Chlouvānem

Chlouvānem, natively Chlouvānaumi dældā ("language of the Chlouvānem people"), is the most spoken language on the planet of Calémere (Lac.: Liloejāmna). It is the official language of the Chlouvānem land (Chlouvānaumi bhælā), and a lingua franca in many areas of the eastern part of the continent of Evandor. Despite the fact that local vernaculars in most of the Chlouvānem lands are in fact daughter languages of Chlouvānem or creoles based on it, the Chlouvānaumi dældā is a fully living language as every Chlouvānem person is bilingual in it and in the local vernacular, and in fact in the last half century the Chlouvānem language itself has been replacing some vernaculars as internal migrations have become more and more common. About 1,4 billion people on the planet define themselves as native Chlouvānem speakers, more than for any other Calémerian language.

External History

Chlouvānem is the ninth radically restructured version of Laceyiam; I started creating it in late November 2016 as I found some parts of my conworld which were too unrealistic to work - and as such by changing the whole conworld I had to change the language. I took that opportunity to change some things in the grammar that, while I liked them and they worked well, I wanted to do in some different way — mainly this arises from my love of more complex inflection patterns. As such, compared to Laceyiam, Chlouvānem has much more influences from Sanskrit and Lithuanian (which always were my main influences anyway); other natlangs that influenced me a lot are Russian, Latvian, Icelandic, Proto-Indo-European, (Biblical) Hebrew, Latin, and Japanese. Still it is an a priori language and, despite having much in common with all of these (particularly with the IE ones), is also strikingly different (the Austronesian morphosyntactic alignment, morphological expression of evidentiality and more broadly the particular emphasis on moods probably being the most noticeable things). Moreover, I tried to create a language very different from my native language (Italian) while keeping many - not so apparent - similarities.
The morphology of Chlouvānem is very different from Laceyiam, though many words are still the same (like smrāṇa (spring), junai (foot), jāyim (girl), saṃhāram (boy)).

As I mentioned before, Chlouvānem is the latest version of the conlang for my main conculture. I started sketching conlangs back when I was 9 or 10 but only started interesting myself into linguistics seven years later - in 2014 - and since then I started doing more "serious" conlangs (the earlier ones were more like relexes of my native language, Italian). Ideally, Chlouvānem is the refined version of all of these languages, but except for a few recurring words (like maila (water) or hulyn (woman)) it is only comparable to those languages I have been creating since July 2015.

Chlouvānem is mainly thought for my conworld, but more than any other conlang of mine it is quite on the border between an art- and a heartlang.

Phonology - Yuiçtarlā

Consonants - Hīmbeyuiçai

Chlouvānem has a large consonant inventory, with 55 different consonants, divided into seven categories: labials, dentals, palatalized dentals, retroflexes, palatals, velars, and laryngeals. The Chlouvānem term for "consonant" is hīmbeyuiça, a compound of hīmba (colour) and yuiça (sound).

	Labials	Dentals	Palat. dentals	Retroflexes	Palatals	Velars	Laryngeals
Nasals	m mʲ	n	nʲ	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ	N*
Unvoiced stops	p pʰ	t̪ t̪ʰ	tʲ tʲʰ	ʈ ʈʰ		k kʰ	ʔ
Voiced stops	b bʱ	d̪ d̪ʱ	dʲ dʲʱ	ɖ ɖʱ		g gʱ
Unvoiced affricates		t̪͡s̪ t̪͡s̪ʰ	t͡sʲ t͡sʲʰ		c͡ɕ c͡ɕʰ
Voiced affricates		d̪͡z̪ d̪͡z̪ʱ	d͡zʲ d͡zʲʱ		ɟ͡ʑ ɟ͡ʑʱ
Sibilant fricatives		s	sʲ	ʂ	ɕ
Non-sibilant fricatives	f v	θ					ɦ
Approximants		ð̞		ɻ	j		ʀ ʀʲ ɴ̆ ɴ̆ʲ

Vowels - Camiyuiçai

The vowel inventory of Chlouvānem is fairly large too, consisting of 23 phonemes: 14 monophthongs, 7 diphthongs, and 2 syllabic consonants.
Phonetically, there are also nasal vowels, but they are phonetically /VN/ sequences. On the contrary, breathy-voiced vowels may phonetically surface as [Vh] or [Vχ] in some contexts (most notably before stops) in some pronunciations — e.g. tąkis /tɑ̤kis/ (a kind of herb) pronounced in Cami as [ˈtaxkʲis].

