Date:         Sat, 31 May 1997 15:18:58 -0400
Reply-To:     Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Sender:       Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From:         Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>
Subject:      Lojban anniversary (English posting)
To:           Multiple recipients of list LOJBAN <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
Message-ID: <865106356.065926.0@vms.dc.lsoft.com>
Content-Length: 2750
Lines: 45


10 years ago this weekend, Gary Burgess, Tommy Whitlock, Nora Tansky (now
my wife), and I sat down on a Memorial Day weekend to determine which of the
various versions of Loglan phonology and morphology wouyld serve as a basis
for the redevelopment of that language.  After two near all-night sessions,
we had compromised somewhere in between James Cooke Brown's original rules for
 Loglan, and the add-ons that he had made in the early 1980s.  We also had
introduced the apostrophe to separate diphthongs from disyllbic vowel pairs
and a few other changes, and determined the population weights to be used to
rebuild the vocabulary (a process that took 6 months of dictionary work and
very slow computer runs on my old 8086 computer).

That redevelopment was then called "Loglan-88" because we targetted it to be
done by the beginning of 1988.  At that point we only planned to redo the words
and were not considering grammar redevelopment, a plan that changed later that
 summer, when the significantly larger group that had become interested met at
my house and we adopted the name "Lojban - A Realization of Loglan" as the
working name.  Now of course, everyone calls it just Lojban, and we have had
5 years of edgy peace since the courts ruled in our favor in the use of
Loglan to refer equally to our efforts as to JCB's original language and the
rump community that still uses that version.

We've come a long way since then, and have a community of skilled spekaers
and writers of the language, a net-published book that will hopefully see
print pretty soon, and maybe also a dictionary as well.  WE've baselined the
 language design, and people all over the world are learning the language, and
sometimes even posting on Lojban List trying to use it (for which I thank all
of you - let us see more in the future).

Loglan/Lojban has been described as the first ever successful language develop-
ment by a committee.  Let us hope it continues as a successful language
development by a community.

lojbab
----
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/"