Chlouvānem

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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 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 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

Prosody

Stress

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

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
Sound /d̪/ /d̪ʱ/ /t̪͡s/ /t̪͡sʰ/ /d̪͡z/ /d̪͡zʱ/ /s/ /θ/ /ð̞/ /ɳ/
Letter ṭh ḍh ř ñ c ch j
Sound /ʈ/ /ʈʰ/ /ɖ/ /dʱ/ /ʂ/ /ɻ/ /ɳ/ /c͡ɕ/ /c͡ɕʰ/ /ɟ͡ʑ/
Letter jh š y k kh g gh ʔ h
Sound /ɟ͡ʑʱ/ /ɕ/ /j/ /k/ /kʰ/ /g/ /gʱ/ /N/ /ʔ/ /ɦ/
Letter r l ь[1] 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
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[2]).

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, , or -āh
  • 2h: nouns ending in , -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 ) 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

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).
  • "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

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 (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. 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[3])
  •  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))[4]
  • 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[5].

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

Compounding

Syntax

Constituent order

Noun phrase

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. tatiākelįnake; āntiākeāṃlįnake; šutiākešulįnake and so on), while for the others (to remain seated; to remain lying) the construction lįnake + positional infinitive is used.

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Example texts

Other resources

  1. ^ Romanized as i before vowels
  2. ^ Dragon is kaṃšūs, lotus is yujam, and parrot is geltah.
  3. ^ Chlouvānem society lacked a true noble class; this term applies to the most influential people in society. Tigers are considered among the noblest animals.
  4. ^ Middle-grade ablaut is specific to this root.
  5. ^ As for all living things, being Calémere a different planet, the given translation is the one of the closest equivalent on Earth.