History: Morphology: Rules of formation

Source of version: 8 (current)

These are the rules for generating Lojban words. Any speech generated following these rules will be uniquely decomposable by the ((BPFK Section: PEG Morphology Algorithm|PEG morphology algorithm)). !!pauses *You __may not__ pause in the middle of any word. *You __may__ pause between any two words. *You __must__ pause in the following cases: **Before any word that starts with a vowel or diphthong or y. **Before and after a cmene. **Between a finally stressed cmavo and a brivla that starts with a cluster. **Between two cmavo of form CVCy (without an intervening pause) and a string of one or more rafsi (including gismu and fu'ivla as possible final rafsi). **Before and after a non-lojban-word. !!cmene *A cmene can consist of any number of syllables (possibly none) and must have a final consonant or consonant cluster (details of what is a permissible final cluster still to be worked out). !!cmavo *A cmavo consists of a non-h, non-cluster syllable followed by zero or more h-syllables. (Any stress is allowed, but see pause rules.) !!gismu *A gismu can have either CCVCV or CVC/CV forms, where CC is an initial-pair. The first vowel must be stressed and the second unstressed. !!fu'ivla *A fu'ivla is any string of non-y syllables such that: **It does not begin with h or with a consonantal-syllable. **Only the penultimate vocalic syllable is stressed (therefore it must have at least two vocalic syllables). **The last syllable ends in a vowel or a diphthong. **It does not begin with a cmavo-form followed by a cmavo, a gismu, a fu'ivla or a lujvo (tosmabru test). **It does not consist of a string of rafsi (lujvo test). **It does not consist of a consonant followed by a string of rafsi (slinku'i test). !!lujvo *A lujvo is any string of two or more rafsi such that: **It has penultimate stress. **The final rafsi ends in a vowel or diphthong. **If the first rafsi is an unstressed CVV-rafsi or is followed by another CVV-rafsi, it must be immediately followed by either an r-hyphen or n-hyphen. **If the first rafsi is a CVC-rafsi, and the second consonant plus what follows is a lujvo, then the CVC-rafsi must have a y-hyphen. **Any CVC-rafsi followed by a consonant such that the pair is impermissible requires a y-hyphen. **gismu and fu'ivla are allowed as final rafsi. **extended (brivla and fu'ivla) rafsi can only be preceded by y-final rafsi. **extended rafsi that begin with a vowel or diphthong take an {'} if they are preceded by another rafsi. !!rafsi *gismu-rafsi have the forms CVCCy, CCVCy, CCV, CVC(y), CVV(r/n). The parenthesized hyphens are always allowed, and sometimes required (see lujvo). *brivla-rafsi are any y-less brivla, minus the stress, followed by {'y}. *fu'ivla-rafsi is a fu'ivla that end in CV with the V changed to y if **it is not a string of y-less rafsi plus CVCy or CCy. (lujvy test) **it is not a consonant plus a string of y-less rafsi plus CVCy or CCy. (slinkujy test)