🚀 go-pugleaf

Copyright, 1988-1991, by the Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane,
Fairfax	VA 22031-1303 USA Phone	(703) 385-0273
lojbab@grebyn.com

All rights reserved.  Permission to copy granted subject to your
verification that this is the latest version of	this document, that your
distribution be	for the	promotion of Lojban, that there	is no charge for
the product, and that this copyright notice is included	intact in the
copy.

		    What is Lojban?	  la lojban mo
     Lojban (/LOZH-bahn/) is a constructed language.  Originally called
"Loglan" by project founder Dr.	James Cooke Brown, who started the lan-
guage development in 1955, the goals for the language were first described
in the article "Loglan"	in Scientific American,	June, 1960.  Made well-
known by that article and by occasional	references in science fiction and
computer publications, Loglan/Lojban has been built over three decades by
dozens of workers and hundreds of supporters, led since	1987 by	The Logi-
cal Language Group, now	incorporated as	a non-profit scientific/educa-
tional charity approved	by the U.S. Government for tax-deductible dona-
tions.
     There are many artificial languages, but Loglan/Lojban has	been engi-
neered to make it unique in several ways.  The following are the main fea-
tures of Lojban:

o   Lojban is designed to be used by people in communication with each
	other, and possibly in the future with computers.
o   Lojban is designed to be culturally	neutral.
o   Lojban grammar is based on the principles of logic.
o   Lojban has an unambiguous grammar.
o   Lojban has phonetic	spelling, and unambiguous resolution of	sounds
	into words.
o   Lojban is simple compared to natural languages; it is easy to learn.
o   Lojban's 1300 root words can be easily combined to form a vocabulary
	of millions of words.
o   Lojban is regular; the rules of the	language are without exception.
o   Lojban attempts to remove restrictions on creative and clear thought
	and communication.
o   Lojban has a variety of uses, ranging from the creative to the scien-
	tific, from the	theoretical to the practical.

     The following sections examine each of these points, while	answering
the questions most often asked about Lojban.


Why was	Lojban developed?

     Lojban was	originally designed for	the purpose of supporting research
on a concept known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.  Simply expressed, this
hypothesis states that the structure of	a language constrains the thinking
of people using	that language.	Lojban allows the full expressive capabil-
ity of a natural language, but differs in structure from other languages
in major ways.	This allows its	use as a test vehicle for scientists
studying the relationships between language, thought, and culture.


Are there other	uses for Lojban?

     Yes, several.  Due	to its unambiguous grammar and simple structure,
it also	can be easily parsed (broken down for analysis)	by computers, mak-
ing it possible	for Lojban to be used in the future for	computer-human
interaction, and perhaps conversation.	Lojban's structure is similar to
existing artificial intelligence (AI) programming languages, and will
likely be a most powerful tool in AI processing, especially in the storing
and processing of data about the world and people's conceptions	of it.
There are also linguists interested in Lojban's	potential as an	intermedi-
ate language in	computer-aided translation of natural languages.  Because
Lojban was designed to be culturally neutral, and has a	powerful vocabu-
lary easily learned by people of different language origins, some are in-
terested in Lojban's potential as an international language.  These are
only the beginnings of the Lojban applications that will be developed in
the future.
				    2
Is Lojban a computer language?

     Lojban was	designed as a human language, and not as a computer lan-
guage.	It is therefore	intended for use in conversation, reading, writ-
ing, and thinking.  However, since Lojban can be processed by a	computer
much more easily than can a natural language, it is only a matter of time
before Lojban-based computer applications are developed.  Learning and us-
ing Lojban doesn't require you to know anything	about computers	or to talk
like one.

How is Lojban written?	How does it sound?

     Lojban uses letters of the	Roman alphabet to represent its	6 vowels
and 17 consonants; the Lojban character	set uses only standard typewriter
or computer keyboard keys; capitalization is rare - used to indicate un-
usual stress in	the pronunciation of names.  Punctuation is spoken as
words.	The written language corresponds exactly to the	sounds of the spo-
ken language; spelling is phonetic and unambiguous, and	the flowing sounds
of the language	break down uniquely into words.	 These features	make com-
puter speech recognition and transcription more	practical.  Learning to
write and spell	Lojban is trivial.
     Lojban has	a smooth, rhythmic sound, somewhat like	Italian.  However,
its consonants create a	fullness and power found in Slavic languages like
Russian, and the large number of vowel pairs impart a hint of Chinese,
Polynesian, and	other Oriental tongues,	though without the tones that make
those languages	difficult for others to	learn.
     Because there are no idioms to shorten expressions, Lojban	often ap-
pears longer than its corresponding colloquial English text.  The unam-
biguous	structure that results is a major benefit that makes this worth-
while.
     As	an example of Lojban, Occam's Razor ("The simplest explanation is
usually	the best.") may	be translated:

	roda poi velciksi ku'o so'eroi ke ganai	sampyrai gi xagrai
 /roh-dah-poi-vehl-SHEEK-see-KOO-hoh, soh-heh-ROI-keh, GAH-nai-SAHM-puh-
			   rai,	gee, KHAH-grai/
All somethings-which-are-explanations mostly-are (if superlatively-simple
			then superlatively-good).

     The apostrophe is pronounced like a short,	breathy	'h', and is used
to clearly separate the	two adjacent vowels for	a listener, without re-
quiring	a pause	between	them.


What kind of grammar does Lojban have?

     Lojban's grammar was not copied from any known language; rather, its
predicate grammar was derived from that	of formal logic.  Philosophers and
logicians have for many	years realized that as language	developed, nouns,
verbs and adjectives were chosen rather	arbitrarily to represent concepts.
The logicians developed	a notation and a science (predicate calculus) to
represent those	concepts more directly and simply.  For	example, "John
hits Sam", "John is the	uncle of Sam" and "John	is taller than Sam" are
all simple relationships between John and Sam.	However, while English
represents the major concepts with a noun, a verb and an adjective respec-
tively,	in formal logic	notation they are all represented by 2-place pred-
icates (the two	places being occupied by John and Sam).	 Lojban	similarly
represents these concepts by grammatically identical words.  What this
means is that Lojban sentences are stated as sets of ideas (called
"arguments") tied together by relations	(called	"predicates").	This is
different from languages with which you	may be familiar, but various logic
systems	and methods based on predicate structures have been the	basis of
intellectual thought since logic was invented by the ancient Greeks.

