| A: Hi, Robert! | coi .robert. | |
| B: Hi, Nick! | coi .nik. | |
| A: Is this your car? | xu ti selpo'e be do karce | Note that the construction like {le do karce} is possible only for sumti. In our case, we have a selbri. |
| B: No, it isn't. | na go'i | |
| My car is there! | .i lo mi karce cu va zvati | |
| A: Red one? | lo xunre xu | |
| B: Exactly. | .ie | |
| A: A cool car. | karce .a'u | {.a'u} attaches to the {karce} observative: 'Car (which is interesting)!' {.a'u karce} would be more like '(interest in noticing) a car!' |
| B: You think? I'm bored with it. | .iacu'i .i mi co'u se cinri | Notice the {.i} after {.ia cu'i} - without it the skepticism would apply to the loss of interest in the car. Also note that the the target of cinri is left to context here. |
| A: If you are bored then sell it to me! | .e'o ko vecnu lo karce mi mu'i lo nu lo za'i do ponse ra kei na'e cinri | Attention! These conditional imperatives are very difficult to translate to Lojban! Remember "Stop, or I'll shoot" from the CLL? |
| B: Only for $1,000,000. | ||
| A: A special discount for a friend? | ||
| B: Yeah, $50 down. | ||
| A gives B the money | ||
| A: Here they are. | ||
| You know, money is just paper, and that is a real car. | ||
| B: I prefer the paper. | ||
| This paper is magical, it can turn into anything you want. | ||
| A: No it can't. | ||
| It won't turn into friendship. | ||
| At least, my friendship. | ||
| B: Stop moralizing. | ||
| A: Money is the root of all evil. | ||
| B: Then why do you have so much? |
| A: Hi! | coi | |
| B: Hi, Lojban-student! | coi lojbo tadni | {coi} is a cmavo of group COI and allows a name or a selbri after it. If it is a selbri, like in this case, then it is treated like {lo} plus that selbri. In our case, greeted is {lo lojbo tadni}, i. e. a Lojbanic student. While this could also mean that the student just applies some Lojbanic methods for studying, from the context it is clear that the person studies Lojban. More correct would have been {tadni be la lojban.}, but everyday language prefers shorter ways. |
| A: How did you know I am a Lojban student? | do facki lo du'u mi tadni la lojban. kei ta'i ma | Please pay attention to this. A literal translation of this to Lojban will be semantically incorrect. If you translate as {do djuno ... ta'i ma}, that question will mean "by which method do you know ...?" - a natural answer to which would be "By the method of using my brain". Remember, in Lojban you translate not the words, but the meaning. |
| B: You greeted me in Lojban ;) | do rinsa mi bau la lojban. zo'o | A valid alternative to {zo'o} (humour) could be {.u'i} (amusement). |
| A: Yeah. | go'i | {go'i} doesn't mean actually "Yes". As you know, it repeats the meaning of the previous bridi, so by saying {go'i} the speaker is showing his agreement. |
| B: What country are you from? | ma gugde do | Actually {gugde} requires the name of a nation as its second sumti, but common usage is to insert a single dweller there. |
| A: I am from Canada. | la kanadas. | Speaker A just specifies the value of {ma}. |
| B: I see. I am from Germany. | je'e .i mi se gugde lo dotco | If you don't want to start a new sentence, you can use {do'u} right after {je'e} to close it off. |
| A: I like German beer. | mi nelci lo dotco birje | |
| B: I don't drink beer. | mi na pinxe lo birje | |
| A: You don't drink alcohol beverage at all? | do ro xu xalka naku pinxe | The yes/no modifier {xu} is attached here after {ro}, with the literal meaning of "you don't drink all -yes/no- alcohol?" |
| B: No. Only beer, I don't like its taste. | lo birje po'o .i mi na nelci le vrusi | |
