Chlouvānem/Morphology

Chlouvānem is a highly inflected language with a synthetic morphology. Six parts of speech are traditionally distinguished: nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, numerals, and particles.

Nouns - Halenī

The Chlouvānem noun (haloe, pl. halenī) is highly inflected: it declines for three numbers (singular, dual, plural), and eleven cases (direct, vocative, accusative, ergative, genitive, translative, exessive, essive, dative, ablative, and locative). Nouns also have grammatical gender, being divided in three classes (called dragon, lotus, and parrot based on nouns included in them).

There are a few nouns which lack number; a few are singularia tantum and lack a plural (e.g. hærūm lips), other ones are plural only - most notably these include all ethnicities (e.g. Chlouvānem, which is also an irregular plural). The singular is made by using the genitive form attributed to lila (person), e.g. Chlouvānaumi lila (a Chlouvānem).

Gender

Genders and declensions are dependent on the form of the noun. Due to the prevailing endings in direct case, dragon nouns are also called the s-class; lotus nouns the m-class; and parrot nouns the h-class:

Dragon nouns (kaṃšūlñī halenī):

• 1s: nouns ending in -as or -ās, as well as Eastern toponyms in -o
• 2s: nouns ending in -us or -ūs
• 3s: nouns ending in -is or -īs
• 4s: nouns ending in -oe

Lotus nouns (yujamñī halenī):

• 1m: nouns ending in -am, -em, -ām, -ėm, or any vowel plus -n
• 2m: nouns ending in -um or -ūm
• 3m: nouns ending in -im or -īm
• 4m: nouns ending in -ai

Parrot nouns (geltañī halenī):

• 1h: nouns ending in -a, -ah, -ā, or -āh
• 2h: nouns ending in -ė or -eh (plus some diminutives ending in -ėh)
• 3h: nouns ending in -uh or -ūh
• 4h: nouns ending in -ih or -īh (plus a few exceptional ones in -i)
• 5h: nouns ending in -a which have ablaut-conditioned variations in their stems in different cases

Dragon nouns - Kaṃšūlñī halenī

The first declension of dragon nouns is also the most common one for that gender. Like all other nominal declensions, the vocative is only distinct in the singular, and dual and plural have the same forms for translative, exessive, essive, dative, ablative, and locative.

1s	Singular	Dual	Plural	2s	Singular	Dual	Plural	3s	Singular	Dual	Plural	4s	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	prātas "wind"	prātudi	prāte		kældus "wax"	kældudi	kælduvī		kumis "bamboo"	kumidi	kumiye		haloe "name"	haloedi	halenī
Vocative	prātau	prātudi	prāte		kældu	kældudi	kælduvī		kumi	kumidi	kumiye		haloe	haloedi	halenī
Accusative	prātu	prātudau	prātānu		kældau	kældudau	kældūnu		kumiu	kumidau	kumiānu		halenu	haloedau	halenænu
Ergative	prāteṃs	prātudeni	prātān		kældoṃs	kældudeni	kældān		kumiei	kumideni	kumiān		halenei	haloedeni	halenān
Genitive	prāti	prātudais	prātumi		kældavi	kældudais	kældoumi		kumieyi	kumideis	kumiumi		halenies	haloedais	halenyumi
Translative	prātan	prātyoh	prātyoh		kældun	kældyoh	kældyoh		kumian	kumiyoh	kumiyoh		halenan	halenyoh	halenyoh
Exessive	prātat	prātyās	prātyās		kældut	kældyās	kældyās		kumiæt	kumiyās	kumiyās		halenat	halenyās	halenyās
Essive	prātą	prātvin	prātvin		kældęs	kældvin	kældvin		kumiæs	kumivin	kumivin		haleṃs	halemvin	halemvin
Dative	prātui	prāteiti	prāteiti		kældui	kældeiti	kældeiti		kumiui	kumievuti	kumievuti		halenui	haleneiti	haleneiti
Ablative	prātų	prātenīs	prātenīs		kældų	kældunīs	kældunīs		kumių	kumienīs	kumienīs		halenų	haleninīs	haleninīs
Locative	prāte	prātilīm	prātilīm		kælduve	kældilīm	kældilīm		kumie	kumiælīm	kumiælīm		halenive	haleṃlīm	haleṃlīm

Lotus nouns - Yujamñī halenī

1m	Singular	Dual	Plural	2m	Singular	Dual	Plural	3m	Singular	Dual	Plural	4m	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	yujam "lotus"	yujandi	yujye		tūlum "worm"	tūlundi	tūluvye		jāyim "girl"	jāyiñxi	jāyiñe		lunai "tea"	lunaidi	lunāye
Vocative	yujam	yujandi	yujye		tūlu	tūlundi	tūluvye		jāyī	jāyiñxi	jāyiñe		lunai	lunaidi	lunāye
Accusative	yujamu	yujandau	yujāmūn		tūlau	tūlundau	tūlumūn		jāyimu	jāyiñxau	jāyimin		lunāyu	lunaidau	lunainū
Ergative	yujamei	yujandeni	yujamān		tūluṃs	tūlundeni	tūlumān		jāyimei	jāyiñxeni	jāyimān		lunea	lunaideni	lunæyān
Genitive	yujami	yujandais	yujammi		tūlumvi	tūlundais	tūloumi		jāyimi	jāyiñxeis	jāyiñumi		lunayi	lunaidais	lunæyumi
Translative	yujaman	yujyoh	yujyoh		tūluman	tūluvyoh	tūluvyoh		jāyiman	jāyiñyoh	jāyiñyoh		lunāyan	lunāyoh	lunāyoh
Exessive	yujamat	yujamyās	yujamyās		tūlumat	tūlumyās	tūlumyās		jāyimæt	jāyiñyās	jāyiñyās		lunāyat	lunāyās	lunāyās
Essive	yujamą	yujamvin	yujamvin		tūlumą	tūlumvin	tūlumvin		jāyimą	jāyimvin	jāyimvin		lunąis	lunaivin	lunaivin
Dative	yujamui	yujyeiti	yujyeiti		tūlumui	tūluvyeiti	tūluvyeiti		jāyimui	jāyimėti	jāyimėti		lunāmui	lunāyeiti	lunāyeiti
Ablative	yujamų	yujamñis	yujamñis		tūlumų	tūlumñis	tūlumñis		jāyimų	jāyimñīs	jāyimñīs		lunāyų	lunaiñīs	lunaiñīs
Locative	yujamñe	yujailīm	yujailīm		tūlumñe	tuluilīm	tuluilīm		jāyimñe	jāyælīm	jāyælīm		lunaiñe	lunæyilīm	lunæyilīm

Parrot nouns - Geltañī halenī

1h	Singular	Dual	Plural	2h	Singular	Dual	Plural	3h	Singular	Dual	Plural	4h	Singular	Dual	Plural	5h	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	māra "mango"	māradi	mārai		javilė "apple"	javiladi	javilei		camūh "group"	camūdi	camūvai		xamih "arrow"	xamīdi	xamīye		lila "person"	lildi	leliė
Vocative	māra	māradi	mārai		javili	javiladi	javilei		camū	camūdi	camūvai		xamī	xamīdi	xamīye		lila	lildi	leliė
Accusative	māru	māradau	mārānu		javilu	javiladau	javilėnu		camou	camūdau	camounu		xamīyu	xamīdau	xameinu		lilu	lildau	leliu
Ergative	mārei	māradeni	mārān		javiliai	javiladeni	javilėn		camūvei	camūdeni	camoun		xamīyi	xamīdeni	xamein		lilei	lildeni	leliei
Genitive	māri	māradais	mārumi		javili	javiladais	javilumi		camūvi	camūdais	camūmi		xamīyi	xamīdais	xamiūmi		leli	lildais	laili
Translative	māran	māryāh	māryāh		javilan	javilyāh	javilyāh		camūn	camūyāh	camūyāh		xamīn	xamīyāh	xamīyāh		lilan	lelian	lelian
Exessive	mārat	māryās	māryās		javilet	javilyās	javilyās		camūt	camūyās	camūyās		xamīt	xamīyās	xamīyās		lilat	leliat	leliat
Essive	māręs	mārvin	mārvin		javilęs	javilein	javilein		camųs	camūvin	camūvin		xamįs	xamīvin	xamīvin		liląs	lailąs	lailąs
Dative	mārui	mārauti	mārauti		javilui	javiliauti	javiliauti		camvui	camvauti	camvauti		xamiui	xamiauti	xamiauti		lilui	leliui	leliui
Ablative	mārų	mārenīs	mārenīs		javilių	javilenīs	javilenīs		camųu	camūnīs	camūnīs		xamių	xamīnīs	xamīnīs		lilų	lelių	lelių
Locative	māre	mārilīm	mārilīm		javiliye	javililīm	javililīm		camve	camuilīm	camuilīm		xamie	xamīlīm	xamīlīm		lile	laile	laile

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives, in Chlouvānem, are actually a subset of nouns which have different forms depending on gender. They can function as attributes to nouns, but they can also be used without any noun, usually replacing it (and taking its gender) as a means of anaphora. If they are related to people, they take parrot gender: the common explanation is that they stand for ADJ. + lila (person).
Adjectives decline much like nouns, except for a few small differences. Their dragon gender form, direct case, singular number, is the citation form.

Dragon gender (kaṃšūlñis)

There are three main adjectival declensions: -as, -us, and -is; a small subset of -es adjectives (mainly ordinal numbers) follows the -is pattern except for plural direct and vocative (having -eye instead of -ī) and having -e as a thematic vowel instead of -i before endings.
Translative, exessive, essive, dative, ablative, and locative forms are exactly the same as for nouns. Forms that are different from the nominal declensions are in bold:

1s	Singular	Dual	Plural	2s	Singular	Dual	Plural	3s	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	prātūkas "windy"	prātūkadi	prātūke		mālthus "last"	mālthudi	mālthuvī		tarlausis "scientific"	tarlausidi	tarlausī
Vocative	prātūka	prātūkadi	prātūke		mālthu	mālthudi	mālthuvī		tarlausi	tarlausidi	tarlausī
Accusative	prātūku	prātūkadu	prātūkānu		mālthau	mālthudau	mālthūnu		tarlausiu	tarlausidau	tarlausiānu
Ergative	prātūkai	prātūkaden	prātūkān		mālthoṃs	mālthudeni	mālthān		tarlausiei	tarlausideni	tarlausiān
Genitive	prātūkuyi	prātūkadais	prātūkumi		mālthuyi	mālthudais	mālthūmi		tarlausiai	tarlausideis	tarlausieis

Lotus gender (yujamñis)

Lotus gender adjectives follow the same patterns as dragon ones — their endings are -am, -um, -im (-em). Differences in bold are from lotus gender nouns.

1m	Singular	Dual	Plural	2m	Singular	Dual	Plural	3m	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	prātūkam "windy"	prātūkandi	prātūkeñe		mālthum "last"	mālthundi	mālthuvye		tarlausim "scientific"	tarlausiñxi	tarlausiñe
Vocative	prātūkam	prātūkandi	prātūkeñe		mālthu	mālthundi	mālthuvye		tarlausi	tarlausiñxi	tarlausiñe
Accusative	prātūkamu	prātūkandu	prātūkūnu		mālthau	mālthundau	mālthumūn		tarlausimu	tarlausiñxau	tarlausimān
Ergative	prātūkemei	prātūkanden	prātūkūnen		mālthuṃs	mālthundeni	mālthumān		tarlausimei	tarlausiñxeni	tarlausimān
Genitive	prātūkañi	prātūkandais	prātūkumi		mālthuñi	mālthundais	mālthoumi		tarlauseñi	tarlausiñxeis	tarlausemñi

Parrot gender (geltañis)

Parrot gender adjectives, unlike the other two genders, do not have the -e- subdeclension, having -ah, -uh, and -eh as its three declensional endings (-is/-es and -im/-em all correspond to -eh). Differences in bold are from parrot gender nouns.

