Chlouvānem/Morphology

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

Nouns - Halenī

The Chlouvānem noun (haloe, pl. halenī) is highly inflected - it declines for:


• Three numbers:

Singular (lailausire niañis)

Dual (daniausire niañis)

Plural (tailiausire niañis)

• Twelve cases:


Direct (daradhūkire dirūnnevya)

Vocative (halausire dirūnnevya)


Accusative (dṛṣokire dirūnnevya)

Ergative (darinūkire dirūnnevya)

Genitive (cārūkire dirūnnevya)


Translative (najamarcūkire dirūnnevya)


Exessive (nenijamarcūkire dirūnnevya)

Essive (gyausire dirūnnevya)

Dative (męliausire dirūnnevya)

Ablative (tųflunūkire dirūnnevya)

Locative (yutiūkire dirūnnevya)

Instrumental (drausire dirūnnevya)

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. chlǣvānem, which is also an irregular plural). The singular is made by using the genitive form attributed to lila (person), e.g. chlǣvānumi lila (a Chlouvānem).

Chlouvānem does not have grammatical gender, and there are only a few natural gender terms; see Chlouvānem § Gendered and gender-neutral terms for more information.

There are thirteen different noun declensions, but most of them only have few small differences. Chlouvānem declensions are predictable from the ending of the direct case noun, and they're categorized depending on their endings as s-, m-, or h-nouns.

S-nouns (sasą lā 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

M-nouns (mamą lā halenī):

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

H-nouns (hahą lā 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, and a few words of Dabuke origin in -u (mostly only used regionally in the West)
• 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

S-nouns - Sasą lā halenī

There are some traits which are common to all nominal declensions: the vocative is only distinct in the singular; in the dual there is also no distinction between translative and dative, essive and locative, and between exessive, ablative, and instrumental.

Case	1-s nouns			2-s nouns			3-s nouns			4-s nouns
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	prātas "wind"	prātāt	prāte	kældus "wax"	kældūt	kældaus	kumis "bamboo"	kumīt	kumais	haloe "name"	halenāt	halenī
Vocative	prātau	prātāt	prāte	kældu	kældūt	kældaus	kumi	kumīt	kumais	haloe	halenāt	halenī
Accusative	prātu	prātāṣa	prātaih	kældavu	kældūṣa	kældavih	kumayu	kumīṣa	kumaih	halenu	halenāṣa	halenaih
Ergative	prātei	prātāya	prātān	kældave	kældūya	kældūn	kumaye	kumīya	kumīn	halenei	halenāya	halenān
Genitive	prāti	prāteva	prātumi	kældavi	kældagva	kældǣmi	kumayi	kumajña	kumiumi	halenies	halemva	haloemi
Translative	prātan	prātaus	prātyoh	kældun	kældugus	kælduyoh	kumin	kumigus	kumyoh	halenan	halenaus	halenyoh
Exessive	prātat	prātābhan	prātāmān	kældut	kældobhan	kældomān	kumit	kumebhan	kumemān	halenat	haloebhan	haloemān
Essive	prātą	prātigin	prātėm	kældą	kældugin	kældavėm	kumę	kumigin	kumayėm	halen	haloegin	haloem
Dative	prātom	prātaus	prātasām	kældavom	kældugus	kældusām	kumayom	kumigus	kumisām	halenom	halenaus	haloesām
Ablative	prātų	prātābhan	prātenīs	kældų	kældobhan	kældunīs	kumyų	kumebhan	kuminīs	halenų	haloebhan	haloenīs
Locative	prāte	prātigin	prātilīm	kældave	kældugin	kældulīm	kumaye	kumigin	kumilīm	halenie	haloegin	halenilīm
Instrumental	prātap	prātābhan	prātenīka	kældup	kældobhan	kældunīka	kumip	kumebhan	kuminīka	halenap	haloebhan	haloeinīka

Note that modern borrowings ending in [s] typically add a further case ending, e.g. Skyrdagor valtasz (nunatak) becomes Chlouvānem valtasas (same meaning), declining as valtasau, valtasu, valtasei...

M-nouns - Mamą lā halenī

Tables in this and the following (H-nouns) section are NOT up-to-date. I'll make them anew soon as part of a restructuring of the whole "Nouns" section). You can, however, find the up-to-date declension of -am, -um, -im nouns here: Proto-Lahob morphology § Second declension

Case	1-m nouns			2-m nouns			3-m nouns			4-m nouns
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	yujam "lotus"	yujāmion	yujye	tūlum "worm"	tūlūmion	tūluvye	jāyim "girl"	jāyīmion	jāyiñe	lunai "tea"	lunāyon	lunāye
Vocative	yujam	yujāmion	yujye	tūlu	tulūmion	tūluvye	jāyī	jāyīmion	jāyiñe	lunai	lunāyon	lunāye
Accusative	yujamu	yujamūri	yujāmūn	tūlau	tulūri	tūlumūn	jāyimu	jāyimūri	jāyimin	lunāyu	lunāyūri	lunainū
Ergative	yujamei	yujamą	yujamān	tūlumei	tūlumą	tūlumān	jāyimei	jāyimą	jāyimān	lunǣ	lunaiyą	lunæyān
Genitive	yujami	yujameva	yujammi	tūlumvi	tūlumeva	tūlǣmi	jāyimi	jāyīva	jāyiñumi	lunayi	lunaiva	lunæyumi
Translative	yujaman	yujyās	yujyoh	tūluman	tūluvyās	tūluvyoh	jāyiman	jāyiñyās	jāyiñyoh	lunāyan	lunāyās	lunāyoh
Exessive	yujamat	yujambhan	yujāman	tūlumat	tūlumbhan	tūlūman	jāyimæt	jāyimbhan	jāyīman	lunāyat	lunaibhan	lunaiman
Essive	yujamą	yujamiona	yujamėm	tūlumą	tūlumiona	tūlumėm	jāyimą	jāyimiona	jāyimėm	lunąis	lunāyona	lunǣm
Dative	yujamom	yujyās	yujaṃsām	tūlumom	tūluvyās	tūluṃsām	jāyimom	jāyiñyās	jāyiṃsām	lunāmom	lunāyās	lunaisām
Ablative	yujamų	yujambhan	yujaṃris	tūlumų	tūlumbhan	tūluṃris	jāyimų	jāyimbhan	jāyiṃrīs	lunāyų	lunaibhan	lunaiñīs
Locative	yujaṃrye	yujamiona	yujailīm	tūluṃrye	tūlumiona	tūluvilīm	jāyiṃrye	jāyimiona	jāyīlīm	lunaiñe	lunāyona	lunāyilīm
Instrumental	yujamini	yujambhan	yujaṃrika	tūlumini	tūlumbhan	tūluṃrika	jāyimini	jāyimbhan	jāyiṃrīka	lunaini	lunaibhan	lunaiñīka

Note that all nouns with -n have their direct and vocative plural forms identical to the singular ones - all other inflections (including the dual) are the same as the other nouns. Thus e.g. samin may be either child or children, and it is usually the verb that marks the number - compare samin mālchė "the kid runs" and samin mālchīran "the kids run". They are de facto undistinguishable out of context in forms where singular and plural have the same verb form, e.g. in the perfect - samin amālcha can mean either "the kid has run" or "the kids have run" depending on context.
These unmarked plurals are regular - note that hulin (woman) has both a regular plural (hulin), used in a wider scope (e.g. chlǣvānumi hulin "Chlouvānem women") and an irregular plural (hilāni) used in other contexts (e.g. nanā hilāni "those women there").

-en nouns decline following the 1m pattern (with unmarked plural).

H-nouns - Hahą lā halenī

Case	1-h nouns			2-h nouns			3-h nouns			4-h nouns			5-h nouns
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Direct	māra "mango"	mārion	mārai	javileh "apple"	javilion	javiliai	camūh "group"	camūyon	camūvai	ghārṭih "arrow"	ghārṭiyon	ghārṭeyai	lila "person"	lilion	leliė
Vocative	māra	mārion	mārai	javili	javilion	javiliai	camū	camūyon	camūvai	ghārṭī	ghārṭiyon	ghārṭeyai	lila	lilion	leliė
Accusative	māru	mārūri	mārānu	javilu	javiliūri	javilėnu	camūvau	camūyūri	camǣnu	ghārṭiyu	ghārṭiyūri	ghārṭeinu	lilu	lilūri	leliu
Ergative	mārei	mārą	mārān	javilei	javilią	javilėn	camūvei	camūvą	camǣn	ghārṭiyi	ghārṭiyą	ghārṭein	lilei	lilą	leliei
Genitive	māri	māreva	mārumi	javili	javilieva	javilumi	camūvi	camūyeva	camūmi	ghārṭī	ghārṭyeva	ghārṭyumi	leli	lileva	laili
Translative	māran	māryās	māryāh	javilan	javilyās	javilyāh	camūn	camūyās	camūyāh	ghārṭīn	ghārṭīyās	ghārṭīyāh	lilan	lilyās	lelian
Exessive	mārat	mārābhan	mārāman	javilet	javilėbhan	javilėman	camūt	camūbhan	camūman	ghārṭit	ghārṭībhan	ghārṭīman	lilat	lilābhan	leliat
Essive	māręs	māriona	mārėm	javilęs	javiliona	javilėm	camųs	camūyona	camūvėm	ghārṭįs	ghārṭiyona	ghārṭīvėm	liląs	liliona	lailąs
Dative	mārom	māryās	mārasām	javilom	javilyās	javilesām	camvom	camūyās	camusām	ghārṭyom	ghārṭīyās	ghārṭišām	lilom	lilyās	leliom
Ablative	mārų	mārābhan	mārenīs	javilių	javilėbhan	javilenīs	camųu	camūbhan	camūnīs	ghārṭių	ghārṭībhan	ghārṭīnīs	lilų	lilābhan	lelių
Locative	māre	māriona	mārilīm	javiliye	javiliona	javililīm	camve	camūyona	camūvilīm	ghārṭye	ghārṭiyona	ghārṭīlīm	lile	liliona	laile
Instrumental	mārini	mārābhan	mārenīka	javileni	javilėbhan	javilenīka	camvini	camūbhan	camūnīka	ghārṭīni	ghārṭībhan	ghārṭīnīka	lilini	lilābhan	lelini

Exceptions for duals and plurals

A few Chlouvānem nouns have irregular plurals:

