From LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Sat Mar 6 22:57:17 2010 Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list Date: Mon Jan 06 11:28:22 1997 From: Logical Language Group Subject: Lojban Final Baseline - Preliminary Announcement X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu, tommy@intercon.com To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 10276 X-From-Space-Date: Mon Jan 06 11:28:22 1997 X-From-Space-Address: - Message-ID: PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT by Robert LeChevalier President of The Logical Language Group, Inc. I am pleased to announce that the long-awaited moment is about to arrive. After more than 42 years of work, The Loglan Project has produced a completed language design, which is generally called "Lojban". That completed language design is being turned over to the budding community of Loglan/Lojban speakers and writers for their use and/or application in any way they see fit. The language and language design are being placed irrevocably in the public domain. The formal announcement, of which this is a preliminary issue, will take place on 9 January 1997, subject to approval by the Board of Directors of The Logical Language Group, Inc. There may be changes, and in particular, the status of reference grammar publication described below will be updated to reflect the then-current status. Comments and questions germane to the text of this announcement, and suggested changes for the final announcement are welcome either on Lojban List or sent to me personally at the email address below. NAME Having faithfully adhered to the principles set forth by Loglan Project founder and language inventor James Cooke Brown, the Logical Language Group, which assumed stewardship of the design process in 1987, and incorporated in 1988, considers and declares that "Lojban is Loglan". Backed by a decision of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the use of the name "Loglan", "Loglan/Lojban", and "Lojban", as well as the official name "Lojban- A Realization of Loglan" are all valid for the current language. REFERENCE GRAMMAR STATUS John Cowan has posted the final draft of the Lojban Reference Grammar to the Lojban FTP site, per the address below. The text has been turned into HTML format for easier viewing with HTML/WWW browsers and viewers. (Accurate viewing will require a browser that responds to font directives, and will also require the SIL IPA font and the Symbol font set for correct viewing of non-ASCII symbols including the IPA symbols for the pronunciation guides.) Because the HTML conversion of the text was mostly a manual job, there are irregularities in the conversion. These do not need to be reported to us (yet) since we know there are a lot of them. John will be continuing to work on the HTML early in the next week, and will also make corrections for typos, grammatical errors, and grossly unclear explanations while completing the HTML process. No changes to the technical content or the Lojban language itself are intended, but because the text of the book itself is the description of the baseline, we are holding off formally declaring the baseline until he completes (more of the) formatting. It is intended that the baselined form of the reference grammar will be the HTML format version posted at the time that the baseline takes effect. Following that baseline date, only typos, HTML conversion errors, and other severe errors that cause reader confusion which are identified during the printed book production phase will justify changes to the document, and such changes will be individually documented and made public as a formal change. FINAL LOJBAN DESIGN BASELINE DATE Since the technical work is done, we are now setting a firm date. The final baseline of the Lojban language, as documented in the Lojban Reference Manual, will take place at 0000 GMT on 9 January 1997. This is an arbitrary date, set based on John Cowan's estimate of what remains to be done to complete the HTML conversion. From the standpoint of the Logical Language Group, Inc., THE LOJBAN LANGUAGE DESIGN is considered COMPLETE upon that baseline. LEXICON STATUS AND BASELINE Because the Lojban dictionary has not been completed, the lexicon (consisting of the gismu, cmavo, rafsi assignments, and some lujvo) is only loosely covered by this baseline. The final baseline of the lexicon, and electronic publication of the dictionary is scheduled for 30 June 1997, approximately 6 months from now (a preliminary draft of the dictionary is available at this time on our FTP site). Since we came pretty close to the 1 January 1997 planned date for reference grammar completion, we believe this target date is realistic. Lexical items used in the reference grammar are of course totally baselined as of next week. The only purpose for the 6 month delay is to provide an opportunity to verify the dictionary text for consistency with the rest of the baseline, and to standardize and clarify incomplete definitions of cmavo and lujvo. The amount of documentation change and editing required to complete the dictionary, which is the baseline document for the Lojban lexicon covered therein, requires that we not call that document "final" at this time. The 6 month delay was therefore approved by the membership of LLG voting at LogFest (our annual meeting) last summer). 