1s	Singular	Dual	Plural	2s	Singular	Dual	Plural	3s	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	prātūkah "windy"	prātūkadi	prātūkæh		mālthuh "last"	mālthudi	mālthuvai		tarlauseh "scientific"	tarlausadi	tarlausei
Vocative	prātūka	prātūkadi	prātūkæh		mālthu	mālthudi	mālthuvai		tarlausi	tarlausadi	tarlausei
Accusative	prātūku	prātūkadau	prātūkaun		mālthou	mālthudau	mālthounu		tarlausu	tarlausadau	tarlausėnu
Ergative	prātūkei	prātūkaden	prātūkæn		mālthuve	mālthudeni	mālthoun		tarlausiai	tarlausaeni	tarlausėn
Genitive	prātūki	prātūkadais	prātūkumi		mālthuvi	mālthudais	mālthumi		tarlauseah	tarlausadæs	tarlausumi

Irregular adjectives

"Irregular" adjectives are a closed group of words that have their own declensional paradigm. They are all declined for gender (though only in direct, vocative, accusative, ergative, and genitive) but not for number. Unlike other adjectives, the citation form is the parrot gender and not the dragon; they end in -iā or -i in parrot direct, -em (rarely -im or -am) in lotus direct, and -es (rarely -as) in dragon direct.
These words are:

• The possessives: liliā - lilem - liles (my, mine), sāmiā - sāmim - sāmes (your(s) (sg)), tamiā - tamim - tames (his, her(s), its), meyā - meyem - meyes (our(s)), negā - negem - neges (your(s) (pl)), tašñā - tašñem - tašñes (their(s))
• The Classical/modern demonstratives: nenė - nenayem - nenayes (proximal), nunū - numvem - numves (medial), nanā - nanām - nanās (distal)
• The archaic demonstratives: ami - em - es (proximal), uteni - utam - utas (medial), āteni - ātam - ātas (distal)
• All compounds with one of these (most commonly ami).

Their main declensional paradigm is the same for all except the parrot forms of nenė and nunū. Note that ami, uteni and āteni keep the palatalization also in the locative case (e.g. amiea).
Only the first five cases are present for dragon and lotus genders, as the other forms are the same as in the parrot one. liliā is used as example here:

Case	Parrot	Lotus	Dragon
Direct Vocative	liliā	lilem	liles
Accusative	liliau	lilemu	lileṣu
Ergative	lilie	lilemie	lilesie
Genitive	liliai	lilemñi	lilesiai
Translative	liliān
Exessive	liliāt
Essive	liliąa
Dative	liliåh
Ablative	liliąu
Locative	lilea

Case	Parrot	Parrot
Direct Vocative	nenė	nunū
Accusative	nenæyu	nunūyu
Ergative	nenæye	nunūye
Genitive	neniai	nunūyai
Translative	nenėn	nunūn
Exessive	nenėt	nunūt
Essive	nenęe	nunųu
Dative	neneah	nunouh
Ablative	nenėhu	nunūvu
Locative	nenėhea	nunūvea

Adverbs

Adjectives are turned into adverbs by removing the ending (-as/us/is/es) and adding -ęe (-nęe after vowel-final stems). Thus:

• tarlausis (scientific) → tarlausęe (scientifically, according to science)
• namęliausis (stakanovist) → namęliausęe (continuously; without any break)
• prātūkas (windy) → prātūkęe (windy; like the wind)

A few -us adjectives keep the -u- (and thus add -nęe):

• mālthus (last) → mālthunęe ((as) last; at last, finally)

There are also some irregular adverbs, made from other speech parts:

• chlærūm (light) → chlære (easily) (but note its synonym chlærausęe from the related adjective chlærausis (easy))

Undeclinable adjectives

A few common words may be used attributively just like adjectives, but they do not decline. Most of them end in either -a or -i:

• cami - great, large (figurative), important
• lalla - high, higher, next
• chāra - good (and chloucæm (better))
• taili - many, much
• nanū - more
• kaili - most
• ṣūbha - few, little
• lьvyamna - far, distant
• yamei - "honorific" adjective

Note that cami, taili, and kaili, in some (but not all) Archaic Chlouvānem texts, have a singular-only declension based on the irregular one of ami - em - es. Most probably this was an analogic feature of a few pre-Classical standardization Chlouvānem dialects of 2000 years ago.

Comparatives and superlatives

There are two methods for building comparatives and superlatives: a synthetic and an analytic one. Synthetic comparatives, except for a few irregular forms, are extremely rare in spoken Chlouvānem and only used in very formal written language. Adjectives that either refer to the presence or absence of a quality do not have comparatives or superlatives, nor does the "honorific adjective" yamei.

Analytic comparatives are made by using either nanū (more) or ovet (less) in front of the adjective; the compared term is in accusative case and followed by the comparative particle en; the superlative is formed by using yaivu en (than all) as the compared term. Adverbs use the same method (e.g. chlære (easily) → nanū chlære → yaivu en nanū chlære), but "than all" in superlatives is usually omitted, therefore they use nanū also with a superlative meaning.

Synthetic comparatives are formed with the suffix -apus (for -as and -us adjectives) or -epus (for -is adjectives). The compared term is always accusative + en:

• prātūkas (windy) → prātūkapus (windier)
• kurgus (noisy) → kurgapus (noisier)
• chlærausis (easy) → chlærausepus (easier)

Synthetic superlatives use -ækṣasis (for -as adjectives) or -īkṣasis (for -us and -is adjectives):

• prātūkas → prātūkækṣasis (the windiest)
• kurgus → kurgīkṣasis (the noisiest)
• chlærausis → chlærausīkṣasis (the easiest)

Synthetic comparatives and superlatives for adverbs use respectively -ven and -eten:

• chlærausęe (easily) → chlærausiven (more easily) → chlærauseten (most easily)

Irregular forms

There are seven irregular adjectives which are only used with the synthetic comparatives, all irregularly formed:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
ñikas (small)	isis (smaller)	iñekṣis (smallest)
ṣubha indecl. (few, little)	isis (fewer, less)	iñekṣis (fewest, least)
spragnyas (large)	samvaris (larger)	sasprāsis (largest)
garpas (bad)	grašcasis (worse)	gugārasis (worst)
chāra indecl. (good)	chloucæm indecl. (better)	chloucækṣis (best)
lьvyamna indecl. (far)	liādas (farther, further)	lilьvaisis (farthest, furthest)
taili indecl. (many, much)	nanū indecl. (more)	kaili indecl. (most)

In addition to these, the other two indeclinable adjectives cami and lalla have only the analytic forms (yaivu en) nanū cami/lalla.

Verbs - Daradhūvī

The Chlouvānem verb (daradhūs, pl. daradhūvī) is the most inflected part of speech; its most basic forms are fusional, but many more specific formations are more agglutinative due to their origin from old Proto-Lahob particles or participles.

The first and most important division we can find in Chlouvānem verbs is the distinction between exterior (kauyāva) and interior (nañyāva) verbs. This may at first seem a voice system, but it must be distinguished from the true voices in Chlouvānem conjugation. The difference between them is mostly lexical: native grammarians distinguish exterior verbs as describing "activities or states that involve interactions with outside the self", and interior verbs as affecting principally the self. Exterior verbs are those we could most easily compare to active verbs in English, while interior verbs are a somewhat "catch-all" category including many distinct meanings, most notably middle-voice, reflexive and reciprocal ones, but also all adjectival verbs as well as peculiar and somewhat independent meanings for some verbs. Many verbs can be conjugated both as exterior and as interior and they often have differences in meaning - e.g. gṇyauke means “to give birth” when exterior and “to be born” when interior.

Potentially every Chlouvānem verb, no matter if exterior or interior, has a causative conjugation which is considered an inflection and not a derivation, even if the meanings may vary: mišake is an extreme example as each form has a different meaning (with particularly interior forms having many meanings) - non-causative exterior mešu "I am seen", interior meširu "I know; I see myself"; and causative exterior maišaxhā "I am shown", interior maiširxhā "I learn; I show myself (trans.)".

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for seven voices, each one putting one of seven different core elements as the direct-case argument, usually for means of topicalization or definiteness; they reflect the Austronesian-type morphosyntactical alignment of the language. The seven voices are, for exterior verbs:

• patient-trigger or patientive (unmarked);
• agent-trigger or agentive (transitive and ditransitive verbs only);
• benefactive-trigger or simply benefactive;
• antibenefactive-trigger or simply antibenefactive;
• locative-trigger or simply locative;
• dative-trigger or simply dative (mostly ditransitive verbs);
• instrumental-trigger or simply instrumental (morphologically possible for all verbs, but not always meaningful).

Interior verbs only have six voices, as they do not have an agentive voice; the patientive, unmarked voice, is here called common voice.

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for four different tense-aspect combinations (simply tenses): the present and future, both imperfective, and aorist and perfect, both perfective; other distinctions may be built periphrastically (most notably imperfect, pluperfect and future perfect). Tenses are the “basic unit” verbs conjugate in: all tenses conjugate for nine persons (1st-2nd-3rd in singular, dual and plural; note though that 3rd singular and 3rd plural are identical in the perfect). Note that some moods do only distinguish between imperfective and perfective aspect.

Some pronouns have a clitic form in accusative and ergative case which may be added to specify other arguments - e.g. mešėça "he sees" + -æl (clitic 1sg acc.) > mešėçæl "he sees me" - equivalent to læl mešėça.

However, the most complex part of Chlouvānem verbs is the mood. Chlouvānem is particularly mood-heavy and its concept of mood is quite broad, conjugating verbs in what are called primary moods and secondary moods; a single verb form may have a single primary mood but up to two secondary moods. 

The ten primary moods are:

• indicative - the realis mood;
• imperative - used for giving orders or commands;
• desiderative - used to express a desire or will (e.g. I want to X);
• necessitative - used to express need or obligation (e.g. I have to X);
• potential - used to express the ability to do something (e.g. I can [= am able to] X)
• permissive - used to express the permission to do something (e.g. I can [= I’m allowed to] X)
• optative - used to express wishes or hopes;
• propositive - used to express proposals (e.g. let’s X; why don’t you X);
• hypothetical - used to express things that may happen or might have happened;
• subjunctive - used to express general advices (jussive use), purpose (supine use), and also syntactically conditioned by some particles.

The eight secondary moods are:

• five of them express evidentiality, namely: certainty (also energetic mood), deduction, dream, specifically invented situation, and hearsay (also inferential mood);
• interrogative, used for questions;
• two consequential moods: one expressing cause (e.g. “because X”), the other opposition (e.g. “although X”).

Chlouvānem verbs also have a non-finite form (the -ke form, called infinitive hereafter) as well as a large number of attributive and adverbial participles, with forms for most voices and tenses and a distinction into modal adverbs, homofocal gerundives and heterofocal gerundives.

Verb classes and infinitive

Verbs, in Chlouvānem, are conjugated depending on verb classes or conjugations. There are five main patterns:

• a-root, or thematic: the most basic and regular, formed by adding a to the root before non-vocalic endings.
• Athematic: as above, without a; endings are added directly to the root.
• Ablauting root: formed by the root with ablaut changes in its main vowel, plus a before non-vocalic endings.
  • Athematic ablauting root: a small subset conjugating as above, but without a.
• nā/nī verbs: verbs which add nā (na in some forms) or nī, or nothing, to the root depending on form.
• ah verbs: verbs which add -ah (or its allomorphs -ar, -aš, -ą) to the root.

A sixth commonly recognized pattern is ru verbs. These are verbs formed by borrowed verb roots from Ancient Kūṣṛmāthi (where verbal nouns end in -ru) and in the present and past undergo stem modifications like in that language. There are few common -ru verbs, and in usual speech they are often substituted by compounds with their root and either dṛke (to do) or jānake (to feel (physical)) or gyake (to be), as in pāṭṭaruke vs. pāṭṭaru-dṛke. (to study).

Moods apart from the indicative mainly just follow root structure, with different allomorphs depending on whether the root ends in a consonant or in a vowel.

There are, in addition to these, a few particular verb types with either some kind of suffix added to the root in some forms, or irregular ablaut, or totally irregular (usually suppletive). The majority of verbs, anyway, is either thematic or thematic ablauting, and the majority of roots end in one or two consonants.