				    3
     These predicate structures	can be used to express 'non-logical'
thought.  Logicians are	able to	analyze	all manner of verbal expressions
by converting them into	predicate notation.  But while Lojban will already
be expressed in	a predicate-based system, allowing easy	logical	analysis,
it also	contains the wide variety of elements found in natural language
for expression of attitudes, emotions, and rich	metaphor.
     Thus, Lojban has none of the standard parts of speech with	which you
may be familiar.  Lojban's 'predicate words' ("brivla")	are all	of the
same part of speech.  Each can serve as	the equivalent of a noun, verb,
adjective, or adverb.  ("Cradle" is an example of an English word that
acts somewhat in this way.)  Thus, "blanu" ("blue") conveys an active verb
sense (emitting	blue light or absorbing	other colors), as well as denoting
"a blue	thing".	 "blanu" can also modify other words to	indicate blueness.
"kurji"	indicates the verb "take care of", but also can	mean "caretaker",
or "caring".  Action and existence are equally accessible to a speaker;
the distinction	can be ignored,	or can be explicitly expressed by associ-
ating concepts in "tanru" metaphors with "gasnu" ("do"), "zasti"
("exist"), "zukte" ("act with purpose"), with a	variety	of 'operators'
dealing	with abstractions such as events, states, properties, amounts,
ideas, experience, and truth, or with four pre-defined varieties of
causality (others can be developed through metaphor).
     A major benefit of	using a	predicate grammar is that Lojban doesn't
have mandatory inflections and declensions on nouns, verbs, and	adjec-
tives.	Most natural languages have evolved such variations to reduce am-
biguity	as to how words	are related in a sentence.  Evolutionary develop-
ment has made these inflections	and declensions	highly irregular and thus
difficult to learn.  Lojban uses the simple but	flexible predicate rela-
tionship to erase both the irregularity	and the	declensions.
     Tense and location	markers	(inflections), adverbs,	and prepositions
are combined into one part of speech.  New preposition-like forms can be
built at will from predicates; these allow the user to expand upon a sen-
tence by attaching and relating	clauses	not normally implied in	the mean-
ing of a word.
     Numbers and quantifiers are conceptually expanded from natural lan-
guages.	 "Many", "enough", "too	much", "a few",	and "at	least" are among
concepts that are expressed as numbers in Lojban.  Thus	"it costs $3.95"
and "it	costs too much"	are grammatically identical, and one can talk of
being "enoughth	in line" for tickets to	a sellout movie.  Core concepts	of
logic, mathematics, and	science	are built into the root	vocabulary.  They
enhance	discussion of those topics, and	are surprisingly useful	in ordi-
nary speech, too.
     Predicate logic can express a wide	variety	of human thought; Lojban
adds in	non-logical constructs that do not affect or obscure the logical
structure, allowing communications that	are not	amenable to logical analy-
sis.  For example, Lojban has a	full set of emotional indicators which al-
low expression of intensity and	denial.	 These are similar to such ejacu-
lations	in English as "Oh!", "Aha!", and "Wheee!", but each has	a specific
meaning.  Similarly, Lojban has	indicators of the speaker's relationship
to what	is said	(Is it hearsay,	direct observation, logical deduction,
etc.?) similar to those	found in some American Indian languages.
     Lojban supports metalinguistic discussion about the sentences being
spoken while remaining unambiguous.  ("This sentence is	not true" need not
be a paradox in	Lojban.)  Lojban also supports a variety of 'tense' logic
that allows extreme specificity	of time	and space (and space-time) rela-
tionships, even	those implied by the concept of	time travel.  A	sub-
stantial portion of Lojban's grammar is	designed to support unambiguous
statement of mathematical expressions and relations in a manner	compatible
both with international	usage and Lojban's non-mathematical grammar.
     Lojban 'parts of speech' are convertible from one to another by using
short structure	words (called "cmavo").	 One can make numbers serve as
nouns or verbs,	or can invent new numbers and prepositions.  Lojban re-
moves many of the constraints on human thought while preserving	tight con-
trol on	structural syntax.

				    4
Lojban seems complex.  How hard	is it to learn?

     Lojban is actually	much simpler than natural languages.  Its grammar
is comparable in complexity with the current generation	of computer lan-
guages (such as	ADA).  Lojban seems complex only because the varieties of
human thought are complex, and Lojban is designed to minimize constraints
on those thoughts.  Lojban text	appears	longer and more	complex	due to its
lack of	idiom, its complete revelation of logical structure, and most im-
portantly, its unfamiliarity.  On the other hand, conversational speech
uses less than half of the possible grammatical	structures, leaving the
rest for writing and for other circumstances when one is likely	to take
time to	carefully formulate exact logical phrasings.
     Lojban's pronunciation, spelling, word formation, and grammar rules
are fixed, and the language is free of exceptions to these rules.  Rule
exceptions are the bane	of learning and	correctly speaking natural lan-
guages.	 Without the burden of ambiguity, Lojban users can be precise and
specific more easily than in other languages.
     Because Lojban's grammar is simple, it is easier to learn than other
languages.  A working vocabulary including the complete	set of 1300 root
words takes about 8-12 weeks of	study at 1 hour	per day.  In Lojban
classes	taught since 1989, the equivalent of a one semester of study (60
class-hours) allows conversational usage depending only	on memorizing vo-
cabulary, regular practice and communicative interaction with others.
Natural	languages, especially English, have been determined to take sev-
eral years to learn to a comparable level of skill.
     The Lojban	teaching materials are being designed so that you can
learn the language without classroom instruction, and possibly without a
close community	of speakers.  Communication practice with others is needed
to achieve fluency, but	you can	start using the	language as you	achieve
proficiency.


If Lojban was invented in 1960,	why aren't there more speakers now?

     The language, then	called "Loglan", was first described in	the
1950's,	by Dr. James Cooke Brown.  The 1960 Scientific American	article
"Loglan" was his call for assistance in	developing the language.  A revo-
lution in linguistics was simultaneously taking	place, resulting in a
rapidly	increasing knowledge of	the nature of human language, thus chang-
ing the	requirements for the developing	language.  The first widely dis-
tributed Loglan	dictionary and language	description did	not appear until
1975; the incompleteness of this description and continued development
work discouraged people	from learning the language.  Furthermore, comput-
ers caught up with Loglan just then, making it possible	to refine the
grammar, eliminate ambiguity and mathematically	prove its absence.  For
over 35	years, this work has been performed by volunteers, and without fi-
nancial	support.  Now, after several versions of the language, people are
learning and using the current version,	which is the first called "Lojban"
(from the roots	"logical-language" in Lojban).

