The Logos Initiative is an organizational fork of the The Loglan Institute (TLI) and the Logical Language Group (LLG) and their respective Loglan and Lojban languages. The Initiative has been created for the purpose of reconciling the differences between these two languages, to create a new hybrid language called Logla Prime, and then manage the natural never ending process of evolution of this language. The overarching goal is to continue the original, if only implicit, mission set out by the the two prior projects: the perfection of human language.
Unlike Loglan, the Logla is 100% open source, all material is copyleft, and anyone can participate in development of the language. Unlike Lojban, the Logla is a dynamic changing language. Dialects (variant Logla) are warmly welcomed. The best features of dialects may find there way to the mainline language. Changes to the mainline language are decided by long and rigorous debate, and ultimately by unanimous approval of supervisory chairs.
Github project management tools will play an important part in the language's development. The issue tracker will be used to propose and debate ideas. And the Github's wiki will be used to write up detailed formal proposals as needed.
As the language evolves, baselines will be established as required. These will be considered complete dialects of the language and given specific names. These baselines can then evolve on their own if enough people are invested in them.
While still a work in progress, this list provides an outline of the principles by which the work is guided.
- Strive for perfection in human communication.
- Seek concision without complexity to expend expressiveness.
- Seek greater simplicity to ease learning and promote productive usage.
- Use common patterns within the language's design wherever possible.
Discussions about Logla Prime and the Logos Initiave are held on the Logla Mailing List.
All proposals are to be submitted via this projects issue tracker. Note that it's geernally a good idea to vet a proposal first on the mailing list.
The goal listed in bold is the primary goal at this time --but not to the exclusion of other goals because they may have cross-interactactions.
- Review the phonology.
- Optimize the morphology.
- Build a unified vocabulary.
See the wiki page for a more detailed list.
Currently the Logla consists of two widely divergent dialects: the original Loglan and its progeny Lojban. Hence much of the initial activity will center around reconciling these two into a single mainline language. Every aspect of this process will be put under scrutiny and in some cases the result may be unlike either of the two source languages, should they both prove deficient in some area.
Running parallel to this reconciliation, the floor is open to all new ideas. There is nothing too radical or too minor that it should not be given due consideration. Decisions will be made through thorough debate, general consensus and ultimately by unanimous confirmation of a supervisory committee.
Bylaws remain to be written, but the basic outline is as follows: A three or five person board oversees language development. These board members take up proposals and incorporate them on unanimous consensus. A body elective made up of members of the general populous can override the board with a super-majority vote.
James Cooke Brown began work on Loglan in 1955, originally devised to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. In 1960 Scientific American published an article introducing the language which popularized his work. The Loglan Institute (TLI) was founded a few years later to develop the language and other applications for it. JCB always considered the language an incomplete research project, and although he released many papers about its design, he continued to claim legal restrictions on its use.
In the 1980s disputes broke out over control of the language. Bob LeChevalier and a group of fellow Loglanists formed the Logical Language Group (LLG) to create a new language called Lojban along the same basic design principles, but with the intention to make it more widely available and encourage its use as a real language.
TLI has remained true to its purpose. Loglan is a research instrument, and has continued to evolve as such (albeit very slowly). It remains, however, squarely in the hands of academia.
The LLG on the other hand has moved in another direction. The Logical Language Group's Bylaws states its purpose as follows:
The Logical Language Group, Inc. is established to promote the scientific study of the relationships between language, thought and human culture; to investigate the nature of language and to determine the requirements for an artificially-engineered natural language; to implement and experiment with such a language; to devise and promote applications for this language in fields including but not limited to linguistics, psychology, philosophy, logic, mathematics, computer science, anthropology, sociology, education, and human biology; to conduct and support experimental and scholarly research in these fields as they may bear upon the problems of artificial language development; to communicate with and to educate interested persons and organizations about these activities; to devise and develop means and instruments needed for these activities; and to accumulate and publish the results of such studies and developments. In the furtherance of these purposes, and in addition to the above activities,
With such purpose one could be forgiven for expecting the Lojban language to hotbed of language experimentation and exploration. Ironically nothing could be further from the truth. Lojban was baselined in 1997 for a period of five years. But the baseline has since become a defacto freeze. While still giving an ear to proposals, the language is no longer evolving. Put simply, the LLG's purpose has changed. It now exists "to preserve the investment people have made in learning the language".
So on the one hand we have a sequestered research language inaccessible to the populous at large, and on the other a language that is no longer evolving. For this reason the Logos Initiative and the Logla language have been created.
Q. Why not start with Loglan or Lojban as a baseline and modify it, instead of starting from scratch?
A. First, it gives us greater liberty to reconsider some of the early design decisions. Second, we want to reconcile the two camps as much as possible. Starting with one language or the other would undermine that goal.