The infinitive or ke-form is a non-finite form used in certain construction (like with certain verbs (e.g. daudike (to want)) or particles). It is also the citation form, and it is simple to recognize and form:

• The infinitive is always based on the root, thus with either a basic-grade vowel for ablauting verbs or an unreduced sequence for inverse-ablauting ones.
• Verbs in the thematic or ablauting root classes add -ake; nā/nī verbs add -nāke;
• All other verbs just add -ke. There are a few cases where this is not always how it surfaces:
  • verbs ending in a palatalized consonant have an epenthetic -i- (e.g. męlь-ke → męlike (to give));
  • verbs whose roots end in any single or postnasal unvoiced dental, retroflex, or palatal stop or affricate, assimilate the -k- of the suffix (e.g. kit-ke → kitte (to put, place));
  • verbs whose roots end in any single or postnasal voiced, non-velar stop, assimilate the voicing of the suffix -k- (e.g. dįb-ke → dįbge (to kick));
  • verbs whose roots end in single -g or -gh assimilate the -k-, with the regular saṃdhi change from double voiced stop to nasal + voiced stop (e.g. dig-ke → dilge (to pour));
  • verbs whose roots end in any other consonant cluster only add -e (e.g. pugl-ke → pugle (to sleep)).

Present indicative

Regular

The regular present indicative has a distinct form for all verb types.
Ablauting verbs have middle grade ablaut in all exterior forms and in the singular interior ones.
nā/nī verbs have -nā in singular and plural and -nī in the dual. ru verbs change -ru with -su.
Exterior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (a-root)	halke "to call" (athem.)	mišake "to see" (ablaut)	khlunāke "to search, look for" (nā/nī)	lilke "to live" (ah)	pāṭṭaruke "to study" (ru)
1SG	nāmvu	halu	mešu	khlunau	lilah	pāṭṭasū
2SG	nāmvi	hali	meši	khlunādi	lilaši	pāṭṭasui
3SG	nāmvė	halė	mešė	khlunā	lilah	pāṭṭasuvė
1DU	nāmvodām	haldām	mešodām	khlunīdām	lilardām	pāṭṭasudām
2DU	nāmvodās	haldās	mešodās	khlunīdās	lilardās	pāṭṭasudās
3DU	nāmvodāvo	haldāvo	mešodāvo	khlunīdāvo	lilardāvo	pāṭṭasudāvo
1PL	nāmvamui	halmui	mešamui	khlunāmui	liląmui	pāṭṭasumui
2PL	nāmvakui	halkui	mešakui	khlunākui	liląkui	pāṭṭasukui
3PL	nāmvyąt	halyąt	mešyąt	khlunāyąt	lilašąt	pāṭṭasuyąt

Interior forms:

Person	dældake "to speak" (a-root)	gṇyauke "to be born" (athem.)	tṛlake "to know" (ablaut)	chleināke "to smile" (nā/nī)	hañilke "to remember" (ah)	kūmeruke "to be embarassed" (ru)
1SG	dældiru	gṇyāviru	tarliru	chleinairu	hañiląiru	kūmesuiru
2SG	dældiris	gṇyāviris	tarliris	chleinairis	hañiląiris	kūmesuiris
3SG	dældire	gṇyāvire	tarlire	chleinaih	hañiląire	kūmesuire
1DU	dældirdām	gṇyāvirdām	tṛlirdām	chleinīrdām	hañilęrdām	kūmesuirdām
2DU	dældirdās	gṇyāvirdās	tṛlirdās	chleinīrdās	hañilęrdās	kūmesuirdās
3DU	dældirdāvo	gṇyāvirdāvo	tṛlirdāvo	chleinīrdāvo	hañilęrdāvo	kūmesuirdāvo
1PL	dældirmui	gṇyāvirmui	tṛlirmui	chleinairmui	hañilęrmui	kūmesuirmui
2PL	dældirkui	gṇyāvirkui	tṛlirkui	chleinairkui	hañilęrkui	kūmesuirkui
3PL	dældirųt	gṇyāvirųt	tṛlirųt	chleinairųt	hañilęrųt	kūmesuirųt

Causative

Causative forms are the same regardless of conjugation; they are formed basically with an extended stem with -(a)xh-. Ablauting verbs always have the highest grade vowel, while inverse ablaut verbs have the "lowered" vowel in front of the normal stem.
All causative verbs have both exterior and interior forms. Exterior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make crush, press" (normal)	mišake "to show" (ablaut)	valde "to make open" (inverse ablaut)
1SG	nāmvaxhā	maišaxhā	uvaldaxhā
2SG	nāmvaxhie	maišaxhie	uvaldaxhie
3SG	nāmvaxhāt	maišaxhāt	uvaldaxhāt
1DU	nāmvanxhām	maišanxhām	uvaldanxhām
2DU	nāmvanxhās	maišanxhās	uvaldanxhās
3DU	nāmvanxhū	maišanxhū	uvaldanxhū
1PL	nāmvaxhumi	maišaxhumi	uvaldaxhumi
2PL	nāmvaxhuši	maišaxhuši	uvaldaxhuši
3PL	nāmvaxhįs	maišaxhįs	uvaldaxhįs

Interior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make each other crush, press" (normal)	mišake "to learn; to show each other" (ablaut)	valde "to open; to make each other open" (inverse ablaut)
1SG	nāmvirxhā	maiširxhā	uvaldirxhā
2SG	nāmvirxhie	maiširxhie	uvaldirxhie
3SG	nāmvirxhāt	maiširxhāt	uvaldirxhāt
1DU	nāmvirenxhām	maiširenxhām	uvaldirenxhām
2DU	nāmvirenxhās	maiširenxhās	uvaldirenxhās
3DU	nāmvirenxhū	maiširenxhū	uvaldirenxhū
1PL	nāmvirxhumi	maiširxhumi	uvaldirxhumi
2PL	nāmvirxhuši	maiširxhuši	uvaldirxhuši
3PL	nāmvirxhįs	maiširxhįs	uvaldirxhįs

Imperative

Regular

The imperative is a defective paradigm, lacking all dual forms; it is formed from the bare root, so it is formed in the same way for all verbs.

Note that, due to the politeness system of Chlouvānem, the imperative is somewhat rare, as other methods are used. The first person imperative is an exception, being often used with the meaning “I/we must”.

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press” (exterior)	dældake “to speak” (interior)
1SG	nāmvikṣam	dældikuru
2SG	nāmvikṣa	dældikuh
3SG	nāmvikṣai	dældikurė
1DU	—	—
2DU	—	—
3DU	—	—
1PL	nāmvikṣumi	dældikurum
2PL	nāmvikṣus	dældikurus
3PL	nāmvikṣat	dældikurat

Causative

Causative forms follow the same pattern as non-causative ones, but the stem is the specifically causative one.

Person	nāmvake "to make crush, press" (exterior)	mišake "to learn; to show each other" (interior)
1SG	nāmvaxhiṣam	maišaxhiuru
2SG	nāmvaxhiṣa	maišaxhiuh
3SG	nāmvaxhiṣai	maišaxhiurė
1DU	—	—
2DU	—	—
3DU	—	—
1PL	nāmvaxhiṣumi	maišaxhiurum
2PL	nāmvaxhiṣus	maišaxhiurus
3PL	nāmvaxhiṣat	maišaxhiurat

Aorist Indicative

Regular

In the aorist indicative, -ah verbs are not distinguished as a conjugation, behaving instead like root verbs. -nā/nī verbs have no root extension in the singular exterior and interior, and -nā- in all other forms.
Ablauting verbs always have their base grade, except for inverse ablaut roots which use the reduced vowel, and plural interior forms. Exterior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (a-root)	halke "to call" (athem.)	mišake "to see" (ablaut)	khlunāke "to search, look for" (nā/nī)
1SG	nāmvau	halau	mišau	khluvau
2SG	nāmvei	halei	mišei	khluvei
3SG	nāmvitь	halitь	mišitь	khlutь
1DU	nāmvādram	halādram	mišādram	khlunādram
2DU	nāmvādras	halādras	mišādras	khlunādras
3DU	nāmvādru	halādru	mišādru	khlunādru
1PL	nāmvalīmi	hallīmi	mišalīmi	khlunālīmi
2PL	nāmvalīši	hallīši	mišalīši	khlunālīši
3PL	nāmvāli	halāli	mišāli	khlunāli

Interior forms:

Person	dældake "to speak" (a-root)	gṇyauke "to be born" (athem.)	tṛlake "to know" (ablaut)	chleināke "to smile" (nā/nī)
1SG	dældirau	gṇyāvirau	tṛlirau	chleyirau
2SG	dældirei	gṇyāvirei	tṛlirei	chleyirei
3SG	dældiritь	gṇyāviritь	tṛliritь	chleyiritь
1DU	dældeldram	gṇyāveldram	tṛleldram	chleinaildram
2DU	dældeldras	gṇyāveldras	tṛleldras	chleinaildras
3DU	dældeldru	gṇyāveldru	tṛleldru	chleinaildru
1PL	dældielīmi	gṇyāvyelīmi	tarlielīmi	chleinailīmi
2PL	dældielīši	gṇyāvyelīši	tarlielīši	chleinailīši
3PL	dældirāli	gṇyāvirāli	tarlirāli	chleinairāli

Causative

Causative forms use the same stems as in the present indicative. Exterior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make crush, press" (normal)	mišake "to show" (ablaut)	valde "to make open" (inverse ablaut)
1SG	nāmvaxhlou	maišaxhlou	uvaldaxhlou
2SG	nāmvaxhei	maišaxhei	uvaldaxhei
3SG	nāmvaxhitь	maišaxhitь	uvaldaxhitь
1DU	nāmvaxhādram	maišaxhādram	uvaldaxhādram
2DU	nāmvaxhādras	maišaxhādras	uvaldaxhādras
3DU	nāmvaxhādru	maišaxhādru	uvaldaxhādru
1PL	nāmvaxhalīm	maišaxhalīm	uvaldaxhalīm
2PL	nāmvaxhalīs	maišaxhalīs	uvaldaxhalīs
3PL	nāmvaxhāli	maišaxhāli	uvaldaxhāli

Interior forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make each other crush, press" (normal)	mišake "to learn; to show each other" (ablaut)	valde "to open; to make each other open" (inverse ablaut)
1SG	nāmvirxhlou	maiširxhlou	uvaldirxhlou
2SG	nāmvirxhei	maiširxhei	uvaldirxhei
3SG	nāmvirxhitь	maiširxhitь	uvaldirxhitь
1DU	nāmvirxhādram	maiširxhādram	uvaldirxhādram
2DU	nāmvirxhādras	maiširxhādras	uvaldirxhādras
3DU	nāmvirxhādru	maiširxhādru	uvaldirxhādru
1PL	nāmvirxhalīm	maiširxhalīm	uvaldirxhalīm
2PL	nāmvirxhalīs	maiširxhalīs	uvaldirxhalīs
3PL	nāmvirxhāli	maiširxhāli	uvaldirxhāli

Perfect Indicative

The perfect is formed with the same terminations for all verbs. The particularity of this tense is that it uses a special stem, formed by prefixing the root vowel (shortened and with the basic root ablaut) to the stem. Examples:

• nāmvake “to crush, press” = nāmv- → anāmv-
• khlunāke “to search, look for” = khlu- → ukhlu-
• hilkake “to dye, colour” = hilk- → ihilk-
• męlike “to give” = męlь → emęlь-

æ uses i; o and ṛ use a; diphthongs usually only take their first component, exceptions being ai (→ e) and au (→ o):

• dældake “to speak” = dæld- → idæld-
• kolkake “to be acid” = kolk- → akolk-
• tṛlake “to know, understand” = tṛl- → atṛl-
• yaudake “to catch” = yaud- → oyaud-
• laitake “to row” = lait- → elait-

Causative stems with ablaut have a full reduplication, using the first consonant plus the basic vowel grade, like miš- → maiš- → mimaiš-.

A few verbs have irregular stems:

• lilke “to live” = lælī-
• dṛke “to do” = dadrā-

Regular forms (3rd person singular and plural are the same for all verbs):

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (exterior)	dældake “to speak” (interior)
1SG	anāmvam	idældiram
2SG	anāmves	idældires
3SG	anāmva	idældirā
1DU	anāmvonda	idældirunda
2DU	anāmvodes	idældirudes
3DU	anāmvot	idældirut
1PL	anāmvamia	idældiramia
2PL	anāmvasia	idældirasia
3PL	anāmva	idældirā

Causative forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make crush, press" (exterior)	mišake "to learn; to show each other" (interior)
1SG	anāmvixam	mimaišerxam
2SG	anāmvixes	mimaišerxes
3SG	anāmvixa	mimaišerxa
1DU	anāmvixunda	mimaišerxunda
2DU	anāmvixudes	mimaišerxudes
3DU	anāmvixut	mimaišerxut
1PL	anāmvixmia	mimaišerxmia
2PL	anāmvinxia	mimaišerinxia
3PL	anāmvixa	mimaišerxa

Future indicative

The future tense does not vary between conjugations, and the stem is always the one used in the infinitive.