• The word chlǣvānem itself is plural-only and irregular; direct and vocative are in -em, but all other cases decline as a standard plural 1h noun (e.g. accusative chlǣvānānu, ergative chlǣvānān, genitive chlǣvānumi);
• maila “water” does not have a dual form outside of colloquial use (where mailion is used with the meaning of “two glasses of water”) and has the irregular plural mailtiąa. It declines as a singular 1h noun, with two exceptions, namely accusative in -ąu instead of expected *-ahu and genitive in -ąi instead of expected *-ahi. This plural form is actually common, used when talking about bodies of water in an area, water layers, glasses of water, and a few minor idiomatic uses (e.g. taili mailtiahe hilæflulke, lit. “to arrive by crossing many waters”, meaning “to have had much experience”).
• hulin "woman" has both a regular plural (hulin), used in a wider scope (e.g. chlǣvānumi hulin "Chlouvānem women") and an irregular plural (hilāni) used in other contexts (e.g. nanā hilāni "those women there").
• resan "pig" and liken "arm" both have irregular plurals with vowel change: ryasan and læcin respectively.
• ås "ford, crossing of a small river" has the stem av- in all pre-vocalic forms (e.g. plural ave).
• The placename Taleihǣh declines as a 2h noun, as if it ended in -eh.
• švas "animal (including humans)" pluralizes as švai, as if it were a h-noun; all cases except for direct and vocative are however regular.
• There are some pluralia tantum: pārye “hair”, kāraṇḍhai “guts”, also agṇyaucai “sons and daughters”, vailašaus "cutlery", šūlyakāše "dishes", and all ethnonyms.
  • Some pluralia tantum are the plural forms of nouns with other (usually related) meanings - when they are used as semantic plurals, they're counted with cardinal numerals (and are singular); when they are used as pluralia tantum, with collective numerals (and are plural). Examples are hamvyenī "nursery" (hamvyoe "cradle"), įsmirte "playground" (įsmirtas "swing"), nacai "clothes" (naca "cloth"), or garaṇai "clock, watch" (garaṇa "hour").
  • This is often used in poetry, with words like mešanāt "eyes" - dual of mešanah "view".
• A few nouns are singularia tantum: hærṣūs “lips”, maula “breasts”, kanai “spices”, paɂeh “dust”, nāmvāvi “dust (made by crushing something)”, måris “ash”, ñailūh “ice”; lāsīm "cereals" (individual terms for cereals may have duals and plurals meaning "two/more varieties of ..."), mæchlišam "leafy greens", mæcichā "spinach", and bågras "legumes" with all types of legumes (dīlla "peas", mahīra "lentils", miltai "soybeans"...)
• Dvandva compounds are usually all dual and pluralizable - like yāṇḍamaišñukam “genitals”, or also many dyadic kinship terms (e.g. maihāmeinā “daughter and mother”) - but some of them are inherently “singular” and therefore are dual only, like lillamurḍhyāyunya (how some philosophical Yunyalīlti currents refer to the yunya “nature” and the lillamurḍhyā “natural harmony” as two aspects of the same thing). Note that dual inflections are not present on the noun itself in direct and vocative forms.
• Toponyms (except inherently dual or plural ones), personal names, and miscellaneous things that are semantically only singular (like many Yunyalīlti concepts, e.g. yunya or lillamurḍhyā) are found exclusively in the singular.

Verbs - Daradhaus

The Chlouvānem verb (daradhūs, pl. daradhaus) 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 - a category called, with noticeable metaphorical use, chlærim (light) by native grammarians - 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 - commonly, the interior has the intransitive meaning and the exterior the transitive one - cf. lęlširu "I shake" vs. lęlšute "I shake (something)".

Potentially every Chlouvānem verb form, no matter if exterior or interior, has a causative (drildyāva) 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 maišildeyam "I am shown", interior maišildreyam "I learn; I show myself (trans.)".

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for seven voices (tadgeroe, pl. tadgerenī), 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 (dṛṣokire tadgeroe) (unmarked);
• agent-trigger (darīnūkire tadgeroe) (transitive and ditransitive verbs only);
• benefactive-trigger (chārimęlīnūkire tadgeroe);
• antibenefactive-trigger (tatflunsusūkire tadgeroe);
• locative-trigger (yutiūkire tadgeroe);
• dative-trigger (męliausire tadgeroe) (mostly ditransitive verbs);
• instrumental-trigger (drausire tadgeroe) (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 (tailьcārė tadgeroe).

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for five different tense-aspect combinations (simply tenses (avyāṣa - pl. avyāṣai)): present (kaminænikire avyāṣa), past (dāṃdenire avyāṣa), perfect (mīraṃnajausire avyāṣa), (general) future (lallāmiti avyāṣa), and future intentional (osmešė lallāmiti avyāṣa); 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.

The last inflectional category of Chlouvānem verbs is the mood (darišam, pl. darišye). Chlouvānem grammarians traditionally distinguish only five moods, which are those that cannot be combined:

• indicative (chlåvdiausire darišam) - the realis mood;
• imperative (spruvyūkire darišam) - used for giving orders or commands;
• optative (purmanūkire darišam) - used to express wishes or hopes;
• propositive (maikitūkire darišam) - used to express proposals (e.g. let’s X; why don’t you X);
• subjunctive (milkausire darišam) - used to express general advices (jussive use), purpose (supine use), unreal things that may happen or might have happened, and also syntactically conditioned by some particles.

There are a few more forms that can't be strictly considered moods because they can appear in all of the five actual moods, and are thus called junia, pl. juniai (literally "shade, hue, dye") by Chlouvānem grammarians: they are actually regular derivational patterns, that are considered inflectional due to them being possible for all verbs. There are four juniai:

• desiderative (daudiūkire junia) - used to express a desire or will (e.g. I want to X);
• necessitative (rileyūkire junia) - used to express need or obligation (e.g. I have to X);
• potential (novire junia) - used to express the ability to do something (e.g. I can [= am able to] X, also "I may [= it is possible that I] X")
• permissive (drippūkire junia) - used to express the permission to do something (e.g. I can [= I’m allowed to] X)

Finally, there are a further six forms which are called "secondary moods" (šudarišam, pl. -šye). They are:

• four of them (only used with the indicative mood) express evidentiality, namely: certainty (also energetic mood), deduction, dream, specifically invented situation, and hearsay (also inferential mood);
• 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 (lailehūkire daradhūs) (the -ke form, called infinitive hereafter).

Verb classes

When talking about the regularity in the conjugation of Chlouvānem verbs, most Chlouvānem linguists consider the vast majority of verbs as regular. In fact, the same suffixes are used in conjugating almost all verbs and highly irregular verbs are often only small exceptions (gyake "to be" and flulke "to go on foot (monodirectional)" are the most notable ones, having many suppletive stems). However, despite this regularity, Chlouvānem verbs are divided into lots of small classes, each one having only a few members, that have different stem vowels in various forms - typically, the 3SG forms of the present, past, and perfect are used as principal parts (with the infinitive often - but not always! - having the same vowel as the present).

A Chlouvānem verb's conjugation is determined by two factors: whether it is thematic and whether - and if it does, how - its root vowel changes among the different stems.
The thematic and athematic distinction is the easiest: thematic verbs add an -a- (-e- in the 3SG past) between its root and every consonantic termination; athematic verbs don't. All verbs with vowel-ending roots are athematic.

Root vowel changes are, however, more complex, and up to eleven verb classes may be distinguished depending on how the various stems are formed. The first two classes comprise about 90% of all (primary) verbs:

1. The verbs of the first class do not change its vowel in any form. About 45% of verbs belong to this class, including all those whose root vowel is any of ā, ą, e, ė, ę, ǣ, oe, ai, ąi, au, ąu, as well as most verbs with root vowel a, æ, å, o, ei, or ęi. An example is męlike (athematic) "to give": pres. męliė, past męliek, perfect emęlia.
2. Also called the basic ablauting class, these verbs have the most basic ablaut alteration: in their present exterior forms and in the singular present interior ones, i ī become e (mišake "to see": mešė — mišek — imiša), u ū usually become o (dhūlte "to write": dholtė, dhūltek, udhūlta), but i in a few verbs (kulke "to say": kilė — kulek — ukula), and ṛ ṝ become ar (dṛke "to do": darė — dṛk — (irr.) dadrā)
3. Also called strong ablauting class, it is a subgroup of the ablauting class where instead of becoming middle-grade, the vowels ablaut to the maximum grade (ai, au, ār) respectively. This class is somewhat rare: the three most common verbs in it are mulke (mun-) "to be able to": maunė — munek — umuna, dīdake "to know a person": daidė — dīdek — idīda, and kirake "to love": kairė — kirek — ikira.
4. Also called inverse ablauting class, these verbs have either va or ya in the present (and infinitive; note that the initial semivowel may be "hidden" in a consonant!) that gets reduced to u or i respectively in the past. An easy example is valde "to open": valdė — uldek — vulda; one with a hidden consonant is calyake "to harvest plums": calyė — kilyek — ikilda).
5. Verbs of this class (and the following ones) typically have a vowel change in the past form and not in the present one. This class has å in the infinitive, present, and perfect, and e in the past, for example påndake "to punch": påndė — pendek — apånda). Verbs whose roots begin in y- lose it in the past, e.g. yåjyake "to float in the air; to go with a zeppelin, hot air balloon, or helicopter (monodirectional)": yåjyė — ejyek — ayåjya.
6. These verbs have ei in the present, a in the past, and a+ i in the perfect; e.g. heimake "to blow, to play (wind instruments)" heimė — hamek — ahima.
7. Verbs with e in the present, ya in the past, and i+ i in the perfect (and infinitive!); e.g. miṃsake "to risk" meṃsė — myaṃsek — imiṃsa.
8. Verbs with æ in the present, o in the past, and e+ i in the perfect; e.g. næljake "to turn, to screw": næljė — noljek — enilja.
9. Verbs with o in the present, ei in the past, and a+ ā in the perfect; e.g. volkake "to stab, to sting (esp. insects), to hit with something pointy": volkė — veilkek — avālka.
10. Verbs with æ in the present, ya in the past, and e+ ī in the perfect; e.g. kællake "to sew": kællė — kyallek — ekīlla.
11. Also called -ah verbs, these verbs actually never modify their root vowel, but have different present endings. hæṃdike "to dream", jānake "to feel", and lilke "to live" are the most common verbs of this class.

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.

Vocalic stems

Vocalic stems are those whose stems end in a vowel; most of them are class 1 (without any vowel change), but some are class 2 (ablauting), more rarely of other classes. They are anyway somewhat rare in Chlouvānem, but a few common verbs have vocalic stems. These stems often do not behave as in normal vowel saṃdhi when vocalic terminations are added:

• The diphthongs ai, ei, au, and their breathy-voiced versions mute the second element in a semivowel; in ai and au the vowel is naturally lengthened to ā - e.g. gṇyauke "to give birth", pres. exterior gṇyāvu, gṇyāvi, gṇyāvė...; past exterior gṇyāvau, gṇyāvei, gṇyauk...
• The short vowels i, u, ṛ and long ṝ change into their corresponding semivowels if it forms an accepted cluster - e.g. vike "to rest" (ablauting stem ve- in the present), past exterior vyau, vyei, vik...
• æ and ǣ become ev and oe becomes en - e.g. gæke "to stretch", pres. exterior gevu, gevi, gevė...; past exterior gevau, gevei, gæk...

Other vowels add different epenthetic consonants depending on their quality:

• a, e (and long versions), and å always add n, e.g. liėke "to clap", pres. exterior liėnu, liėni, liėnė...; past exterior liėnau, liėnei, liėk.
• All other oral vowels add y (note that o contracts with e or ė to oe), e.g. khlūke "to search, look for" (abl. stem khlo-), pres. exterior khloyu, khloyi, khloe...; past exterior khlūyau, khlūyei, khlūk...
• Breathy-voiced vowels dissimilate to vowel + h: e.g. švęke "to point at": pres. ext. švehu, švehi, švehė...; past ext. švehau, švehei, švęk...

The infinitive

The infinitive (lailehūkire daradhūs) 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;
• 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));
    • note that, due to regular saṃdhi, *-jg- resulting by this further changes to -jñ- (e.g. taj-ke → tajñe (to rub));
  • 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));
    • This also happens with the cluster -nd, where the assimilation -nd-k makes it -lg (e.g. mind-ke → milge (to hear));
  • verbs whose roots end in any other consonant cluster only add -e (e.g. pugl-ke → pugle (to sleep)).

Knowing the root form of the verb is necessary as two different roots may have the same infinitive, e.g. mulke for both mul- "to drink" (molu, mulau, umulim) and mun- "to be able to" (maunu, munau, umunim).

The infinitive can also be used as a noun, declining as -eh ones and getting a final -h in the direct case. Compared to derived -anah nouns, which denote a process, the nominalized infinitive is often more gnomic or perfective in meaning (dhūlti baucanah makes sense, meaning "learning to write", while dholtani baucanah is grammatically correct but meaningless), but it can also be synonymous in some expressions (e.g. neniai naviṣyi dholtanęs væse or neniai naviṣyi dhūltęs væse, both meaning "while writing this book" — if a distinction should be rendered in English, the first one would be translated "during the writing process of this book").

