Deep knowledge of the Eberban logical conlang — grammar, morphology, vocabulary, parser, and tooling
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Logical conlang inspired by Lojban and Toaq. Goals: simple, regular, expressive. Translates to higher-order logic with trivalent truth (true/false/unknown). Pure functions, no side effects. Creator: mia.
Long-term vision: automated theorem prover — given axioms and a proposition, determine if provably true, false, or unknown. The axiom system (nu/ni/onu) is designed with this in mind.
c, a map/dictionary-like structure carrying time/tense/discourse state. Propagates inward only (predicates can't change parent/sibling context). Inter-sentence context injected per sentence; an updates it between sentences. Concept of "automatic an" (e.g., advancing "now" between narrative sentences). Mechanism (mue/mua) is stable; context manipulation vocabulary is experimental. Rationale: without a hidden context, expressing "In the future: you dance" would require adding explicit time parameters to every verb — not ergonomic. The hidden context solves this transparently.e)etiansa = e + tian (food, intrans) + sa (→ transitive) = "eats"{family: "Compound", prefix: "e", content: [{word: "tian"}, {word: "sa"}]}A (B (C D)). Always trace inside-out.mi ve etiansa meon fe dona skan vei = "I eat apples and like dogs." Repeating mi would create a new existential (possibly different speaker).sre at sentence/proposition start scopes naturally (no wrapping needed). Mid-chain: voi sre for narrow scope (only verb is past), sia sre for wide/transparent scope (whole sub-chain is past).h+vowel overrides right-bound. si+vowel = transparent (re-expose right pred's places, useful for proposition-place predicates like tenses/attitudes). -i suffix = equivalence. sae ≈ passive voice.[A:()] to [A:(p)] receiving E. SI after zue selects places (default sea). Use zue when subject = attitude holder; use sia when attitude holder is separate/unspecified.ke(c,e) = "e is fixed atom x". Use in argument lists, chains, or with bo for forethought assignment.gi- = intransitive, ge/ga/go/gu- = transitive, final -i = equivalence.bo ke = assign ke to new atom (breaks previous link). boi ge = assign ge to new predicate.bo ke mian blan assigns ke = beautiful cat. ke persists throughout text. Like naming a character.All m- particles. Key members (others are convenience roots like mi, mo, me):
oia pred mai removes a default.(default: 1) on A. mula = "1 meter", to mula = "3 meters" (number overrides default). Makes bare unit = 1 unit.Two modes: separator (PE item1 bu item2 pei) or prefix (PE bu item1 item2 pei).
mi pe etiansa bu dona pei meon = "I eat and like apples."mio pea bu za ualis za ubob = "we are Alice and Bob."peo tcu mian bu meon pei = "{all cats, some apples}."me vone peho bu mian meon = "this is a cat OR an apple."PE bu pei. Empty set doesn't exist; empty list does. pe bu pei = always true.Vowel scale (IEAOU): encodes order/scale from small/negative to big/positive. Final -i is skipped in patterns (it encodes transitivity type).
Directional cross diagram: vowels encode spatial direction:
A (forward)
|
O-I-E (left-center-right)
|
U (back)
A = forward (loudest, 3rd of 5), I = center, others counter-clockwise.
Pattern preference: vowel patterns > sonorant patterns. If sonorants are used, follow NRL order with same scale/direction guidelines.
Type roots are definition-level: roots like pan, man, gan, gen, gin, ski, sken, ban, stan are for typed definitions (place annotations like [E:tce* pan]), not common speech. Don't use them as regular predicates in example sentences or translations — they belong in dictionary short: fields and on definitions.
Vocabulary is designed to compose with chaining. Example: "tall tree" = jnu epnuencpie tcuin
[scale] [dimension] [class], NOT [class] [dimension] [scale]Eberban addresses specific Lojban issues:
au indistinguishable from a in practice; borrowings forced awkward spellings (e.g., "la .mian." → "la .miian."). Eberban uses clean vowel hiatuses instead.y was hard for speaker (mia). Eberban removes y entirely, bans difficult clusters via SSM.u...pause) + za prefix for names.u + foreign word adapted to Eberban phonology + space/pause. Must end with vowel or vowel+single-consonant.be. Example: umia uentropi be = single predicate "mia entropi."be is needed between distinct borrowing groups to prevent fusion. umia be uentropi be = two separate predicates.vie/via for predicate equivalence bindings.za prefix. za umia uentropi = "is named mia entropi."u, a space is needed after the u prefix. ' or . can be used instead of a full space to keep words visually connected (. preferred by mia). Example: u.ualis instead of u ualis.{kind: "BorrowingGroup", group: [{family: "Borrowing", prefix: "u", content: "..."}], end: be?}Map foreign sounds to closest Eberban phonemes (English [k]→k, [dʒ]→dj, [tʃ]→tc, [ʃ]→c), then fix morphology violations (insert buffer vowels for forbidden clusters, ensure valid ending). Names use za prefix: za udjon = "is named John."
