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The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology - The Lojban Reference Grammar
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The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology
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The Lojban Reference Grammar
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<h3><a id="s2" name="s2">2. cmavo</h3>
<p>The first group of Lojban words discussed in this chapter
are the cmavo. They are the structure words that hold the
Lojban language together. They often have no semantic meaning
in themselves, though they may affect the semantics of brivla
to which they are attached. The cmavo include the equivalent of
English articles, conjunctions, prepositions, numbers, and
punctuation marks. There are over a hundred subcategories of
cmavo, known as ``selma'o'', each having a specifically defined
grammatical usage. The various selma'o are discussed throughout
<a href="../c5/s1.html">Chapters 5</a> to <a
href="../c19/s1.html">19</a> and summarized in <a
href="../c20/s1.html">Chapter 20</a>.</p>
<p>Standard cmavo occur in four forms defined by their word
structure. Here are some examples of the various forms:</p>
<pre>
V-form .a .e .i .o .u
CV-form ba ce di fo gu
VV-form .au .ei .ia .o'u .u'e
CVV-form ki'a pei mi'o coi cu'u
</pre>
<p>In addition, there is the cmavo ``.y.'' (remember that ``y''
is not a V), which must have pauses before and after it.</p>
<p>A simple cmavo thus has the property of having only one or
two vowels, or of having a single consonant followed by one or
two vowels. Words consisting of three or more vowels in a row,
or a single consonant followed by three or more vowels, are
also of cmavo form, but are reserved for experimental use: a
few examples are ``ku'a'e'', ``sau'e'', and ``bai'ai''. All CVV
cmavo beginning with the letter ``x'' are also reserved for
experimental use. In general, though, the form of a cmavo tells
you little or nothing about its grammatical use.</p>
<p>``Experimental use'' means that the language designers will
not assign any standard meaning or usage to these words, and
words and usages coined by Lojban speakers will not appear in
official dictionaries for the indefinite future.
Experimental-use words provide an escape hatch for adding
grammatical mechanisms (as opposed to semantic concepts) the
need for which was not foreseen.</p>
<p>The cmavo of VV-form include not only the diphthongs and
vowel pairs listed in <a href="s1.html">Section 1</a>, but also the
following ten additional diphthongs:</p>
<pre>
.ia .ie .ii .io .iu
.ua .ue .ui .uo .uu
</pre>
<p>In addition, cmavo can have the form ``Cy'', a consonant
followed by the letter ``y''. These cmavo represent letters of
the Lojban alphabet, and are discussed in detail in <a
href="../c17/s1.html">Chapter 17</a>.</p>
<p>Compound cmavo are sequences of cmavo attached together to
form a single written word. A compound cmavo is always
identical in meaning and in grammatical use to the separated
sequence of simple cmavo from which it is composed. These words
are written in compound form merely to save visual space, and
to ease the reader's burden in identifying when the component
cmavo are acting together.</p>
<p>Compound cmavo, while not visually short like their
components, can be readily identified by two
characteristics:</p>
<dl>
<dt>1)</dt>
<dd>They have no consonant pairs or clusters, and</dd>
<dt>2)</dt>
<dd>They end in a vowel.</dd>
</dl>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre>
<a id="e2d1" name="e2d1">2.1)</a> .iseci'i
.i se ci'i
<a id="e2d2" name="e2d2">2.2)</a> punaijecanai
pu nai je ca nai
<a id="e2d3" name="e2d3">2.3)</a> ki'e.u'e
ki'e .u'e
</pre>
The cmavo ``.u'e'' begins with a vowel, and like all words
beginning with a vowel, requires a pause (represented by ``.'')
before it. This pause cannot be omitted simply because the
cmavo is incorporated into a compound cmavo. On the other hand,
<pre>
<a id="e2d4" name="e2d4">2.4)</a> ki'e'u'e
</pre>
is a single cmavo reserved for experimental purposes: it has
four vowels.
<pre>
<a id="e2d5" name="e2d5">2.5)</a> cy.ibu.abu
cy. .ibu .abu
</pre>
<p>Again the pauses are required (see <a href="s9.html">Section
9</a>); the pause after ``cy.'' merges with the pause before
``.ibu''.</p>
<p>There is no particular stress required in cmavo or their
compounds. Some conventions do exist that are not mandatory.
For two-syllable cmavo, for example, stress is typically placed
on the first vowel; an example is</p>
<pre>
<a id="e2d6" name="e2d6">2.6)</a> .e'o ko ko kurji
.E'o ko ko KURji
</pre>
<p>This convention results in a consistent rhythm to the
language, since brivla are required to have penultimate stress;
some find this esthetically pleasing.</p>
<p>If the final syllable of one word is stressed, and the first
syllable of the next word is stressed, you must insert a pause
or glottal stop between the two stressed syllables. Thus</p>
<pre>
<a id="e2d7" name="e2d7">2.7)</a> le re nanmu
</pre>
can be optionally pronounced
<pre>
<a id="e2d8" name="e2d8">2.8)</a> le RE. NANmu
</pre>
since there are no rules forcing stress on either of the first
two words; the stress on ``re'', though, demands that a pause
separate ``re'' from the following syllable ``nan'' to ensure
that the stress on ``nan'' is properly heard as a stressed
syllable. The alternative pronunciation
<pre>
<a id="e2d9" name="e2d9">2.9)</a> LE re NANmu
</pre>
is also valid; this would apply secondary stress (used for
purposes of emphasis, contrast or sentence rhythm) to ``le'',
comparable in rhythmical effect to the English phrase ``THE two
men''. In <a href="#e2d8">Example 2.8</a>, the secondary stress
on ``re'' would be similar to that in the English phrase ``the
TWO men''.
<p>Both cmavo may also be left unstressed, thus:</p>
<pre>
<a id="e2d10" name="e2d10">2.10)</a> le re NANmu
</pre>
<p>This would probably be the most common usage.</p>
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The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology
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The Lojban Reference Grammar
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