Regular forms:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (exterior)	dældake “to speak” (interior)
1SG	nāmviṣyam	dælderiṣyam
2SG	nāmviṣyes	dælderiṣyes
3SG	nāmviṣya	dælderiṣya
1DU	nāmviṣṭām	dælderiṣṭām
2DU	nāmviṣṭās	dælderiṣṭās
3DU	nāmviṣṭāvo	dælderiṣṭāvo
1PL	nāmviṣmāmi	dælderiṣmāmi
2PL	nāmviṣmāsi	dælderiṣmāsi
3PL	nāmviṣmāta	dælderiṣmāta

Causative forms:

Person	nāmvake "to make crush, press" (exterior)	mišake "to learn; to show each other" (interior)
1SG	nāmvaxhiṣyam	maiširxhiṣyam
2SG	nāmvaxhiṣyes	maiširxhiṣyes
3SG	nāmvaxhiṣya	maiširxhiṣya
1DU	nāmvaxhiṣṭām	maiširxhiṣṭām
2DU	nāmvaxhiṣṭās	maiširxhiṣṭās
3DU	nāmvaxhiṣṭāvo	maiširxhiṣṭāvo
1PL	nāmvaxhiṣmāmi	maiširxhiṣmāmi
2PL	nāmvaxhiṣmāsi	maiširxhiṣmāsi
3PL	nāmvaxhiṣmāta	maiširxhiṣmāta

Voice marking

Chlouvānem has seven voices, marked by affixes added, in unprefixed verbs, at the end of the verb. As the patient-trigger voice (common voice in interior verbs) is unmarked, the six voice markers are:

• -ça for agent-trigger voice (in exterior verbs only);
• -kæ for benefactive-trigger voice;
• -tū (-tur non-finally) for antibenefactive-trigger voice;
• -pan for locative-trigger voice;
• -mea for instrumental-trigger voice;
• -ūsi for dative-trigger voice.

Examples of voice marking are męliė (he/she/it is given) — męliėça (he/she/it gives) — męliėkæ (something is given for him/her/it) — męliėtū (something is given against him/her/it) — męliėpan (something is given in him/her/it) — męliėmea (something is given with him/her/it) — męliegūsi (something is given to him/her/it).

In prefixed verbs, voice marking is a bit different as the voice marker is inserted between the prefix and the stem, thus forms like vīvaiyųlė (he/she/it is eaten too much) → vīvaiçayųlė (he/she/it eats too much). Saṃdhi is applied if needed, e.g. "something is eaten for him/her/it directly from a tree" is taktæyųlė (morphemically tad-kæ-yųlė, verb tadyųlake).

The subjunctive mood

The subjunctive mood only distinguishes aspects and not tense; it is formed by special terminations and has exterior, interior, regular and causative forms.

The subjunctive is fairly regular for all verbs, using (except in the causative conjugation) the most basic form of the root — that is, without nā/nī suffixes and in basic grade ablaut; the only exceptions being inverse ablauting roots which use their weakened form (e.g. valde uses uld- and not vald-). 3rd person singular, 2nd plural, and 3rd plural, are identical in all verbs.

Imperfective aspect

Regular:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press” (exterior)	dældake "to speak” (interior)
1SG	nāmvup	dældimmup
2SG	nāmveap	dældimmep
3SG	nāmvāsi	dældirāsi
1DU	nāmvumbu	dældirumbu
2DU	nāmvumbe	dældirumbe
3DU	nāmvumbap	dældirumbap
1PL	nāmvicham	dældilcham
2PL	nāmvāsi	dældirāsi
3PL	nāmvāsi	dældirāsi

Causative:

Person	mišake “to show” (exterior)	mišake “to learn; to show each other” (interior)
1SG	maišaxhup	maiširxhup
2SG	maišaxheap	maiširxheap
3SG	maišaxhāsi	maiširxhāsi
1DU	maišaxhumbu	maiširxhumbu
2DU	maišaxhumbe	maiširxhumbe
3DU	maišaxhumbap	maiširxhumbap
1PL	maišaxicham	maiširxicham
2PL	maišaxhāsi	maiširxhāsi
3PL	maišaxhāsi	maiširxhāsi

Perfective aspect

Regular:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (interior)	dældake "to speak” (exterior)
1SG	nāmvatup	dældiṭṭup
2SG	nāmvateap	dældiṭṭeap
3SG	nāmvetāsi	dældiṭṭāsi
1DU	nāmvatumbu	dældiṭṭumbu
2DU	nāmvatumbe	dældiṭṭumbe
3DU	nāmvatumbap	dældiṭṭumbap
1PL	nāmvañcham	dældireñcham
2PL	nāmvetāsi	dældiṭṭāsi
3PL	nāmvetāsi	dældiṭṭāsi

Causative:

Person	mišake “to show” (causative)	mišake “to learn; to show each other” (causative)
1SG	maišaxhetup	maiširxhetup
2SG	maišaxhetep	maiširxhetep
3SG	maišaxhetāsi	maiširxhetāsi
1DU	maišaxhetumbu	maiširxhetumbu
2DU	maišaxhetumbe	maiširxhetumbe
3DU	maišaxhetumbap	maiširxhetumbap
1PL	maišaxeñcham	maiširxeñcham
2PL	maišaxhetāsi	maiširxhetāsi
3PL	maišaxhetāsi	maiširxhetāsi

The hypothetical mood

The hypothetical mood is mainly used in if constructions (e.g. yųlatṛ "if it is eaten") and, like the subjunctive, only conjugates for aspect. As all terminations are vocalic, all conjugations form it the same way, starting from the root.

Imperfective aspect

Regular:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (interior)	dældake "to speak” (exterior)
1SG	nāmvatiam	dældirtam
2SG	nāmvaça	dældirça
3SG	nāmvatṛ	dældirtṛ
1DU	nāmvadītim	dældirdītim
2DU	nāmvadītis	dældirdītis
3DU	nāmvadītṛ	dældirdītṛ
1PL	nāmvantim	dældiratim
2PL	nāmvantis	dældiratis
3PL	nāmvantṛ	dældiratṛ

Causative:

Person	mišake “to show” (causative)	mišake “to learn; to show each other” (causative)
1SG	maišaxhitam	maiširxhitam
2SG	maišaxhiça	maiširxhiça
3SG	maišaxhitṛ	maiširxhitṛ
1DU	maišaxhidītim	maiširxhidītim
2DU	maišaxhidītis	maiširxhidītis
3DU	maišaxhidītṛ	maiširxhidītṛ
1PL	maišaxhintim	maiširxhintim
2PL	maišaxhintis	maiširxhintis
3PL	maišaxhintṛ	maiširxhintṛ

Perfective aspect

Regular:

Person	nāmvake "to crush, press" (interior)	dældake "to speak” (exterior)
1SG	nāmvāttiam	dældertiam
2SG	nāmvānça	dælderaça
3SG	nāmvātara	dælderatra
1DU	nāmvāndītim	dælderadītim
2DU	nāmvāndītis	dælderadītis
3DU	nāmvāndītara	dælderadītra
1PL	nāmvātatim	dældertatim
2PL	nāmvātatis	dældertatis
3PL	nāmvātatra	dældertatra

Causative:

Person	mišake “to show” (causative)	mišake “to learn; to show each other” (causative)
1SG	maišaxhettiam	maiširxhettiam
2SG	maišaxhença	maiširxhença
3SG	maišaxhetara	maiširxhetara
1DU	maišaxhendītim	maiširxhendītim
2DU	maišaxhendītis	maiširxhendītis
3DU	maišaxhendītara	maiširxhendītara
1PL	maišaxhetatim	maiširxhetatim
2PL	maišaxhetatis	maiširxhetatis
3PL	maišaxhetatra	maiširxhetatra

The optative and propositive moods

Optative and propositive moods are made starting from the same stem; these stem use the same terminations as regular (a-type verbs) present for the imperfective aspect and regular aorist for the perfective; propositive mood uses the imperative ones.

The stem is formed by taking the root with vowel lengthening and adding -eina- after consonants (-ouna- after l) and -vūna- after vowels. Note that, while adding terminations, a is deleted between a single sonorant and a single non-sonorant consonant (e.g. 1sg propositive causative -einxhiṣam < -ein-a-xhiṣam)

Example (nāmvake “to crush, press”):

• Imperfective: exterior nāmveinu, nāmveini, nāmveinė, … interior nāmveiniru, …; causative ext. nāmveinaxhā, …; caus. int. nāmveinirxhā, …
• Perfective: ext. nāmveinau, nāmveinei, nāmveinitь, … int. nāmveinirau, …; caus. ext. nāmveinaxhlou, …; caus. int. nāmveinirxhlou, …
• Propositive: ext. nāmveinikṣam, nāmveinikṣa, nāmveinikṣai, … int. nāmveinikuru, …; caus. ext. nāmveinxhiṣam, …; caus. int. nāmveinxhiuru, ...

The desiderative mood

The desiderative mood, unlike the optative, hypothetical, and subjunctive moods, conjugates in all tenses and aspects just like the indicative; the difference being the special stem it uses, formed with reduplication of the root plus -s (except for -ora- and -ьouš- verbs). The resulting stem conjugates as any root verb.

Reduplication adds the first consonant of the verb (except prefixes) and its first vowel (always oral short).There are however some special rules followed in reduplicating:

• Aspirated stops are always reduplicated as unaspirated;
• g- is always reduplicated as h-, except for a few irregular verbs;
• h- is reduplicated as k-;
• k- as š-;

• f- as p-;
• l- in the initial clusters lk-, lkh-, lg-, or lgh- reduplicates as n-.
• Initial clusters which begin with s-, ṣ-, š-, or v- use the first consonant which is not one of them (but šv- reduplicates as š-);


* Verbs with ablaut always have middle-grade ablaut; ṛ reduplicates as a; 
* Inverse-ablaut verbs have the consonant of the unreduced root but the reduced vowel;

• Roots beginning with vowels are regular, reduplicating the otherwise allophonic initial ʔ.
• Prefixes are added before the reduplicated root.

Final added -s has some special saṃdhi rules, too (in addition to the usual ones):

• -d-s and -dh-s both become -ts (always written so and never as *ç);
• After voiced stops, -s becomes -r and aspirated stops lose aspiration. -j-s and -jh-s both become -jl;
• -š-s becomes -kṣ;
• -y-s becomes -š;
• -l-s becomes -lь when prevocalic and -lš when preconsonantal, but -rl-s always becomes -relь-.


 Causative forms just add the causative endings, without further modifying the stem.

-ora- and -ьeiš- verbs use -oreka- and -ьeišca- respectively, without other modifications, but they're often substituted by infinitive + daudike constructions. In many of the northeastern and northwestern lands of the Inquisition, this analytic construction is used instead of the synthetic desiderative in almost any case.

Examples of desiderative mood stems are:


• peithake “to go (multid.)”, root peith- → pe-peith-s → pepeits-

• lgutake “to buy”, root lgut- → nu-lgot-s → nulgots-
• khlunāke “to search, look for”, root khlu- → ku-khlu-s → kukhlus-

• nilyake “to think”, root nily- → ni-nely-s → ninelš-
• tṛlake “to do”, root tṛl- → ta-tarl-s > tatarelь-
• valde “to open”, root vald- → v-uld-s > vults-



A few verbs have completely irregular stems:

• gyake “to be”: muñj-
• lilke “to live”: lėlikṣ-
• męlike “to give”: mimęñ-

• milke “to take”: mūṃchl-.

The necessitative mood

The necessitative mood is formed and conjugates much like the desiderative; it uses a stem formed by reduplication and adding -asya-, with normal saṃdhi changes.

