Lojban >

Vowels ∞

• a – as a in father (not as a in hat)
• e – as e in get
• i – as i in machine or Italian vino (not as i in hit)
• o – as o in bold or more (not as o in so; s-oh – this should be a ‘pure’ sound.)
• u – as oo in cool (not as u in but)

• y – as a in America (completely relax the mouth)

Dipthongs ∞

Two vowels together (a dipthong) are pronounced as one sound. Some examples are:

• ai – as i in high
• au – as o in how
• ei – as e in hey
• oi – as oy in boy
• ia – like German Ja
• ie – like yeah
• iu – like you
• ua – as in waah!, or French quoi
• ue – as ue in question
• uo – as uo in quote

• ui – like we, or French oui

Double-vowels are rare:

• ii – like English ye (as in “Oh come all ye faithful”) or Chinese yi

• uu – like woo

Consonants ∞

Most Lojban consonants are the same as English, but there are exceptions:

• g – as g in gum (never g as in gem)
• c – as sh in ship
• j – as s in measure or j in French bonjour

• x – as ch in German Bach, j in Spanish Jose or h in Arabic Khaled

• The English sounds ch and j are written as tc and dj.

• h, q and w are not used.

Special Characters ∞

The apostrophe (') is a proper letter in Lojban. It separates two vowels, preventing them from being pronounced together (as a diphthong); The apostrophe (') is pronounced like an h. For example, ui is normally pronounced we, but u’i is oohee.

A period (.) is used as a short pause to stop words running into each other. Any word starting with a vowel will have a full stop placed in front of it.

Commas (,) are rare in Lojban, but can be used to stop two vowels blurring together when you don’t want to use an apostrophe (which would put a h sound between them). No Lojban words have commas, but they’re sometimes used in writing non-Lojban names, for example pi,ER. (Pierre), as opposed to pier. (P-yerr), pi.ER. (Pee; Ehr), or pi’ER. (Piherr).

Capital letters are not normally used in Lojban. They are used in non-Lojban words (like Pierre) when the stress of a word is different from the Lojban norm. The norm is to put the stress on the last-but-one syllable; so, for example, kurmikce ‘nurse’ is kurMIKce, not KURmikce. (FIXME – bad example, that’s a Lojban word, dumbasses) The name Juliette would be written DJUli,et. if pronounced in an English way, but juLIET. if pronounced as in French.

How do I? ∞

• Type “hit” in lojban — how do I type that i?