Present indicative

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, but inverse-ablauting verbs have always the unreduced sequence.

Person		Thematic, no ablaut		Athematic		Ablaut		-ah-
		nāmvake "to crush, press"		gṇyauke "to give birth; int.: to be born"		mišake "to see"		lilke "to live; int.: to get healed"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvu	nāmviru	gṇyāvu	gṇyāviru	mešu	meširu	lilah	lilęru
	2nd	nāmvi	nāmviris	gṇyāvi	gṇyāviris	meši	meširis	lilaši	lilęris
	3rd	nāmvė	nāmvire	gṇyāvė	gṇyāvire	mešė	mešire	lilah	lilęre
Dual	1st	nāmvayǣ	nāmviryǣ	gṇyauyǣ	gṇyāviryǣ	mešayǣ	miširyǣ	lilahǣ	lilęryǣ
	2nd	nāmvadia	nāmvirdia	gṇyaudia	gṇyāvirdia	mešadia	miširdia	lilardia	lilęrdia
	3rd	nāmvade	nāmvirde	gṇyaude	gṇyāvirde	mešade	miširde	lilarde	lilęrde
Pl.	1st	nāmvįm	nāmvirįm	gṇyāvįm	gṇyāvirįm	mešįm	miširįm	liląim	lilęrįm
	2nd	nāmvašin	nāmviršin	gṇyaušin	gṇyāviršin	mešašin	miširšin	liląšin	lilęršin
	3rd	nāmvīran	nāmvirena	gṇyāvīran	gṇyāvirena	mešīran	miširena	lilah	lilęrena

Causative
Causative forms are the same regardless of conjugation; they are formed basically with an extended stem with -ild-. 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.

Person		No ablaut		Ablaut		Inverse ablaut
		nāmvake "to make crush, press"		mišake "to show; int.: learn"		valde "to make open"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvildeyam	nāmvildṛyam	maišildeyam	maišildṛyam	uvaldildeyam	uvaldildṛyam
	2nd	nāmvildeši	nāmvildṛši	maišildeši	maišildṛši	uvaldildeši	uvaldildṛši
	3rd	nāmvilden	nāmvildiren	maišilden	maišildiren	uvaldilden	uvaldildiren
Dual	1st	nāmvildeyǣ	nāmvildṛyǣ	maišildeyǣ	maišildṛyǣ	uvaldildeyǣ	uvaldildṛyǣ
	2nd	nāmvildedia	nāmvildṛdia	maišildedia	maišildṛdia	uvaldildedia	uvaldildṛdia
	3rd	nāmvildede	nāmvildṛde	maišildede	maišildṛde	uvaldildede	uvaldildṛde
Pl.	1st	nāmvildįm	nāmvildrįm	maišildįm	maišildrįm	uvaldildįm	uvaldildrįm
	2nd	nāmvildešin	nāmvildṛšin	maišildešin	maišildṛšin	uvaldildešin	uvaldildṛšin
	3rd	nāmvilderie	nāmvildrelie	maišilderie	maišildrelie	uvaldilderie	uvaldildrelie

Past Indicative

In the past indicative, -ah verbs are not distinguished from others. Frequentative verbs in -ve(y)- are completely regular, but the suffix becomes -vi(y)-, e.g. mīmīšviyek "it was frequently seen" vs. present mīmīšveyė "it is frequently seen".
Ablauting verbs always have their base grade, except for inverse ablaut roots which use the reduced vowel. Exterior forms:

Person		Thematic, no ablaut		Athematic		Inverse-ablaut
		nāmvake "to crush, press"		gṇyauke "to give birth; int.: to be born"		valde "to open"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvau	nāmvirau	gṇyāvau	gṇyāviru	uldau	uldirau
	2nd	nāmvei	nāmvirei	gṇyāvei	gṇyāvirei	uldei	uldirei
	3rd	nāmvek	nāmvirek	gṇyāvek	gṇyāvirek	uldek	uldirek
Dual	1st	nāmvaram	nāmvirlam	gṇyauram	gṇyāvirlam	uldaram	uldirlam
	2nd	nāmvares	nāmvirles	gṇyaures	gṇyāvirles	uldares	uldirles
	3rd	nāmvadat	nāmvirdat	gṇyaudat	gṇyāvirdat	uldadat	uldirdat
Pl.	1st	nāmvanāja	nāmvirāja	gṇyaunāja	gṇyāvirāja	uldanāja	uldirāja
	2nd	nāmvaneši	nāmvireši	gṇyauneši	gṇyāvireši	uldaneši	uldireši
	3rd	nāmvayivė	nāmvirivė	gṇyauyivė	gṇyāvirivė	uldayivė	uldirivė

Some verbs have an irregular 3SG exterior past form due to -k attaching directly to the consonant. This does not happen in all athematic verbs, but only in the following ones:

• purake "to powder, to break with the hands" and sturake "to fall" which have pāṭ and stāṭ respectively.
• lutake "to obtain, gain, take advantage" (lak), ssutake "to attract, to bait, to seduce" (ssak), sprutake "to join, link" (sprak)
• leilge "to concern, to be on the topic of" (lål)
• peithake "to go on foot (multidirectional)" (pat)
• ręiske "to tickle" (rąs) and ñæssake "to blink" (ños)

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

Person		No ablaut		Ablaut		Inverse ablaut
		nāmvake "to make crush, press"		mišake "to show; int.: learn"		valde "to make open"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvildau	nāmvildrau	maišildau	maišildrau	uvaldildau	uvaldildrau
	2nd	nāmvildei	nāmvildrei	maišildei	maišildrei	uvaldildei	uvaldildrei
	3rd	nāmvildek	nāmvildrek	maišildek	maišildrek	uvaldildek	uvaldildrek
Dual	1st	nāmvildaram	nāmvildṛvam	maišildaram	maišildṛvam	uvaldildaram	uvaldildṛvam
	2nd	nāmvildares	nāmvildṛves	maišildares	maišildṛves	uvaldildares	uvaldildṛves
	3rd	nāmvildat	nāmvildṛdat	maišildat	maišildṛdat	uvaldildat	uvaldildṛdat
Pl.	1st	nāmvildāja	nāmvildrāja	maišildāja	maišildrāja	uvaldildāja	mešildrāja
	2nd	nāmvildeši	nāmvildreši	maišildeši	maišildreši	uvaldildeši	uvaldildreši
	3rd	nāmvildivė	nāmvildṛyivė	maišildivė	maišildṛyivė	uvaldildivė	uvaldildṛyivė

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 (used for the perfect and for the future intentional), formed by prefixing the root vowel (shortened, oral, and with the basic root ablaut) to the stem - but note that verb classes 5 to 10 have their own vowel patterns that diverge from this general one. Examples:

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

æ uses i; o, å, 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:

• flulke "to go (unidirectional)" = elīs- (in arch. Chlouvānem both evlīs- and eflīs- are found)
• lilke “to live” = lælī-
• dṛke “to do” = dadrā-

Note that in the perfect, the 3rd person does not distinguish number:

Person		Non-causative		Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	anāmvam	anāmviram	anāmvildam	anāmvildṛm
	2nd	anāmves	anāmvires	anāmvildes	anāmvildṛs
	3rd	anāmva	anāmvirā	anāmvildā	anāmvildirā
Dual	1st	anāmvara	anāmvirala	anāmvildara	anāmvildrāh
	2nd	anāmvari	anāmvirali	anāmvildari	anāmvildrai
	3rd	anāmva	anāmvirā	anāmvildā	anāmvildirā
Pl.	1st	anāmvima	anāmvirma	anāmvildima	anāmvildṛma
	2nd	anāmviša	anāmvirša	anāmvildiša	anāmvildṛša
	3rd	anāmva	anāmvirā	anāmvildā	anāmvildirā

General future indicative

The general future tense does not vary between conjugations, and the stem - except for causative verbs - is always the one used in the infinitive. Like the perfect, the future does not distinguish number in the 3rd person (historically, the endings were the same, as the future was built with the perfect of PLB *išəj- (to take)). It is used for general future events (menire dašajildiṣya "it will rain tomorrow"), obligations (pūnikā menire męliṣya "the work will be [=has to be] delivered tomorrow"), and general imperfective events in the future (lūlunimarte liliṣyam "I'll be living in Lūlunimarta"); see also the following section on future intentional.

Person		Non-causative		Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmviṣyam	nāmviriṣyam	nāmvildiṣyam	nāmvildirṣyam
	2nd	nāmviṣyes	nāmviriṣyes	nāmvildiṣyes	nāmvildirṣyes
	3rd	nāmviṣya	nāmviriṣya	nāmvildiṣya	nāmvildirṣya
Dual	1st	nāmviṣyara	nāmviriṣyara	nāmvildiṣyara	nāmvildirṣyara
	2nd	nāmviṣyari	nāmviriṣyari	nāmvildiṣyari	nāmvildirṣyari
	3rd	nāmviṣya	nāmviriṣya	nāmvildiṣya	nāmvildirṣya
Pl.	1st	nāmviṣīma	nāmviriṣīma	nāmvildiṣīma	nāmvildirṣīma
	2nd	nāmviṣīsa	nāmviriṣīsa	nāmvildiṣīsa	nāmvildirṣīsa
	3rd	nāmviṣya	nāmviriṣya	nāmvildiṣya	nāmvildirṣya

Note that -tiā- verbs (e.g. tatiāke "to stand") form their future with -tiā instead of -tim as the other tenses: tatiaiṣyam, tatiairiṣyam, ...

Also note that, in order to state the future of "to be" and "to have", the present forms of ndǣke (to become) and milke (to get, take) respectively are more commonly used:

miąre ndevė "it is becoming good" = "it will be good" = exactly the same meaning as miąre jalṣya.

nanau naviṣyu milkute "I am taking that book" = "I will have that book" = exactly the same as naviṣya liliā jalṣya or similar sentences.

Future intentional indicative

The future intentional indicative is a verbal form used for stating mainly intentional, perfective in meaning, future events. It may be translated most commonly as "to be going to", "to plan to", or also as "to want to"; it also has the rather idiomatic meaning of an expectation. In any case, its perfective meaning means that habitual or continuous future events, even if planned, are either expressed with the general future or expressed with the future intentional of a frequentative verb. Some examples of its use are:

menire prājaṃnė lalti lenta nakṣuṃkitom elīsāltam "tomorrow evening I'll go to the nakṣuṃkita with my friend".

galiākinų tammi tetacuṃlāṇų natte tailīsālta "the train from Galiākina is expected to arrive in one tetacuṃlāṇa (=about 5½ minutes)."

liliā maiha murkire helajyū ilakāltate : lili no ūnikire tū ilakāltaṃte "my daughter is going to take the black helajyā, while I'm going to take the red one."

The future intentional is formed starting from the perfect stem: more properly, the third person form of any present verb is taken, the final -a is lengthened, and -lta (in the non-causative exterior) or -l(a)- (in all other forms) is added, followed by the usual perfect endings; the causative exterior has the otherwise irregular change -rā- → -ṝ-.

Person		Non-causative		Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	anāmvāltam	anāmvirālam	anāmvildālam	anāmvildṝlam
	2nd	anāmvāltes	anāmvirāles	anāmvildāles	anāmvildṝlas
	3rd	anāmvālta	anāmvirāl	anāmvildāl	anāmvildirāl
Dual	1st	anāmvāltara	anāmvirālara	anāmvildālara	anāmvildṝlāh
	2nd	anāmvāltari	anāmvirālari	anāmvildālari	anāmvildṝlai
	3rd	anāmvālta	anāmvirāl	anāmvildāl	anāmvildirāl
Pl.	1st	anāmvāltima	anāmvirālma	anāmvildālima	anāmvildṝlma
	2nd	anāmvāltiša	anāmvirālša	anāmvildāliša	anāmvildṝlša
	3rd	anāmvālta	anāmvirāl	anāmvildāl	anāmvildirāl

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:

• -te for agent-trigger voice (in exterior verbs only) — but note that -ė-te (in most 3sg verbs) becomes -egde (as -ė derives from historical *-eg);
• -kæ for benefactive-trigger voice;
• -tū (-tur non-finally) for antibenefactive-trigger voice;
• -rā for locative-trigger voice;
• -mǣ for instrumental-trigger voice;
• -ūsi for dative-trigger voice.

