lo do ckiku ma zvati

"lo do ckiku ma zvati" is Lojban for "Where are your Keys?" Lojban is a constructed, unambiguous human language based on predicate logic. "Where are your Keys?" is a language fluency game that rapidly builds fluency in a language by making the techniques used to teach language transparent to the student so they can be used for self-directed learning.

"lo do ckiku ma zvati" is a game you can play to learn Lojban.

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Help Wanted

I've published my task list for this website and the creation of the Lojban translation of "Where are your Keys?" To plan the work on this website, I'm using an Agile Project Management technique called Scrum.

In Scrum, the Product Backlog contains all of the tasks required to complete the project. The Sprint Backlog contains the tasks that are currently being worked on. The two links in this paragraph point to these backlogs for this project.

By publishing these two artifacts, I've also been able to publish a Help Wanted page, which I hope will make it easier for interested people to work on this project.

This project is still in a very early stage of development. Since the worst result in asking for help is to be told no, I'll add these pages to the website with a request:

Will you look a the help wanted and see if you would like to work on one of the tasks? Each task represents a few hours of work, and I will provide coaching for any aspect you don't feel confident about.

The sprint backlog contains the task(s) I'm currently working on. At my current rate of work, I'll be working on the basic material for this website for several years. If you're interested in seeing it sooner, I hope I've made it just a bit easier to pursue that interest.

Translation Corrections: Part Two

tadji

tadji

NOTE: This is part two of a two part series. Read part 1.

{lo do ckiku ma zvati} uses {tadji} (techniques) to systematize methods for learning Lojban. In "Where are your Keys?", these techniques are transmitted by signing "technology" followed by the sign for the technique. This is accompanied by saying "technique: [name of technique]."

For example, "Craig's List" ({valsi porsi}) is the name of the technique for teaching words in sequence, and never teaching a single word in isolation. It is introduced in play by saying "Technique: Craig's List."

By prefixing every technique with the word "technique" you aurally draw attention to it. I wanted to preserve this pattern when translating techniques to Lojban, meaning I wanted to start every technique with the word {tadji}. Lojban's grammar is flexible enough to support this, but my first attempt at doing this (on the tadji page) I made a mistake.

{tadji}'s English translation is:

x1 [process] is a method/technique/approach/means for doing x2 (event)
under conditions x3.

The x1 place, the process, is the specific technique description or technique name.

The first technique in "Where are your Keys?" is "technique: technique," the act of marking and pointing out techniques. My first attempt to translate this was {tadji lo tadji}, which is wrong.

I had meant to say "{lo tadji ku tadji}," and was not aware that omitting the sumti before the selbri caused the sumti after the selbri to default to the x2 place.

In order to say what I originally intended to say, I would need to say "{tadji fa lo tadji}."

That detail aside, this phrase still doesn't quite translate to what I would like to say. "technique: technique" is the "technique of using techniques," and {tadji fa lo tadji} translates to "the technique of technique," which isn't quite the same thing.

Lindar provided several suggestions to fix this, but none of them had the succintness provided in the English. After researching the examples he provided me, I settled on the relatively short {tadji fa lo pu'u tadji} (technique: the process of technique).

Lindar has been kind enough to point out variations of these phrases that are sumti rather that bridi. I suspect the sumti form of these phrases will be easier to use conversationally, so I'm going to use the sumti form in naming techniques. My final translation is therefor:

{lo tadji be fa lo pu'u tadji}

A fair bit longer that my original translation, but significantly clearer.

As a final note, all "Where are your Keys?" technique names are metaphors. In Lojban, I translate these names into literal descriptions of the technique, so "Craig's List" becomes "valsi porsi" ({word list}). This has the effect of changing the sign used to mark a technique, but literally naming techniques is more appropriate for Lojban, and is one example of how "Where are you Keys?" is localized to the language it is being used with.

Translation Corrections: Part One

Lindar was kind enough to e-mail me and point out two translation errors I had made on the website.

Both of the errors were some of the earliest Lojban material that I translated, and looking at them now, I could definitely tell something was wrong with them. I didn't have a clear idea of how to fix the problem, but I was really happy to have a reminder that I am learning this language!

My first error was the phrase {.i mi djica lo grana pe do}, which I had translated as "I want your stick." The problem with this is that the x2 place of djica is an event/state, not an object.

I still get tripped up on this distinction, and solving this problem has been an interesting exercise while I work on translating Part 3 of the Universal Speed Curriculum. The sentence is grammatical, but nonsensical. The semantics are wrong, as you can't want an object.

Instead, you can want some event or state related to an object. The most obvious translation (and one of three suggested by Lindar) is {.i mi djica lo nu ponse lo grana pe do}, or "I want the event of possessing the rod associated with you." This translation isn't appropriate for {lo do ckiku ma zvati}, as both {djica} and {ponse} are words in the "Beg, Borrow, Steal" Craig's List (or in Lojban, {.i lo se frati porsi ku gismu}), and I want to introduce {djica} in play without having to introduce {ponse}.

Lindar also suggested {.i mi djica lo nu bevri lo grana pe do}, or "I want the event of carrying the rod associated with you." This translation is also not appropriate for {lo do ckiku ma zvati}, as the symbolic act of possessing an item has you placing it in front of you on the table, rather than carrying it.

