Talk:Lojban grammar

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Style: Lojban texts & English translations

In the Lojban comunity it is common for Lojbanists to bracket Lojban words or phrases like e.g. {coi do ma nuzba}; on this article, the editors (including myself) seem to agree on using italic form instead of brackets, so like e.g. coi do ma nuzba. The English translations, on the other hand, normally have double quotation marks, e.g. "Hi, what's up?". Translations, however, may be without such markings when it is obvious (see the example below). These styles are in accordance with the convention of other language articles.

For the sample texts I have experimented to use colour codes which slightly differentiates the sample's visual appearance from the main paragraph:

mi ba'o klama le zarci
I have-gone-to the-market.

mi capu'o klama le zarci
I am-going-to the-market.

The bolds simply indicate the parts on which the discussion is focusing (this example is from the section "tenses"). This, I hope, would give rise to readability. The colour code is #506060.--Mednak 10:30, 18 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Old discussions

The previous discussions on the content of this article can be found in the archives of Talk:Lojban. --Mednak 11:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Phonology and orthography

I'm no linguist and are therefore not accostumed with linguistic vocabulary. Thus I ask. Is phonology and orthography really a part of the grammar? --Emuzesto 16:30, 17 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Grammar says: "As the word is understood by most modern linguists, the subfields of grammar are phonetics, phonology, orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics".
The grammar is a collection of rules which governs the use of a language. That means that "Lojban grammar" is a set of principles with which people are mutually enabled to utilize it as a communal communication device. Phonology and orthography are definitely part of such principles. If they are not correctly practiced or understood among the users, transmission of the expressed ideas/information will be defective in some way or may even be impossible. An allegedly Lojbanic expression like mi.Nelshi tuHa qo'awi will be problematic for Lojbanists because its orthography is not in accordance with what is commonly shared by themselves, and this is precisely an indication of the fact that orthography is by no means unrelated to the core system in whcih strings of letters or words become viable expressions of a language. The same goes for phonology. When you err either in the orthography or phonology, your expression will be ungrammatical, just like putting a preposition in a wrong place will make your sentence invalid.
I'm not a linguist either, by the way. --Mednak 17:51, 17 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

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Style: Lojban texts & English translations

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Phonology and orthography