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Loglan/The Power of Little Words/Time and Space

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Time and Space

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A simple sentience in Loglan only defines a relationship between the arguments but says nothing about where on when the relationship holds true. Unlike some natural languages, you can chose to add time and space to a sentence in Loglan or chose to leave it out.

The Loglan sentence, mi viska tu means I see you or I was seen by you or I will see you. English forces us to add in the time; was it past, present or future? But in Loglan mi viska tu can hold true if I see you now or I have seen you or even if I will see you at some point in the future. Loglan does not force you to refer to time or space.

Loglan treats time and space the same. That means you place a relationship in time the same way that you place it in space; you add one of three words for time and one of three words for space. Whatever you can do with time words you can do with space words.

For time we have the following three words:

  • pa
  • na
  • fa


For space we have the following three words:

  • vi
  • va
  • vu


pa, na, and fa

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If we want to add time into a sentence Loglan provides us with three little words to do that; pa, na and fa. You can add theses little words anywhere in the sentence.

The little word pa refers to the past and means before.

  • mi vizka tu pa - I saw you
  • mi pa vizka tu - I saw you
  • pa mi vizka tu - I saw you

The little word na refers to now and means at the instance of.

  • mi na vizka tu - I see you now

The last of the three, fa, refers to the future and means after.

  • mi vizka tu fa - I will see you

vi, va and vu

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The little words vi, va and vu indicate place and work like the words for time; they go anywhere in the sentence.

The little word vi means here or close to this place

  • mi viska tu vi - I see you here
  • mi vi viska tu - I see you here
  • vi mi viska tu - I see you here

The little word va means over there or nearby.

  • mi vizka tu va - I saw you nearby

The last little, vu word refers to a place far away; over there or yonder.

  • mi vizka tu vu - I saw you far away over there

zi, za, and zu

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You can add more details to the time and space words using the zi, za, and zu little words.

  • zi - near or very short duration
  • za - soon or a short duration
  • zu - long time or long duration

so,

  • fazi - very short time in the future
  • vuzu - a very long distance away
  • naza - in a little while

The context determines how long is long and how short is short. The existence of humans on Earth is a short time in geological ages but and hour might mean a long time to wait for a bus.

Other Places and Other Times

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The use of vi, va, vu and pa, na, fa defines time and place relative to the speaker. We can use the little word la to define a place or time relative to something else if we combine it with the place and time words.

  • mi vizka tu lena kinkra - I saw you at the time of the convention
  • mi lena kinkra gu vizka tu - I, at the time of the convention, saw you
  • mi vizka tu lefa kinkra - I will see you at the time of the convention
  • mi vizka tu levi kinkra - I saw you at the place of the convention
  • mi vizka tu leva kinkra - I saw you near the place of the convention
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