Examples of voice marking are męliė (he/she/it is given) — męliegde (he/she/it gives) (and męliu (I am given) → męliute "I give") — męliėkæ (something is given for him/her/it) — męliėtū (something is given against him/her/it) — męliėrā (something is given in him/her/it) — męliėmǣ (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 yāyųlė (he/she/it is eaten too much) → yāteyųlė (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, in basic grade ablaut; the only exceptions being inverse ablauting roots which use their weakened form (e.g. valde uses uld- and not vald-).

Imperfective aspect

Person		Non-causative		Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvatiam	nāmvirtiam	nāmvildiam	nāmvildṛtiam
	2nd	nāmvīsei	nāmviresei	nāmvildīsei	nāmvildṛsei
	3rd	nāmvīti	nāmvireti	nāmvildīti	nāmvildṛti
Dual	1st	nāmvīdera	nāmviredra	nāmvildīdera	nāmvildṛdera
	2nd	nāmvīderi	nāmviredri	nāmvildīderi	nāmvildṛderi
	3rd	nāmvīdeh	nāmvirede	nāmvildīdeh	nāmvildṛdeh
Pl.	1st	nāmvīneja	nāmvireṇeh	nāmvildīneja	nāmvildṛneja
	2nd	nāmvīniši	nāmvirenis	nāmvildīniši	nāmvildṛniši
	3rd	nāmvīyevatь	nāmvirevatь	nāmvildīvatь	nāmvildryevatь

Note that for the third person plural both the interior form -ireyevatь and the causative exterior form ildīyevatь are attested in archaic texts; the classical standards are shortenings of these older forms.

Perfective aspect

Person		Non-causative		Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvevitam	nāmvirevitam	nāmvildevitam	nāmvildṛvitam
	2nd	nāmvevšei	nāmvirevšei	nāmvildevšei	nāmvildrušei
	3rd	nāmvevite	nāmvirevite	nāmvildevite	nāmvildṛvite
Dual	1st	nāmvevidem	nāmvirevidem	nāmvildevidem	nāmvildṛvidem
	2nd	nāmvevides	nāmvirevides	nāmvildevides	nāmvildṛvides
	3rd	nāmvevide	nāmvirevide	nāmvildevide	nāmvildṛvide
Pl.	1st	nāmvevine	nāmvireviṇe	nāmvildevine	nāmvildṛviṇe
	2nd	nāmveviše	nāmvireviše	nāmvildeviše	nāmvildṛviše
	3rd	nāmvevyatь	nāmvirevyatь	nāmvildevyatь	nāmvildruyatь

The imperative mood

The imperative is a defective paradigm, lacking all dual forms — note, though, that some grammarians follow common use and simply list dual forms that are exactly the same as the plural ones; the third person forms do not distinguish number anyway. It is formed from the bare root, thus it has the same formation for all verbs. Unlike all other terminations, there are separate agentive and patientive ones (note that agentive ones begin with -ь and not -y. Causative forms follow the same pattern as non-causative ones, but the stem is the specifically causative one.

The imperative has imperfective and perfective aspects, like the subjunctive: the perfective forms are used with a time expression and indicate that the action has to be done before that time, e.g. enaukamñe parye rįšaląt "have your hair cut before the summer" - cf. enaukamñe parye rįšos "get a haircut during the summer".

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”; also used are some forms used for generic, mandatory commands, most notably on warning signs or announcements, such as e.g. nakāyų thiatia "mind the gap".

Imperfective aspect

Person		Non-causative			Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior	Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvikṣam	nāmvyasti	nāmvirṣṭi	nāmviljam	nāmvildasti	nāmvildṛṣṭi
	2nd	nāmvos	nāmva	nāmvih	nāmvildos	nāmvilda	nāmvildṝ
	3rd	nāmvotīs	nāmvya	nāmvirya	nāmvildīs	nāmvildia	nāmvildrya
Dual	1st	No dual imperative forms
	2nd
	3rd
Pl.	1st	nāmvikṣumi	nāmvyasmi	nāmvirṣmi	nāmviljumi	nāmvildasmi	nāmvildṛṣmi
	2nd	nāmvoris	nāmvyęs	nāmviręs	nāmvildoris	nāmvildęs	nāmvildręs
	3rd	nāmvotīs	nāmvya	nāmvirya	nāmvildīs	nāmvildia	nāmvildrya

Note that the second person singular agentive non-causative form does not take -a if the ending of the root is already acceptable (e.g. lgut! "buy!"). If the root ends with a palatalized consonant, it remains as such if it ends with a single acceptable consonant (e.g. męlь! "give!), otherwise it adds -i (e.g. dhāsmi! "save!").

Perfective aspect

Person		Non-causative			Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior	Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvæniu	nāmvåru	nāmviræniu	nāmvildæniu	nāmvilåru	nāmvildræniu
	2nd	nāmvænь	nāmvå	nāmvirænь	nāmvildænь	nāmvilå	nāmvildrænь
	3rd	nāmvænit	nāmvåt	nāmvirænit	nāmvildænit	nāmvilåt	nāmvildrænit
Dual	1st	No dual imperative forms
	2nd
	3rd
Pl.	1st	nāmværi	nāmvåri	nāmviræli	nāmvildæri	nāmvilåri	nāmvildræri
	2nd	nāmvæsь	nāmvåsь	nāmviræsь	nāmvildæsь	nāmvilåsь	nāmvildræsь
	3rd	nāmvævąt	nāmvauvųt	nāmvirævąt	nāmvildævąt	nāmvilauvųt	nāmvildrævąt

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 past for the perfective; propositive mood uses the imperative ones (but only has the imperfective forms).

The optative stem is formed by taking the root (or a stem of one of the four juniai) with vowel lengthening and adding -eina- after consonants and -vūna- after vowels.

Example (nāmvake “to crush, press”):

• Imperfective: exterior nāmveinu, nāmveini, nāmveinė, … interior nāmveiniru, …; causative ext. nāmveinildeyam, …; caus. int. nāmveinildṛyam, …
• Perfective: ext. nāmveinau, nāmveinei, nāmveinek, … int. nāmveinirau, …; caus. ext. nāmveinildau, …; caus. int. nāmveinildrau, …
• Propositive: ext. pat. nāmveinikṣam, nāmveinos, nāmveinotīs, … ext. ag. nāmveiniasti, ...; int. nāmveinirṣṭi, …; caus. ext. pat. nāmveiniljam, …; caus. ext. ag. nāmveinildasti, ...; caus. int. nāmveinildṛṣṭi, ...

The desiderative

The desiderative junia uses a special stem, formed with reduplication of the root plus -s. 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 ɂ.
• 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.

In many of the northeastern and northwestern lands of the Inquisition, the analytic infinitive + daudike construction is used instead of the synthetic desiderative in almost any case.

Examples of desiderative stems are:


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

• lgutake “to buy”, root lgut- → nu-lgot-s → nulgots-
• khluke “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

The necessitative junia 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

The potential junia 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- 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 potential is used both for the sense of "may" (to be possible that) and "can" (to be able to): two sentences such as "I may (it is possible that I) do it" and "I can (I'm able to) do it" would be both translated as dadrenānute. To avoid ambiguity, the "may" sense may be rephrased with the verb širgake plus subjunctive - e.g. dratiaṃte šergė - while the "can" sense may be rephrased with novake plus subjunctive - e.g. dratiaṃte novė - or (less commonly) with the infinitive - e.g. dṛke novute.

The permissive

The permissive junia also conjugates in all tenses and aspects and is formed, without reduplication, by vowel lengthening and adding -ipp(u)-.

Examples: mišake → mīšippu- > mīšippu "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. nąroṃke > nąrmippu-.

Secondary moods: evidentiality

The four secondary moods expressing evidentiality are all similarly formed, but with different stem additions. All of them are, historically, the result of grammaticalization of different verbs to the Proto-Lahob second infinitive in *-on, explaining why they are formed by adding -an to the verb stem and then another particle.
Note that the third person singular has a -∅ ending in the present exterior in all four evidentials.

The visual evidential is made by adding -ansen- at the end of the verb, then conjugating it as a root verb (with -∅ for 3SG present exterior). e.g. yųlansen "it is [being] eaten (I see it)"; yųlansenīran "they are [being] eaten (I see it)"; yųlansente "(s)he eats (I see it)".

The first inferential, which refers to any non-visual inference that is probably true (often translatable with "apparently", "looks like"), is formed by adding -aneru(n) to the end of the verb. Note that 1SG present exterior does not add the epenthetic n but contracts -u-u to a long vowel instead. e.g.yųlaneru "it is apparently being eaten"; yųlanerū "I am apparently eaten". Note that interior forms have -erir instead of *-erunir - cf. dældanerire "(s)he apparently speaks"; similarly causatives have -erild instead of *-erunild - cf. mišanerildegde "(s)he apparently shows".

The second inferential has a similar function to the first inferential, but the situation is unlikely to be true (translatable e.g. with "might/apparently... but probably don't/doesn't"); it is formed by adding -anuyo to the end of the verb. 1SG present exterior contracts to -uyū; all other contractions are regular saṃdhi changes where o → av. e.g. yųlanuyo "it is apparently being eaten, but probably not"; yųlanuyū "I am apparently eaten, but probably not". Interiors and causatives have -uyer and -uyeld instead of *-uyavir, *-uyavild - cf. dældanuyere "(s)he apparently speaks, but probably doesn't", mišanuyeldegde "(s)he apparently shows, but probably doesn't".

The reported evidential marks something the speaker does not know first hand; it is formed by adding -anode(n): e.g. yųlanode "it is said that it is [being] eaten". Interiors and causatives do not add the epenthetic n and contract -e-i- to -ei- instead - cf. dældanodeire "it is said that (s)he speaks", mišanodeildegde "it is said that (s)he shows".

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 -anai(r)- to the verb stem. For example pūnu → pūnanairu (given that I work, ...); pupūṃsi → pupūṃsanairi (given that you want to work, ...).
The consequential mood of opposition is similarly formed by adding -antsu(k)- to the verb stem. For example pūnu → pūnantsū (even if I work, ...); pupūṃsi → pupūṃsantsuki (even if you want to work, ...).

Consequentials for evidentials convert the latter to -ke forms first, so that:

• Visual: -sen → -selk(e)-
• First inferential: -eru → -eruk(e)
• Second inferential: -uyo → -uyok(e)
• Reportative: -ode → odek(e)

The added consequential morphemes are just -ai(r)- and -tsu(k)- respectively.

Examples: pūnaneru → pūnanerukairė (given that, apparently, (s)he worked, ...); pūnanuyo → pūnanuyoketsukė (even if, apparently, (s)he worked, but probably didn't, ...).

Impersonal verbs

Impersonal verbs, in Chlouvānem, are those verbs that are defective and only conjugated in third person exterior (with the partial exception of giṃšake) and only used in patient-trigger voice. There are six such -basic- verbs:

• gårḍake (to be meant to)
• hælьte (to be moved, touched)
• maṣvake (to feel compassion, pity)
• ñælftake (to repent, to feel remorse, to be sorry for)
• prābake (to be disgusted)
• giṃšake (to get/be bored) — usually termed “half-impersonal” because it has a full interior conjugation, but with a different meaning (to be boring).

