| e | and |
| ha | how-connected-to (interrogative connective) |
The subject is what grammarians call conjunctions and logicians call connectives: `and', `or', `and/or', `but', and so forth. There are fourteen of these connectives, and there are four versions of each one. However, as usual, you'll find considerable order to the system. Ultimately, there are only ten elements involved; once you know them, you will be able to reconstruct any form you have forgotten.
All you have to remember is:
We'll begin by looking at the notes for the sentences above, then we'll look at all fourteen connectives and what they mean.
Notes:
1. Basic connectives such as e (called "eks") work much the same way as `and' and `or' do in English: Just place them between the two predicates or arguments you want to join.
2. You must pause in speech and put a comma in writing before eks.
3. As mentioned, eks work with arguments as well as predicates.
4. These sentences may answer the question Ba he vi le tcastosia? `What is [there] in the parking lot?' Instead of saying Ba tcaro, e torkrilu (`Something is a car and a bicycle'), we need a second variable to act as the first argument of torkrilu. Using ba alone would mean that there are one or more things which are both cars and bikes, as the English translation above makes clear. We don't want to say that there's anything that's both a car and a bike, so we need the be.
5. You can't get away with English-style "x, y, and z" groups in Loglan; you must say xei, e ysi, e zei. Pay attention to the way these words group: ((xei, e ysi), e zei), just like modification ((mutce sadji) ridle). Eks assume that the expression to the left (the left connectand) is through, so they go on to the next one. We'll find out how to get around this in the next lesson.
6. Ha is to connectives what he is to predicates and hu is to arguments. It asks for a connective which will produce a valid (or, in the case of arguments, helpful) sentence. Generally, Loglan ha questions are translated by English or questions: La Deiv, farfu ha kicmu? `Is Dave a father or a doctor?' Tu fundi la Loglan, ha la Inglic? `Do you prefer Loglan or English?' The `or' in these sentences isn't the logical "or" translated in Loglan as either a or noenoi (see following note); if it were, you could answer with a simple `yes' or `no': Ei la Deiv, farfu, a kicmu? `Is Dave either a father or a doctor?' If he is either one (or both), answer `Yes'; otherwise answer `No'. But such an answer would no more please someone asking `Is Dave a father or a doctor?' than the Ia/No equivalent would satisfy a Loglanist who had asked La Deiv, farfu ha kicmu? (You don't have to pause before ha, please note.)
7. There are fourteen answers to La Deiv, farfu ha kicmu?
La Deiv, farfu, a kicmu
Dave is a father and/or a doctor.
The point is that he may be one or the other or both. The sentence is false only if he is neither one. This contradicts the claim made by noenoi (`neither...nor...'), below.
La Deiv, farfu, noa kicmu which is equivalent to:
La Deiv, no farfu, a kicmu
Dave (not is-a-father) or [he is] a doctor.
Dave is a father only if he's a doctor.
This is false only if he's a father but not a doctor, that is, if the first connectand is true, but the second is false. (Think about it: If he is a father, then no farfu is false, and if he isn't a doctor, no farfu, a kicmu fails, because both connectands are false, and a requires at least one of its connectands to be true.) This contradicts the claim made with enoi and is the converse of the claim made with anoi, below.
La Deiv, farfu, anoi kicmu which means the same as:
La Deiv, farfu, a no kicmu
Dave is-a-father and/or [he is] not a doctor.
Dave is a father if he is a doctor.
This is false only if he's a doctor but not a father, that is, if the first connectand is false, but the second is true. (If he is a doctor, then no kicmu is false, and if he isn't a father, farfu, a no kicmu fails, because both connectands are false, and a requires at least one of its connectands to be true.) This contradicts the claim of noe.
La Deiv, farfu, noanoi kicmu which is equivalent to:
La Deiv, no farfu, a no kicmu.
Dave (not is-a-father) or (not is-a-doctor).
Dave is not both a father and a doctor.
He can be one or the other -- or neither, for that matter -- but he can't be both. It contradicts the claim of e.