a: assertion. an: context update (updates inter-sentence context). al: request/command.o: question. Introduces a variable + constraint; answers instantiate the variable. Ex: o gi seha etiansa meon = "who eats apples?" Reply: a gi za ualis = "Alice". Reply: a bi gi = "nobody".be arg lists (universal): With be, explicit arg list (KI/GI/BA before be) REPLACES chain-exposed places. Without be, chain's exposed places (from chaining rules) are used. bai always adds extra place at end. Applies everywhere ArgumentsList is used: sentences (a/o), VI/FI bindings, PE enumeration.mo), use seha to expose E while chaining via A, use bai for asked-about args. Ex: o ge seha zue katmi etiansa bai = "what does one want to eat?" Answer: a mi ge meon = "I want to eat apples." ge is transitive (E=subject, A=food).on: definition = runtime word creation. Dictionary is conceptually a preloaded text of on definitions (like a standard library). oni: capturing definition (captures current global context). onu: define+enable axiom.nu/ni: enable/disable axiom.on.mi=speaker, mo=listener, mio=inclusive we, mie=exclusive we, moe=3rd person, me=this/the.
de gali=❤️), dei=hashtag.PI accesses a word in a namespace (parent pi word), ohi imports a namespace. Future-oriented feature for domain vocabulary grouping (e.g., medical field) or accessing words overridden by another speaker (mi pi word). Not expected in casual speech currently.
pub in a programming module.references/open-design-problems.md.PA (pa- prefix) lets you resume bindings to a verb earlier in the chain by echoing (repeating) it.
Problem solved: VI/FI attach to the immediately preceding verb. If you're deep in a chain and realize you need to bind places of a verb you already passed, you're stuck without PA. PA eliminates the need to plan sentinel VI ahead of time.
Syntax: ... verb chain... pa verb [SI] [VI/FI binds] [continuation]
Matching rule: The echoed verb must match the original exactly — ZI modifiers, base word, and post annotations all must be identical. Leading SI CAN differ (you can resume with different place selection). Explicit binds are new (that's the whole point).
Walk-up: The parser tries to match PA+verb at the deepest chain step first. If no match, it walks up to the parent step, then grandparent, etc., until a matching verb is found. Unmatched PA produces E_UnmatchedResume error.
After PA+verb you can: add VI/FI explicit binds, apply different SI, continue chaining (resume_next).
Multiple resumes: PA can appear multiple times on the same verb. Each resume can have its own continuation chain.
Scope: PA is chain-scoped — cannot cross VI/FI bind boundaries.
PA forms: pa is the only defined member. Others (pae, pai, pao, etc.) are grammatically valid but reserved. PA_Free carries no annotations (no DI/DE/DA).
Example: a mi duna meon pa duna vo mo = "I give you an apple." PA resumes to duna to bind O=listener, after A=apple was already chained.
See references/grammar-deep-dive.md for formal grammar details and references/worked-examples.md for traced examples.
~880 entries: ~556 roots, 152 compounds, 172 particles. Strong in time/tense/sets/logic/animals/food/emotions/movement/weather/clothing/objects/nature. Still weak in materials/textures/taste/professions/instruments. See references/vocabulary-gaps.md.
Emotion design: reactive emotions are proposition-based (-i ending, use zue for self-referential). Relational emotions (love, hate, trust, jealous) are entity-based (non-i vowel ending). Unary: lonely. Reason is external (context mechanism). A reflexive combinator (vla) was explored but deemed redundant with zue for practical cases.
[base] ju [int] jo [fract] ja [repeat] je [magn] JI — all optional except at least one partci mian = "is the word 'mian'"co [text] — text until ]. Sentinel variant: co SENTINEL [text ]SENTINEL.Transitivity determines how verbs chain and what their chaining place accepts:
se=intrans, sa=trans sharing, sai=trans equiv.transitive/equivalence fields.gi- intrans, others trans. Ends -i after first vowel → equiv.h present → after h: i=trans, e=intrans. No h → atom intrans. Always sharing.books/refgram/src/ — reference grammar chaptersweb/src/grammar/eberban.peggy — formal PEG grammar (source of truth)web/src/visual-parser/visual.js — visual box rendererweb/src/visual-parser/boxes.css — box renderer stylesweb/src/visual-parser/index.html — visual parser pageweb/src/shared/ — shared utilities (regex, symbols, utils)web/src/vendor/ — bootstrap tabs (was legacy/)dictionary/en.yaml — complete dictionary (~798 entries, YAML)design.md — design rationale (Lojban comparison)references/grammar-deep-dive.md — morphology, logic, binding, sentences, transformations, time systemreferences/particle-families.md — complete particle family inventoryreferences/numbers-quotes-vocab.md — numbers, quotes, enumeration, colors, dictionary conventionsreferences/worked-examples.md — parsed sentences, common patterns, key lessonsreferences/vocabulary-gaps.md — domain coverage analysis, expansion prioritiesreferences/writing-and-tooling.md — writing systems, web app, visual renderer, grammar file, dev workflowsreferences/open-design-problems.md — unsolved: ze through equivalence boundariesreferences/word-form-design.md — sound symbolism, length strategy, consonant/vowel meaning associationsdictionary/en.yaml for domain prefixes (tc- sets, sr- time, zm- colors).npm run ids), family, gloss, tags, short. Place notation: [E:type], [A:(pred)], * for distributive. Compounds stored as "e tian sa" (spaces between parts). Spelling entries under _spelling key. No section/category comments (like # -- Animals --) in dictionary/en.yaml — just add entries directly.npm run build-peggy after editing eberban.peggy. Morphology rules are fragile — never modify without asking.