The term for vowel is camiyuiça, from cami (great, large, important) and yuiça (sound), as these sounds are necessary in building syllables.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː i̤		u uː ṳ
Mid	e eː e̤		ɔ
Low	æ	a aː	ɑ̤
Diphthongs	aɪ̯ eɪ̯ eɐ̯ a̤ɪ̯ e̤ɪ̯	ɔə̯	aʊ̯ ɔu̯ uo̯ a̤ʊ̯
Syllabic consonants		ʀ̩ ʀ̩ː

Writing system - Jīmalāṇa

Chlouvānem has been written since the late First Era in an alphabet called Chlouvānaumi jīmalāṇa ("Chlouvānem alphabet", the noun jīmalāṇa is actually a collective derivation from jīma "character"), developed with influence of the script used for the ancient Kūṣṛmāthi language, which, however, was an abugida. The orthography for Chlouvānem represents how it was pronounced in Classical times, but it's completely regular to read in all present-day local pronunciations. The Chlouvānem alphabet is actually a defective script, at least in normal writing, as the phoneme /a/ is usually not written. It can be written with a diacritic sign, but this is only done in books aimed at children or language learners, in dictionaries, or in some rare cases where disambiguation is necessary, as two following letters may represent either a consonant cluster or there could be an /a/ between them; word-initial /a/ is however written with the character that represents the glottal stop otherwise. To make some examples, in the Chlouvānem script a word like marta "city" is written <mrt>, while avyāṣa "time, moment" is written <ʔvyāṣ>: Chlouvānem speakers are however able in the vast majority of cases to tell which word is meant due to context. Note that, however, the letter <a> is a proper letter of the alphabet, usually written as <ʔ> with the <a> diacritic.

The romanization used for Chlouvānem avoids this problem by giving each phoneme a single character or digraph, but it stays as close as possible to the native script. Aspirated stops and diphthongs are romanized as digraphs and not by single letters; geminate letters, which are represented with a diacritic in the native script, are romanized by writing the consonant twice - in the aspirated stops, only the first letter is written twice, so /ppʰ/ is <pph> and not *<phph>. The following table contains the whole Chlouvānem alphabet as it is romanized, following the native alphabetical order:

Letter	m	p	ph	b	bh	f	v	n	t	th
Sound	/m/	/p/	/pʰ/	/b/	/bʱ/	/f/	/ʋ/	/n/	/t̪/	/t̪ʰ/
Letter	d	dh	ç	çh	x	xh	s	ϑ	ð	ṇ
Sound	/d̪/	/d̪ʱ/	/t̪͡s/	/t̪͡sʰ/	/d̪͡z/	/d̪͡zʱ/	/s/	/θ/	/ð̞/	/ɳ/
Letter	ṭ	ṭh	ḍ	ḍh	ṣ	ř	ñ	c	ch	j
Sound	/ʈ/	/ʈʰ/	/ɖ/	/dʱ/	/ʂ/	/ɻ/	/ɳ/	/c͡ɕ/	/c͡ɕʰ/	/ɟ͡ʑ/
Letter	jh	š	y	k	kh	g	gh	ṃ	ʔ	h
Sound	/ɟ͡ʑʱ/	/ɕ/	/j/	/k/	/kʰ/	/g/	/gʱ/	/N/	/ʔ/	/ɦ/
Letter	r	l	ь	i	ī	į	u	ū	ų	e
Sound	/ʀ/	/ɴ̆/, /ŋ/	/ʲ/	/i/	/iː/	/i̤/	/u/	/uː/	/ṳ/	/e/
Letter	ė	ę	o	æ	a	ā	ą	ai	ąi	ei
Sound	/eː/	/e̤/	/ɔ/	/æ/	/a/	/aː/	/ɑ̤/	/aɪ̯/	/a̤ɪ̯/	/eɪ̯/
Letter	ęi	ea	oe	au	ąu	ou	uo	ṛ	ṝ
Sound	/e̤ɪ̯/	/eɐ̯/	/ɔə̯/	/aʊ̯/	/a̤ʊ̯/	/ɔʊ̯/	/uo̯/	/ʀ̩/	/ʀ̩ː/

