Lesson 7: Improving Your Connections

Lo Mipli Steti

1. La Deiv, farfu, e kicmu la Palys.

Dave is-a-father and is-a-doctor-of Paula.
Dave is a father, and he treats Paula.

2. La Deiv, farfu, e kicmu gu la Palys.

Dave is-a-father-of and is-a-doctor-of Paula.
Dave is the father of, and treats, Paula.

3. La Deiv, farfu ce kicmu la Palys.

Dave is-a-(father-and-doctor)-of Paula.
Dave is [both]the father and a doctor of Paula.

4. La Deiv, gudbi farfu, e kicmu.

Dave is-a-good father and is-a-doctor.
Dave is a good father and [he is also] a doctor.

5. La Deiv, gudbi farfu ce kicmu.

Dave is-a-good (father-and-doctor).
Dave is good as both a father and a doctor.

6. La Deiv, mutce gudbi, e sadji kicmu.

Dave is-a-very good [person] and is-a-wise doctor.
Dave is very good, and is a wise doctor.

7. La Deiv, mutce gudbi ce sadji kicmu.

Dave is-a-very (good-and-wise) doctor.
Dave is a very good, and a very wise, doctor.

8. La Deiv, farfu, ice Dai kicmu.

Dave is-a-father, and D is-a-doctor.
Dave is a father, and he is a doctor.

9. La Deiv, ke na farfu ki fa kicmu.

Dave both now is-a-father and will be-a-doctor.
Dave is both now a father and a future doctor.

10. La Deiv, ke mutce gudbi ki nurmue sadji gu farfu.

Dave is-both a-very good and a-moderately wise [,] father.
Dave both is a very good, and a moderately wise, father.

11. La Deiv, gudbi ke farfu ki kicmu.

Dave is-good-as both a-father and a-doctor.
Dave is good as both a father and a doctor.

Lona Cninu Purda

Little Words

Lopo Lengu Klimao

Notes:

1. "Eks" shut off all unfilled blanks of the connectand to its left. The only blank farfu and kicmu share is the first one. Naturally, we have a few ways around this problem.

2. The simplest solution is to place a gu after the connected pair. This makes them share any arguments which follow the gu. This is especially useful when you want to change the tense of the second predicate, as in Tomás' Ima [ga] sorme, e, na socgoi gu mi `I (Inés) is a sister of, and is now visiting, me' (see Lo Nurvia Logla). Be careful to pause after e, or you will be heard as the single word ena, a connective composed of e and na meaning 'and, at the same time' See also epa.

3. Adding a c- to an ek produces a "shek": ca, ce, co, cu, noca, nucunoi, etc. Sheks leave blanks undisturbed, so farfu and kicmu share all of their blanks. (Note, incidentally, that you don't have to pause before ce.) Be very careful using predicates in this way! Shared blanks can produce hilarious results, as in Dai kicmu ce farfu la Palys, la Megn. This means that D is Paula's father through mother Megan, and that he is treating Paula...for a disease named Megan! Remember, if you're in doubt, just use an ek instead of a shek, or use two sentences.

The shekked form of ha, incidentally, is ciha: Dai kicmu ciha farfu la Palys? `Is D the doctor or the father of Paula?' This may be answered with a shek (Ce), and is not the same thing as Dai kicmu ca/conoi farfu la Palys, ei? `Is D either the doctor or father of Paula?', which expects a yes-or-no answer.

4. As mentioned in the last lesson, eks assume that everything to the left is complete, and shuts it off. (This is why an ek turns off the unfilled blanks of a preceding predicate.) In the same way, we must interpret the group gudbi farfu, e kicmu as ((gudbi farfu), e kicmu). If you want to say that he's a good father and a good doctor (both at once), you'll have to use a special kind of connective, as in the next example.

