Juftaikei

1. Juftaikei

Juftaikei, also known as Lingo, is a game that can be played in any language in any medium, but is typically played in Lojban in chatrooms (e.g. on Discord or historically on an IRC. It is a rule guessing game with one "Teacher" and any number of "Students". This is, the Teacher creates a "Rule" describing some aspect of a Lojban sentence that the students try to guess.

How to play

First, decide who is the first Teacher. The Teacher then decides and records a Rule. A Rule can be something simple as "contains a pronoun" or as complex as "If it exists, the second abstraction word must be a nu". Note that this is a collaborative game, and if the chosen rule is so difficult that no-one can guess it, the teacher looses.

Once the Teacher has chosen a rule, they provide two example sentences, one which satisfies the Rule, and one which does not, clearly labeling which sentence is which. Then, the students, in any order, may make Guesses. The Guesses are of two general forms: Sentence Guesses and Rule Guesses.

When a student makes a correct #Rule Guess, they and the Teacher win that round. If all the students give up, the Teacher may reveal the rule, and everyone loses that round. If there are enough players still interested, a new Teacher is chosen, usually by the winning student from the previous round, and play restarts.

Sentence Guess

In a #Sentence Guess, the student provides a sentence and asks whether or not it satisfies the rule, then the teacher will say «mapti» if it does, or «na mapti» if it does not.

Rule Guess

Alternatively, the Student may guess at what the Rule is. If they are correct, they win the game. If not, the Teacher must provide an example which satisfies the Teacher's Rule, but breaks the Student's proposed rule.

Example Rules

• Contains a gismu/abstraction/connective/terminator/etc.
• Has no pronoun/poi/cu/etc.
• Starts with the selbri/attitudinal/TAG/etc.
• Has X sumti
• Contains a tanru of length Y
• Contains a nested abstraction

Variants

This game has multiple rule variants depending on what the students want to play. For example, the turn order may be stricter, players may be limited to a certain number of guesses, etc. Also, one may limit the object under study to smaller pieces of grammar, such as words, as is common in introductory game with new players or Nintadni

Zendo

This game is inspired by Zendo, a board game with similar rules. If the players which, they can use the full rule set from that game substituting Lojbanic sentence construction for arrangements of pyramids.

One of the key concepts from Zendo is that when making a #Sentence Guess, all the students may first. guess whether it matches the Rule or not. Those that guess correctly earn the ability to make a #Rule Guess, and cannot make a #Rule Guess otherwise.

Example game:

Lojban

ctuca:

• .i mapti fa mu'a lu mi tavla do lo skami li'u
• .i narmapti fa mu'a lu mi klama fu lo karce li'u

tadni: .ixu lu« mi klama zo'e zoe' zo'e lo karce »li'u mapti

ctuca: .i mapti

tadni: .ixu lu« mi tavla fi lo skami »li'u cu mapti

ctuca: .i mapti

tadni: .ixu javni lodu'u loi nalkunti sumti cu remei

ctuca .i na go'i .i mu'a lu mi tavla do li'u na mapti

tadni: .ixu lu« tavla fi do »li'u cu mapti

ctuca: .i mapti

tadni: .i xu lu« lo gerku lo mlatu cu jersi »li'u cu mapti

ctuca: .i na go'i

tadni: je'e .uaru'e .ixu javni lodu'u lo cimoi sumti cu na kunti

ctuca .i .u'i dukti .i ku'i .ia do snada lo ka jimpe :)

tadni: .i .ui .i ki'e do ckire fi lonu kelci !

English

Teacher:

• For example, «mi tavla do lo skami li'u» matches the rule
• For example, «mi klama fu lo karce li'u» does not match the rule

Student: Does «mi klama zo'e zoe' zo'e lo karce» match ?

Teacher: It matches

Student: Does «mi tavla fi lo skami »li'u match ?

Teacher: It matches

Student: Is the rule that there are two non-empty arguments?

Teacher No, for example «mi tavla do» does not match

Student: Does «tavla fi do» match

Teacher: It matches

Student: Does «lo gerku lo mlatu cu jersi» match ?

Teacher: It doesn't

Student: Oh, I think I get it. Is the rule that the third sumti isn't empty ?

Teacher Haha, yes ! I believe you have successfully understood.

Student: Yay ! Thanks for playing.