Some orthographical and phonological notes:

• /ŋ/ is written as <l> before <k g kh gh n>; <ll> before other consonants; and <nll> intervocalically.
• The sequences /eɦe aɦa uɦu iɦ(ʲ)i/ are written <ęe ąa ųu įi>; the digraph <ęa> represents /eɦa/ but only in optative verbal stems, used for the optative and propositive moods.

Letter names are formed following these simple rules, which depend by phoneme type:

• Voiceless unaspirated stops and fricatives are phoneme + /uː/ (pū, tū, sū, ϑū...) except for <ʔ> which is aʔū. Voiceless aspirated stops are phoneme + /au̯/ (phau, thau...).
• Voiced unaspirated stops and fricatives are phoneme + /iː/ (bī, vī, dī..., but aðī), while aspirated ones use /ai̯/ (bhai, dhai...). This latter diphthong is also used for yai, hai, and lai.
• Nasals and <r> use /ei̯/ (mei, nei, rei...), but <ṃ> is, uniquely, nālkāvi.
• Short unrounded vowels are vowel + /t/ + vowel (iti, ete...); short rounded ones have /p/ instead of /t/ (upu, opo).
• Long vowels are vowel + /n/ if unrounded (īn, ėn, ān), or /m/ if rounded (ūm). Oral diphthongs all have diphthong + /m/ + first element (aima, eime...).
• Breathy-voiced vowels are vowel + /ɦ/ + vowel (įi, ųu, ęe, ąa). Breathy-voiced diphthongs are diphthong + /ɦ/ + oral second element (ąihi, ęihi, ąuhu).

Morphology - Maivāndarāmita

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).

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
• 2s: nouns ending in -us or -ūs
• 3s: nouns ending in -is or -īs
• 4s: nouns ending in -oe /ˈɔə̯/

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 (geltařñī halenī):

• 1h: nouns ending in -a, -ah, -ā, or -āh
• 2h: nouns ending in -ė, -eh, or -ėh (and a few exceptions in -oê /ɔˈɛ/)
• 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	prātouti	prātouti		kældui	kældouti	kældouti		kumiui	kumievuti	kumievuti		halenui	halenouti	halenouti
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	yujāmu		tūlau	tūlundau	tūlumūn		jāyimu	jāyiñxau	jāyimin		lunāyu	lunaidau	lunainū
Ergative	yujamei	yujandeni	yujamān		tūluṃs	tūlundeni	tūlumān		jāyimei	jāyiñxeni	jāyimān		lunea	lunaideni	lunæyān
Genitive	yujami	yujamvin	yujamvin		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	yujyouti	yujyouti		tūlumui	tūluvyouti	tūluvyouti		jāyimui	jāyimėti	jāyimėti		lunāmui	lunāyouti	lunāyouti
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

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. 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

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. As many verbs can be conjugated both as exterior and as interior; they often have differences in meaning - e.g. gṇyauke means “to give birth” as exterior and “to be born” as 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 mešaleah "I know; I see myself"; and causative exterior maišaxhā "I am shown", interior maišalxheah "I learn; I show myself (trans.)".

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for five voices, each one putting one of five 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 five voices are, for exterior verbs:

• patient-trigger or patientive (unmarked);
• agent-trigger or agentive;
• benefactive-trigger or simply benefactive;
• antibenefactive-trigger or simply antibenefactive;
• locative-trigger or simply locative.

Interior verbs only have four voices, as they do not have an agentive voice; the patientive, unmarked voice, is here called common voice. There is also an instrumental form, but it is independent of voice despite having much in common with them.