| A: So, you like wine? | do nelci lo vanju xu | |
| B: Very much. | mutce go'i | In this case, {mutce} gets into the previous bridi, referred to by {go'i}, and modifies its selbri. The result is the same as {mi mutce nelci lo vanju}. |
| A: My wife likes wine, too. | si'a lo speni be mi cu go'i | |
| B: Glad to hear it. | .ui | |
| A: I miss my wife greatly. | mi mutce caucni lo speni be mi | {.au} or other attitudinals can be inserted to clarify the emotion. |
| B: What's happened? | pu mo | |
| A: I am on a mission in another city, and will see her only in two weeks. | mi ca jdali'u le drata tcadu .ije mi ba viska ra punaijeba le jeftu be li re | {ra} is a very fuzzy reference to a previous sumti, but in this case context makes the referent fairly obvious. |
| B: Oh. | .uu | Or possibly {.ue .uu}. |
| A: My wife is very beautiful. | lo speni be mi cu mutce melbi | Since we already know who {lo speni be mi} is, {le speni} may just as well be used. |
| B: Glad to hear it. | .ui | |
| A: She has long hair. | lo clani cu kerfa sy. | |
| B: I prefer women with short hair. | mi zmadu nelci lo ninmu pe lo tordu kerfa | A very straight and somewhat rough translation. Going for preciseness we could say {lo ninmu poi lo tordu cu kerfa}. |
| A: I find nothing attractive in women with short hair. | mi no'e se trina lo ninmu pe lo tordu kerfa | |
| B: Short hair is very exciting. | lo tordu kerfa cu traji loni se nelci | |
| A: Maybe. | .ie.iacu'i | Agreement + skepticism. |
| B: I oughta go. Bye! | mi bilga lonu mi klama co'o | {klama} could be replaced by {cliva} if you wanted to stress the leaving vs. going somewhere else. |
| A: Bye! | co'o |
| A: Hi, Alex! | coi .aleks. | |
| B: Hi, Jane! | coi .djein. | Please note the period in front of the {djein}, which is required here. |
| I see you have a new coiffure. | .ua lo cnino cu tarmi loi do kerfa | |
| A: Why, no! It is two weeks old already. | .ienai na go'i .i lo tarmi cu co'a mintu ri ca lo remoi prujeftu | |
| Didn't you see it before? | .i xu do na pu'o viska | |
| B: Really? I must have been very busy those days. | xu mintu .i la'a mi mutce gunka | |
| A: Don't worry. | ko na xanka | |
| Do you know that Kate has quit? | .i xu do djuno lo du'u la keit. pu cliva | |
| B: What?! | .uesai mo | |
| A: Yeah, she quit yesterday. | bi'unai cliva .i ky. cliva ca lo prulamdei | The first bridi can be completely left out because of not carrying any extra information. |
| She had won in a lottery. | .i jinga fo lo funca selkei | |
| B: Very much? | xu jinga loi mutce | |
| A: I don't know. But she looked very happy. | mi na djuno .i ku'i ky. simlu lonu mutce gleki | |
| B: No, I can't believe. There must have been another reason. | .ianai mi ka'e krici naku .i la'a lo drata cu krinu | |
| Although she won't say. | .i ku'i ky. na cusku | |
| A: I think so, too. | .ie ju'oru'e go'i | |
| She was always very secretive. | .i ze'e mutce mipri | |
| B: It is not good. People quit from here. | .ienai du'e cliva ti | |
| First Jack, then Judith in March, now Kate... | .i la djek. pamoiroi go'i .i babo la djudyt. ca lo cibma'i .i caku la keit. | |
| A: You know *who* is responsible for that. | do djuno lonu ba'e ma kau fuzme la'e de'u | |
| B: I? No! | xu mi .i na djuno | |
| A: You do. | ja'a do djuno | |
| B: No! Why do you think I know? | .ienai na go'i .i do pensi lonu na go'i kei mu'i ma | Double negation. With the second {na} we restore the original affirmation by negating it twice. |
to be continued
A list of dubious places in the translation (and also suggestions) are available here.