This version is	the first version with a stable	vocabulary, and	the first
to have	a stable and completely	defined	grammar	(the grammar of	mathemati-
cal expressions, for example, was not developed	until 1990).  The basic
Lojban vocabulary was baselined	(stabilized against change) in the last
half of	1988, and the grammar similarly	stabilized in late-1990, after
completion of the first	Lojban courses,	actual usage of	the language, and
several	iterations of careful analysis.	 Thus, in an important sense, Loj-
ban is a very new language.
     To	ensure Lojban remains stable while people learn	it, the	language
definition is being closely controlled.	 When the number of speakers has
grown significantly, and a Lojban literature has developed, Lojban will	be
treated	like a natural language	and allowed to grow and	flourish without
constraint, as do other	natural	languages.

				    5
     Those first speakers of Lojban have a unique opportunity.	They are
the history-makers who will shape the flavor of	the first totally new lan-
guage to achieve broad speakability.  Their ideas will be most influential
in setting the patterns	of usage that others will learn	from.  Their
experiences will teach things about language that have never before been
learned	- or learnable.


What do	you mean by unambiguous?

     Lojban has	an unambiguous grammar (proven by computer analysis of a
formal grammar), pronunciation,	and morphology (word forms).  In practice
this means that	the person who reads or	hears a	Lojban sentence	is never
in doubt as to what words it contains or what roles they play in the sen-
tence.	This is	true even if the words are unfamiliar, so long as the
spelling and grammar rules are known.  Lojban has no words that	sound
alike but have different meanings (like	"herd" and "heard"), that have
multiple unrelated meanings ("set"), or	that differ only in punctuation
but not	in sound (like the abominable "its" and	"it's").  There	is never
any doubt about	where words begin and end (if you hear "cargo shipment",
do you hear 2, 3, or 4 words?).	 Most important, the function of each word
is inescapably clear; there is nothing like the	English	sentence "Time
flies like an arrow.", in which	any of the first three words could be the
verb.
     This precision in no way confines the meaning of a	Lojban sentence.
It is possible to be fanciful or ridiculous, to	tell a lie, or to be
misunderstood.	You can	be very	specific, or you can be	intentionally
vague.	Your hearer may	not understand what you	meant, but will	always un-
derstand what you said.


Can poetry be written in a 'logical' language or an 'unambiguous' one?

     Original poetry has already been written in Lojban, and some has been
translated into	the language.  Lojban's	powerful metaphor structure allows
you to build concepts into words easily, as you	need them.  A Lojban
speaker	doesn't	need a dictionary to use and understand	millions of words
that can potentially exist in the language.  The absence of cultural con-
straints makes consideration of	new ideas and relationships easier than	in
natural	languages, spurring creativity.	 Lojban	aids in	communicating ab-
stractions by identifying their	nature explicitly.  Lojban is a	thus a
very powerful language,	not only for poetry, but for discussing	such ab-
stract fields as philosophy, physics, metaphysics, and religion.
     Lojban has	an unambiguous grammar and its sounds and spelling are
unambiguous.  Lojban is	NOT entirely unambiguous; human	beings occasion-
ally desire to be ambiguous in their expressions.  In Lojban, this ambigu-
ity is limited to semantics, metaphor, and intentional omission	of infor-
mation (ellipsis).
     Semantic ambiguity	results	because	words in natural languages repre-
sent families of concepts rather than individual meanings.  These meanings
often have only	weak semantic relationships to each other (the English
word "run" is an outstanding example).	In addition, each individual's
personal experiences provide emotional connotations to words.  By provid-
ing a fresh, culturally-neutral	start, Lojban attempts to minimize the
transference of	these associations as people learn the language.  (Most
Lojban words do	not much resemble corresponding	words in other languages;
the differences	aid in making this fresh start possible.
     Lojban's powerful metaphor	and word-building features make	it easy	to
make fine distinctions between concepts.  This discourages the tendency
for individual words to	acquire	families of meanings.  Lojban metaphors
(called	"tanru") are themselves	ambiguous; they	specify	a relationship be-
tween concepts,	but not	what the relationship is.  That	relationship can
be made	explicit using unambiguous logical constructs if necessary, or can

				    6
be left	vague as the speaker (usually) desires.	 Similarly, portions of
the logical structure of a Lojban expression can be omitted, greatly sim-
plifying the expression	while causing some ambiguity.  Unlike in the natu-
ral languages, though, this ambiguity is readily identified by a reader	or
listener.  Thus	all ambiguity in Lojban	is constrained and recognizable,
and can	be clarified as	necessary by further interaction.
     Lojban poets are already experimenting with new (and old) forms of
poetry that seem especially well suited	to the rhythm, sound, and flow of
the language.  Not since the Middle Ages have poets had	such an	opportu-
nity to	affect the development of a new	language, as they now can with
Lojban.	 Lojban's rich and powerful tanru have been used to create color-
ful images and to convey moving	emotions.  Unhindered by grammatical ambi-
guity that can obscure desired meanings, Lojban	unleashes the full poten-
tial of	poetic expression to communicate both concrete and abstract ideas.


Can you	make jokes in an unambiguous language?

     Most humor	arises from situation and character and	is as funny in
Lojban as in any language.  Humor based	on word	play, of course, is lan-
guage-dependent.  Lojban has no	homonyms, and hence no simple puns; puns
derived	from similar sounds are	still possible.	 Since Lojban will almost
always be a second language, bilingual puns and	word play abound, often
based on the relative ambiguity	of the other languages involved.  Humor
based on internal grammatical ambiguity	is of course impossible	in Lojban,
but humor based	on nonsensical statements or on	logical	structures that
would be difficult to clearly express in another language, become easier.
     As	speakers become	fluent,	and conventional phrases come into use,
Lojban will develop its	own forms of spoonerisms and subtle puns.  Unique
forms of Lojban	word-play have already turned up; they exploit the way
small variations in Lojban grammar create unexpected variations	in mean-
ing, and the capability	to simply express rather mind-boggling relation-
ships.	Like all word-play, these lose zest when translated into other
languages.
     Related to	humor is the aphorism:	the pithy saying that gains pun-
gency or poignancy from	terse, elegant phrasing.  Lojban seems as capable
of aphorisms as	any language, perhaps more than	most; however, because the
language is so young, such aphorisms are still rare.


What is	the Sapir-Whorf	hypothesis?