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for five different tense-aspect combinations: three imperfective ones - present, imperfect, and future - and two perfective ones - perfect and aorist; two other tenses are built periphrastically (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).

Clitic pronouns 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 Laceyiami 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 has a non-finite form (the -ke form, called infinitive hereafter) and a small number of preverbal modifiers that add a particular meaning to the verb.

Finally, Chlouvānem has 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.

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.

Standard Chlouvānem as spoken today uses the following pronouns:

• 1st person lili (sg.), lileiði (dual), and mayin (pl.).
• 2nd person sāmi (sg.), sāmeiði (dual), and nagin (pl.).
• 3rd person parrot tami (sg.), tameiði (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; tameiði 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), neneis (dragon), neneim (lotus); medial nunū (p.), nunuis (d.), nunuim (l.); distal nanā (p.), nanās (d.), nanām (l.).
• The possessives: liliā (lilem, liles); meyā (meyem, meyes); sāmiā (sāmim, sāmis); negā (negim, negis); tamiā (tamim, tamis); tašñā (tašñem, tašñes); demiā (demim, demis).

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.

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 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	leilaϑit / lāleil (lāleilum, lāleila)	leilaskā
2	dani danīm danīh	hælinaikas	daniajāsis	daniṣā	daniϑit / lādani (lādanīm, lādanīh)	danīrṣkā
3	tarvas tarvam tarvė	tarvendes	tarvajāsis	tarvuṣā	tarvaϑit / lātarvas (lātarvam, lātarvė)	tarveṃskā
4	nahoê	nahėbindes	nahėñjāsis	nahėbuṣā	nahėbāϑit / lānahoê	nahėbiṃskā
5	švā	švājindes	švāyajāsis	švauṣā	lāšvā	švajiṃskā
6	tulū'a	tulū'endes	tulū'ajāsis	tulū'uṣā	lātulū'a	tulū'eṃskā
7	chīka	chīkendes	chīkajāsis	chīcuṣā	lāchīka	chīkeṃskā
8	teitė	teitendes	teitajāsis	teiteṣā	lāteitė	teiteṃskā
9	moja	mojendes	mojajāsis	mojuṣā	lāmoja	mojeṃskā
10	na'ikām	na'ikāmindes	na'ikāñjes	na'ikāṃṣā	lāna'ikām	na'ikāmiṃskā
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

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.

Derivational morphology - Kokampeithausięe 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.

• ϑlun (to go, walk (monodirectional)) → ϑluṃlaukas (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 plus either middle- or high-grade ablaut denotes a quality.

• māl (to keep together) → mālyāva (union)
  
• hælvė (fruit) → hælvėyāva (fertility)
  
• blut (to clean) → blotyāva (cleanliness)

-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.

•  mešīn (eye) → mešīlgis (glasses (pair of))
  
•  tug (to beat) → tulgis (drumstick)
  
•  lgut (to buy) → lgudgis (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 means "made of X".

• tāmira (rock, stone) → tāmirāmis (stone tool)
  
•  tarlā (knowledge, science) → tarlāmis (wisdom)
  
•  lil (to live) → lilāmis (a blissful place)

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

•  daša (rain) → dāšikā (monsoon)
  
•  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)

Syntax

Verb phrase

Positional verbs

Positional verbs are among the most complex features of Chlouvānem grammar. In order to build verbs such as "to stay", "to be seated", and "to lie", Chlouvānem uses a base which is then prefixed with a locative particle, building verbs meaning "to stay on", "to stay under", "to stay in", and so on. There are 26 prefixes for each of the three verbs:

Prefix	To stay (-tiā/-tim)	To be seated (-vāst)	To lie (-ūlg)
Generic position (ta-)	tatiāke (tatimu; tatimau; taʔatimum)	tavāske (tavāstu; tavāstau; tostim)	tolge (tolgu; tolgau; tavūlgam)
On(to), above (ān-)	āntiāke	āmvāske	anūlge
Under, below (šu-)	šutiāke	šuvāske	šūlge
In the middle of, between (khl-)	khlatiāke	khluvāske	khlūlge
Together with, among (kus-)	kustiāke	kusvāske	kusūlge
Within inside (glь-)	glitiāke	glivāske	gliūlge
Near (mū(g)-)	mūtiāke	mūgvāske	mūgūlge
Far (bog-)	bogdiāke	bogvāske	bogūlge
Physically attached; mounting an animal/a bike (tad-)	tandiāke	tadvāske	tadūlge
Hanging from; upside down (smi-)	smitiāke	smivāske	smiyūlge
In(to), inside (na(ñ)-)	natiāke	navāske	nañūlge
Outside, outwards (kau-)	kautiāke	kauvāske	kavūlge
Opposite to; somewhere else (viṣ-)	viṣṭyāke	viṣvāske	viṣūlge
Around (keil-)	keiltiāke	keilvāske	keilūlge
Behind (prь-)	pritiāke	privāske	priūlge
In front of (mai-)	maitiāke	maivāske	mayūlge
In a corner; on a border; at the limits of (vai-)	vaitiāke	vaivāske	vayūlge
Next to; alongside (ř-)	řatiāke	řavāske	řūlge
In the center of (lū(s)-)	lūtiāke	lūvāske	lūsūlge
On the left (vyā-)	vyātiāke	vyāvāske	vyolge
On the right (jlь-)	jlitiāke	jlivāske	jliūlge
Facing; towards (kami-)	kamitiāke	kamivāske	kamyūlge
Facing inside (na-kam-)	nakantiāke	nakamvāske	nakamūlge
Facing outside (kau-kam-)	kokantiāke	kokamvāske	kokamūlge
Near to the center (mū-lū(s)-)	molūtiāke	molūvāske	molūsūlge
Far from the center (bog-lū(s)-)	boglūtiāke	boglūvāske	boglūsūlge

These basic forms have static meanings, and are always intransitive exterior verbs.
Their causative forms translate the English verbs "to put", "to seat" and "to lay" respectively, and are transitive when exterior and intransitive (middle) when interior. Verbs equivalent to English to remain are formed by attaching these prefixes to the verb lįnake for the analogues of -tiā/-tim (e.g. tatiāke → lįnake; āntiāke → āṃlįnake; šutiāke → šulįnake and so on), while for the others (to remain seated; to remain lying) the construction lįnake + positional infinitive is used.

These verbs all use two different place arguments: actual position, which requires locative case, and relative position, requiring exessive case. The latter often denotes non-inclusion in the mentioned place. Some examples:

1. jñūmat jlitimu.
   tree-EX.SG. stand.right.of.IND.PRES-1SG.EXT.PATIENT.TRG.
   I'm standing to the right of the tree.
2. domañe vaivāstu.
   room-LOC.SG. be.seated.in.corner.IND.PRES-1SG.EXT.PATIENT.TRG.
   I'm sitting in a corner of the room.
3. domanat vaivāstu.
   room-EX.SG. be.seated.in.corner.IND.PRES-1SG.EXT.PATIENT.TRG.
   I'm sitting in a corner outside the room.
4. jñūmat ūnime priūlgu.
   tree-EX.SG. street-LOC.SG. lie.behind.IND.PRES-1SG.EXT.PATIENT.TRG.
   I'm lying in the street, behind the tree.

Positional prefixes as derivational affixes

Positional prefixes are commonly used as derivational affixes, often with only a figurative representation of the positional meaning. Some examples:

• mai- (in front of) is often used for something done in advance, or to someone.
• ān- (above) and na(ñ)- (in, inside) may be used as intensives (but cam- is more common) or inceptives.
• šu- (down, below) may be used with a terminative meaning.

The root męlь- (to give) is a good example for this: from the basic verb męlike we can find derivations such as primęlike (to give back (exterior), to return (interior)), maimęlike (to prepare), āmmęlike (to dedicate oneself (mentally) to), namęlike (to dedicate oneself (physically) to), or šumęlike (to renounce).