English Translation
She’s fixing the machine.
“Ra cikre lo minji” is a sentence in Lojban, a constructed language designed to be culturally neutral and easier to learn than natural languages because of its regular structure.
Let’s dissect the sentence word by word to understand each element:
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“Ra” - In Lojban, “ra” is a pro-sumti, generally used to refer to something mentioned in the immediate or close context. It’s equivalent to English’s “it” or “he” or “she,” where the specific thing being referred to depends on the context.
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“Cikre” - This is a verb in Lojban, equivalent to “repairing” or “fixing” in English.
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“Lo” - The word “lo” is an article, similar in function to “the” or “a” in English, but operates a bit differently. “Lo” indicates that the next word is a general or unspecified example of the category defined by the next word.
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“Minji” - This is a noun in Lojban, equivalent to “machine” in English.
So, in total, the Lojban sentence “Ra cikre lo minji” translates to “It/he/she is repairing a/the machine,” depending on the context.
A note on grammar: In sentences, Lojban follows a subject-object-verb ordering of words. Therefore “ra”, the pro-sumti that is functioning as the subject, must come before “cikre”, the verb (or selbri), which must come before “lo minji”, the object. The “ra” and “lo minji” act as descriptors for the “cikre”, or repairing action.