     The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis	states that the	structure of a language
constrains thought in that language, and constrains and	influences the
culture	that uses it.  In other	words, if concepts or structural patterns
are difficult to express in a language,	the society and	culture	using the
language will tend to avoid them.  Individuals might overcome this bar-
rier, but the society as a whole will not.  The	Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is
important, and controversial; it can be	used as	a sociological argument	to
justify	or to oppose racism and	sexism (and a variety of other 'isms').
For example, the assertion that	since genderless expressions in	English
use 'masculine'	forms, English is 'sexist', presumes the Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis is true.  Understanding the potential for Sapir-Whorf effects
could lead to better inter-cultural understanding, promoting communication
and peace.
     It	is known that people's ideas and thought change	somewhat when they
learn a	foreign	language.  It is not known whether this	change is due to
exposure to a different	culture	or even	just getting outside of	ones own
culture.  It is	also not known how much	(if any) of the	change is due to
the nature of the language, as opposed to the cultural associations.
     The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis	was important in linguistics in	the
1950's,	but interest fell off partially	because	properly testing it was	so
difficult.  Lojban is a	new approach to	such testing.  Obviously, if a

				    7
culture-independent language could be taught to	groups of people, the ef-
fects of language could	more easily be separated from those of culture.
     Unique features of	Lojban remove constraints on language in the areas
of logic, ambiguity, and expressive power, opening up areas of thought
that have not been easily accessible by	human language before.	Meanwhile,
the formal rigidity of the language definition allows speakers to care-
fully control their expressions	(and perhaps therefore their thought pro-
cesses).  This gives some measure of predictive	power that can be used in
designing and preparing	for actual Sapir-Whorf experiments.
     One of the	prerequisites of a Sapir-Whorf experiment is an	interna-
tional body of Lojban speakers.	 We need to be able to teach Lojban to
subjects who know only their native (non-English) tongue, and we need to
know in	advance	the difficulties that people from each language	and cul-
ture will have in learning Lojban.  Thus, the Lojban community is actively
reaching out to	speakers of languages other than English.
     Lojban does not need to prove or disprove the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
in order to be successful.  However, if	evidence is produced supporting
the Sapir-Whorf	effect,	Lojban will likely be perceived	as an outstanding
tool of	analytical and creative	thought.


How else might Lojban be used by scientists studying language?

     An	artificial language (AL) is a simple model of a	natural	language.
It is used for communication like natural languages, simpler, more regu-
lar, and relatively uncontaminated by culture effects.	Unlike most natu-
ral languages, an AL has not evolved through naturally processes of inter-
nal change or contact with other languages.  In	addition, to the extent	to
which details of an AL is pre-defined, the internal structure of the lan-
guage is far better known than that of any natural language.
     Such a pre-definition, a language 'prescription', makes an	AL a
unique tool for	studying the nature of language.  As people learn the lan-
guage, the way they 'acquire' understanding of that prescription can tell
scientists how 'natural' the prescribed	forms are.  Actual usage of the
language can be	compared to the	prescription providing quantitative data
on specific patterns of	usage.	As the language	evolves	from its rela-
tively pristine	initial	state, it may start to deviate from its	prescrip-
tion.  Any such	deviations will	better inform researchers as to	the prop-
erties of a 'natural' language.	 The process of	language change	itself
will of	course be open to investigation	in a way never before possible.
Finally, the existence of a relatively complete	language prescription at
the birth of the language means	that a 'description' of	actual usage after
that initial state can be more simply created, maintained, and studied.
     Lojban is undoubtedly the most carefully designed and defined AL ever
created.  All aspects of its design have been carefully	engineered by sev-
eral people encompassing expertise in a	variety	of disciplines,	including
linguistics.  The language prescription	is similarly the most complete of
any language.  As such,	it serves as a unique basis for	the study of lan-
guage usage and	language change.
     A new language like Lojban, with no native	speakers, is termed a
'pidgin'.  As the language evolves, native speakers of other languages
will learn it, and will	bring into their Lojban	usage the perspective and
patterns of their native language.  This interaction process, called
'creolization',	affects	all languages, and may be the principle	cause of
language change.  As Lojban is learned by speakers of a	variety	of natural
languages, this	process	can be studied directly	in a way never before pos-
sible, with the	language prescription serving as a standard by which devi-
ations associated with speaker origin, and evolution of	usage, can be mea-
sured and described in detail.
     An	AL like	Lojban has neither an associated 'native accent' nor a
culture	base.  Being much simpler and more regular than	a natural lan-
guage, an adult	speaker	should acquire a fluency seldom	achieved when
studying a natural language, and in a relatively short time.  Lojban thus

				    8
makes possible relatively short-term studies of	language learning and lan-
guage change.  Processes that take generations in natural languages may	be
observed in a few years	in Lojban speakers.
     With the learning of other	languages acquiring critical importance	in
today's	international economy, Lojban provides a tool for researching in
language acquisition.  Again, Lojban's simplicity allows the results of
such research to be obtained more quickly than in similar studies of natu-
ral language acquisition.
     No	claim is made that studying Lojban will	tell 'all' about language.
Lojban,	at least for several decades, will only	be a 'model' of	a lan-
guage, whose 'naturalness' will	be suspect.  However, to the extent that
Lojban serves the communicative	and expressive functions of human lan-
guage, any theory about	the nature of human language must apply	to Lojban.
Language features and processes	identified in studying Lojban can then be
confirmed in natural languages.	 Similarly, theories of	the nature of lan-
guage can be tested and	refined	against	this simpler model of a	language
before facing the more difficult and time-consuming testing and	analysis
involved in natural language research.
     Because Lojban is relatively culture-free,	and because of its pre-
scribed	structure that is consistent with predicate logic, Lojban is an
ideal medium for the analysis and description of other languages.  Cur-
rently,	features in language must be compared against other natural lan-
guages,	and are	usually	described in scientific	literature by glossed
translation into English.  Lojban is simple and	regular	enough to be ac-
quired as a metalanguage for describing	other languages; its structures
allow clearer reflection of the	patterns of the	language being described,
without	interference from the competing	patterns of English.
     Finally, Lojban's predicate grammar, makes	it eminently suited for
ongoing	computer research into natural languages.  Lojban can be used for
parsing	and analysis, as an internal medium of data storage, or	as an in-
termediate language for	machine	translation.  Having a combination of log-
ical and natural language structures, Lojban combines the best of both ma-
jor structural approaches to language processing in computers.
     The exercise of trying to invent a	language can teach us things about
language that probably can't be	learned	in any other way.  Even	if Lojban
should fail as a language, we will learn.  However, to the extent Lojban
succeeds, its potential	as a basis for testing ideas about language, its
structure, and usage, is unlimited.  The invention of Lojban is	the inven-
tion of	the science of experimental linguistics.


Isn't Esperanto	the 'international language'?