These verbs all have their cause in the exessive case (or a subjunctive verb) and the affected being in the dative; gårḍake usually only has a subjunctive. Examples:

loh tamiāt maivat hælьtek “what (s)he said (literally: his/her word) moved me.”

nīdrevitam loh ñælftė “I’m sorry for how I behaved.”

sęi tū priūsimęliatiam gårḍek “you were meant to give it back to me” (literally: it was meant that you give it back to me) .

Derived forms usually behave as impersonal too, like taprābake (to hate) — e.g. taprābleliom taprābiṣya "haters gonna hate".

Irregular verbs

Chlouvānem has only a very small number of truly irregular verbs, as most verbs conform in some way to one of the various stem classes. Even among irregular verbs, many of them are only irregular in the formation of one of their three basic stems; only six verbs (flulke, milke, mṛcce, lilke, jalle, and tilah) have at least one entirely suppletive stem. There are two true defective verbs: æflike (to plan, to be going to) and the honorific tilah (not a self-standing verb).

Excluding the highly irregular jalle and tilah, treated in the next sections, the other verbs with suppletive stems are:

• flulke (to go on foot, to walk (monodirectional)) — flun-, dāmek, elīsa
  • The singular present indicative forms are irregular flå, flin, fliven - the other ones are regular, non-ablauting (flunayou, flunadia...).
  • The perfect stem elīs- was also attested in Archaic Chlouvānem as both evlīs- and eflīs-.
  • Also has the irregular optative stem fleina- (instead of expected *fluneina-).
• milke (to take, seize, catch, capture, get) — milūk-, milkek, ilaka
  • The singular present indicative forms use the stem milk-: milku, milki, milkė - the other ones are regular (milūkyou, milūgdia...).
  • Also has the irregular stem mūṃchl- for the desiderative junia.
• mṛcce (to run (monodirectional)) — marcė, pañcek, amṛca
  • Suppletive in the past stem only. The present stem is ablauting.
• lilke (to live) — lilah, lilek, lælī
  • Suppletive in the perfect only. -ah verb in the present, non-ablauting.
  • Also has the irregular stem lėlikṣ- for the desiderative junia.

Miscellaneous irregularities

æflike (to plan, to be going to) is an unmarked agentive verb, which is only conjugated as agentive, and has an irregular present stem æftil-, with a zero ending for the third person singular. It usually only takes verbs or verbal phrases as arguments, e.g. keitu dhāsmike æftil "(s)he is going/plans to save the whale". It is often a synonym of the future intentional, though it conveys lesser certainty and may also be used for imperfective actions or states.
Note that the defectiveness does not apply to its derived forms - e.g. švæflike (to believe): švæftilu "I am believed", šuteyæftilu "I believe" - and æflike itself has regular causative forms (with the meaning of "make X intend to do").

The pair tamišake⁓tildake (to look at) is not counted as one of the thirteen irregular verbs, but tildake is an unmarked agentive verb, while tamišake is used in all other voices. Note that however tamišake also has a regular agentive voice, synonymous with tildake: teldu ⁓ tatemešu (I look at). The verb najake "to happen" (explained below among the compounds of gyake) is also sometimes considered irregular, as a verb with an unmarked dative-trigger voice.
Prefixed motion verbs are also not marked for voice in the patient- and agent-trigger ones (with only cases on nouns distinguishing them), but that is considered a particular but regular behaviour of a semantically defined subset of verbs.

ñoerake (to crawl (multidirectional)) has the stem ñoerg- in the indicative present singular (ñoergu, ñoergi, ñoergė), but is regular everywhere else (ñoerayou, ñoeradia...).

męlike (to give) has the irregular desiderative stem mimęñ- as well as the irregular optative męliǣna-.

Two verbs with -ur in the root have irregular vowels:

• purake "to powder, to break with the hands": parė — (pārau) pāṭ — upura
• sturake "to fall": starė — (stārau) stāṭ — ustura

Three verbs have (a+) -ut in the infinitive and perfect, -at in the past, and att in the present:

• lutake "to obtain, gain, take advantage": lattė — (latau) lak — aluta
• ssutake "to attract, to bait, to seduce": ssattė — (ssatau) ssak — assuta
• sprutake "to join, link": sprattė — (spratau) sprak — aspruta

Two verbs have '(a+) -agv but -avu- in the past:

• lagvake "to assume": lagvė — lavuk — alagva
• ṣṭagvake "to carve": ṣṭagvė — ṣṭavuk — aṣṭagva

Other various irregular verbs:

• leilge (leig-ke) "to concern, to be on the topic of": leigė — (lågau) lål — eleiga
• ręiške "to tickle": ręišė — (rąšau) rąs — eręiša
• lårpake "to swing": lårpė — lerpek — alurpa

Three vowel-ending roots have an irregular behaviour:

• rileike "to need" has the expected ei → ey change in the present, but adds -n- in the past instead: rileyu, rileyi, rileyė... but rileinu, rileinei, rileik...
• lįke "to swim (monodirectional) and mųke "to jump (monodirectional)" behave before vowels as if their stems were (ablauting) *lis- and *mus-: pres. exterior lesu, lesi, lesė...; past exterior lisau, lisei, lįk.

The verb "to be" (jalle)

The verb "to be" is suppletive as it uses various different stems (from Proto-Lahob *jaħħ, *wi(w)ħ, *ri, *jek, and *gəna) and irregularly — for example, the non-singular present forms are morphologically perfect.

Note that the indicative present is rarely used, as the copula is usually dropped in many cases; when used with the meaning of "to have" (e.g. lili mæn tulūʔa yambras jali "I have six pears" (lit.: I TOPIC six pears are)) it is considered better not to drop it, but it is often done nevertheless in common speech. It is also kept when used with the meaning "there is...".

Both future tenses are rarely used in colloquial and semi-formal speech, as the present tense of ndǣke (to become) is usually used as a replacement.

Indicative mood

Person		Present	Past	Perfect	General future	Future intent.
Sing	1st	ū	ėk	rem	jalṣyam	eku
	2nd	vei	ėši	res	jalṣyes	eki
	3rd	vi	ė	ri	jalṣya	elė
Dual	1st	jella	ekram	rira	jalṣyara	ekyǣ
	2nd	jelli	ekres	reri	jalṣyari	ėdia
	3rd	jali	ėdat	ri	jalṣya	ėde
Pl.	1st	jalim	ekāja	rima	jalṣīma	ekįm
	2nd	jalis	ekeši	riša	jalṣīsa	ekṣin
	3rd	jali	eivė	ri	jalṣya	ekīran

Other primary moods

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

Person		Imperative	Subjunctive	Optative	Propositive	Desiderative	Necessitative	Potential	Permissive
Sing.	1st	jalikṣam	gatiam	jeivu	jeivikṣam	jæliašu	jaluṣyu	jelau	julippu
	2nd	jalios	gīsei	jeivi	jeivikṣos	jæliaši	jaluṣyi	jelai	julippi
	3rd	jaliotīs	gīti	jeivė	jeivikṣotīs	jæliaše	jaluṣyė	jelai	julippė
Dual	1st	—	gīderam	jeivayǣ	—	jæliašyǣ	jaluṣyǣ	jelāyǣ	julippuyǣ
	2nd		gīderes	jeivadia		jæliardia	jaluṣyadia	jelādia	julippudia
	3rd		gīdeh	jeivade		jæliarde	jaluṣyade	jelāde	julippude
Pl.	1st	jalikṣumi	gīneja	jeivįm	jeivikṣumi	jæliašįm	jaluṣįm	jelęm	julippulieh
	2nd	jalioris	gīniši	jeivašin	jeivioris	jæliakṣin	jaluṣyašin	jelāšin	julippušin
	3rd	jaliotīs	gīyevatь	jeivīran	jeiviotīs	jæliašīran	jaluṣīran	jeleran	julippīran

In compound verbs

There are some compound verbs which are formed by a "meaning stem" + gyake; they conjugate just like gyake does:

• pṛšcāñjalle "to like" → present pṛšcāmū, pṛšcāmvei, pṛšcāmvi... past pṛšcāmėk, pṛšcāmėši, pṛšcāmė... perfect pṛšcāṃrem... future pṛšcāñjalṣyam ; the same in other moods, e.g. necessitative present pṛšcāñjaluṣyu, pṛšcāñjaluṣyi...
  Note that in colloquial speech the form of jalle is omitted in the present indicative, e.g. pṛšcām is "to be pleasing" for all persons.
• najalle "to happen" morphologically conjugates like jalle but has some peculiarities:
  • Like jalle, there is no agent-, dative-, and instrumental-trigger voice, but the patient-trigger voice has a dative meaning - e.g. nañū "it happens to me".
  • The basic, semantically patientive forms, are the interior ones (with a contracted stem nañ-j-ir), and they only exist for the third persons - e.g. najire "it happens", najirde "they (dual) happen", najirena "they happen", and so on.
  • It uses analytic constructions for most moods, e.g. najallenovake "can happen" > najallenovė "it can happen"; najalledaudike "to be wanted to happen" > najalledaudiute "I want it to happen" — forms such as the synthetic najelai or najæliašute are found only in archaic (mostly pre-Classical) texts or with other uses - as e.g. najelai being the most common word for "maybe".

The honorific verb tilah

The verb tilah is the only Chlouvānem verb which does not have an infinitive form and is only used, attached to the an-form of a particular verb, as a marker of politeness. Its use dates from the early Second Era, as an adaptation of Ancient Kūṣṛmāṭhi tiluru (to obey) and, in the past, of nuyuru (to serve). Apart from the lack of an infinitive, it has some particularities, namely that it only conjugates in the three basic moods (indicative, subjunctive, and optative). The juniai are not marked on tilah but on the true verb (in an-form) and it is also defective in lacking evidentials and consequentials (the form without tilah is used instead).

Its conjugation is mostly regular but has some particularities:

• The indicative present exterior is as for ah-verbs but shortened: tilah - tilši - tilah - tilšǣ - tilądia - tiląde - tilęm - tiląšin - tilah; the present interior is as for all regular ah-verbs (tilęru, tilęri, tilęre...).
• The causative forms show haplology of *il-ild to ilьd: tilьdeyam, tilьdeši, tilьden... interior tilьdryam, tilьdrši, tilьdiren...
• The indicative past exterior uses a stem ny- in the singular and dual and just ni- in the plural: nyau - nyei - nyek - nyaram - nyares - nyadat - nināja - nineši - nīvė; the interior and the causative are regular using ny-er-, ny-eld(r)- (nyerau, nyerei, nyerek... nyeldau, nyeldei, nyeldek... nyeldrau, nyeldrei, nyeldrek...).
• The perfect exterior has the stem nīl- and has a shortened 1PL and 2PL: nīlam - nīles - nīla - nīlara - nīlari - nīla - nīlьma - nīlьša - nīla. The interior has nīlьr- (nīlьram, nīlьres, nīlьrā...) and the causative nīlьd- (nīlьdam, nīlьdes, nīlьdā... nīlьdṛm, nīlьdṛs, nīlьdirā...).
• The future is regular, but the endings (as well as the interior and the causative forms) all start with e instead of i: tileṣyam, tileṣyes, tileṣya... Note that the causative forms have dissimilation of the stem to tireld- (tireldiṣyam... tireldirṣyam...).
• The subjunctive imperfective exterior is regular with the stem til- in the 1SG (tilatiam) and only t in the others (tīsei, tīti...). The interior has tiler- and the causative tireld-.
• The subjunctive perfective exterior always has the stem t- (tevitam, tevšei, tevite...); the interior has tilьr- and the causative tilьd-)
• The optative is completely regular, with the (regular) stem tilouna-.

