Let's jump right in. Quite often I've found myself wanting to say the following:
"Did you go? I assume not."
In Lojban, we can't do this (directly)! We need to use verbose constructs instead:
(1a) .i xu do klama .i mi sruma lo du'u na go'i
Or:
"Did they pick the red door? I guess not."
(2a) .i xu cuxna tu'a lo xunre vorme .i mi smadi lo du'u na go'i
What I wanted to be able to say instead is:
(1b) * .i xu do klama .i mi sruma tu'a na ku, using na ku as a (raised) sumti.
(2b) * .i xu cuxna tu'a lo xunre vorme .i mi smadi tu'a na ku
Of course, tu'a can't do this, so I decided to invent a new cmavo. I'd love to call it le, but ... you know.
Here's what we'd get:
(1c) .i xu do klama .i mi sruma le na ku
"Did you go? I assume not."
Some more examples using NA ku:
(3) .i xu do se fanza lo nu cladu .i mi va'o le na ku cu .au na cnegau .i lo nu xamgu tirna ro lo valsi cu vajni mi
"Does it bother you that it's loud? If not, I'd like to not change it. It's important to me that I hear every word clearly."
(4) .i xu do djica lo nu citka da .i .i'a mi va'o le ja'a ku cu jukpa da se va'u do
"Would you like to eat something? If so, I could cook you something."
(5) .i ba'a pei .ebu mi prami .i .ai mi va'o le ja'a ku speti'i
"Do you think E. loves me? If she does, I intend to propose to her."
(6) .i mi pensi lo nu vi'ecpe do lo nu kinzga .i ku'i na birti lo du'u xu kau do djica tu'a mi .i va'o po'o le ja'a sai ku mi do ba vi'ecpe
"I'm thinking about inviting you to watch a movie. But I'm not sure whether you want to with me. Only if you absolutely want to will I invite you."
These are pretty cool, but it's not limited to NA! We can draw from the entirity of BAI as well as all the other tags!
(7) .i lo cukta poi do pu tavla mi zo'u: mi no'e se slabu .i po'o djuno le bau lo glico
"The book you talked to me about; I don't really know it. I only know that it's in English."
(8) .i lo nu do tolcliva lo jai bu'u nuncatra zo'u: le cu'e kau ku vajni preti .i nibli fa nu'i ge le pu lo nuncatra lo nu ka'e zerfu'e nu'u gi le ba ku lo nu ju'o na zerfu'e
"About your arrival at the place of the murder: It's an important question when that was. If you arrived before the murder, you could be guilty. If you arrived afterwards, you are certainly not guilty."
(9) mi na jimpe le te pi'o ma kau lo tutci
"I don't understand what you use the tool for"
(10) A: "lo bakni cu morsi gau mi" B: "ua .oi mi na pu djuno le gau"
A: "The cow died because of me." B: "I did not know that you caused it"
(11) A: ".au do ĭu klama lo ckana" B: "mi gunka .u'u" A: ".oi mi na pu djuno le za'o"
A: "Come to bed <3" B: "I'm working, sorry" A: "meh, I did not know you were still working"
(12) verba: "mi pa roi vofli se cau lo vinji" makcu: "mi na krici le ka'e"
Child: "I once flew without an airplane!" Grown-up: "I don't belive that's possible"
(13) mi na pu djuno le zu
"I did not know that you did it long ago"
(14) mi terpa le fi'o kansa no da
"I'm scared that nobody will accompany me in it"
(15) le pu le ba nibli
"Something being in the past means that something else is in the future."
Unfortunately, le will most certainly stay the way it was for compatibility reasons, in spite of how useless it is.
Therefore, I unwillingly propose le'ei for now, but I might just use le out of protest :)
There are now 4 distinct articles for very different purposes:
lo = selbri -> sumti
la = cmevla -> sumti
li = number -> sumti
le = term -> sumti
Appendix — Formal definition:
le takes a non-sumti term and turns it into a sumti.
le TAG SUMTI == lo su'u TAG SUMTI cu co'e
le TAG [ku] == lo su'u TAG [ku] co'e
le NA ku == lo su'u NA ku co'e
mu'o
"Did you go? I assume not."