     There have	been hundreds of international languages developed, of
which Esperanto	is the most successful and widely known.  Esperanto, like
most other such	languages, was based on	European languages in both grammar
and vocabulary.	 The inherent cultural bias makes Esperanto unsuited for
most of	the purposes that Lojban was designed for.
     Lojban is culturally neutral.  Its	vocabulary was built algorithmi-
cally using today's six	most widely spoken languages:  Chinese,	English,
Hindi, Russian,	Spanish, and Arabic.  Lojban's words thus show roots in
three major families of	languages spoken by most of the	world's	people.
Lojban's grammar accommodates structures found in non-European languages,
and uses sounds	found in most of the world's languages.	 Coupled with the
potential computer applications	that will make Lojban a	useful language	to
know, it is believed that Lojban's potential as	an international language
is more	far-reaching than Esperanto's.
     Lojban was	not designed primarily to be an	international language,
but rather as a	linguistic tool	for studying and understanding language.
Linguistic and computer	applications make Lojban unique	among proposed
international languages, in that Lojban	can be successful without immedi-
ately being accepted and adopted everywhere, and Lojban	can be useful and

				    9
interesting even to those skeptical of or hostile towards the interna-
tional language	movement.
     Lojban also is not	in direct competition with Esperanto, in that Loj-
ban's potential	success	is not dependent on its	immediate practical use	as
an international language.  Lojban has proven attractive to Esperantists
interested in acquiring	a new perspective on their own international lan-
guage',	who feel less threatened because Lojban	has different goals.  Loj-
ban's supporters recognize that	it will	take decades for Lojban	to acquire
both the number	and variety of speakers	and the	extensive history of usage
that marks Esperanto culture.  Meanwhile, each language	community has much
to learn from each other; this process has started and is most active.


How about English as an	international language?

     English is	commonly used as an 'international language' in	the fields
of science and technology, and is probably the most-widely spoken language
in the world.  American	dominance of technology	this century has caused
massive	borrowing from English into other languages that do not	have words
for all	these new concepts.  This dominance, and a heritage of colonialism
and imperialism	that built resentment towards American and European impo-
sitions	on native culture, has caused recent movements in other	countries
away from English.  The	rising influence of Japan and other countries on
world economics, science, and technology makes further declines	in En-
glish's	universality likely.
     In	addition, most who know	English	as a second language speak it only
minimally, though they may be able to read or understand many words.  In
fact, English is one of	the most difficult languages to	learn fluently.
In countries where English is spoken along with	other languages, it has
been adapted into dialects which match the local culture and borrow words
from the other local languages.	 Some of these dialects	are as much as 70%
unintelligible to American or British speakers,	or to each other.  As
such, there is no single English language to call an 'international' one.
     Lojban is a single	language, with design features to discourage
dialectization.	 While it was developed	primarily by Americans and sup-
ports the full range of	expression of English, Lojban's	cultural neutral-
ity gives equal	priority to the	structures and concepts	of other languages
and cultures.  This cultural neutrality	enhances Lojban's acceptability	as
an international language.  Since it is	as capable of generating or bor-
rowing any words needed	to support the concepts	of science and technology
as English, and	has advantages for computer applications, Lojban is likely
to spread worldwide through the	technological community.  Far more so than
English, Lojban	is simple and easy to learn for	people of all cultures.


Why should I learn Lojban?

     There are several reasons for learning the	language now.  Those who
are working with the language now are actively consulted for their opin-
ions on	how to teach and spread	the language.  Within a	few weeks of work
learning the material already written and some of the vocabulary, you will
be able	to work	with those who have already started.  You will be a sig-
nificant part of this small but	rapidly	growing	community.  You	will re-
ceive personalized attention to	any problems you have with the language
from those leading the effort.	If you are truly ambitious and committed
to the language, you are welcome to join in that leadership.
     Those with	a computer background who learn	the language now will be
the leaders in developing the first meaningful computer	applications for
the language.  Expertise in the	language will no doubt be valuable as Loj-
ban becomes recognized as a useful tool	for computer applications by the
computer industry.  Meanwhile, computer-oriented Lojbanists can	also aid
in developing computer-aided instruction tools or converting existing
software to run	on new computers.

				    10
     Those without a computer orientation will also find Lojban	a valuable
language.  You may be interested in the	Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,	and in the
scientific tests to be planned and conducted, or in other language-related
research.  You may be interested in Lojban's potential as international
language, and in the attempts to use the language to reach across cultural
bounds.
     Regardless	of your	background, you	will find learning Lojban to be	a
mind-expanding experience.  Learning any language other	than your native
tongue broadens	your perspectives and allows you to transcend the limited
viewpoints of your native language culture.  Lojban, being much	simpler	to
learn than natural languages, provides this benefit much more quickly than
does the study of other	languages.
     Having learned Lojban, you	will find it easier to learn other lan-
guages and to communicate with people from other backgrounds, regardless
of the language	studied; the linguistic	principles you learn while learn-
ing Lojban are applicable to these languages and communication problems.
It is believed that, for anyone	planning to later learn	other languages,
the short time spent learning Lojban will be made up by	the reduced time
needed later to	learn those others.
     Studies in	the 1930's, for	example, demonstrated that students could
acquire	greater	skill in French	through	one semester of	Esperanto followed
by one semester	of French, than	they could by a	full year course in
French.	 Lojban	offers similar benefits, less likely to	be limited to Eu-
ropean languages.  For example,	structures in Japanese that are	difficult
to explain in English because they are so unlike English usage are much
easier to explain using	Lojban patterns.
     The logical organization embedded in Lojban will aid you in organiz-
ing and	clarifying your	thoughts.  Having done so, your	new perspective	on
language, ambiguity, and communication will allow you to express those
thoughts more clearly, even when you use an ambiguous natural language.
     A short introductory course in Lojban for high school (or younger)
students has been proposed.  A relatively short	study of Lojban	would pro-
vide the linguistic understanding that was once	associated with	studying
Latin and other	languages for much longer periods of time.  Such study can
be tied	in with	concepts of logic, and possibly	with computer-related
activities, helping to show the	essential interrelated nature of language
and other human	endeavor.
     You needn't learn Lojban for any practical	purpose, however.  Many,
if not most, of	those who are learning Lojban are doing	so because it is
fun.  Learning Lojban is intellectually	stimulating, providing human in-
teraction (a way to meet other people and get to know them) and	mental
challenge.  Lojban has all the benefits	of games designed for entertain-
ment, with the added prospect of that entertainment possibly developing
into a useful skill as a side benefit.
     Learning Lojban as	an 'intellectual toy' means that you can get en-
joyment	from learning Lojban without nearly the	effort needed to benefit
from studying other languages.	While becoming fluent in Lojban	will prob-
ably take hundreds of hours over several months, you can feel some sense
of accomplishment in the language after	just a couple of hours of study.
You can	use Lojban immediately for fun,	while gaining skill with greater
experience.