All voice affixes come before tilah, as if the an-form were only a verbal prefix. The honorific verb is not used where there already is a honorific suppletive verb (cf. moṣite "you (honorific) ask" (verb muṣke) → pardhite (verb pṛdhake), not *muṣantetilši).

Examples of the use of tilah:

• nāmvegde ((s)he/it crushes) → nāmvantetilah
• flå (I go, walk) → flunantilah
• pūni (you work) → pūnantilši
• pupūṃsįm (we want to work) → pupūṃsantilęm
• pū pūnīti (if (s)he/it works) → pū pūnantīti

In actual usage, tilah denotes respect towards the listener, and is used whenever the action being spoken of effects the listener in some way so, even in polite speech, not all verbs will use tilah - overusing it is a common error among people learning the language, not only foreigners but also young Chlouvānem people themselves.

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:

• perfective subjunctive in the needed voice + lā (with) + gyake in the past 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.
  • yųlevitaṃte lā ėk "I had eaten"
  • yųlevitaṃte lā jalṣyam "I will have eaten"
• imperfective subjunctive in the needed voice + lā (with) + gyake in the needed tense: compound construction used for the progressive aspect in the three tenses (present, past, future). In the present, the form of gyake is omitted for the third person, or for all persons if a pronoun is present.
  • yųlatiaṃte lā ū "I am eating"
  • yųlatiaṃte lā ėk "I was eating"
  • yųlatiaṃte lā jalṣyam "I will be eating"
• infinitive + ñǣɂake (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 yahikeñǣɂute "I am used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahikeñǣɂaṃte "I used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahikeñǣɂiṣyaṃte "I will be used to read every evening"
• infinitive + nartaflulke (to reach): to come to X, to end up X-ing, to result in X-ing
  • yųlakenartatefliven "(s)he ended up eating"
  • lañšijildenartaflunirena "they ended up marrying each other"
• infinitive (or more formally perfective subjunctive) + kitte (to put): to keep X-ed:
  • valdekitė / uvaldevite kitė "it is kept opened"
• infinitive + either įstiāke (to hang from) or maitiāke (to be in front of): prospective aspect, to be about to X
  • yųlakayįstetimu "I am about to eat"
  • yahikemaitimė "it is about to be read"
• subjunctive + interior forms of męlike (to give): to do X in advance — it can also be interpreted as a (plu)perfect if with perfect subjunctive:
  • yųlatiaṃte męliru "I eat in advance"
  • yųlevitaṃte męlirau "I ate in advance" → "I had already eaten"
• infinitive + paṣmišake (to look further away): to let X
  • sū yahikepaṣṭemešu "I let you read"
• infinitive + mālchake (to run (multidirectional)): to keep X-ing (less formal alternative to mai- prefixed verbs)
  • tū yahikemālchute "I keep reading it" (synonym of tū maiteyašu)
• infinitive + nūkkhe (to mount (unidirectional)): to be still X-ing:
  • tatiākenūkhute "I'm still standing"

Adverbs

Adjectival verbs may be turned into adverbs (khladaradhausire haloe, pl. khladaradhausirena halenī) by simply adding -ęe to the stem. Thus:

• tarlausake (scientific) → tarlausęe (scientifically, according to science)
• namęliausake (stakanovist) → namęliausęe (continuously; without any break)
• prātūkke (windy) → prātūkęe (windy; like the wind)

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))
• dilas (same) → diledile (exactly the same way; emphatic version of dilęe but more common.)
• ṣati (way, mode) suffixed to a possessive adjective forms liliāṣati (from my point of view; my way; in my opinion), sāmiāṣati (from your point of view; your way; in your opinion), demiāṣati, tamiāṣati, and so on.

Underived adverbs

Some adverbs are not derived from any other part of speech. They include:

• All adverbial correlatives;
• flære (yesterday), amyære (today), and menire (tomorrow)
• mådviṣe (before), kaminæne (now), and færviṣe (after)
• Some adverbs formed by onomatopoeia or sound symbolism (and usually reduplicated) like rarāre (roaring) or tanetane (barefoot).

Undeclinable adjective-like words

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
• miąre - good (and chloucæm (better))
• taili - many, much
• nanū - more
• kaili - most
• pṛšcām - pleasing
• ṣūbha - few, little
• yamei - "honorific" adjective

All numerals also belong to this category.

When used predicatively, they need a form of gyake following them.

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 (see the declensions of correlatives and possessives in the next section). Most probably this was an analogic feature of a few pre-Classical standardization Chlouvānem dialects of 2000 years ago.

Comparatives and superlatives

Comparatives and superlatives are done in the same way in Chlouvānem. Comparatives are made by using either nanū (more) or ovet (less) in front of the adjective; the compared term is in ablative case; the superlative is formed by using yaivų (than all) as the compared term. Adverbs use the same method (e.g. chlære (easily) → nanū chlære → yaivų nanū chlære), but "than all" in superlatives is usually omitted, therefore they use nanū also with a superlative meaning.

This is used by both adjectival and non adjectival verbs, e.g. sąu nanū yašute "I read more than you".

Irregular forms

There are seven irregular adjectival verbs which are only used with synthetic comparatives, all synchronically suppletive:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
ñikake (small)	isike (smaller; fewer, less)	iñekṣike (smallest; fewest, least)
ṣubha indecl. (few, little)
spragnyake (large)	samvarike (larger)	sasprāsike (largest)
garpake (bad)	grašcasike (worse)	gugārasike (worst)
miąre indecl. (good)	chlǣcæm indecl. (better)	chlǣcækṣike (best)
durḍhāvake (far)	duryāḍhivake (farther, further)	dudhorasike (farthest, furthest)
taili indecl. (many, much)	nanū indecl. (more)	kaili indecl. (most)

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

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, as well as nouns standing for pronouns, both in formal and extremely informal speech.

Standard Chlouvānem as spoken today uses the following morphological pronouns (not including those that follow nominal inflection):

• 1st person lili (sg.), lilše (dual), and main (pl.).
• 2nd person informal sāmi (sg.) and saše (dual).
• 2nd person formal superior nani (sg.; also used for 2nd plural, both informal and formal generic) and naiše (dual).

• 2nd person formal equal ravi (sg.) and raude (dual).
• 2nd person formal inferior kūri (sg.) and kūrḍe (dual).
• 3rd person tami (sg.), taṃše (dual), and toman (pl.).
• Reflexive demi (mandatory for 3rd person, commonly used also for 1st and 2nd).

The pronouns doubling as adjectives are:

• Three demonstratives, all declining for case only, not for number: proximal nenė; medial nunū; distal nanā.
• The possessives: liliā, meyā, sāmiā, naniā, ravyā, kūriā, tamiā; tomiā, tameṣyā, (yaniā).

Among younger speakers in some areas the Jade Coast, most notably in Līlasuṃghāṇa, Taitepamba, and Mileyīkhā, demonstratives and possessives are not inflected at all, e.g. lili nanā phėcamu mišau "I saw that cat" instead of standard lili nanau phėcamu mišau.

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, medial uteni, and distal āteni, which declined in use throughout Classical times, when they were replaced by the newer nenė — nunū — nanā forms.

ami is still used regionally around the mid-course of the Lāmiejāya where it has been repurposed as a definiteness marker for non-triggered arguments - Standard Chlouvānem usually topicalizes the argument or uses nanā, or, colloquially, leaves it unmarked and only understandable by context; cf. "the tiger is seen by the wolf":

(Standard): ėmīla nanie bāḍhmānei mešė, or bāḍhmān mæn ėmīla mėšė, or ėmīla bāḍhmānei mėšė.

(Mid-Lāmiejāyi): ėmīla amie bāḍhmānei mešė.

As mentioned before, Chlouvānem does not distinguish singular formal superior and plural "you", having the single pronoun nani for both. Unlike the similar situation in English, Chlouvānem still differentiates them by marking number on the verb, so for example "you (sg) work" is nani pūni, and "you (pl) work" is nani pūnašin. Originally, nani was only the 2nd person singular feminine pronoun (as shown by its cognates in other Lahob languages); in Archaic Chlouvānem the original plural pronoun nagin is attested, but we lack attestations of any form except the direct and the genitive (nagyā).

Personal pronouns

				Direct	Accusative	Ergative	Genitive	Translative	Exessive	Essive	Dative	Ablative	Locative	Instrumental
Singular	1st person			lili	lū	lęi	liliā	liñ	litь	lęsь	loh	ląu	lǣ	līni
	2nd person	Informal		sāmi	sū	sęi	sāmiā	sāñ	sātь	sąsь	soh	sąu	sǣ	šīni
		Form. sup.		nani	nyū	nyęi	naniā	nyāñ	nyātь	nyąsь	nyoh	nyąu	nyǣ	nīni
		Form. equal		ravi	rū	ręi	ravyā	rāñ	rātь	rąsь	roh	rąu	rǣ	rīni
		Form. inf.		kūri	kū	kęi	kūriā	kūñ	kūtь	kųsь	kūroh	kųu	kūrǣ	kūrīni
	3rd person			tami	tū	tęi	tamiā	tañ	tatь	tąsь	toh	tąu	tǣ	tīni
Reflexive pronoun				demi	diū	dį	demiā	deñ	detь	dęsь	doh	dąu	dǣ	dīni
Dual	1st person			lilše	lilut	lilšą	lileṣyā	lilšās	lilšātь	lilšona	lilšoh	lilšų	lilšǣ	lilešī
	2nd person	Informal		saše	sašut	sašą	sareṣyā	sarās	sašātь	sašona	sašoh	sašų	sašǣ	sarešī
		Form. sup.		naiše	naišut	naišą	nanešā	naišās	naišātь	naišona	naišoh	naišų	naišǣ	nanešī
		Form. equal		raude	raudut	raudą	ravedyā	raudās	raudātь	raudona	raudoh	raudų	raudǣ	ravedī
		Form. inf.		kūrḍe	kūrḍut	kūrḍą	kūredyā	kūrḍās	kūrḍātь	kūrḍona	kūrḍoh	kūrḍų	kūrḍǣ	kūredī
	3rd person			taṃše	taṃšut	taṃšą	tameṣyā	taṃšās	taṃšātь	taṃšona	taṃšoh	taṃšų	taṃšǣ	tamešī
Plural	1st person			main	mū	mayį	maiyā	maiñ	maitь	maisь	mayoh	mąu	mehǣ	menī
	2nd person	Informal		nani	nyū	nyęi	naniā	nyāñ	nyātь	nyąsь	nyoh	nyąu	nyǣ	nīni
	3rd person			toman	tomau	tomān	tomiā	tomiñ	tomitь	tomesь	tomåh	tomąu	tomyǣ	tomenī
Emphatic pronoun (archaic)				yani	yū	yę	yaniā	yañ	yatь	yąsь	yoh	yų	yǣ	īni

yavyāta (though often replaced by nani) and yakaliyātam are used as formal second person plural pronouns; they are however nouns and decline as such (as singular 1-h and 1-m declension respectively, but they take plural verbs and adjectives). Various other nouns may be used as second- or third-person pronouns depending on the situation; see the following section on honorifics for a list of them and their usage.