5.One way is to use a shek, as in this example. (Another way is to use "keks", as in example 11.) Sheks act like ci to turn a pair of terms into a single, though internally connected, unit. You may figure out the implications of this fact at your leisure. One is that you can't use a shek when the right connectand is a tensed predicate. The tense combines with the shek to form a connectand relating the temporal order of the predicates, as well as how they are combined. Thus the example mentioned in note 2 could not be changed to *sorme ce na socgoi, because ce, if not separated by a pause, would combine with na : *sorme cena socgoi, which has the somewhat different meaning 'is a sister and at the same time visits me'. The following argument mi, however, applies to both predicates without the insertion of gu. (Converted predicates aren't affected by this rule; nu socgoi 'is visited by' is one predicate, so the connection sorme ce nu socgoi 'is a sister of and is visited by' is legal.)

You may wonder what the difference is between sheks and ci. Ci merely joins a modifier to the word it modifies, while the sheks abbreviate a longer expression involving a pair of claims...in this case, the claims are La Deiv, gudbi farfu. I la Deiv, gudbi kicmu.

6. Given the previous two notes, you're probably not astonished that mutce gudbi, e sadji kicmu is a pair of predicates connected by e: ((mutce gudbi), e (sadji kicmu)). You can probably also guess how to say that Dave is a very good and very wise doctor.

7. Not hard at all, is it? Ce links gudbi and sadji so that mutce applies to both of them. Then that group modifies kicmu: (((mutce (gudbi ce sadji)) kicmu).

8. You can even connect claims together to make compound sentences. This third kind of connective is called an "eeshek"; it consists of I- and a shek. This is to prevent them from turning into the conviction attitude indicators (I+a, I+o, etc.). There's generally a pause before these (you've normally just ended a claim, after all), but sometimes it's like the English comma or semicolon: a definite break, and in Loglan, all eeshek-connected claims are treated as clauses bound together by the eesheks into sentences. As we'll see later, there can be more than two clauses in these compound sentence. In English translation (see Example 8), such eeshek-connected strings of clauses are also treated as compound sentences; their clauses may be separated by either commas or semicolons.

As you probably guessed, the eeshek version of ha is Iha.

9. "Keks" are the most versatile connectives; you can use them to connect predicates, arguments, and even sentences. Like `both...and ` and `if...then' in English (and unlike all the connectives we've looked at so far), they require planning in advance.

Keks are a little odd. The best way to understand how they're produced is to take one apart, so we'll start with the kekked version of noenoi: which becomes kenoi...kinoi. The ke- is just k- and the basic vowel (e). This lets the audience know that the kek is essentially an e-connective. After this, we substitute -ki- for -e-. So far we have *ke...nokinoi. Why move the no- right after ke-? (-no becomes -noi, the regular suffix form.) Because moving it allows the kek to imitate the positions of the no's in the expanded sentence. Ti, noenoi ta means the same thing as no ti, e no ta, so the first no must come before the first connectand...as it does in kenoi ti kinoi ta, which can be interpreted as follows:

k-	kek begins
-e-	connective will be e = "and"
-noi	no (suffix form) = "not"
ti	"this"
ki-	end first connectand, start the second (the "and" goes here)
-noi	no = "not"
ta	"that"

`not this and not that'

(In case you're wondering, this means the same thing as `neither this nor that' in English: `both not-this and not-that'.)

To sum up: the first word begins with k- followed by the basic vowel. If the ek begins with no-, change no- to -noi and place it at the end of the first word. The second word is ki, followed by -noi if the ek ends in -noi.

Here's the complete list of keks with their corresponding eks:

Ek	Kek	Translation
...a...	ka...ki...	either...or..., and possibly both.
...noa...	kanoi...ki...	if...then...
...anoi...	ka...kinoi...	(...if...)
...noanoi...	kanoi...kinoi...	either not...or not..., and possibly neither.
...e...	ke...ki...	both...and...
...noe...	kenoi...ki...	both not...and...
...enoi...	ke...kinoi...	both...and not...
...noenoi...	kenoi...kinoi...	neither...nor...
...o...	ko...ki...	if and only if...then...
...onoi...	ko...kinoi...	either...or..., but not both.
...u...	nuku...ki...	(...whether...)
...nou...	nukunoi...ki...	not...whether...
...nuu...	ku...ki...	whether..., ...
...nuunoi...	ku...kinoi...	`whether..., not...
...ha...	kiha...ki...	(varies)

(The translations in parentheses aren't forethought connectives in English, which has fewer connectives than Loglan.)