How do I learn Lojban?

     If	you received this brochure by mail, you	probably also received an
overview of the	language design	and structures,	and possibly other materi-
als such as an introductory lesson.  If	you obtained this brochure via
computer transmission, these added materials are probably available via
the same source.  If you have not received these materials, you	may write
to The Logical Language	Group, Inc. at the address found at the	end of
this brochure, and we will be happy to provide them.  We request a contri-
bution of $5 to	cover the costs	of these materials (listed on the Regis-
tration	form as	"Package 0").

				    11
     (We ask that those	obtaining our materials	by computer register your
interest with us by postal or computer mail, and that you consider con-
tributing to The Logical Language Group	to help	offset our continuing
costs in general support of the	Lojban community.  We currently	spend an
average	of over	$20 U.S. per year per known member of the community, sev-
eral of	whom cannot pay	either due to finances or overseas currency ex-
change difficulties; any amount	you contribute will be helpful.)
     Once you have read	these initial materials, there are several direc-
tions you may proceed, depending on your time, location, and other circum-
stances, and your goals	for use	of the language.
     Most people learning the language will work for some time on their
own before working with	others.	 We recommend where possible, that you
identify at least one other person to study and	interact with, either in
person or by mail.  The	Logical	Language Group maintains lists of Lojban
students of various degrees of skill and activity levels.  There is also
at least one active computer mail exchange list	accessible from	Internet,
Usenet,	Compuserve, and	possibly with some work	from FIDOnet.  Information
will be	found at the end of this brochure.
     Almost any	use you	wish to	make of	Lojban requires	some degree of
mastery	of the basic vocabulary.  You can learn	enough Lojban grammar to
support	conversation in	just a couple of hours,	but you	will need vocabu-
lary in	order to use that grammar.
     You can learn the Lojban vocabulary using flash cards; The	Logical
Language Group distributes a set of cards and we have developed	flash card
techniques that	are extremely efficient	in helping you learn the vocabu-
lary.  The flash card technique	has been automated into	computer-aided-
teaching programs sold under the name "LogFlash", with MS-DOS and MacIn-
tosh versions currently	available.
     (Other computer-aided-instruction programs	are available or under
development, and a Lojban grammar-checking parser will be available in
mid-1991 for several computer environments.  At	least one interactive game
program	using Lojban text and commands is under	development in 1991.)
     You can learn the Lojban grammar in several ways, including study of
examples in the	quarterly journal ju'i lobypli or by inspection	and analy-
sis of the formal grammar description (written for use with the	computer
language tool "YACC" - this option is most practical for people	who have
studied	computer languages using similar descriptions).	 A simplified ver-
sion of	the latter in 'E-BNF notation' is found	in "Package 1" and the
complete formal	grammar	is found in "Package 2", both available	from The
Logical	Language Group.
     Draft lesson materials are	distributed as "Package	3" by The Logical
Language Group,	and are	the best materials available for self-study.  The
materials consist of 6 draft lessons totalling 283 pages, an additional
non-lesson description of 'negation' grammar in	Lojban,	and an outline
showing	topics not addressed in	the lessons and	a suggested order of study
that can be pursued using 'Package 1 and 2' materials.
     Lojban classes have been taught intermittently since early	1989.  A
Lojban textbook	is being written to reflect what is learned from these
first learning efforts.	 The textbook is being designed	so that	it can be
used for self-instruction, classroom teaching, or group	study.	The Logi-
cal Language Group will	let you	know of	any planned study group	activities
in your	area, and will announce	the textbook when it is	completed.  A for-
mal 'Lojban dictionary'	will eventually	replace	most of	the 'Package 1 and
2' word	lists and language description materials, probably about a year
after the textbook is completed, but those materials contain the equiva-
lent of	a basic	dictionary right now.  Approximately 6 months after the
dictionary is published	the Lojban language definition will be baselined
(frozen) for 5 years, and Lojban will thereafter be solely controlled by
speakers of the	language.
     Other materials which may be available include language tapes and
video tapes.  At this writing a	language tape coordinated with the draft
lessons	is available, and an unedited video tape of a teaching session is
being considered for release.  Consult an order	form for current products.

				    12
     Of	course the only	way to really learn a language is to USE it.  The
Logical	Language Group will assist you in finding other	Lojban students	of
comparable skill level and interests, either in	your local area	or reach-
able by	post or	computer mail.	The quarterly journal ju'i lobypli regu-
larly contains Lojban text, some with detailed translations and	some with-
out translation, as well as discussions	of language points by various mem-
bers of	the Lojban community.  Of course the best way to use the language
is to recruit friends and associates into studying and using the language
with you.  Even	if they	are not	interested in the same language	goals as
you are, the 'hobbyist'	aspect of the language will provide interesting
and stimulating	entertainment for all concerned.



What is	The Logical Language Group?

     The Logical Language Group, Inc. is a non-profit organization, the
embodiment of the Loglan/Lojban	community.  We were founded to complete
the language development process, to develop and publish teaching materi-
als, to	organize and teach the community, to promote applications of Loj-
ban, and to initiate and lead research efforts in linguistics, language
education, and other areas related to Lojban.  Simply put, our purpose is
to serve you in	all manner of things Lojbanic.	The Logical Language Group
is not affiliated with The Loglan Institute, Inc., the organization
founded	by James Cooke Brown.
     The Logical Language Group	is also	called "la lojbangirz."	(/lah-
lozh-BAHN-geerz./), its	Lojban name.  It was founded informally	in 1987,
and incorporated in 1988.  The U. S. Internal Revenue Service approved our
status as a non-profit educational/scientific charity in 1989, making do-
nations	and grants to the organization deductible under	U. S. tax law.
     Loglan/Lojban has been developed almost totally by	volunteer labor
and small donations of money.  Lojban attracts people who are willing to
devote a lot of	time and effort	to seeing their	dreams become reality.
Thus, our only income has been money derived from sales	of our publica-
tions, and donations from interested supporters.
     The Logical Language Group	publishes and sells materials on a bal-
ance/credit system.  We	distribute materials to	people and ask that they
contribute to cover the	costs of those materials.  All language	definition
information is considered in the public	domain,	and most Logical Language
Group publications are distributed under a policy which	allows not-for-
charge copying and redistribution.  Computer versions of many of our pub-
lications are available.  We ask that people who receive our materials un-
der any	of these alternate means to register your interest in Lojban with
us so we may better serve that community, and donate liberally so that we
may continue to	serve you.
     We	ask that you keep a positive account balance of	up to a	year or
more of	expected expenditures for orders, as indicated on our registration
and order forms.  Such balance money serves as our day-to-day operating
funds.	We will	refund positive	balance	contributions within 6 weeks of
your request.  If you move without notifying us	and we therefore cannot
contact	you, we	will maintain your positive balance for	a year before
treating it as a donation.
     Most materials that we sell require either	prior payment, an informal
commitment to pay on your part,	or your	statement that you cannot afford
to pay for materials (in which case our	supplying these	materials is at
our discretion).  We attempt to	flexibly support Lojbanists with financial
constraints, and will accept reasonable	offers of reduced or delayed pay-
ments subject to our financial condition, coupled with your commitment to
actively maintain contact and involvement with the community through us.
Obviously, the level of	your prior and current activity	and any	commit-
ments you make in learning the language	or in volunteer	work for la loj-
bangirz. will be factored into our decision.