5 YEAR MINIMUM DESIGN FREEZE At that point, the whole Lojban Language design will not only be complete, but the language definition will be frozen for a minimum period of 5 years, during which period LLG commits itself not to consider ANY change proposals for the language. DEFINITION OF "BASELINE" AND "FREEZE" By using the terms "baseline" and "frozen", LLG is stating that during the minimum 5 year period, it will be committed to supporting the language status quo, and will neither propose nor make any changes to the language design. LLG will actively seek to expand the Lojban user community, and will encourage that community to actively use the language. Presuming that such an active community forms, further language evolution will NOT take place by prescriptive changes produced by the Lojban designers, but rather by the sorts of processes that cause change in natural language. The language freeze will last indefinitely beyond the five year minimum period. LLG's role then will be to promote the language and to serve a research and description function in analyzing how Lojban speakers actually use the language. ALL UNRESOLVED ISSUES TO BE RESOLVED BY ACTUAL USAGE Design points not covered in the reference grammar and/or the dictionary are intended to be resolved by actual usage, preferably by skilled speakers of the language. LLG may report on such usage when questions arise, but will not rule prescriptively on whether the usage is "correct" or not - if a usage occurs in natural communication and it is comprehended and accepted by other Lojbanists, then the usage is de facto "valid". Some Lojban supporters have asked that LLG make specific plans for a language review following the 5 year period, that it establish a committee and/or plan a formal procedure for proposing and discussing proposals during that period for consideration and implementation following the period. The LLG Board of Directors believes that this is contrary to the intended purpose of the baseline and freeze, which is to turn over the design to the users of the language and to remove LLG from ANY prescriptive role which constrains the natural evolution of the language. LLG makes the commitment, however, that should it ever decide to establish any such procedures after the 5 year period, that all discussions of possible changes will occur solely in the Lojban language, ensuring that only actual users of Lojban will participate in any decision process. Editors of publications sponsored by LLG will of course have discretion to accept or reject or edit Lojban text according to their own criteria, which may include conformance with the language prescription. They do so however as individual Lojbanists who are using the language, based on their own competence in the language, and not on behalf of LLG. Similarly, members and officers of LLG who are actively speaking and using the language may express opinions about Lojban text and issues, but do so as Lojban users independent of their LLG roles. EXPERIMENTAL USAGES The Lojban design has been provided some room specifically for trying new ideas. All cmavo of the form "xVV" are formally undefined, as are all cmavo-form words formed by adding one or more apostrophe and additional vowels onto the currently used forms VV and CVV. There is also an untested concept for a specific subset of 6 letter fu'ivla space to be used as experimental "fu'ivla gismu" which would have some ability to be compounded into lujvo (which of course would also be experimental). These wordform spaces may be freely be used to experiment with new usages in actual communication. We intend (but will not enforce) that the "xVV" cmavo space be permanently experimental, meaning that if Lojban users wish to adopt an experimental usage that has been found workable, that they will choose a cmavo from the longer undefined cmavo space for permanent usage. The very small number of undefined cmavo in the regular cmavo space could also be used, but we urge that they be reserved only for the most useful, widely accepted, and frequently used new ideas. Likewise, user additions to the regular 5-letter gismu forms are discouraged. LLG intends to independently verify user-added gismu for consistency with the existing prescription, and will document deviations descriptively, but will not suggest or enforce alterations. Similarly, LLG intends to document new lujvo and fu'ivla that come into use. Consistency or conflict with the lujvo-place structure conventions may be analyzed, but LLG will not suggest or enforce alteration to match the conventions. Recognizing that Type IV fu'ivla are difficult to make and to ensure validity, LLG intends to provide some type of service to Lojbanists who wish to verify that a proposed word follows the prescription. Individual Lojbanists providing this service on behalf of LLG may suggest alterations, but LLG as an organization will not enforce the prescription. ---- lojbab lojbab@access.digex.net Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: ftp.access.digex.net /pub/access/lojbab or see Lojban WWW Server: href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/"