His final suggestion is the one I will use. {.i mi djica tu'a lo grana pe do} is "I want some abstraction about the rod associated with you." The particular abstraction that is desired is ambiguous. It is left to the reader to understand this sentence to mean "I want to possess your stick."

I think this sort of ambiguity is helpful during early play. It gives more flexibility in trying out new sentences and rearranging the vocabulary a speaker already knows. As always, actual play experience may reveal a better option.

This fix has been applied to the example section of {tadji fa lo valsi porsi} and will appear in Part 3 of the {le vajrai se tadni}.

The second translation corrections will appear in the next post. Thank you Lindar!

Continue to Part 2

SignWriting Image Server upgraded to version 1.2.2

sign writing

sign writing

I've upgraded the version of SWIS, the SignWriting Image Server, used by this website to render sign language.

There should be no user-visible changes resulting from this upgrade, but it did require a schema change for all of the rendered sign language on the website.

I rely heavily on the SignPuddle Dictionary when doing translation work. SignPuddle has been running a version of SWIS incompatible with the one I'm running on this website for some time. I haven't been able to use it to work on this website.

This upgrade took me much longer than I expected, I'm really happy to be able to get back to doing translation work.

Elidible terminators removed from the Universal Speed Curriculum

Based on a conversation with Robin and others on the Lojban Beginners mailing list, I've removed the elidible terminators from the Universal Speed Curriculum.

I will reintroduce elidible terminators in a future lesson, outside of the Universal Speed Curriculum. They'll be practiced as pairs of ?valsi porsi and practiced as their own lesson.

This draft is available for download:

Update to Part 2 of the Universal Speed Curriculum

The last time I worked on Part 2 of the Universal Speed Curriculum, I decide to use {steci} rather that {pe} in translating the idea of "mine and yours."

In playtesting, I've reversed this decision and decided to use {pe}. I've been trying to reduce the amount of new vocabulary and grammar introduced with each new lesson. More importantly, I've tried to make the grammar I do introduce easier to divide into valsi porsi.

When I compared the {steci} and {pe} translations of Part 2 of the Universal Speed Curriculum, the {pe} version builds on grammar already learned in Part 1, and will create phrases that are used again in later parts of the document.

Finally, the {steci} version just didn't feel right. I was left with very little motivation to continue working after finishing the {steci} version of Part 2. This version feels like something I can be happy enough with to proceed to translating Part 3. Enjoy!

This draft is available for download:

Teaching Where are your Keys?

When I first discovered "Where are your Keys?", there was very little information available online. Evan Gardner had written a couple blog comments where he talked about the game, but there was no "Where are your Keys?" website, the Universal Speed Curriculum hadn't been published yet, and Willem had not put the considerable effort he now has into making videos.

Still, I was keen to learn how to play the game, so I contacted Willem and Evan and we eventually settled on flying them to New Mexico to hold a workshop at my farm, Sunflower River.

Meeting in person to learn to play the game was a significant accelerator. 20 people attended the workshop we planned, making for a high-energy and engaging event. It kicked off my regular play sessions, and certainly contributed to my renewed interest in Lojban.

When I began building this website, lo do ckiku ma zvati, I was contacted by a person named Paul living in the UK interested in learning to play "Where are your Keys?"

The quest to bring WAYK to the UK

Part 2 of the Universal Speed Curriculum translated to Lojban

NOTE: A new release of the "vajrai terctu" is avaible. That draft should be used in preference to the one here.

I've uploaded a new draft of the Lojban translation of the Universal Speed Curriculum. This draft contains a translation of Part 2: Mine and Yours.

I had some difficulty translating this section.

I still expect to alter previous sections as I continue to translate new ones. This document is not yet a fluid, integrated whole that builds fluency in bite-sized pieces. If you use it, I would love feedback on what is difficult and what works well.

This draft is available for download:

This website's source code is available on github.com

I've uploaded the source code for this website to github. I haven't received any particular request to do so, but I'm hoping to make the development of new material for the website easier for potential future contributors.

As well, it can be informative to see how a website like this is built, which has value beyond this particular website.

I've considered allowing the website itself to be edited anonymously (i.e., make it a wiki). Hieran Makhwali was kind enough to e-mail me some weeks ago concerning typos on a page I had just published, and there really is no reason not to allow a reader to fix things like that while they are reading.

Putting the website's repository online is the first step in creating a more open architecture for the website. Something I hope will allow it to be a hub for people learning and teaching fluency in Lojban.

The repositories for the website are located on github:

This information is also archived in the new ti srana page.

Orthology Deck

"Where are your Keys?" is usually played with two or more people, with at least one person fluent in the target language, and at least one (possibly different) person familiar with how to play the game.

The fluent speaker is able to help other players with their pronunciation and grammar, and the ?core conversation assumes that you're starting from this point.

It is, however, highly unlikely you have access to a fluent speaker of Lojban. One of my goals with this website is that it be a bootstrap technique for learning Lojban. That it is a tool you can use to be able to learn Lojban without the benefit of regular access to a fluent speaker.

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