				    13
     la	lojbangirz. has	a special commitment to	support	non-U. S. Lojban-
ists, because so many of the language goals are	dependent on building an
international community	of speakers, and because we recognize the diffi-
culties	caused by the international currency market and	the relative
wealth of nations.  We can accept bank cheques in most currencies and in-
ternational payment via	Master Card and	Visa.  We also encourage groups	to
form and receive a single copy of our materials, copying or passing them
to others so that the per-person costs remain low.  We require a lower
standard of contact and	contribution from overseas Lojbanists when decid-
ing on whether to continue sending our materials at reduced or no charge.
     We	ask that all recipients	of our materials voluntarily contribute
what you can, and to maintain sufficient funds in your balance to cover
our suggested prices.  These will be deducted automatically when we send
you materials.	We will	notify you requesting more money when your balance
becomes	negative.  We reserve the right	to refuse orders when your balance
is not fully paid, but again will make every effort to support those who
support	Lojban through their time, commitment, and money.
     You have no legal obligation to pay for materials sent to you without
your request, but such materials will be charged against your balance in
the absence of any agreement otherwise,	with adjustments made to that bal-
ance per agreement.  If	we accept an offer of reduced payment from you,	we
will charge that amount	to your	balance.
     We	ask all	recipients of our materials to help us financially in any
way you	can.  The Logical Language Group needs your gifts for support of
the Loglan/Lojban project.  Artificial languages are historically not
financially lucrative, and have	difficulty receiving outside support.  The
Logical	Language Group,	Inc. is	prohibited by its bylaws from spending
more than 10% of its expenses for administrative purposes, except by spe-
cial agreement with a donor who	agrees to cover	such added costs in full.


How does The Logical Language Group serve the community?

     We	try to keep the	community informed.  Not everyone has the time
available to participate in all	of our activities.  A quarterly	newslet-
ter, le	lojbo karni, is	sent to	everyone in the	community.  A longer jour-
nal, ju'i lobypli, is also published quarterly.	 It contains discussions
of features of the language, debates on	research issues	and applications,
letters	from the community and responses, and a	growing	quantity of Lojban
writings and translations.
     Our publications are free of advertisements (other	than our own or-
dering information, and	occasional mention of individuals and organiza-
tions who have contributed particular service to our efforts), and we do
not sell our mailing list.  Our	publications are distributed as	cheaply	as
possible to encourage new people to participate.  In the interest of
attracting the widest audience possible, we are	committed to distributing
as much	material as possible using the 'Shareware' concept for computer
software and a similar policy for printed publications.	 This policy re-
tains our copyrights but allows	you, with relatively little restriction,
to copy	our materials for your friends,	as long	as you don't charge for
the copies.  We	also ask that recipients of copies register with us, so
that we	know who has our materials.  Such registration does not	require
contribution.
     Certain materials that we publish contain information that	we place
in the public domain.  All language definition information is considered
to be public.
     You can participate in the	Lojban community at several levels of ac-
tivity,	listed on the detachable registration form that	accompanies this
brochure.  Contributor's costs can range from as little	as $5-$10 per year
to receive only	le lojbo karni,	to greater amounts for people actively
learning the language.	We automatically send you materials based on your
indicated level	of activity; this minimizes individual order processing
and simplifies our paperwork, keeping our costs	down.

				    14
     If	you are	attempting to learn the	language, we provide as	much help
as we can to assist in this process.  We will put you in touch with Loj-
banists	who might be interested	in studying or communicating with you in
the language.  You can also send your writings to us for review, or for
indirect exchange with others.	Grammatically correct writings may be se-
lected for printing in our publications.  We try to foster research and
social interaction among those who are learning, or who	have already
learned	the language.  We aid such people in organizing, leading, and
teaching formal	classes	and study groups, and will sponsor affiliated
groups in local	areas where non-profit sponsorship brings useful benefits.
We also	conduct	an annual (late	June) celebration of the language and com-
munity,	called "LogFest", in conjunction with our annual business meeting
in the Washington DC area.  We also expect to support other local meetings
and gatherings as the community	grows.
     We	are seeking avenues to engage in larger	research efforts and to
actively work on applications for the language.	 Thus we are seeking
grants and contracts, as well as financial and technical assistance from
individuals, companies,	and universities.  These are a relatively low pri-
ority now, but their importance	is expected to grow as the teaching mate-
rials are completed and	the language stabilization is completed.  Ideas
and information	in these areas are welcome.
     Of	course,	we also	try to publicize the language.	Our representa-
tives attend meetings and give presentations on	the language.  We dis-
tribute	these brochures.  Through our efforts, and with	your help, the
community of Lojbanists	is rapidly growing.


What can I do now?

     You can become involved in	the Lojban project in a	variety	of ways,
depending on your background and interests, and	on your	available time:

-   you	can participate	in completing the language development;
-   you	can devise applications	for Lojban in computers, education, lin-
	guistics, and other fields;
-   you	can help in organizing Lojbanists in your area,	and in recruiting
	new Lojbanists;
-   you	can help in teaching the language to new people	(even while
	learning yourself);
-   you	can assist in spreading	Lojban to non-English-speaking cultures	by
	helping	translate materials into other languages and by	iden-
	tifying, recruiting, and communicating with contacts in	other
	countries (international involvement is	vital to ensuring that
	Lojban remains culturally neutral);
-   you	can contribute financially to support our organization,	its ac-
	tivities, and its publications;
-   you	can use	Lojban in composition, translation, and	in conversation
	with other Lojbanists.