Examples:

• peithake “to go (multid.)”, → pepeithasya-
• khlunāke “to search, look for” → kukhlūvsya-
• nilyake “to think” → ninelyasya-
• valde “to open” → vuldasya-

The potential mood

The potential mood also conjugates in all tenses and aspects and has a stem formed with initial reduplication. It is formed by adding -(e)nā- to the root and behaves as a fourth conjugation verb, adding an epenthetic -n before vocalic endings. Note that -r-nā- (like e.g. in all -ora- verbs) becomes -rṇā- due to saṃdhi.

Examples: peithake → pepeithnā- ; gṇyauke → gagṇyaunā- ; nilyake → ninelyenā-.

A special case of saṃdhi occurs in roots which end in a single -g or -k: this consonant becomes -gh and the -n in the suffix becomes retroflex, e.g. mūmikke "to dance", root mūmik- > mumūmighṇā- ; dilge “to pour", root dig- > dideghṇā-.

The permissive mood

The permissive mood also conjugates in all tenses and aspects and is formed, without reduplication, by vowel lengthening and adding -ippu- before consonantal endings and -īpr- before vocalic ones. Note that in the present tense, dual terminations use -ippu- and the -dā- ending (not -odā-); for the third plural, -ippuyąt is the commonly used form: -ipryąt is attested but extremely archaic.

Examples: mišake → mīšippu- > mīšipru "I am allowed to see", mīšippum “I was allowed to see”.

Bisyllabic roots which have as their second syllable an unstressed vowel between two consonants that may form an allowed cluster (thus sonorant-vowel-stop/fricative, except -m-velar) lose this vowel while adding the suffix, e.g. hañilke > hūlñippu- (-ñl- → -lñ- is a fairly regular saṃdhi change).

Secondary moods: evidentiality

The five secondary moods expressing evidentiality are all formed by taking a particular mood's stem, adding -(m)į to it and then another ending which conjugates like an indicative mood verb. The main exception is the 3sg/pl interior perfect, which does not take the normal -a ending.
The five evidential secondary moods are:

• Certainty evidential: -(m)į + nėn(u)- ; e.g. pūnake "to work": indicative present pūnįnėnu, pūnįnėni, pūnįnėnė... aorist pūnįnėnau, pūnįnėnei, pūnįnėnitь… perfect upūnįnėnam, upūnįnėnes, upūnįnėn… desiderative present pupūṃsįnėnu…
• Deductive evidential: -(m)į + niv(a)- ; e.g. pūnake > pūnįnivu / pūnįnivau / upūnįnivam / pupūṃsįnivu;
• Dream situation evidential: -(m)į + bu(v)- ; e.g. pūnake > pūnįbuvu / pūnįbuvau / upūnįbum / pupūṃsįbuvu;
• Invented situation evidential: -(m)į + kra(n)- ; e.g. pūnake > pūnįkranu / pūnįkranau / upūnįkram / pupūṃsįkranu;
• Inferential evidential: -(m)į + ræn(e)- ; e.g. pūnake > pūnįrænu / pūnįrænau / upūnįrænem / pupūnįrænu.

The consequential secondary moods

The two consequential secondary moods can actually be tertiary moods, as they can be added to evidential secondary moods too.

The consequential mood of cause is formed by adding -ę + pian(e)- to the verb stem. For example pūnu → pūnępianu (given that I work, ...); pupūṃśi → pupūṃsępiani (given that you want to work, ...), or pūnįrænitь → pūnįrænępianitь (given that, apparently, (s)he worked, ...).

The consequential mood of opposition is similarly formed by adding -ę + gām(u)- to the verb stem. For example pūnu → pūnęgāmu (even if I work, ...); pupūṃśi → pupūṃsęgāmi (even if you want to work, ...), or pūnįrænitь → pūnįrænęgāmitь (even if, apparently, (s)he worked, ...).

The interrogative secondary mood

The interrogative mood is formed in a different way compared to the other secondary moods. It adds -i to the verb stem, then all personal endings, then (in unprefixed verbs) those marking voice, and finally -thā at the very end. For example: pūnyethā? (does (s)he work?), yųliyątthā? (are they being eaten?), yųliyątçathā? (do they eat?).

Participles and adverbials

Participles are formed by suffixing the appropriate set of participle endings to the stem. The set marks the tense/aspect combination; the stem may be in indicative, necessitative, desiderative, permissive, or potential mood, plus any secondary evidential mood.

The endings are (in patient-trigger/common voice):

• Present: exterior -susas, -susam, -susah — interior -sūnis, -sūnim, -sūneh
• Aorist: exterior -kyas, -kyam, -kyah — interior -kinis, -kinim, -kineh
• Perfect: exterior -cās, -cām, -cāh — interior -cænas, -cænam, -cænah
• Future: exterior -iṣvas, -iṣvam, -iṣvah — interior -iṣunis, -iṣunim, -iṣuneh

Voice endings are inserted after the participle, but after all prefixes in prefixed stems. Saṃdhi is fairly regular, but direct case -s is deleted except with the dative-trigger affix. Examples: męlьsusas, męlьsusaça but primęlьsusas, priçamęlьsusas.

Note that voice endings, if final, are always at the end, even if the participle is inflected for case: direct męlьsusakæ (the one benefacted by giving) but dative męlьsusuikæ (to the one benefacted by giving).

Adverbials are formed just like participles by adding a set of endings to the stem. There are two types of adverbials: homofocals, used when the trigger of the adverbial and of the main verb are the same, and heterofocals, used when they are different.

• Present: homofocal -lie (ext), -līne (int) — heterofocal -nikai (ext), -ninėk (int)
• Aorist: homofocal -lūte (ext), -lūnde (int) — heterofocal -nakte (ext), -nalget (int)
• Perfect: homofocal -līse, (ext) -līmen (int) — heterofocal -nikṣe (ext), -nikñe (int)
• Future: homofocal -iṣre (ext), -iṣrāṇi (int) — heterofocal -iṣṇei (ext), -iṣāṇin (int).

Like participles, adverbials have voice affixes after them, but before the root in prefixed verbs. A palatalized consonant becomes a consonant followed by i. Examples: męlilie, męlilieça, primęlilie, priçamęlilie.

Irregular verbs

Chlouvānem has eight major irregular verbs, plus other three with peculiar irregularities. The eight major irregular verbs all have different stems in either aorist and perfect or both; the verb gyake (to be) is extremely irregular due to suppletion.
The other seven major suppletive verbs are (regular stems are in smaller size):

Verb	Present stem (without ablaut)	Aorist stem	Perfect stem
einerke (to float (multidir.))	einer-	paiṇṣ-	iʔīneṣ-
flulke (to go, walk (monodir.))	flun-	māṃs-a-	thåln-
keṃšake (to use)	caṃš-a-	keṃš-a-	ikeṃš-a-
khilyake (to write)	khily-a-	paṃšy-a-	ikhily-a-
milke (to take, seize, catch, capture)	milūk-/milk-	milk-	ilak-
mṛcce (to run (monodir.))	mṛc-	pañc-	amṛc-
yahike (to read; arch.: to understand)	yahь-	taiši-	ašahь-

Note that paiṇṣ-, māṃṣ-, paṃšy-, pañc-, and taiši- all use the present endings instead of the aorist ones.

Further irregularities are found in the present indicative and subjunctive for a total of five verbs:

• The singular present indicative forms of flulke are regular flonu for 1st person but then irregular 2nd and 3rd flin and fliven respectively.
• milke uses the stem milk- also in the singular present indicative: milku, milki, milkė.
• The three verbs mālake (keep together), yacce (to ask, to request (humble)), and chlašake (to do (humble)) have the irregular 1st person singular present subjunctive forms målip, yåšip, and chlåšip respectively.

The verb "to be" (gyake)

The verb "to be" is suppletive as it uses various different stems (from Proto-Lahob *gəjó, *woŋ—*uŋ, *mōws respectively) and irregularly — for example, the future indicative is morphologically a present.

Note that the indicative present is very rarely used, as the copula is usually dropped in most cases.

Indicative mood

Person	Present	Aorist	Perfect	Future
1SG	valu	mos	egyam	mavū
2SG	vali	moçi	egyes	mavei
3SG	væl	mitь	egya	mavė
1DU	undām	mordam	egyonda	maudām
2DU	undās	mordas	egyodes	maudās
3DU	undau	mordu	egyot	maudāvo
1PL	ummi	molīm	egyamia	maumui
2PL	ulki	molīs	egyasia	maukui
3PL	uñyąt	moli	egya	mavyąt

Other primary moods

All other primary mood formations use irregular stems, except for the subjunctive, hypothetical, and imperative which are the only ones using gya- as in the infinitive: jeiv-a- for the optative and propositive, muñj-a- for the desiderative, mokṣy-a- for the necessitative, ginā- for the potential and maippu-/maipr- for the permissive.

Present tense or imperfective aspect of all other primary moods included as examples in this table:

Person	Imperative	Subjunctive	Hypothetical	Optative	Propositive	Desiderative	Necessitative	Potential	Permissive
1SG	gyekṣam	gyop	gyatiam	jeivu	jeivikṣam	muñju	mokṣyu	ginau	maipru
2SG	gyekṣa	gyayeap	gyaça	jeivi	jeivikṣa	muñji	mokṣyi	ginai	maipri
3SG	gyekṣai	gyāsi	gyatṛ	jeivė	jeivikṣai	muñje	mokṣyė	ginai	maiprė
1DU	—	gyombu	gyadītim	jeivodām	—	muñjodām	mokṣyodām	ginaudām	maippudām
2DU	—	gyombe	gyadītis	jeivodās	—	muñjodās	mokṣyodās	ginaudās	maippudās
3DU	—	gyombap	gyadītṛ	jeivodāvo	—	muñjodāvo	mokṣyodāvo	ginaudāvo	maippudāvo
1PL	gyekṣumi	gyecham	gyantim	jeivamui	jeivikṣumi	muñjamui	mokṣyamui	gināmui	maippumui
2PL	gyekṣus	gyāsi	gyantis	jeivakui	jeivikṣus	muñjakui	mokṣyakui	ginākui	maippukui
3PL	gyekṣat	gyāsi	gyantṛ	jeivyąt	jeivikṣat	muñjyąt	mokṣyąt	gināyąt	maippuyąt maipryąt attested but archaic

Analytic constructions and auxiliary verbs

Chlouvānem uses many analytic constructions - including auxiliary and compound verbs - in order to convey some shades of meaning. Most of these use either a participle or the infinitive as the form of the lexical verb:

• perfect participle in the needed voice + gyake in the aorist or future tense: compound construction used for pluperfect and future perfect. It is not wrong to use it with a present tense, but the meaning does not change from the bare perfect.
  Note that, for the pluperfect, the bare perfect is often used instead, both in literature as in common speech.
  • uyųlcąça mos "I had eaten"
  • uyųlcąça mavū "I will have eaten"
• present participle in the needed voice + gyake in the needed tense: compound construction used for the progressive aspect in the three tenses (present, past (aorist), future). In the present, the form of gyake is omitted for the third person, or for all persons if a pronoun is present.
  • yųlasusąça valu "I am eating"
  • yųlasusąça mos "I was eating"
  • yųlasusąça mavū "I will be eating"
• infinitive + ñeaʔake (to be used to): compound construction used for a habitual action in present, past, or future tense. It is not used with motion verbs in the present, as the multidirectional verb already unambiguously has this meaning.
  • yaive prājamne yahike ñeaʔuça "I am used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahike ñeaʔaṃça "I used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahike ñeaʔiṣyaṃça "I will be used to read every evening"

Pronouns

Chlouvānem has a series of pronouns which are irregular when compared to other nouns, yet they follow a mostly similar pattern among themselves. As with nouns and adjectives, in Chlouvānem there is mostly no difference between possessive and demonstrative pronouns and adjectives. Note that pronouns here are defined as a morphological category, as there are many pronominal locutions or nouns acting as pronouns in the Chlouvānem honorific system. Familiar and neutral styles of Chlouvānem speech use these only.

