Lojan

General information
Lojan language (natively Lūghjami dirdh [ l uː ɟɦ ämi dir dɦ  ] ) is a language spoken in the Lojan land 9000 years ago. It is a predominantly suffixing agglutinative language which has obvious analytic tendencies.

Phonotactics
Possible syllables are: Impossible clusters are: When an affricate or a plosive precedes a fricative of the same place, they merge into one affricate.
 * (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) for primary words
 * VC(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) for secondary words
 * No limit for compound words
 * /t/, /th/, /d/, /dɦ/, /s/, /z/, /t͡s/ or /n/undefined+ /ɾ/. (In these occasions, /ɾ/ will be substituted by /r/

Assimilation Agressive:
 * /gk/ > /kk/, /tht/ > /tt/, /tdh/ > /ddh/, etc.
 * /tʈ/ > /ʈ ʈ/, /t  ʈ h / > / ʈ ʈ h /, /t ɖ ɦ / > / ɖ ɖ ɦ /, / t  ʂ / > / ʈʂ / > / ʈ͡ʂ /  etc.

Vowel Grade
In Lojan, vowels have 3 grades:

Primary, secondary and compound words
Primary words only have one syllable. Secondary words have two syllables but the first is always without onset. Compound words can be formed from primary, secondary, o even other compound words.

Forms
Almost every word has three main forms: Absolute Form(AF), Dependent Form(DF) and Predicate Form(PF).


 * AF works as a noun or a pronoun. Also, AF can form the non-head parts of a compound word.

​Primary and secondary words can transform by vowel grade shift: Compound words don't have PF,  and their forms(AF and DF) are related with the head place. The AF has the initial head place, while the DF has the final head place.
 * DF, just as its name, cannot appear independently. It can accept particles or enclitics. When a noun is suffixed by a particle/enclitic, it must change from AF to DF. Also, DF can act as the head of a compound word.
 * PF is simply a verb, from which the adjective form can be formed.
 * "full, long": "Full" for the first vowel of the secondary word, "long" for the second.

Sentences, like compound words, also have AF, and DF. And the AF has the initial head place, while the DF has the final head place.[ If a sentence has a topic(omitted or no), the topic is its head, or the head will be the verb.]

Cases
Noun cases are expressed by particles (like in japanese).
 * khu, "flower". khūikj, "towards the flower". (remember that particles must be attached to DF).
 * dang, "sky". dāngtaṅ, "in the sky".

​Plurarity
Lojan nouns don't decline according to number, but there are other ways to express the plurarity:

Collective words
Compounding a noun with a collective word:

Numerals
Numerals can be directly put before a noun:
 * guq dhrim. "a person".
 * sim sir. "six lions".

Duplication
For compound words, only duplicates the head: If a word needs change its form, all the duplicated parts should change at the same time.
 * gak, "star". gaggak, "(some) stars"
 * dhrim, "person". dhrimdhrim, "some persons, people"
 * khūkhir, "flower of snow". khūkhūkhir, "flowers of snow".


 * gāggākikj, "towards the stars".

Pronouns

 * Some forms of some pronouns are irregular. (erābī, sos)
 * Plurarity is expressed in the same way of nouns.

Adjectival form
Most words have adjectival form, whose meaning is related to its AF's meaning.( But there are no rules for this relation, so its necessary to remember the meaning of the adjectival form).
 * khu, "flower" > khosr, "beautiful"
 * lug, "a far place" > logsr, "far"
 * gas, "I" > gåssr, "egoist"
 * vis, "wind" > vessr, "free"

​Adjectival word/phrase/sentence
An adjectival particle can make a word/phrase/sentence adjectival. The particle is zre, but it has 3 allomorphs according to the preceding phoneme.
 * sūfe slim, "a tree of fruit". (suf, "fruit"; slim, "tree")
 * ākå zre gum, "a sound of midnight". (akā, "midnight"; gum, "sound")
 * ksrāmi khrib, "soul blade". (ksram, "soul"; khrib, "blade")
 * å ngzre dhrim, "a crying man". (ang, "wave“ > å ng, "cry" )
 * mnjegtuzre dhrim, "a man asleep". (mnjeg, "to sleep"; tu, "particle of perfective")
 * dāngtiṅ elthe dibsdibs, "clouds that floats in the sky".

​Compounding
Compouding is also an important method of modification. In a compound word, the non-head parts modify the head.

Adjectival prefix
A special type of adjectives, that are prefixed to a noun. Most are indefinite adjectives and desmonstratives:
 * kus-, "which": kusikū, "which boy"
 * kas-, "every": kasanās, "every day"
 * als-, "whole, entire": alsumī, "the entire world, all the world"

Verbs
A verb is a word in PF.

Transitivity
Almost all verbs can be either transitive or no, and may have differente meanings in each case.

Vis "wind", its PF is ves, which can mean "touch", or "fly". When it has an direct object, it means touch. When no, fly:
 * Gas ves. "I fly."
 * Gas rā sf ves. "I touch you."

Causative usage of nouns(AF)
Add the short grade of the core vowel of a noun to make it causative verb.(Core vowel is the vowel of a primary word, the first vowel of a secondary word. A compound word's core vowel is the core vowel of its head.) A causitive verb of a noun means "to make sth/sb become/be...". For example:
 * Gas rāsf khuno. "I make you king."/ "I make you become king."
 * Gas rāsf skuġho. "I make you (my) slave."

​Conative usage of nouns
Add "m" to causative verb of a noun. Causative usage of noun, and it means " to regard sth/sb as...", or " to treat sth/sb as..)
 * Gas rāsf khunom. "I regard you as a king."
 * Gas rāsf skuġhom. "I regard you as a slave."

​Causative usage of verb(PF)
Add the full grade of the core vowel of a verb to make it causative. ​In these cases, someone should be marked by the particle "ink". ​Sometimes, may only use the particle "ink" without changing the form of the verb.
 * meġh, "to eat" > meġhi, "to make someone eat"
 * rop, "to dress up" > ropu, "to make someone dress up"
 * Gas rāsink suosf meġhi. "I make you eat him."
 * Gas rāsink ropu. "I make you dress up."
 * Gas rāsink suosf meġh. "I make you eat him."

​Causative usage of adjective
Add the full grade of the core vowel of an adjective to make it causative. For adjectival phrase marked by zre/e/i, add vi.
 * Gas rāsink khosru. "I make you beautiful."

​Conative usage of Adjective
Add "m" to the causative form of an adjective.
 * Gas rāsink khosrum. "I think you are beautiful."