History: Lojbanistan

Source of version: 3 (current)

;:''In the following, email quotation style citation (prefix with >) is used to exemplify past usage of the term in question, rather than text contributed by others to the Wiki on the issue.'' Semi-jocular name for the imaginary country which speaks Lojban (see map at ((jbotut))), or for the Lojban community (at least in its ideal form as a fluent language community.) Modelled on the similar mythos of Loglandia used for Loglan. Loglandia was modelled in much more detail on some 'exotic' existing cultures; Lojbanistan has mostly been detail-free, referring primarily to the existing language community, although there are now moves afoot to fill in the Lojbanistan mythos (((jbotut))) as well, especially in the ((phrasebook)). The mythos use of [http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9012/msg00017.html] is as early as 1990, and shows clear signs of being influenced by the Loglandia mythos (emphasis of exotic, Muslim-like traits; see for example ((mountains)).) Thus, ((Bob LeChevalier)) (http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9103/msg00028.html), saying: > We call Lojban-country 'Lojbanistan' - sounds more exotic > and non-English. The 'currently existing Lojban community' sense is also clear by 1990: [http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9011/msg00018.html] (though immediately afterwards it was disclaimed by the same author: [http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9011/msg00020.html.)] It is fully explicit in [http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9511/msg00495.html], where John Cowan said: > Now that there's some support both in Net.Lojbanistan and in > Lojban Central for the idea, I'll propose a grammar change. Of course, the two notions would have been exceedingly hard to disentangle. The [http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Orientalism.html|orientalism] of the term may or may not prove a future embarrassment; it was mildly protested by ((Nick Nicholas)) (http://balance.wiw.org/~jkominek/lojban/9105/msg00009.html) at the time of the Gulf War. (hence the proposal of "((lojbanana))s" as the residents thereof, instead of "((lojbani))s".) * If we had called it ''Lojbania'', parallel with ''Loglandia'', would that have been too eurocentric, or would it be okay by virtue of being formed in the standard English latinate way? The latter, I((And|M))O. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lojban/message/8575|Some] have tried to reason about it from the ''gismu''... I'm creating a list of ((Lojbanistani cities)) to use in [http://www.freeciv.org|Freeciv]. ---- ?from ''la lojbynistan.'' e.g. ''lojbo cnisa tsani''