Standard Chlouvānem as spoken today uses the following pronouns:

• 1st person lili (sg.), lileidi (dual), and mayin (pl.).
• 2nd person sāmi (sg.), sāmeidi (dual), and nagin (pl.).
• 3rd person parrot tami (sg.), tameidi (dual), and taṃšān (pl.).
• 3rd person dragon tayuši (sg.) and taimāsi (pl.), and 3rd person lotus tayumi (sg.) and taimām (pl.) — they are only distinct from the parrot forms in direct, accusative, and ergative; tameidi is used as dual for all three genders.
• Reflexive demi (mandatory for 3rd person, commonly used also for 1st and 2nd).

The pronouns doubling as adjectives are:

• Three demonstrative series, all declining for gender but not for number: proximal nenė (parrot), nenayes (dragon), nenayem (lotus); medial nunū (p.), numves (d.), numvem (l.); distal nanā (p.), nanās (d.), nanām (l.).
• The possessives: liliā (lilem, liles); meyā (meyem, meyes); sāmiā (sāmim, sāmes); negā (negem, neges); tamiā (tamim, tames); tašñā (tašñem, tašñes); demiā (demim, demes).

Note that both the demonstrative and the possessives are often not declined for gender in common speech in certain areas, most notably the densely populated area of the Lower Plains, including Līlasuṃghāṇa, Līlta, Galiākina, Ilėnimarta, and a few areas near Līṭhalyinām, Talliė, and Lāltaṣveya — an area inhabited by around 100 million people. This also happens in and near Līlikanāna, fourth largest city of the Inquisition, largest in the Far East.

In addition, yani is an emphatic pronoun not properly part of common speech (demi is used instead) but sometimes found in high style. Archaic Chlouvānem had a demonstrative series consisting of proximal ami (em, es), medial uteni (utam, utas), and distal āteni (ātam, ātas), which declined in use throughout Classical times, when they were replaced by the newer nenė — nunū — nanā forms.

Personal pronouns

Singular

1sg	Singular	2sg	Singular	refl	Singular
Direct	lili		sāmi		demi
Accusative	læl (-æl)		saim (-isė)		deim (-idė)
Ergative	lį (-elī)		sąi (-ąsī)		dęi (-ędī)
Genitive	liliā		sāmiā		demiā
Translative	liñ		sāñ		deñ
Exessive	litь		sātь		detь
Essive	lęsь		sąsь		dęsь
Dative	liū		sāyū		deyū
Ablative	lųu		sāhų		dehų
Locative	liė		sāyė		deyė

(parrot)	Singular	(dragon)	Singular	(lotus)	Singular
Direct	tami		tayuši		tayumi
Accusative	taim (-et)		temuis (-et)		temum (-et)
Ergative	tę (-tę)		tęvis (-tę)		tęvum (-tę)
Genitive	tamiā		tamiā		tamiā
Translative	tañ		tañ		tañ
Exessive	tatь		tatь		tatь
Essive	tąsь		tąsь		tąsь
Dative	tayū		tayū		tayū
Ablative	tahų		tahų		tahų
Locative	tayė		tayė		tayė

Dual

1du	Dual	1du	Dual	1du	Dual
Direct	lileidi		sāmeidi		tameidi
Accusative	lildū		sādhū		tadhū
Ergative	lilden		sādhen		tadhen
Genitive	lildes		sādhes		tadhes
Translative	lildoh		sādhoh		tadhoh
Exessive	lildās		sādhās		tadhās
Essive	lildūn		sādhūn		tadhūn
Dative	lildotь		sādhotь		tadhotь
Ablative	lildīs		sādhīs		tadhīs
Locative	lildīm		sādhīm		tadhīm

Plural

1sg	Plural	2sg	Plural
Direct	mayin		nagin
Accusative	mau (-om)		nauk (-nok)
Ergative	mām (-mām)		nān (-nān)
Genitive	meyā		negā
Translative	mėñ		naca
Exessive	mėtь		natь
Essive	mėsь		nasь
Dative	mayū		nagū
Ablative	mahų		nalhų
Locative	mayė		najė

(parrot)	Plural	(dragon)	Plural	(lotus)	Plural
Direct	taṃšān		taimām		taimāsi
Accusative	tamnū		temnūm		temnuis
Ergative	tamān		temaum		temais
Genitive	tašñā		tašñā		tašñā
Translative	tašiñ		tašiñ		tašiñ
Exessive	tašitь		tašitь		tašitь
Essive	tašisь		tašisь		tašisь
Dative	taṃšū		taṃšū		taṃšū
Ablative	tašahų		tašahų		tašahų
Locative	taṃšė		taṃšė		taṃšė

Correlatives

Chlouvānem has a fairly regular system of correlatives, distinguishing twelve types (proximal, medial, distal, main clause relative, relative clause relative, interrogative, negative, assertive existential, elective existential, universal, positive alternative, and negative alternative) in eleven categories (attributive, thing, person, time, place, destination, origin, way, reason, quality, quantity).

Category ↓ / Type →	Proximal	Medial	Distal	Main clause rel.	Relat. clause rel.	Interrogative	Negative	Ass. exist.	Elect. exist.	Universal	Positive altern.	Negative altern.
Attributive	nenė this	nunū that (near you)	nanā that (over there)	—	—	yananū? what?, which?	gu no	nūši some	læti any	yaiva every	viṣam another	guviṣam no other
Thing	nenė this one	nunū that one (near you)	nanā that one (over there)	tejāmi	kāyāmi	yananū? what?, which?	gvami nothing	nūšami something	lætyami anything	yaiva everything	viṣāmi something else	guviṣāmi nothing else
Person	evita this one	utvita that one (near you)	ātvita that one (over there)	tėvita	kāvita	yavita? who?	guvita no one	nūšvita someone	lævita anyone	yaivita everyone	viṣvita someone else	guviṣvita no one else
Time	emiya now	utiya then	ātiya then (remote)	tėmiya	kāmiya	yamiya? when?	gumiya never	nūšmiya sometime, somewhen	lætmiya anytime, whenever	yaivmiya always, everytime	viṣmiya sometime else	guviṣmiya never else
Place	ejulā here	uñjulā there	āñjulā over there	tėjulā	kājulā	yajulā? where?	gujulā nowhere	nūñjulā somewhere	læjulā anywhere	yavijulā everywhere	viñjulā elsewhere	guviñjulā nowhere else
Destination	ejulåh hence	uñjulåh thence	āñjulåh thence (remote)	tėjulåh	kājulåh	yajulåh? whence?	gujulåh nowhence	nūñjulåh somewhence	læjulåh anywhence	yavijulåh everywhence	viñjulåh elsewhence	guviñjulåh nowhence else
Source	ejulųu hither	uñjulųu thither	āñjulųu thither (remote)	tėjulųu	kājulųu	yajulųu? whither?	gujulųu nowhither	nūñjulųu somewhither	læjulųu anywhither	yavijulųu everywhither	viñjulųu elsewhither	guviñjulųu nowhither else
Manner	elīce thus, hereby	ūlīce thereby	ālīce thereby; that other way	tėlīce	kālīce	yalīce? how?	gulīce no way	nūšlīce somehow	lælīce anyhow	yaivlīce everyway	viṣlīce otherwise	guviṣlīce no other way
Reason	emena herefore	utmena therefore	ātmena therefore; for that other reason	tėmena	kāmena	yamenat? why?	gumena for no reason	nūšmena somewhy	lætmena whyever, for any reason	yaivmena for every reason	viṣmena for another reason	guviṣmena for no other reason
Quality	esmā this kind	uçmā that kind	āçmā that other kind	tėsmā	kāsmā	yasmāt? which kind?	gusmā no kind	nūkṣmā some kind	læsmā any kind	yavismā every kind	viṣasmā another kind	guviṣasmā no other kind
Quantity	enūḍa this much	utnūḍa that much	ātnūḍa that much (remote)	tėnūḍa	kānūḍa	yanūḍat? how much?	gunūḍa none	nūšinūḍa some of it	lætnūḍa any much	yaivnūḍa all of it	viṣṇūḍa another quantity	guviṣṇūḍa no other quantity

Note that in common speach ālīce and ūlīce as well as ātmena and utmena are basically interchangeable. The quality correlatives may take an essive argument, e.g. kadięs læsmā "any kind of chair".
Thing and person correlatives decline for case and, in the case of proximal, medial, and distal, also for number. Those which end in -i decline like pronouns.

Negatives, elective existentials, universals, and positive alternatives for thing and person correlatives may also take dual number: gvamidi/guvitadi "neither"; lætyamidi/lævitadi "either"; yaivadi/yaivitadi "both"; viṣāmidi/viṣvitadi "the other one".

Honorifics

(note: this section still needs expansion)

Honorific pronouns

There are many different pronouns used for second and third person in honorific speech. The rules for using them are mostly dictated by the distance between the two speakers, and, for third persons, the relative distance between them.
Note that female and male is still a relic of traditional Chlouvānem society; nonbinary people, unless clearly towards the feminine end of the spectrum, are usually treated as women if they are of higher rank and as men if they are of lower rank. Also note that plural pronouns are also used for dual number.

Second person generally used these pronouns:

• sāmi, the morphological pronoun, is used in familiar registers and between females or between males if they are not strangers and they're all of the same rank or of similar age.
• nujyā is used by females for all strangers and for male of the same rank as them; males use it for male strangers and males of higher rank.
• yonujyā is a somewhat more formal alternative to nujyā.
• ṭaniā is used by females for all non-stranger females of higher rank. Males use it for all females except close friends and relatives.
• yomyė is a moderately familiar pronoun, kinda intermediate between sāmi and ṭaniā/nujyā.
• uṣṭām is used by females for people of lower rank, and by males for lower rank males.
• gopūrṭham is an extremely formal pronoun, used with public officials.
  • (go)pūrṭhami brausa or yo-brausa is used for the highest ranked Inquisitors and for the Baptist.
    • lalla yo-brausa is used exclusively for the Great Inquisitor.
• ya-kaleyuṭhā is a plural pronoun, used when speaking to a representative of a specifically defined group (institution or company).
• yavyāta is a plural pronoun used for generic, less defined groups.

Third person pronouns vary according to whether the third person referent is higher, lower, or equal to the second person, and for each of these cases the relative rank of first and second person further determine which pronoun should be used. In some cases, a third person feminine person requires a different pronoun from a masculine one.
Note that all forms here are for singular pronouns; unless noted they're all nouns (except tami) and they are pluralized regularly if needed.

If 3S is higher than 2S and...

• ...1S is lower than 2S, lalla yañša is used.
• ...1S is equal to 2S, lalla yañša is used, or just tami in familiar registers.
• ...1S is higher than 2S, then:
  • if 3S is lower than 1S, āte-liluyani (inflects as the pronoun yani) is used invariably if 1S is female; for male 3S only if 1S is male too.
  • if 3S is lower than 1S, yañša is used for female 3S by male 1S; it is optional by female 1S.
  • if 3S is equal to 1S, yo-yardam is used.
  • if 3S is higher than 1S, lallayuṭhā is used (rarely pluralized even if referring to a plural subject).

If 3S is equal to 2S and...

• ...1S is lower than both, yo-yardam is used.
• ...1S is equal to both, kemura is used, or just tami in familiar registers.
• ...1S is higher than both, yardam is used.

If 3S is lower than 2S and...

• ...1S is also lower than 2S, tami is invariably used by females and by 1S males for 3S males; ui-hulyn is used by 1S males for 3S females.
• ...1S is equal to 2S, kemura is used, or just tami in familiar registers.
• ...1S is higher than both, kemura is used for all 3S males and usually by 1S females for 3S females; yañsa is mandatory by 1S males for 3S females, and optional by 1S females.

Note that familiar registers (which often include code-switching between Chlouvānem and a local vernacular), when used, may override any convention: as an extreme example, any very close friend or relative of the Great Inquisitor would refer to her as sāmi (and not lalla yo-brausa); however this is obviously only possible in private contexts (while same-ranked people may use a familiar register in public - e.g. on the workplace).

Honorific titles

Chlouvānem uses many honorific titles, which are always used in non-familiar speech. The "honorific" adjective yamei is often added to many of them - especially lāma - and is mandatory in other ones.