La Deiv, farfu, e kicmu
Dave is a father and a doctor.
He must be both, or the sentence is false. It contradicts the claim of noanoi, above.
La Deiv, farfu, noe kicmu which means the same as:
La Deiv, no farfu e kicmu
Dave (not is-a-father) and [he is] a doctor
Dave isn't a father, but a doctor.
This is true only if he both is not a father and is a doctor, and is false otherwise. It contradicts the claim of anoi
La Deiv, farfu, enoi kicmu which is equivalent to:
La Deiv, farfu e no kicmu.
Dave (is-a-father) and (not a-doctor)
Dave is a father, but not a doctor. `
This is false if he isn't a father, or if he is a doctor. It contradicts noa.
La Deiv, farfu, noenoi kicmu which is equivalent to:
La Deiv no farfu e no kicmu
Dave (not is-a-father) and (not is-a-doctor)
Dave is neither a father nor a doctor.
If he's either one, let alone both, this is false. It contradicts a.
La Deiv, farfu, o kicmu
Dave is a father if and only if [he is] a
doctor.'
This means that he must be both, or neither; it's like saying that his being a father is the same thing as being a doctor, that the two imply each other. So if the one is true, the other must also be true; and if one is false, then the other must be false as well. It contradicts both onoi and noo which are equivalent to each other.
La Deiv, farfu, onoi kicmu which is equivalent to:
La Deiv, farfu o no kicmu and
La Deiv no farfu o kicmu
Dave is a father if-and-only-if [he is] (not a-doctor)
Dave is a father or a doctor, but not
both.
These sentences are true only if exactly one of the two connectands is true. However expressed, this connection is called "exclusive-or" and is probably the most frequent meaning of 'or' in English.. It contradicts o.
La Deiv, farfu, u kicmu
Dave is a father, whether he's a doctor or not.
With u, it doesn't matter whether the right connectand is true or false, so long as the left connectand is true. U contradicts the claims of nou.
La Deiv, farfu, nuu kicmu
Dave, whether a father or not, is a doctor.
This is false only if he isn't a doctor. (This order is seldom found in English.) It contradicts nuunoi.
La Deiv, farfu, nuunoi kicmu
Dave, whether a father or not, is not a
doctor.
This is only false if he is a doctor; it contradicts nuu, above.
La Deiv, farfu, nou kicmu
Dave is not a father, whether he's a doctor
or not.
This is true if he isn't a father, and false otherwise. This contradicts u, above.
1. double consonants, as mekykiu eye-doctor
2. a voiceless consonant followed by its voiced counterpart (fv,
kg, pb, td)
3. p, t, k, or f followed by j or z
4. any pair from the group c, j, s, z
5. bj and sb
6. the following three-letter groups:
| cdz, cvl | ndj, ndz | |
| dcm, dct, dts | pdz | |
| gts, gzb | svl | |
| jdj, jtc, jts, jvr | tvl | |
| kdz | vts | |
| mzb |
In case you're wondering, no, you probably won't remember all of this. These combinations are best learned through practice. If a combination doesn't sound right, hyphenate it! There are two situations where you should probably hyphenate all you can: when you're fighting noise (in a crowd, with a noisy connection on the phone, etc.), and when you're dealing with a new Logli who doesn't want to use long forms. (It's easier to recognize the djifoa in hyphenated complexes.)
There are several useful CVC djifoa, but the combining forms of the conversion operators are especially common and easy to learn. Just add -r to them: nur-, fur-, jur-. (Because it's so frequent, nu also has the djifoa nun-.) Thus, nurvia (as in Lo Nurvia Logla) comes from nu vizka (`...is seen by...against background...'). So nurvia means `seen' or `visible'. Likewise, fu vedma (`...buys...from ... at price...') becomes furvea.