     For many of these activities, you need to learn the language first.
However, even those who	haven't	time to	learn the language at this point,
or who live apart from other Lojbanists, can assist in recruiting and con-
tributing ideas	to the effort.
     Helping to	publicize the language,	of course, does	not take a lot of
time, or necessarily even knowing the language.	 Talk to friends, rela-
tives and colleagues.  We will gladly provide copies of	this brochure upon
your request.  Lojban tends to sell itself; people who become informed
tend to	be interested to at least some degree.
     If	you respond, we	will send you materials	appropriate to your de-
sired level of activity, including (as a default - see the registration
form) a	package	of introductory	materials (that	you may	have received with
this brochure),	and the	latest issue of	le lojbo karni,	which will bring
you up-to-date on what is happening in the community.  If you indicate a

				    15
higher activity	level, you will	receive	more detailed materials, up to and
including teaching materials.  You can also order our computer products,
specialized text materials, back issues	of the newsletter and journal, and
various	specialty items.  See our order	form for details.
     Keep in touch with	us.  We	want to	know your ideas	and opinions on
the language, on our various activities, and on	our products.  We welcome
open debate on the language design, and	have even printed and made avail-
able writings that are critical	of various aspects of our efforts, when
they are of sufficient general interest.  Open debate aids in understand-
ing and	improves the overall quality of	the language and of our	presenta-
tion of	it to the world.  We would rather hear criticism now within our
friendly community and either correct our problems or prepare an adequate
response, than to do so	later when such	issues are raised by outsiders.
     In	short, Lojban is a product of ALL of the community, including YOU
- if you choose.
     Of	course,	once you have started to learn the language,

				USE LOJBAN

     Lojban will not really achieve the	status of 'language' until people
use it.	 We need creative people to write Lojban prose,	poetry,	and dia-
log. We	need translations made from fiction, technical literature, from
religious and philosophical writings, and from music.  Only in this way
will Lojban be proven practical, and gain the credibility it needs to suc-
ceed.


Who do I contact?

Write or call

			     Bob LeChevalier
		     The Logical Language Group, Inc.
			      2904 Beau	Lane
			    Fairfax, VA	22031
			      (703) 385-0273


USENET,	UUCP, and INTERNET mail	can be sent to us at:

			 lojbab@snark.thyrsus.com

An active newsgroup/mail exchange is available on this network.	 To join,
contact:

		  lojban-list-request@snark.thyrsus.com

and send mailings to all newsgroup members via:

		      lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com

Compuserve members can join this group,	or can contact us, by preceding
any of the above addresses with	"INTERNET:".  Fidonet connects with the
Internet via a variety of nodes	- contact your SYSOP.
     If	you have no network access, the	AMRAD bulletin board
(300/1200/2400 baud) in	the Washington DC area has a conference	dedicated
to Lojban. It is accessible via	PC Pursuit as well as through normal tele-
phone access.  Call (703) 734-1387, and	follow the instructions	given for
the "Loglan Conference".  Please leave a message addressed to "Bob
LeChevalier" or	the SYSOP.  The	conference is presently	inactive, but we
check occasionally for messages.

				    16
     If	you have received a registration form and an order form	with this
brochure, you can provide us with useful information to	aid us in serving
you, and can order some	of our materials.

			e'osai ko sarji	la lojban.

		/eh-ho-sai, ko-SAHR-zhee, lah-LOZH-bahn./
			  Please support Lojban!

			   LOJBAN REGISTRATION
Name: ___________________________________________________________________

Street Address:	_________________________________________________________

City, State, (Country),	Zip: ____________________________________________

Home Phone: ______________________ Work	Phone: __________________________

Computer Net Address (Indicate Network):
____________________________________________________________________

My primary interest(s) in Lojban are (check any	that are applicable):
____ linguistics applications/theory	    _____ computer applications
____ foreign language/linguistics education _____'international' language
____ other:______________________________________________________________

Activity Level:	_____ I	am not interested in further involvement.  Please
remove me from your active lists.
_____ (Level B)	Observer - (default) _____ (Level C) Active Supporter
_____ (Level D)	Lojban Student	     _____ (Level E) Lojban Practitioner

We offer the following packages	of printed materials.  We will keep
     records of	materials that we know you have	received to allow us to
     provide updates on	request. (Default is Package 0)
(Package 0) The	initial	package	of brochure and	introductory materials.
     (49 pg - Suggested	price $4)
(Package 1) Word lists and language description.  (132 pg. - Suggested
     price $13.20)
(Package 2) Language design information.  (78 pg. - Suggested price $7.80)
(Package 3) Draft teaching materials.  (321 pg.	Suggested price	$32.10)
The above materials are	non-overlapping, but the contents of each may
     vary with time.

Packages 0, 1, and 2 are available in computer media (MS-DOS, specify
format)	and on some networks.  We request that you contribute some or all
of the suggested price and tell	us what	materials you have obtained.

I would	like the following packages:  _________________	 I have	received,
or obtained electronically, the	following and should not be sent them:
_________________________________________________________________________

_____ Please send me updates to	materials automatically.  I will maintain
a positive account balance (suggested $10-$20),	and reimburse any
shortfalls promptly.

     The Logical Language Group	publishes two quarterly	publications.
     Please indicate which, if any, you	wish to	subscribe to.  JL
     contains all information in LK. (Default is subscription to LK.)
     Sample JL Issue $6.
_____ No subscription please
_____ (LK) le lojbo karni - newsletter for level B/package 0 (10
     pg/issue, Suggested $5/yr or 4 issues)
_____ (JL) ju'i	lobypli	- journal for level C/package 1	or above (60
     pg/issue, Suggested $20/yr	or 4 issues)

_____ I	am interested in communicating with others at my interests and
     level  ____ in person  ____ via post  ____	for study, ____	for
     discussion	of interest areas marked above,	____ via computer mailing
     list

_____ I	enclose	________ to establish/add to my	account	balance.  (20%
     discount on prepaid orders	over $20)
_____ I	would like to donate a gift of _______ to support Lojban ac-
     tivities, independent of my balance.

_____ I	can't pay full price for the materials I want, but request them
     anyway at your discretion,	subject	to my commitment to continued,
     regular interaction with LLG.  I offer ______ towards the costs.

VA residents add 4.5% sales tax, except	on subscription	prices.
Visa/Master Card accepted with 6% service charge (Provide number, exp.
date, signature).  Non US/Canada add 20% surcharge for air mail	bulk
shipment (default), 30%	for air	mail.  20% discount on prepaid orders
over $20.

				Send to:
The Logical Language Group, Inc., 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA USA 22031-1303
		     Phone Information:	703-385-0273