• lāma - used after the noun, it is the most common honorific title; almost every time someone is being addressed, lāma is used - the only exceptions being when it is already known another honorific should be used, or in familiar situations. It usually follows the given name alone (e.g. Namihūlša lāma); if the matronymic is added (sometimes done in order to disambiguate), then lāma comes between matronymic and noun (e.g. Līṭhaljāyimāvi lāma Namihūlša). All three names matronymic, surname, and given name together with lāma (e.g. Līṭhaljāyimāvi Kaleñchokah Namihūlša lāma) are only used in very formal addressing from a list of nouns; should matronymic+noun be not enough to distinguish two people, simply surname+noun is used.
• tanta - used for people in a lower position, e.g. used towards one's employees or (usually from seventh class onwards) by teachers and professors towards their students.
• suntam (regionally also sintam) - used for people in a higher position in certain situations, most commonly towards older and more experienced colleagues (but not teachers or professors, nor work bosses if they're roughly the same age as the speaker).
• lallāmaha - an extremely formal honorific, used for public authorities and all Inquisitors. Most often used together with yamei. Inquisitors may also be referred to as lallāmaha + matronymic + yamei + given name + murkadhāna (lāma)

Two special formulas are used for the most important people in the Inquisition:

• aveṣyotāra lallāmaha + matronymic + yamei + surname + given name + brausamailenia lāma for the Baptist (roughly "[Her] Excellent Highness, Baptist ...");
• nanū aveṣyotāra lallāmaha + matronymic + yamei + surname + given name + camimurkadhāna lāma for the Great Inquisitor ("[Her] Most Excellent Highness, Great Inquisitor ...").

Numerals - Mālūye

Chlouvānem has a decimal numeral system which has however a base-5 sub-base for some numbers (mainly 5 and 11-19) and a base-20 borrowed one for the tens.

Numbers (sg. mālūyas, pl. mālūye) have six different forms: cardinal, ordinal, collective, distributive, adverbial/multiplicative, and fractionary. Cardinal 1, 2, and 3 are adjectives, as are all ordinal and collective ones; 1-4 have separate adverbial forms, while all other ones have an invariable adjective used as multiplicative and a derived adverb used as adverbial. All distributive, fractionary, and cardinal (except 1-3) numbers are invariable.

Digit	Cardinal	Ordinal	Collective	Distributive	Adv./Multiplicative	Fractionary
0	ajrā	(ajrāyendes)	(ajrājes)	(ajrauṣā)	(lājrā)	—
1	leil leilum leila	lahīlas	leilajāsis	leiluṣā	leilammit / lāleil (lāleilum, lāleila)	leilaskā
2	dani danīm danīh	hælinaikas	daniajāsis	daniṣā	danimmit / lādani (lādanīm, lādanīh)	danīrṣkā
3	tarvas tarvam tarvė	tarvendes	tarvajāsis	tarvuṣā	tarvammit / lātarvas (lātarvam, lātarvė)	tarveṃskā
4	nahė	nahėbindes	nahėñjāsis	nahėbuṣā	nahėbāmmit / lānahė	nahėbiṃskā
5	švā	švājindes	švāyajāsis	švauṣā	lāšvā	švajiṃskā
6	tulūʔa	tulūʔendes	tulūʔajāsis	tulūʔuṣā	lātulūʔa	tulūʔeṃskā
7	chīka	chīkendes	chīkajāsis	chīcuṣā	lāchīka	chīkeṃskā
8	teitė	teitendes	teitajāsis	teiteṣā	lāteitė	teiteṃskā
9	moja	mojendes	mojajāsis	mojuṣā	lāmoja	mojeṃskā
10	naʔikām	naʔikāmindes	naʔikāñjes	naʔikāṃṣā	lānaʔikām	naʔikāmiṃskā
11	lelišvatī	lelišvatīlindes	lelišvatījes	lelišvatīṣā	lālelišvatī	lelišvatīliṃskā
12	danešvatī	danešvatīlindes	danešvatījes	danešvatīṣā	lādanešvatī	danešvatīliṃskā
13	tarošvati	tarošvatīlindes	tarošvatījes	tarošvatīṣā	lātarošvatī	tarošvatīliṃskā
14	nahėšvatī	nahėšvatīlindes	nahėšvatījes	nahėšvatīṣā	lānahėšvatī	nahėšvatīliṃskā
15	švāmašvatī	švāmašvatīlindes	švāmašvatījes	švāmašvatīṣā	lāšvāmašvatī	švāmašvatīliṃskā
16	tulūšvatī	tulūšvatīlindes	tulūšvatījes	tulūšvatīṣā	lātulūšvatī	tulūšvatīliṃskā
17	chīcæšvatī	chīcæšvatīlindes	chīcæšvatījes	chīcæšvatīṣā	lāchīcæšvatī	chīcæšvatīliṃskā
18	teitašvatī	teitašvatīlindes	teitašvatījes	teitašvatīṣā	lāteitašvatī	teitašvatīliṃskā
19	moješvatī	moješvatīlindes	moješvatījes	moješvatīṣā	lāmoješvatī	moješvatīliṃskā
20	ekāma	ekāmendes	ekāmajāsis	ekāṃṣā	laikāma	ekāmeṃskā

Numbers from 20 above are simply made by compounding teens and units with the appropriate saṃdhi changes. The other teens are: 30 ṣurakāma, 40 kaṭṭakāma, 50 caicukāma, 60 lęmba, 70 yūlkakāma, 80 yonllikāma, 90 jāṣyakāma, and 100 cambė.
Examples of compounding: 21 ekāṃleil, 22 ekāṃdani, 37 ṣurakāñchīka, 53 caicukāntarvas, etc. Note that cambė declines as a noun, and numbers from 101 above are written separately and without saṃdhi, e.g. 101 cambė leil.

The hundreds are 200 ejamva, 300 ṣurjamva, 400 kañjamva, 500 caiñjamva, 600 morjamva, 700 yūlujamva, 800 yolljamva, 900 jāṣijamva.
1000 is yoyakta and numbers above are separate words, without saṃdhi, e.g. 6249 tulūʔa yoyakta ejamva kaṭṭakāmmoja.

The other divisions are based on groups of two digits: the two ones used in common speech are 1.00.000 - an ėjma - and 1.00.00.000 - a pārṇa. Greater numbers only have specific names in scientific contexts: 1.00.00.00.000 is a virjasa and 1.00.00.00.00.000 a kālga - colloquially they are cambė pārṇa and naʔikām yoyakta pārṇa respectively.

Using numerals

Cardinal numerals may be used in two ways, depending on whether emphasis is given to the number or to the thing counted.

• In the most common use, the counted thing is emphasized: the numeral is put before the noun and the noun is always singular (except for "two", see below) plus the appropriate case: e.g. leilum yujam (a lotus flower); danīh māra (two mango fruits); tarvas haloe (three names), lelišvatī ñaiṭa (eleven stars), and so on.
• If emphasis is given to the number, then the counted thing comes first, and, if it should be in direct, ergative, or accusative case, it is in genitive singular instead; the semantic direct, ergative, or accusative case is taken by the numeral itself if it is one, two, three, or compounds. Examples: yujami leilum (one lotus flower), māri danīh (two mango fruits), halenies tarvas (three names), ñaiṭi lelišvatī (eleven stars). In other cases, the noun follows the semantic case (but is always singular anyway), e.g. marti tarvė (three cities) but marte tarviyė (in the three cities).
  This form is increasingly less common in everyday use.
• "Two" may be used with either singular or dual number: danīh māra or māri danīh are both as correct as danīh māradi and māradais danīh - note that the dual number alone, without the numeral, has the same meaning. Outside of literary texts, it is however more common to specify "two" with the numeral.

Particles

The numerous particles in the Chlouvānem language have various uses, including coordinating conjunctions, semantic, and pragmatic particles. Most of them (except a few conjunctions) follow the word they modify.

• no translates English "and" when between nouns and when denoting a complete listing; for incomplete listings (e.g. "X and Y and so on") the particle çei is used. Both follow the noun they refer to, and in listings with more than two nouns they follow every noun except the first.
• sama translates "and" as a coordinating conjunction between sentences. If the following word starts with a vowel, it is shortened to sam'.
• mbu means "or"; placement with nouns is the same as no/çou, and with verbs it's the same as sama.
• ga is an adpositive particle, used to join nouns in noun phrases (usually titles; the only exceptions being honorifics), such as Līlasuṃghāṇa ga marta (Līlasuṃghāṇa city, or "city of Līlasuṃghāṇa") or Tāllahāria ga maita (Tāllahāria river).
• mæn marks the topic which otherwise has no role in the sentence (often used inside larger conversations, e.g. lili mæn yulte kåmbe (mine/as for me (echoing a previous sentence), [it is] in the bright yellow backpack; OR: as for me, [I keep it] in...))
• agṇā translates "but" as a coordinating conjunction.
• leah translates "like"; it requires essive case with nouns (in formal speech; while bare essive most properly has the meaning "as X" instead of "like X", colloquially it is used both ways) and subjunctive mood with realis verbs (other moods are used for their meaning).
• pa translates "on, of, about; concerning, on the subject of", and requires a noun direct case or a verb in subjunctive mood.
• læhæ translates "already", with a noun in essive case or a verb in the semantically correct mood.
• nānim translates "almost", with a noun in essive case or a verb in the semantically correct mood.
• nali, when used with a noun in direct case, marks the benefactive argument in any voice except benefactive-trigger. When used with a verb in subjunctive mood, it means "in order to", with a nuance of hope (when compared to the bare subjunctive, which already has that meaning).
• fras marks the antibenefactive argument outside of antibenefactive-trigger voice, or "to avoid X" with a subjunctive mood verb.
• golat translates "meanwhile" or "on the other hand".
• menni translates "because, for". If there's a following main clause, then it's the last word in the subordinate of reason (this use is synonymous to the consequential secondary verbal mood of cause); if it's a lone sentence (an answer), then it is usually at the second place in the sentence, after the verbal trigger (e.g. tami menni yuyųlsėça "because (s)he wants to eat").
• en usually requires accusative case and translates to English "than" in comparisons.
• tora translates "also", "too", usually before the verb (e.g. tora uyųlaṃçait "I've eaten that too"); note that "also" as a conjunction between two sentences is usually translated with nanū (more).
  • tora gu is a particle-adjective locution translating "not even", and is put before the noun it refers to;
  • tora no, after the noun, translates "even" - e.g. tami tora no dadrāçait "even he has done it it").
• gu(n) — ša is a circumfix around verbs used to negate it, e.g. gu yuyųlsėça ša "(s)he doesn't want to eat").
• mei and go are the Chlouvānem words for "yes" and "no" respectively; their use is however different from English, as they are used according to the polarity of the question: mei answers "yes" to affirmative questions and "no" to negative questions; go answers "no" to affirmative questions and "yes" to negative questions.

Paired particles

The paired particles in Chlouvānem are:

• gu X tora gu Y no — translating "neither X nor Y"; e.g. gu jādāh tora gu lañekaica no drāliçait "neither Jādāh nor Lañekaica did it".
• X jusęe Y mbu — translating "either X or Y". jusęe is a worn-down form of jususęe, adverb form of jususas, present participle of gyake (to be). e.g. jādāh jusęe lañekaica mbu drāliçait "either Jādāh or Lañekaica did it".
• X jusęe Y tora no — translating "both X and Y"; e.g. jādāh jusęe lañekaica tora no drāliçait "both Jādāh and Lañekaica did it".

Derivational morphology - Kokampeithauseh maivāndarāmita

Chlouvānem has an extensive system of derivational morphology, with many possibilities of deriving words from verbal roots and even from other nouns.

Nouns

-a (unstressed) or -ā (stressed) is a common derivative to make basic words from verbal roots. It does not have any fixed meaning, though it's always pretty close to the root. Nouns with the unstressed suffix and an ablautable vowel usually belong to the ablauting declension. ṛ in a root is always strengthened to middle-grade.

• dṛ (to do, to make) → dara (activity)
  
• lil (to live) → lila (person; living thing)
  
• tṛl (to know) → tarlā (science)

-as is another common derivative, without fixed meaning, but usually denoting objects or things done by acting. It is used to derive positions from positional verbs.

• tug (to beat) → tugas (beat)
  
• jlitiā (jlitim-) (be to the right of) → jlitimas (right)
  
• āntiā (āntim-) (be above, be on) → āntimas (part above)

-ūm is another derivative without fixed meaning, overlapping with -as.