In Lojban, we can't do this (directly)! We need to use verbose constructs instead:
(1a) .i xu do klama .i mi sruma lo du'u na go'i
Or:
"Did they pick the red door? I guess not."
(2a) .i xu cuxna tu'a lo xunre vorme .i mi smadi lo du'u na go'i
What I wanted to be able to say instead is:
(1b) * .i xu do klama .i mi sruma tu'a na ku, using na ku as a (raised) sumti.
(2b) * .i xu cuxna tu'a lo xunre vorme .i mi smadi tu'a na ku
Of course, tu'a can't do this, so I decided to invent a new cmavo. I'd love to call it le, but ... you know.
Here's what we'd get:
(1c) .i xu do klama .i mi sruma le na ku
"Did you go? I assume not."
Some more examples using NA ku:
(3) .i xu do se fanza lo nu cladu .i mi va'o le na ku cu .au na cnegau .i lo nu xamgu tirna ro lo valsi cu vajni mi
"Does it bother you that it's loud? If not, I'd like to not change it. It's important to me that I hear every word clearly."
(4) .i xu do djica lo nu citka da .i .i'a mi va'o le ja'a ku cu jukpa da se va'u do
"Would you like to eat something? If so, I could cook you something."
(5) .i ba'a pei .ebu mi prami .i .ai mi va'o le ja'a ku speti'i
"Do you think E. loves me? If she does, I intend to propose to her."
(6) .i mi pensi lo nu vi'ecpe do lo nu kinzga .i ku'i na birti lo du'u xu kau do djica tu'a mi .i va'o po'o le ja'a sai ku mi do ba vi'ecpe
"I'm thinking about inviting you to watch a movie. But I'm not sure whether you want to with me. Only if you absolutely want to will I invite you."
These are pretty cool, but it's not limited to NA! We can draw from the entirity of BAI as well as all the other tags!
(7) .i lo cukta poi do pu tavla mi zo'u: mi no'e se slabu .i po'o djuno le bau lo glico
"The book you talked to me about; I don't really know it. I only know that it's in English."
(8) .i lo nu do tolcliva lo jai bu'u nuncatra zo'u: le cu'e kau ku vajni preti .i nibli fa nu'i ge le pu lo nuncatra lo nu ka'e zerfu'e nu'u gi le ba ku lo nu ju'o na zerfu'e
"About your arrival at the place of the murder: It's an important question when that was. If you arrived before the murder, you could be guilty. If you arrived afterwards, you are certainly not guilty."
(9) mi na jimpe le te pi'o ma kau lo tutci
"I don't understand what you use the tool for"
(10) A: "lo bakni cu morsi gau mi" B: "ua .oi mi na pu djuno le gau"
A: "The cow died because of me." B: "I did not know that you caused it"
(11) A: ".au do ĭu klama lo ckana" B: "mi gunka .u'u" A: ".oi mi na pu djuno le za'o"
A: "Come to bed <3" B: "I'm working, sorry" A: "meh, I did not know you were still working"
(12) verba: "mi pa roi vofli se cau lo vinji" makcu: "mi na krici le ka'e"
Child: "I once flew without an airplane!" Grown-up: "I don't belive that's possible"
(13) mi na pu djuno le zu
"I did not know that you did it long ago"
(14) mi terpa le fi'o kansa no da
"I'm scared that nobody will accompany me in it"
(15) le pu le ba nibli
"Something being in the past means that something else is in the future."
Unfortunately, le will most certainly stay the way it was for compatibility reasons, in spite of how useless it is.
Therefore, I unwillingly propose le'ei for now, but I might just use le out of protest :)
There are now 4 distinct articles for very different purposes:
lo = selbri -> sumti
la = cmevla -> sumti
li = number -> sumti
le = term -> sumti
Appendix — Formal definition:
le takes a non-sumti term and turns it into a sumti.
le TAG SUMTI == lo su'u TAG SUMTI cu co'e
le TAG [ku] == lo su'u TAG [ku] co'e
le NA ku == lo su'u NA ku co'e
mu'o
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