loglan 1 cover art

Revised Fourth Edition

by
James Cooke Brown

THE LOGLAN INSTITUTE, INC.
c/o Jennifer Brown
1701 N.E. 75 St.
Gainesville, FL 32641

HTML Edition
prepared by
James Jennings

1999

Downloading the HTML Edition of this book, and making one paper copy of it for your personal use, may be done without payment to The Institute, and while such individual copies may be loaned without charge to other readers, no such copies, nor portions thereof made on any medium shall be used for any commercial purpose whatever without the express written permission of the copyright owner, The Loglan Institute, Inc.

A .zip archive of this HTML edition is available for downloading.

As of this writing, the 1989 Fourth Edition is still in print for those who prefer a bound book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

(The page numbers refer to the paper edition of the book.)

Notes on this HTML Edition

Copyright Page of the paper edition
Preface 3
Pronunciation Guides 14
Foreword 15

1. INTRODUCTION (94K)

1.1
The Scientific Strategy 31
1.2
Loglan as a Logical Language 34
1.3
Loglan as a Laboratory Instrument 37
1.4
Loglan in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 41
1.5
Loglan at the Machine-Man Interface 43
1.6
Loglan as a Translation Medium 45
1.7
Loglan in Information Storage and Retrieval 47
1.8
Loglan as a Planetary Second Language 47
1.9
Loglan as a Linguistic Toy 53
1.10
Learning Loglan 54

Notes 56

2. SOUNDS AND WORD-FORMS (136K)

2.1
First Impressions 64
2.2
The Design Problem 65
2.3
The Size of the System 66
2.4
The Six Regular Vowels 68
2.5
The Five Main Vowels /a e i o u/ 68
2.6
The Vowel /y/ 70
2.7
Buffered Dialects 72
2.8
The Seventeen Regular Consonants 73
2.9
The Three Irregular Phonemes /q w x/ 77
2.10
Stress 78
2.11
Pause 80
2.12
Intonation 83
2.13
Three Kinds of Words 84
2.14
Structure Words 85
2.15
Names 88
2.16
Predicate Words 91
2.17
The Varieties of Predicates 94
2.18
Affix Shapes 97
2.19
Predicate Joints 98
2.20
Resolving Words 100
2.21
Summary 103

Notes 105

3. GRAMMAR 1: PREDICATES (166K)

3.1
What Grammar Is 111
3.2
The Divisions of the Grammar 112
3.3
The Simple Predicate 113
3.4
Varieties of Predicates 115
3.5
On the Metaphysics of Predicates 116
3.6
The Simple Tenses pa, na fa 117
3.7
Location with vi va vu 119
3.8
Conversion with nu fu ju 120
3.9
Negation with no 125
3.10
Abstraction with po pu zo 126
3.11
Metaphor: The Modifier-Modified Relationship 129
3.12
Grouped Modifiers with ge 132
3.13
Inverse Modifiers with go 134
3.14
Connected Predicates with e a o u noa 137
3.15
Mixed Predicates with ze 140
3.16
Internally Connected Predicates with ce ca co cu noca 142
3.17
Extending Scope with ci cui 145
3.18
Internally Mixed Predicates with ze 151
3.19
Forethought Connections with ka ke ko ku kanoi 152
3.20
Metaphor and Insight 156

Notes 159

4. GRAMMAR 2: ARGUMENTS (303K)

4.1
Designation vs. Predication 170
4.2
The Demonstrative Variables ti ta 171
4.3
The Metalinguistic Demonstratives toi toa tio tao 172
4.4
The Free Variables da de di do du 173
4.5
The Personal Variables mi tu and Their Derivatives 176
4.6
The 100 Letter Variables 178
4.7
Naming with la 182
4.8
Description with le 183
4.9
Mass Description with lo 186
4.10
Quotation with li ...lu and liu lie 188
4.11
Abstract Description with lopo lopu lozo 191
4.12
Specified Description with je jue 193
4.13
Event Description with lepo 196
4.14
The Predicate Marker ga 199
4.15
Tensed and Located Description with lena lepa lefa levi leva 200
4.16
Possessive Description with lemi letu leda 202
4.17
Possession with pe 204
4.18
Predicate Names 205
4.19
Names from Predicates and Little Words 207
4.20
Set Description with loe leu lea 208
4.21
Numbers 209
4.22
Quantified Arguments 211
4.23
Non-Numerical Quantifiers 214
4.24
Indefinite Description 216
4.25
Numerical Predicates with -ra and -ri 218
4.26
Numerical Description with lio 221
4.27
Numerical Names 228
4.28
Indirect Designation with lae and sae 229
4.29
Predification with me 232
4.30
The Non-Designating Variables ba be bo bu 234
4.31
Optional Case Tags 241
4.32
Connected Arguments with anoi enoi onoi 247
4.33
Forethought Argument Connections 251
4.34
Negative Arguments 255
4.35
Mixed Arguments with ze 260