Note the peculiarity of the 'u'-family of connectives: the truth-value of the compound statement depends on the truth-value of only one of the connectands, whereas with all the other connectives, the truth-value of the compound depends on the particular pair of truth-values of the two connectands. Looking back at the sentences of Lesson 6, when you say:

La Deiv, farfu u kicmu
'Dave is a father, whether-or-not (he's) a doctor.'

you are claiming only that Dave is a father, and making no claim at all about whether or not he is a doctor (though you're also suggesting that his being a father in unaffected by the possibility of his being a doctor). This, incidentally, explains why I gave no unoi connective -- it would be making exactly the same assertion as u, so is rarely used. La Deiv, farfu unoi kicmu means: 'Dave is a father, whether-or-not he's not a doctor'!

If you want to assert the reversed relation, but keep the same order of the connectands, you'll use nuu:

La Deiv, farfu nuu kicmu

Here, your claim is only that Dave IS a doctor, and it's his fatherness that's irrelevant to the truth of your claim.

The important technical point to note here is that u appears before the connectand that is NOT being claimed to be true, and that nuu appears before the connectand that IS being claimed. This rule carries over to the kekked form, which explains the rather peculiar transformation rule for u connectands. In detail:

Dave is a father whether-or-not he's a doctor.
Dai farfu u kicmu : (claims farfu, DISclaims a kicmu linkage)

becomes, in kekked form:

Dai nuku farfu ki kicmu : (nuu claims farfu, regardless of kicmu)

And the converse:

Dave, whether-or-not a father, is a doctor.
Dai farfu nuu kicmu : (farfu unclaimed, because nuu claims kicmu)

becomes:

Dai ku farfu ki kicmu : (u DISclaims farfu, so kicmu is claimed.)

As an entertaining exercise, you might work through the application of this rule to the 'u'-family connectives that include 'no' ('noi'); in these cases, of course, you'll be claiming that one of the connectands is false, regardless of the truth of the other one.

Always be careful to keep keks balanced: connect only like things. Ke predicate ki predicate is fine, and so is Ke sentence ki sentence; Ke predicate ki sentence isn't allowed.

10. Without a punctuator such as gu, keks run to the end of their predicate strings. Without gu, the example sentence would group as La Deiv, (ke [mutce gudbi] ki [nurmue (sadji farfu)]) `Dave both is both very good and is a moderately wise-father'. So remember that keks contain everything within their predicate string unless you specifically close them. In the same way, mutce ke gudbi ki sadji mrenu groups as (mutce (ke (gudbi) ki (sadji mrenu))) `extremely both good and also a wise-man'. You would need a gu to separate mrenu 'man' from the kekked modifier: (mutce (ke (gudbi) ki (sadji gu))) mrenu `a very both good and wise, man. ` (Mind you, this could be said more simply and elegantly as mutce gudbi ce sadji mrenu.)

(You've probably noticed that we haven't been using commas after names recently That's because pausing after names when reading aloud is probably automatic for you by this time, and you don't need the comma to remind you to do it. Using a comma after a name is, of course, always permissible. Don't hesitate to use one when there really is a break in thought after a name. But in future we won't mark name-ends with commas automatically in this book, trusting that you, too, now know that, when speaking Loglan, or reading it aloud, Logli always pause after names.

But there's still a problem here. Once we wrote La Betis, he? Now we write La Betis he? Both expressions mean the same thing: 'Betty is (a) what?' But now suppose we want to ask for Betty's last name. How would we say or write that? Simple. We use a shorter pause in speech and capitalize the he as He in text, thus forming an interrogative name:: La Betis He? This now clearly means not 'Betty is a what?' but 'Betty Who?' or 'Betty What?

