An acronym is a name constructed of lerfu. English examples are “DNA” , “NATO” , “CIA”. In English, some of these are spelled out (like “DNA” and “CIA”) and others are pronounced more or less as if they were ordinary English words (like “NATO”). Some acronyms fluctuate between the two pronunciations: “SQL” may be “ess cue ell” or “sequel”.

In Lojban, a name is often represented by one cmevla (a word that ends in a consonant and is surrounded by pauses). The easiest way to Lojbanize acronym names is to glue the lerfu words together, using ' wherever two vowels would come together (pauses are illegal in cmevla) and adding a final consonant:

There is no fixed convention for assigning the final consonant. In Example 17.40 , the last consonant of the lerfu string has been replicated into final position.

Some compression can be done by leaving out bu after vowel lerfu words (except for .y.bu , wherein the bu cannot be omitted without ambiguity). Compression is moderately important because it's hard to say long cmevla without introducing an involuntary (and illegal) pause:

In Example 17.41 , the final consonant m stands for merko , indicating the source culture of these acronyms.

Another approach, which some may find easier to say and which is compatible with older versions of the language that did not have a ' character, is to use the consonant z instead of ' :

One more alternative to these lengthy cmevla is to use the lerfu string itself prefixed with me , the cmavo that makes sumti into selbri:

This works because la , the cmavo that normally introduces cmevla used as sumti, may also be used before a predicate to indicate that the predicate is a (meaningful) name:

Example 17.44 does not of course refer to a bear ( le cribe or lo cribe) but to something else, probably a person, named “Bear”. Similarly, me dy ny. .abu is a predicate which can be used as a name, producing a kind of acronym which can have pauses between the individual lerfu words.