1. Hu lodji djipua?
2. Kai fundi hu?
3. Kai titci ha cirhea Dai?
4. Ei ba logpli vi le resra?
| Predicate words | Definition | Clue words |
|---|---|---|
| cirhea | ...tutors...in subject... | [CIRna HElbA = learn-help] |
| disfiu | ...is indecisive/can't decide what to do about... | [DISri FIbrU = decide weak] |
| djipua | ...is a connective/conjunction of language... | [DJIne PUrdA = join-word] |
| fundi | ...is more fond of...than of... | (fond [FoND]) |
| furvea | ...buys...from...for price... | [FU (R) VEdmA = 2nd passive-sell] |
| furvemcue | ...orders...from...at price... | FU (R) VEdMa CUtsE = buy-say] |
| jungo | ...is part of Chinese culture | (Zhung) |
| kinci | ...accompanies...in doing... | |
| lodji | ... .is a logical rule/principle for concluding/inferring ... from ... | (logic [LODJIk]) |
| mekso | ...is part of Mexican culture. | The native pronunciation [mexiko] derived from the country name La Me'xikos will not work, as /x/ is reserved for names. |
| milfa | ...is a meal of food(s)... | (meal [MIL]) |
| prati | ...is a price of...to...from seller... | (price [PRAIs]) |
| resra | ...is a restaurant of area... | (restaurant [REStaRAnt]) |
| retpi | ... is an answer to question ... put by ... | (reply [REPlaI]) |
| tcastosia | ...is a parking lot for/of community/building... | [TCAro STOlo SItfA=car-stay-place] |
| tcidaa | ...is hungry. | [tiTCI DAnzA = eat-want] |
| tisra | ...chooses...from set... | (choice [TcoIS]) |
| titci | ...eats... | (eat [IT]) |
| togri | ...agrees with...about/that... | (agree [yGRI]) |
| vedma | ... sells ... to ... for price ... | (vend [VEnD]market [MArket]) |
| bea | for example (freemod) [from BlEkA look at] |
| ha | "or"; how-connected-to, the interrogative connective. |
| kou | a causal connective (See chapter 10.) |
| liu | the [Loglan] word ... |
| tio | this situation, the last one mentioned. |
2. You must use connectives for each word connected, i.e., `x and y and z,' not `x, y, and z.'
3. Ha is an interrogative ek: it asks for a connective which will form a logically true connection. Ha questions are generally translated by `or' questions in English, and vice versa. Ei ta latci, a tidjo? `Is that light? Or [is that] heavy?' may almost always be answered Ia 'Yes', because most things under most circumstances are either light or heavy. On the other hand, Ta latci ha tidjo? `Is that light or heavy?' must be answered specifically with a connective.
| 1. Ei tu ditca, onoi cirna? | Are you either a teacher or learner? |
| 2. No. Ibuo mi ditca, e cirna. I mi ditca la Inglic. Isui mi cirna la Loglan. | No, but I'm [both] a teacher and a learner. I teach English; I also learn Loglan. |
| 3. Oe mi pa cutse liu, a, onoi liu ha, ei? | I should have said "and/or" or "or," huh? |
| 4. Ia. I liu ha, gudbi liu, onoi, e liu, a, letu kenti. | Yes; "or" would be better than "either/or" and "and/or" for your question. |
| 5. Liu, onoi, e liu, a, e liu ha, lodji djipua. | "Either/or", "and/or", and "or?" are logical connectives |
| 1. What is [an example of] a logical connective? | Liu, a, bea, lodji djipua. (This doesn't ask for a definition, but an example. We'll get to definitions in Lesson 15.) |
| 2. What does K prefer? | Kai fundi leDaipa retpi. |
| 3. What does K do, eat or tutor D? | Kai titci, noa cirhea Dai. (Note that noa shuts off titci's second blank, so that Carl isn't eating Dennis. Putting gu after cirhea, however - as in Kai titci, noa cirhea gu Dai - would make Dai the argument of both predicates; then K would be eating D but only if K tutors D. ) |
| 4. Does [any]one use Loglan in the restaurant? | Ia, ba logpli vi le resra. (Don't use Kai, e Dai logpli; it implies that they do so separately. We'll look at the proper connective (Kai ze Dai) in Lesson 8.) |
Last Updated:Wednesday, November 29, 1995