• lgut (to buy) → lgutūm (something bought)
  
• peith (to go, walk (multidirectional)) → peithūm (walk)
  
• yālv (to be sweet (taste)) → yālvūm (sweet taste)

-laukas is a singulative suffix, denoting either a single thing of a collective noun, or a single constituent of a broader act. Unlike the previous ones, it is most commonly applied to other nouns.

• flun (to go, walk (monodirectional)) → fluṃlaukas (step)
  
• lil (to live) (or liloe (life)) → lillaukas (moment, instant)
  
• daša (rain) → dašilaukas (raindrop)

-anah, with middle-grade ablaut if possible, denotes an act or process, or something closely related to that.

• dig (to pour) → deganah ((act of) pouring)
  
• miš (to see) → mešanah (sight)
  
• lgut (to buy) → lgotanah (shopping)

-yāva with lengthening denotes a quality.

• māl (to keep together) → mālyāva (union)
  
• hælvė (fruit) → šaulvyāva (fertility) (morphemically //hьaulvyava//)
  
• blut (to clean) → blūtyāva (cleanliness)
• Lengthening is absent if the word is derived from an adjective (e.g. chlærausis (easy) → chlærausyāva (easiness)) and in a few exceptions (e.g. lalla (high) → lalliyāva (highness, superiority)). taugyāva (life) has au because it's derived from taugikā (heart) and not the bare root tug (to beat).
• Inverse-ablaut roots have the reduced vowel as a prefix, much like in causative verbs (e.g. vald (to (be) open) → uvaldyāva (opening, state of being open)).

-išam has the same meaning as -yāva, but it's rarer.

• yųlniltas (edible) → yųlniltešam (edibility)
  
•  yālv (to be sweet (taste)) → yālvišam (sweetness)
  
• ñailūh (ice) → ñailuišam (coldness)

-āmita, often with high-grade ablaut, is another suffix forming quality nouns, but it is often more abstract, being translatable with suffixes like English -ism.

• çuliė (friend (female)) → çuliāmita (friendship)
  
•  ėmīla (tiger) → ėmīlāmita (nobility (quality); most important people in society)
  
•  ñæltah (sister (for a male)) → ñæltāmita (brotherhood)

-ūyas, with middle-grade ablaut, has various generic and sometimes unpredictable meanings.

•  māl (to keep together) → mālūyas (number)
  
•  lij (to sing) → lejūyas (choir)
  
•  yālv (to be sweet (taste)) → yālvūyas (dessert, cake; something sweet)

-rṣūs (-ṛṣūs after a consonant) denotes a tool, namely something used in doing an action.

• yaud (to catch) → yaudṛṣūs (trap)
  
• miš (to see) → meširṣūs (eye (literary, rare))
  
• hær (to kiss) → hærṣūs (lips (pair of))
  

-gis denotes something used for doing an action, not always synonymous with -rṣūs. -t-gis becomes -ñjis.

•  mešīn (eye) → mešīlgis (glasses (pair of))
  
•  tug (to beat) → tulgis (drumstick)
  
•  lgut (to buy) → lguñjis (money, currency)

-oe (with middle-grade ablaut) often denotes a result, but has lots of various meanings.

•  hal (to call) → haloe (name, noun)
  
•  peith (to go, walk (multidirectional)) → peithoe (development; the way something is carried out)
  
• yųl (to eat) → yąloe (meal)

-īn plus middle grade-ablaut denotes a doer (roughly equivalent to English -er); usually it is a person, but not always.

• bhi (to take care of; to care for) → bhayīn (someone who takes care; guardian)
  
• tug (to beat) → togīn (heart)
  
•  lgut (to buy) → lgotīn (buyer)

-āvi denotes something derived from X. It is also used in forming matronymics.

•  lameṣa (coconut palm) → laṃṣāvi (coconut)
  
•  mešanah (sight) → mešanąvi (knowledge)
  
• yųl (to eat) → yųlāvi (strength (literary, rare))

-āmis, with lengthening, means "made of X".

• tāmira (rock, stone) → tāmirāmis (stone tool)
  
•  tarlā (knowledge, science) → tārlāmis (wisdom)
  
•  lil (to live) → līlāmis (a blissful place)
• Words ending in a final long vowel (plus either h, s, or m) do not lengthen any vowel in a previous syllable (e.g. ñariāh (mountain) → ñariāmis (mountainous area)).

-ikā has various meanings, often somewhat abstract, intensive, or related to highly valued things/roles.

•  daša (rain) → dāšikā (monsoon) (irregular lengthening)
  
•  hær (to kiss) → hærikā (love (literary, rare))
  
• lalāruṇa (giant domestic lizard) → lalārauṇikā (knight mounting a lalāruṇa)

-dhūs means "having X".

•  dara (activity) → daradhūs (verb)
  
•  šaṇṭrās (field, soil) → šaṇṭrādhūs (countryside)
  
•  hælvė (fruit) → hælvidhūs (fruiting tree; literary: pregnant woman)

-bān and -ūrah are two roughly equivalent suffixes used for locations. The first one is generally used after vowels, the second after consonants, but it's no strict rule.

• hælvė (fruit) → hælvėbān (orchard)
  
•  lil (to live) → lilūrah (world)
  
• peith (to go, to walk (multidirectional)) → peithūrah (passage)

-(l)āṇa forms a true collective noun:

• çuliė (friend (female)) → çulielāṇa (group of friends)
• jīma (character, symbol, letter) → jīmalāṇa (writing system)
• maiva (word) → maivalāṇa (lexicon)

-(l)ænah denotes a tree or a plant having a certain fruit.

•  haiçah (pineapple) → haiçænah (pineapple tree)
  
•  maʔika (uncooked rice) → maʔikænah (rice plant)
  
• šikālas (prickly pear) → šikālænah (prickly pear cactus)

-yus (-yūs if there are only short syllables) is used with toponyms and is one of the most common ways to form denonymal nouns. As many of the nouns these words are derived from are proper nouns and of non-Chlouvānem origin, there are often irregular formations, e.g. using only a part of the original word.

• Līlasuṃghāṇa → līlasuṃghāṇyus
  
• Cami → camiyūs
  
• Galiākina → Galiākyus

Verbs

The main denominal verb-forming suffix is -ora-, used mainly with the meaning of "to make/create X" or "to have X":

• āmaya (collection) → āmayorake (to collect)
• yuiça (sound) → yuiçorake (to make a sound)
• çuliė (friend (f)) → çuliyorake (to befriend, to become friends with)

-ьeiš- (alternating with preconsonantal -ьeiki-) forms a verb with the meaning of "to make something X(-like)" or something related to using X:

• raikas (smoke) → raiceiške (to smoke food)
• lallāmita (future) → lallāmitieiške (to plan)
• brausa (sainthood) → brausieiške (to sanctify, hallow)

Positional prefixes can be used to derive new, more specific verbs, from other ones; see the section under Positional verbs for more.

Prefixes are a common way to form many specific forms of verbs, especially related to how much or how an action is carried out. As all of these derive verbs from other verbs, only the root is given in examples:
ñavu- (ñau- before a nasal, v or r) forms verbs meaning "a bit more than needed". Verbs whose root has ṛ as the main vowel do not ablaut and always have middle-grade ar, except if there is another prefix (see second example):

• dṛ- (to do) → ñavudar- (to do something a bit more than needed)
  • āndṛ- (to build, create) → ñavāndṛ- (to build/create a bit more than needed)
• vald- (to open) → ñauvald- (to open a bit more than needed)
• flun- (to go, walk (monod.)) → ñavuflun- (to walk somewhat further ahead than needed)

vīvai- forms verbs meaning "too much"; verbs with ṛ always have ar and are non-ablauting:

• dṛ- (to do) → vīvaidar- (to do something too much)
• pugl- (to sleep) → vīvaipugl- (to sleep too much)
• flun- (to go, walk (monod.)) → vīvaiflun- (to walk too much ahead)

trān- (trā- before voiced stops, nasals, or r; it combines with a following y to form trāñ-) forms verbs of repetition or continuative actions, or "to keep X-ing"; verbs with ṛ always have ar and are non-ablauting:

• dṛ- (to do) → trādar- (to do something repetitively, to keep doing something)
• yųl- (to eat) → trāñųl- (to eat repetitively, to keep eating)
• khlu- (to search, look for) → trālkhlu- (to keep searching)

yavi- (yav- before y) forms resultative verbs, with the meaning of "to finish X-ing" or "to X everything":

• dṛ- (to do) → yavidṛ (to finish, complete (transitive))
• yųl- (to eat) → yavyųl (to finish eating; to eat everything)
• mūmik- (to dance) → yavimūmik (to finish dancing; idiomatic: to start working, to get back to work)

tæ(m)- forms mainly dynamic verbs from stative ones (being often synonymous with their causative patientive forms) and from adjectives. It is also used with nouns, forming verbs with the meaning of "to become a(n) X":

• murkas (black) → tæmurk- (to become black; causative: to make/paint something black)
• jāyim (girl) → tæjāyim- (to become a girl)
• būṃṣ- (to be dry; causative: to dry something) → tæmbūṃṣ- (to become dry; causative: to dry something (rarely used))

nare- (nar- before another prefix) forms verbs with applicative meanings:

• pugl- (to sleep) → narepugl- (to sleep during something)
• yųl- (to eat) → nareyųl- (to have a meal with someone, to go eating with someone)
• ta-flun- (to arrive on foot) → nartaflun- (to reach a place on foot)

min- forms transitive verbs from intransitive (mostly dynamic) ones:

• pūn- (to work) → mimpūn- (to work on something)
• gya- (to be) → milgya- (to experience)
• peith- (to go (multidirectional)) → mimpeith- (to walk on foot while staying inside a certain place)

Adjectives

Adjectives are formed from either nouns or verbs by using the following suffixes: All terms are given here in citation form (dragon singular)

-ūkas is the most common adjective-forming suffix, denoting something strictly related to an object or a verb. Often they are interchangeable with the genitive form of the noun they derived from:

• avyāṣa (time) → avyāṣūkas (temporal)
• chlærūm (light) → chlærūkas (of the light)
• daša (rain) → dašūkas (rainy, concerning rain)

-ausis (rarely -usis) forms adjectives related to a quality that is applied to some object, but more abstractly related than those formed with -ūkas-; sometimes they are only figurative:

• chlærūm (light) → chlærausis (easy)
• pāṇi (side) → pāṇyausis (peripheral, less important)
• namęlь (to make an effort, to apply oneself, to work harder) → namęliausis (Stakhanovite)

-niltas translates English -able, and the circumfix uṣ- -niltas translates to "un- -able" or, sometimes, "difficult to X". The rare ñæi- -niltas translates as "easy to X".
The uṣ- prefix has the allomorphs ū- (before voiced stops), uš- (before c and ch), and u- (before l+consonant); uṣ- plus any sibilant becomes ukṣ-.

• tṛl (to know, understand) → tṛlniltas (understandable) → uṣṭṛlniltas (uncomprehensible; difficult to understand) / ñæitṛlniltas (easy to understand)
• yųl (to eat) → yųlniltas (edible) → uṣyųlniltas (unedible)
• lgut (to buy) → lgutniltas (buyable) → ulgutniltas (not buyable)

The suffixes -apus/-epus or -ækṣasis/-īkṣasis are sometimes considered, as far as the grammar of everyday Chlouvānem is concerned, ways to derive adjectives from other adjectives. As seen in the section about adjectives, these are actually the endings of synthetic comparatives and superlatives, which are obsolete in modern Chlouvānem except from the most formal registers.
Their classification as derivational suffixes is sometimes made starting from a few forms which have got an additional meaning (often with notable semantic shifts, and usually starting from a single use later generalized) apart from the "more/most X", and they're nowadays used with that meaning (with the comparative being made analytically with nanū).

• kāmilas (blue) → kāmilapus (healthy) ("blue" is used also in the sense of English "green" as "environmental-friendly"; the semantic shift here has its origin in place descriptions, with "bluer" places being less urbanized and less polluted ones; later the "healthy" meaning was generalized)
• tāmirūkas (rocky) → tāmirūkapus (difficult)
• huliāyausis (glowing in the dark; visible as the moon) → huliāyausīkṣasis (recognizable, easy to recognize)