There's still one pausing problem left. Suppose we want to capitalize all the words in a headline or a section heading, as in this book. How would we discriminate between La Betis he? and La Betis He? then? Again it's simple. We'd fall back on the comma and distinguish between these two senses in our headlines by writing La Betis, He? for one of them and La Betis He? for the other. The former, of course, would mean La Betis he?, and get a distinctly longer pause before He when read aloud than the second headline would get.)

Lopo Purmao

• logla is a part/feature of the Loglan language
• logle is an area/territory frequented/claimed by Loglanists
• logli is a Loglanist
• loglo is a part/feature of Loglan culture

La Logle could be a room or a table in a restaurant where Logli get together. La Junge could refer to Chinatown, or to a Chinese embassy or consulate.

Ethnic predicates, animal predicates, which work along similar lines, and certain predicates borrowed from other languages are the only ones where the final vowel reflects a difference in the predicate's type or meaning.. Normally, Loglan doesn't allow two predicate words which differ only in their final vowel. (This means that if you're unsure of the vowel, you can get away with slurring it, so long as you don't make it an y sound.) This also means that the distinctive meaning of the final vowel is lost when you affix one predicate to another, because that vowel of the first predicate changes to y. Usually this doesn't cause any problems, but you may want to add other affixes to specify (for example) what you mean by Loglanize: loglenmao, logsifmao, logpipmao, or logkulmao for logla, logle, logli, and loglo, respectively. Often, however, logmao will be clear enough.

Ethnic predicates are not capitalized in Loglan as they are in English, unless they are used as names. Thus, le junge (the particular Chinese area you have in mind), but la Junge (Chinatown, etc.).

Sometimes an ethnic predicate isn't the most precise choice. For example, That's a `Chinese consulate' is Ta junge konsysia, but you could also call it mela Junguos, konsysia. More importantly, is a "Mexican" ruler a ruler of Mexico (mela Me'xikos, garni) or a ruler who happens to be Mexican (meksi garni)? (Mekse garni would refer to someone ruling an area which is, in some sense, Mexican; such places are found almost as easily in some parts of the U.S. as in Mexico.)

Lo Nurvia Logla

Vi le mekso resra

Lo Kenti

1. La Toma's, he?
2. Tai kunci hu?
3. Ima he?
4. Tai he vi levi resra?

Lona Cninu Purda

Predicates

Summary: Lesson 7

2. Sheks are formed by prefixing c- to the characteristic vowel of an ek, as in a to ca, noa to noca, nuu to nucu. (The interrogative shek is ciha.) Sheks combine two words into a unit, much as ci does, but with the added idea of logical connection. So shekked predicates share their arguments and act as one word for purposes of modification. You don't have to pause before sheks.

3. Eesheks connect clauses to form compound sentences. They are formed by prefixing i- to a shek (I+ca gives Ica), or, for the interrogative, directly to ha (Iha).

4. Keks connect any two functionally similar units (arguments, predicates, modifiers (or modifier groups), sentences, etc.). They consist of two words. The first word begins with k- and is followed by the basic vowel. If the ek begins with no-, change no- to -noi and attach it at the end of the first word. The second word is ki, or kinoi if the ek ends in -noi. The u-keks have an additional peculiarity: if the ek contains nu-, the kek won't; and if the ek doesn't contain nu-, prefix nu- to the first word of the kek, thus u converts to nuku...ki, and nuu converts to ku...ki. The kekked form of ha is kiha...ki.

5. Loglan writers need not use commas after names unless they wish to. A writer might wish to either to instruct a learner or to break up the flow of text at a particular point.

Nepo Purbalci Cirduo (A Word-Building Exercise [7.1])

Lopo Notlensea Cirduo

Le Retpi

Lo Kenti

1. What is Tomás? (Or, what does he do?)	Tai fremi ce fatru Kai, ice Tai surva vi le mekso resra.
2. T is related to whom?	Tai kunci la Ine's Del Ri,os.
3. What is I?	Ima sorme, e, na socgoi gu Tai. (The gu-construction is called for because e is tensed.)
4. What does T do in the restaurant?	Tai tobsua, ice Tai tcidi vedma, e kamkytaa.