Correlatives

Chlouvānem has a fairly regular system of correlatives, distinguishing ten types (proximal, medial, distal, 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	Interrogative	Negative	Ass. exist.	Elect. exist.	Universal	Positive altern.	Negative altern.
Attributive	nenė this (one)	nunū that (one) (near you)	nanā that (one) (over there)	yananū? what?, which (one) ?	gu no	sora some	læti any	yaiva every(thing)	viṣam another	guviṣam no other
Thing					gvami nothing	sorami something	lætyami anything		viṣāmi something else	guviṣāmi nothing else
Person	evita this one	utvita that one (near you)	ātvita that one (over there)	yavita? who?	guvita no one	soraita someone	lævita anyone	yaivita everyone	viṣvita someone else	guviṣvita no one else
Time	emiya now	utiya then	ātiya then (remote)	yamiya? when?	gumiya never	soramiya sometime, somewhen	lætmiya anytime, whenever	yaivmiya always, everytime	viṣmiya sometime else	guviṣmiya never else
Place	ejulā here	uñjulā there	āñjulā over there	yajulā? where?	gujulā nowhere	sorajulā somewhere	læjulā anywhere	yavijulā everywhere	viñjulā elsewhere	guviñjulā nowhere else
Destination	ejulyom hither	uñjulyom thither	āñjulyom thither (remote)	yajulyom? whither?	gujulyom nowhither	sorajulyom somewhither	læjulyom anywhither	yavijulyom everywhither	viñjulyom elsewhither	guviñjulyom nowhither else
Source	ejulųu hence	uñjulųu thence	āñjulųu thence (remote)	yajulųu? whence?	gujulųu nowhence	sorajulųu somewhence	læjulųu anywhence	yavijulųu everywhence	viñjulųu elsewhence	guviñjulųu nowhence else
Manner	elīce thus, hereby	ūlīce thereby	ālīce thereby; that other way	yalīce? how?	gulīce no way	soralīce somehow	lælīce anyhow	yaivlīce everyway	viṣlīce otherwise	guviṣlīce no other way
Reason	emena herefore	utmena therefore	ātmena therefore; for that other reason	yamenat? why?	gumena for no reason	soramena somewhy	lætmena whyever, for any reason	yaivmena for every reason	viṣmena for another reason	guviṣmena for no other reason
Quality	esmā this kind	utsmā that kind	ātsmā that other kind	yasmāt? which kind?	gusmā no kind	sorasmā 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)	yanūḍat? how much?	gunūḍa none	soraṇūḍa 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, except for main clauses in relative structures where only ālīce and ātmena are used. 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 evita, utvita, and ātvita, also for number (1h declension: evita, acc. sg. evitu, dir. pl. evitai, dat. pl. evitauti…). Quality and quantity correlatives also decline for case.

Negatives, elective existentials, universals, and positive alternatives for thing and person correlatives may also take dual number: gvamiyon～guvition "neither"; lætyamiyon～lævition "either"; yaivyon～yaivition "both"; viṣāmiyon～viṣvition "the other one".

There is a further interrogative, yacāryā? (whose).

Declensions of correlatives and possessives

Case	ā-paradigm	ė-paradigm	ū-paradigm	t-paradigm
	All possessives, nanā, yacāryā?, ami, correlatives in -i	nenė only	nunū only	yasmāt? and yanūḍat?
Direct Vocative	liliā	nenė	nunū	yasmāt
Accusative	liliau	nenæyu	nunūyu	yasmau
Ergative	lilie	nenæye	nunūye	yasmātei
Genitive	liliai	neniai	nunūyai	yasmai
Translative	liliān	nenėn	nunūn	yasmān
Exessive	liliāt	nenėt	nunūt	yasmātat
Essive	liliąa	nenęe	nunųu	yasmātą
Dative	liliåh	neneah	nunouh	yasmātom
Ablative	liliąu	nenėhu	nunūvu	yasmąu
Locative	lilǣ	neniǣ	nunūvǣ	yasmātǣ
Instrumental	lileni	nenėni	nunauni	yasmaini

Honorifics

Honorific pronouns

Second person

The rules for second person pronouns are mostly fairly easy. There are usually two contexts: formal and informal.

Formal pronouns are three and (in contemporary Chlouvānem) invariable for gender, but they vary for relative rank instead: nani is used towards a superior, ravi towards one of the same rank, and kūri towards a lower ranked person (until the mid-Fourth Era, nani was strictly feminine and kūri strictly masculine, and the rules for all three varied also according to the relative genders). naiše, raude, and kūrḍe are their respective dual forms.

Plural second person pronouns are usually two: yakaliyātam is used towards the representative of a specifically defined group - an institution or a company -, while yavyāta (but also nani) is used for less defined groups.

There are, however, more formal second-person pronouns with a limited use. All of these (here listed in Latin alphabetical order), unless noted, are morphologically nouns, but they are used with second person verbs anyway:


• aveṣyotariri nani (locution with the pronoun nani) is sometimes used towards the highest ranked non-religious superiors, if they are several ranks ahead: examples include commanders of a military brigade or presidents of a company. However, nani is in most cases respectful enough; it is however invariably used in the set phrase lāliu naniau aveṣyotariri yaccechlašute nami "I humbly ask for your forgiveness".
• gopūrṭham is often used towards public/religious and military officials.
• gopūrṭhami brausa (or yobrausa) are used for the highest ranked Inquisitors, bishops, head monks, and the Baptist.
• lalla yobrausa is used exclusively for the Great Inquisitor.

• ṣari, nowadays mostly old-fashioned, was used by guests towards homeowners and also by soldiers towards their superiors. It also meant, aside from being a pronoun, "landowner" or "head of a non-religious state"; in contemporary Chlouvānem it mostly only survives as a vocative expression towards homeowners when used by guests.
• ūttuka is today only used in parts of the Northeast (aside by fictional characters in historical settings), but until the early Fourth Era was a common pronoun word used by servants towards their superiors, particularly landowners (it thus partially overlapped with ṣari).
• yobrausa — see gopūrṭhami brausa above.



It is also important to note that it's increasingly common to simply use the vocative formula - given name plus lāma - instead of any pronoun in formal context: when speaking to a superior named Lārtāvi Vaihātiai Lælithiam, in order to say a sentence like "have you already done (it)?", nani tū dadrās nāṭ dām? and Lælithiam lāma tū dadrās nāṭ dām? are both just as correct. The pronoun forms are more commonly used in other cases, particularly in the genitive.

In informal contexts, the only basic morphological second-person pronoun is sāmi, which has the dual form saše and the plural form nain. However, there may be even more informal contexts where other nouns may be used: the prototypical example is among siblings, where blikā (dual blikyon, plural blikai), an endearing term for girls (think of Japanese -chan or -tan) is used as a pronoun for and among sisters — e.g. blikā meyom umuṣeste tane? meaning "did you ask mum or not?"; as for all nouns standing for pronouns, this is not a vocative expression as it declines for case - e.g. blikom emęliaṃte nāṭ! "I've already given it to you!"; other such pro-nouns used among siblings are lorkhās (for and among brothers; literally "guy", can be rude outside this context), nājhali (non-binary equivalent to "girl" and "boy" — somewhat rarer as even in general use it's a more neutral term than either blikā or lorkhās), and even samin (literally "kid"). Informal names are also sometimes used instead of pronouns among siblings, and they're more often than not used that way among close friends and kaleyai.

Third person

In Chlouvānem, third person pronouns are basically never used when referring to people: tami can only be used as such in informal registers, and it is considered insulting to do so in formal speech. The name of the person referred to with the appropriate honorific title is used instead.

Honorific titles

→ See also: Chlouvānem names § Using names

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. Also used by militars towards lower-ranked soldiers.
• 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)
• jūlin - less formal than lāma, used for people who work in one's home but are not part of the family.
• telen - less formal than lāma, used by men for unmarried women whom they know somewhat well. Currently less frequently used than it was up to about 10 years ago.
• jāmilšīreh - used in military contexts towards higher-ranked people, or by common people towards military commanders in service.
• dhārāti - neutral but respectful title of address, often used when generally speaking and without knowing who the listener is. Sometimes used, when in a plural sense, in the form yamei dau-dhārātīye. In its neutralness relative to rank, it can be compared with the Soviet-era use of товарищ. It is also how high-ranked Inquisitors and most monks address the general public.
• pūrivāla - an impersonal term of address used in written language, towards unfamiliar people never met personally. Often used as yamei [name] pūrivāla.
• cuca is not strictly an honorific, as it pertains to more colloquial forms of speech, but it works the same way. It has a diminutive and endearing meaning, not unlike Japanese -chan. In formal speech, it is often used towards and when speaking about children.

Occupations commonly used as titles

• camitorai — head of a company (usually as [matronymic] yamei [name] camitorai lāma)
• kauchlærīn (voc.: kauchlærī) — professor (in universities, seminaries, institutions, and work schools)
• tatnāmęlīn (voc.: tatnāmęlī) — teacher (in first and basic schools)

Official titles

Where not noted, the formula is [matronymic] yamei [name] [title] lāma.

• brausamailenia — Baptist — rendered as aveṣyotārire lallāmaha [matronymic] yamei [surname + given name] brausamailenia lāma.
• camimurkadhāna — Great Inquisitor — rendered as nanū aveṣyotārire lallāmaha [matronymic] yamei [surname + given name] camimurkadhāna lāma.
• camitorai — president (of diocesan parliaments or executives or of foreign countries). Rendered as aveṣyotārire [matronymic (if Chlouvānem)] yamei [name] camitorai lāma.
• flušamelīs (voc.: flušamelī) — Prefect (head of an Office (flušamila) of the Inquisition). Rendered as aveṣyotārire [matronymic] yamei [name] flušamelī(s) lāma.
• gatvā — leader/head/president/mayor — preceded by the genitive of the respective administration (ṣramāṇa "province", lalka "circuit", hālgāra "district", marta "city"…).
• hurdagīn — Head Monk (head of a monastery) — rendered as kaili brausire yamei [name] hurdagīn lāma (+ monastery name-GEN)
• juṃša — Bishop (head of a diocese) — rendered as aveṣyotārire [matronymic] yamei [(surname +) name] juṃša lāma (+ diocese name-GEN).
• lallaflušamelīs (voc.: lallaflušamelī) — High Prefect (head of the Table of Offices (flušamaili eṇāh, the executive branch of the Inquisition). Usually rendered as taili aveṣyotārire [matronymic] yamei [name] lallaflušamelī(s) lāma.
• lallamurkadhāna — High Inquisitor (one of the 612 members of the Inquisitorial Conclave (murkadhānumi lanedāmeh, the legislative branch of the Inquisition). Usually rendered as aveṣyotārire [matronymic] yamei [name] lallamurkadhāna lāma.
• ñæltryam — monk.
• ṭommīn (voc.: ṭommī) — Quaestor (head of a Quaestorship).

Note that the full titles are used generally at the first mention only. For example, Martayināvi yamei murkadhāna Læhimausa lāma becomes afterwards either yamei murkadhāna or yamei Læhimausa lāma. With the Great Inquisitor, this does not usually get shorter than nanū aveṣyotārire yamei lallāmaha ([Her] Respectable Most Excellent Highness) or nanū aveṣyotārire lallāmaha camimurkadhāna ([Her] Most Excellent Highness, the Great Inquisitor).

Honorific particles

There are a few honorific particles - mostly of Ancient Kūṣṛmāthi origin - that are used to make names or nouns honorific:

• īvai makes a verb humble, and is put after a verb, too.
• nami denotes respect towards the trigger of the verb. It was common in the past alongside the honorific verb tilah, but today it is not used except for a few set phrases (e.g. lālis yacė nami "please").
• yo- is a prefix for things pertaining to a honourable person, often used together with a verb with nami.
• dau- is a prefix that makes nouns honorific.

Numerals - Mālendān

Chlouvānem is one of the few human Calemerian languages - together with all other Lahob languages and a few ones of the southern hemisphere - with a pure duodecimal number system.

Numbers (sg/pl. mālendān) have six different forms: cardinal, ordinal, collective, distributive, adverbial/multiplicative, and fractionary. 1-4 have separate adverbial forms, while all other ones have an invariable form used as multiplicative and a derived adverb used as adverbial. Cardinals from 1 to 4 decline for case (leila as 1h; dani and pāmvi as 4h; nęlte as 2h).

