Brivla

Brivla is the class of content words in the constructed language Lojban. They carry semantic content and are used to form predicates, in contrast to cmavo, which are structure words that provide grammatical function. Brivla are the primary means to express ideas and relations in sentences.

The brivla vocabulary falls into three main subtypes: gismu, lujvo, and fu'ivla. Gismu are five-letter root words that express core meanings and form the basic vocabulary of the language. Lujvo are long, compound brivla created by joining two or more gismu (and sometimes additional elements) to yield more specific predicates. Fu'ivla are foreign or borrowed brivla adopted from other languages, often used for technical terms or proper names. Each subtype is treated as a single brivla token in discourse.

In a Lojban sentence, a brivla serves as the selbri—the predicate or relation described by the word—while one or more sumti supply the argument positions. Each brivla has a defined number of places, which indicates how many arguments it expects. Brivla can be combined with other structure words to refine meaning, but their core function remains to convey substantive content.

Brivla are distinct from cmavo, which primarily mark grammatical functions, tense, negation, or sentence structure. The term brivla covers all content words in Lojban, including gismu, lujvo, and fu'ivla, and they form the central toolkit for expressing ideas, relationships, and events within the language. The brivla inventory is documented in dictionaries and maintained by the Lojban community.