Notes 262

5. GRAMMAR 3: UTTERANCES (338K)

5.1
Utterances and Speeches 279
5.2
Utterance Types and Ingredients 283
5.3
Three Kinds of Modification 286
5.4
Sentence Modifiers 288
5.5
The Four Varieties of Relative Operators 293
5.6
Modal Operators lia and Kin 293
5.7
Causal Operators kou moi rau soa and Kin 296
5.8
The Seven Varieties of Free Modifiers 298
5.9
Salutations & Other Expressions of Direct Address 299
5.10
Expressions of Attitude 302
5.11
Questions with ie he ho hu ha 309
5.12
Relative Interrogatives with -hu 314
5.13
Discursive Modifiers 317
5.14
Parenthetic Remarks with kie ...kiu 319
5.15
Utterance Sequencers with -fi 321
5.16
Identity Sentences with bi bie 322
5.17
Identifying vs. Predicating Modifiers 327
5.18
Punctuation 334
5.19
Marking Main Predicates with ga 334
5.20
Marking Right-Boundaries with gu 335
5.21
The Specific Terminators gue gui guo 342
5.22
Abnormal Word Order with ga gi goi 342
5.23
Utterances and Their Modifiers: A Summary 346
5.24
Logically Connected Sentences with ica and Kin 347
5.25
Quantified Sentences 354
5.26
Negative Sentences 369
5.27
Causally Connected Sentences with ikou 378
5.28
The Connectives imoi irau isoa 386
5.29
Causal Questions and Answers 389

Notes 393

6. WORDS AND GROWTH (213K)

6.1
Language and Growth 403
6.2
Seven Kinds of Lexical Growth 404
6.3
Making Composite Primitives 411
6.4
Making Complex Predicates 419
6.5
Borrowing Predicates 430
6.6
Rules for Rewriting Source Words 438
6.7
Rules for Adjusting the Endings of Loan Words 440
6.8
"Gluing" Trial Words 441
6.9
Curing Segmentation Problems 444
6.10
Some Non-Scientific Borrowings 449
6.11
The Borrowing Pathways and Their Products 450
6.12
Making Single-Source Primitives 452
6.13
Making Names 454
6.14
Importing the Linnaean Names of Biology 458
6.15
Little Words and Structural Change 462

Notes 466

7. TESTING THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS (94K)

7.1
The Paradoxical Nature of Scientific Truth 476
7.2
The Whorfian Phenomenon 478
7.3
Containment vs. Differential-Enablement Hypotheses 484
7.4
Whorfian Effects 485
7.5
Creativity Effects 487
7.6
Long-Term Performance Effects 490
7.7
An Experimental Design 492
7.8
The Experimental Treatment 498
7.9
Measuring the Host Culture Effect 500
7.10
Some Possible Consequences of the Several Outcomes 501

Notes 507

APPENDICES

A.
Little Words & Little Affixes (17K) 510
B.
Primitives, Loglan-English (55K) 515
C.
Primitives, English-Loglan (68K) 531
D.
Predicate Affixes (45K) 549
E.
A Sample of Borrowings (17K) 560
F.
A Sample of Complexes (34K) 565
G.
Translations (35K) 575
H.
Changes to Loglan since this book was first published (92K)

TABLES

 
Pronunciation Guides 14
2.1
The 36 Permissible Initial Consonant Pairs 92
2.2
The Impermissible Medial Consonant Pairs 93
2.3
Unintelligibility at the C/CC Joint 99
4.1
The Eleven Optional Case Tags 247
5.1
The Twelve Modal Operators 294
5.2
The Sixteen Causal Operators 297
5.3
The 27 Discursive Modifiers 316
6.1
Rules for Rewriting Source Words 438

BIBLIOGRAPHY 593