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Re: [lojban-beginners] What actually are the rules of word formation?



On Sun, Apr 19, 2015 at 11:18 AM, TR NS <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:
When I first learned about loglan/lojban I thought all words were of the form `CVCCV` or `CCVCV`, and compound words (lujvo) were always `(CVC|CCV)...CV`. I knew names had more flexibility. Later I learned that borrowed words did too. Even later I learned that compound words too had more flexible rules, e.g. hypen letters. And finally in the end, starring me in the face, it dawned on me that even simple words like `brivla` did not fit the original formations.

And you forgot cmavo. 

After reading a fair bit, I find myself more confused than ever. Are there any single set of definitive rules defining what and what isn't a legal lojban word?

Except for a couple of minor details that only really affect fu'ivla, yes. The rules for gismu and lujvo have been definitive for decades. The most complicated part of the word formation rules are the ones for lujvo. The additional rules needed for fu'ivla are relatively easy, but they are built on top of the lujvo rules, because what is or is not a fu'ivla depends on whether or not it is a lujvo, which have priority. Since gismu, cmavo and cmevla are trivial, and fu'ivla depend on lujvo, you should probably start familiarizing yourself with the lujvo making rules, which you can find in CLL:  http://lojban.github.io/cll/4/11/

mu'o mi'e xorxes

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