Digit12	Base 10	Cardinal	Ordinal	Collective	Distributive	Adv./Multiplicative	Fractionary
0	0	ajrā	(ajrāyende)	(ajrāmūh)	(ajrehaicė)	(lājrā)	—
1	1	leila	lahīla	leilamūh	leiluhaicė	leilahæl lāleila	lahīlvāṭ
2	2	dani	hælinaika	daniamūh	danihaicė	danihæl lādani	hælinaivāṭ
3	3	pāmvi	pāmvende	pāmvimūh	pāmvihaicė	pāmvihæl lāpāmvi	pāmvendvāṭ
4	4	nęlte	nęltende	nęltemūh	nęltehaicė	nęltehæl lānęlte	nęltendvāṭ
5	5	šulka	šulkende	šulkamūh	šulkhaicė	lāšulka	šulkendvāṭ
6	6	tulūɂa	tulūɂende	tulūɂamūh	tulūɂihaicė	lātulūɂa	tulūɂendvāṭ
7	7	chīka	chīcænde	chīkamūh	chīcihaicė	lāchīka	chīcændvāṭ
8	8	tītya	tītyende	tītyamūh	tītihaicė	lātītya	tītyendvāṭ
9	9	moja	mojende	mojmūh	mojihaicė	lāmoja	mojendvāṭ
ᘔ	10	tålda	tåldende	tåldamūh	tåldihaicė	lātålda	tåldendvāṭ
Ɛ	11	vælden	vældinde	vældemūh	vældihaicė	lāvælden	vældindvāṭ
10	12	māmei	māminde	māmeimūh	māmeihaicė	lāmāmei	māmindvāṭ
11	13	lelimaye	lelimayinde	lelimaimūh	lelimaihaicė	lālelimaye	lelimayindvāṭ
12	14	danimaye	danimayinde	danimaimūh	danimaihaicė	lādanimaye	danimayindvāṭ
13	15	pamihælī	pamihælīnde	pamihælīmūh	pamihælīhaicė	lāpamihælī	pamihælīndvāṭ
14	16	māminęlte	māminęltende	māminęltemūh	māminęltehaicė	lāmāminęlte	māmiynęltendvāṭ
15	17	māmišulka	māmišulkende	māmišulkamūh	māmišulkhaicė	lāmāmišulka	māmišulkendvāṭ
16	18	māmivælka	māmivælkende	māmivælkamūh	māmivælkihaicė	lāmāmivælka	māmivælkendvāṭ
17	19	māmichīka	māmichīcænde	māmichīkamūh	māmichīcihaicė	lāmāmichīka	māmichīcændvāṭ
18	20	māmitītya	māmitītyende	māmitītyamūh	māmitītihaicė	lāmāmitītya	māmitītyendvāṭ
19	21	māmimoja	māmimojende	māmimojmūh	māmimojihaicė	lāmāmimoja	māmimojendvāṭ
1ᘔ	22	māmitålda	māmitåldende	māmitåldamūh	māmitåldihaicė	lāmāmitålda	māmitåldendvāṭ
1Ɛ	23	māmivælden	māmivældinde	māmivældemūh	māmivældihaicė	lāmāmivælden	māmivældindvāṭ
20	24	hælьmāmei	hælьmāminde	hælьmāmeimūh	hælьmāmeihaicė	lāhælьmāmei	hælьmāmindvāṭ

Numbers from 20₁₂ above are simply made by compounding teens and units with the appropriate saṃdhi changes, like 21₁₂ (25₁₀) hælьmāmileila, and then hælьmāmidani, hælьmāmipāmvi, and so on. Note that other compounds with 6 use -tulūɂa and not -vælka as in 16₁₂.
The other teens are: 30 (36₁₀) pāmvimāmei, 40 (48₁₀) nęltemāmei, 50 (60₁₀) šulkmāmei, 60 (72₁₀) vælknihæla, 70 (84₁₀) māmyāvælka (regionally chīcæmāmei, particularly in the East), 80 (96₁₀) tītimāmei, 90 (108₁₀) mojemāmei, ᘔ0 (120₁₀) tåldimāmei, Ɛ0 (132₁₀) māmimīram, and 100 nihæla.
The apparent irregularities in the words for 60₁₂, 70₁₂, and Ɛ0₁₂ are explained by etymology: vælka is the reflex of PLB *wewənko, which meant “half”, thus vælknihæla is “half hundred” and māmyāvælka is “twelve on half”; māmimīram is literally “twelve [less] from ahead”. 13₁₂ originally meant "one finger/three (pāmvi, the word for three, derives from pamih, meaning "finger") in the second [dozen]", where the -hælī part is a worn form of hælinaika.

Numbers from 100₁₂ to ƐƐƐ₁₂ are still compounds, e.g. nihælaleil, nihæladani, and so on. Note that 160₁₂ is most commonly nihæltulūɂa, but the more literary form nihælvælka may still be heard.
The other hundreds are 200 (288₁₀) daninihæla, 300 (432₁₀) pāmvinihæla, 400 (576₁₀) nęltenihæla, 500 (720₁₀) šulknihæla, 600 (864₁₀) tulūnihæla, 700 (1008₁₀) chīcænihæla, 800 (1152₁₀) tītinihæla, 900 (1296₁₀) mojanihæla, ᘔ00 (1440₁₀) tåldanihæla, Ɛ00 (1584₁₀) vældenihæla.
1.000 (1728₁₀) is tildhā and numbers above are separate words, without saṃdhi, e.g. 6.2ᘔ9 (10785₁₀) tulūɂa tildhā daninihælatåldimāmimoja.
Note that 2.000₁₂ may be either one of tildhādi, dani tildhā, or (only emphatically) dani tildhādi.

The other divisions - numbers over ƐƐ.ƐƐƐ₁₂ are based on groups of two digits: the two most commonly used ones in common speech are 1.00.000 (248.832₁₀) - a raicė - and 1.00.00.000 (35.831.808₁₀) - a lallaraicė.

The next two groups have their separate words, but are quantities rarely used in common speech: 1.00.00.00.000 (5.159.780.352₁₀) is a taiskaucis and 1.00.00.00.00.000 (743.008.370.688₁₀) a lallataiskaucis.

Their non-cardinal forms are all regular, with -ende (-inde after -m or for Ɛ₁₂) for ordinals, -mūh for collectives, -haicė for distributives, lā- for adverbials/multiplicatives, and -endvāṭ/-indvāṭ for the fractionaries. Compounds of 1-2 retain all irregular suppletive forms, e.g. hælьmāmihælinaika 22₁₂nd (26₁₀th).

Finally, there are few other cardinals commonly used in speech: vālьhælia 1½, vālьpāmvya 2½, vālьnęltia 3½, vālьšulca 4½, and vālьtulūya 5½. Other forms such as vālьchīca, vālьtītiya, and so on are sparingly attested in older mathematical texts, but periphrastical constructions such as tulūɂa hælinaivāṭ no (or, sometimes, - vælka no) are more commonly heard and used nowadays.

Use of fractionary numbers

Fractionary numbers (except vālь- ones) are used to express non-integers just like any other quantity. Simple ones such as 0,6 (½) are the basic fractionary number - in this case hælinaivāṭ (note that, outside mathematics, daniāmita is the preferred term for "half", both in metaphorical (liliā viṣam daniāmita "my other half") and non-metaphorical uses (alāvi daniāmita "half of the bottle")); other examples are 0,3 (¼) nęltendvāṭ and 0,4 (⅓) pāmvendvāṭ.
With more complex fractions, the smallest part (negative power of twelve) is stated - the three commonly found are 1/12 (māmindvāṭ), 1/144 (nihælendvāṭ), and 1/1728 (tildhaindvāṭ). For example, 0,82 is tītimāmidani nihælendvāṭ and 0,7ᘔ6 is chīcænihælamāmimīraṃtulūɂa tildhaindvāṭ; sometimes, "0, then" (mīram) may be added: ajrā mīram tītimāmidani nihælendvāṭ.

With a non-fractionary portion that is not zero, instead of mīram, smurā (full, integer) is used - e.g. 2,307 is usually said as dani smurā pāmvinihælchīka tildhaindvāṭ.

Declensions of cardinal numbers

Some cardinal numbers are declined for case, but this is usually only done in formal Chlouvānem. Informal Chlouvānem only declines leila, often with an analogical pattern based on 1h nouns. Only the numbers from 1 to Ɛ as well as nihæla and its compounds decline as such. tildhā, (lalla)raicė, and (lalla)taiskaucis are always declined, but they are fully nouns.

Case	leila	i-paradigm	a-paradigm	en-paradigm
		dani, pāmvi, nęlte	5 to 10	vælden only
Direct Vocative	leila	dani	šulka	vælden
Accusative	leilu	daniu	šulku	vældu
Ergative	leis	danies	šulkes	vældes
Genitive	leilь	danь	šulki	vældi
Translative	leilan	danin	šulkan	vældanna
Exessive	leilat	danit	šulkat	vældanta
Essive	leiląa	danią	šulkąa	vældąs
Dative	leilå	daniå	šulkå	vældå
Ablative	leilų	danių	šulkų	vældų
Locative	leilь	danie	šulke	vælde
Instrumental	leilьni	danьni	šulkñi	vældьni

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. leila yujam (a lotus flower); dani māra (two mango fruits); pāmvi haloe (three names), vælden 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 leila (one lotus flower), māri dani (two mango fruits), halenies pāmvi (three names), ñaiṭi vælden (eleven stars). In other cases, the noun follows the semantic case (but is always singular anyway), e.g. marti pāmvi (three cities) but marte pāmvye (in the three cities).
  This form is increasingly less common in everyday use.
• "Two" may be used with either singular or dual number: dani māra or māri dani are both as correct as dani mārion and māreva dani - 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.

Ordinals, collectives, and multiplicatives are simply used invariable "adjectives", but collectives and multiplicatives are always singular (optionally dual for daniamūh and lādani). e.g. hælinaika kita "second house", tītyamūh lejīn "all eight singers", lāpāmvi yąloe "triple meal/a meal three times as large". Bare multiplicatives may carry either the meaning of "repeated X times" or "X times as large", but the latter is most commonly specified with a comparison (ablative case) or by context. Ordinals decline as 1h nouns if used without any noun (e.g. hælinaikom męliė "it is given to the second" — but hælinaika lilom męliė "it is given to the second person").
Collectives are often used with the meaning of "all X of..." - e.g. tītyamūh lejīn dilu liju lilejlayivegde "all eight singers wanted to sing the same song" -, with the meaning of "X sets of" with pluralia and singularia tantum, e.g. pāmvimūh hærṣūs "three pairs of lips" (note that colloquial Chlouvānem increasingly often uses the cardinals here, e.g. pāmvi hærṣūs), and with people and animals in order to say "a group of X", taken as a single entity: there can be subtle differences in meaning, e.g. chīka lalāruṇa tugīrante (with a cardinal) and chīkamūh lalāruṇa tugīrante (with a collective) both mean "seven lalāruṇai hit", but in the latter sentence the action it is implied to be a coordinate act of all seven animals, while in the former they either hit randomly or the coordination of the action is not specified (or not specification-worthy).

Distributives are indeclinable adjectives, and have the meaning of "X each": pāmvihaicė titė męlīran "three pens each are given"; lili liliā ñæltah no tulūɂihaicė kolecañi alau ulgutarate "my sister and I have bought six bottles of kvas each" — note in both sentences the use of singular number in titė (pencil) and alūs (acc. alau) "bottle".

Fractionary numerals are always used in the noun.GEN numeral construction, and they are invariable in direct, vocative, accusative, and ergative case but decline with -vaḍa in all of the others (in fact, etymologically they derive from worn down forms of ordinal + vaḍa, meaning Xth part, e.g. hælinaika vaḍa (the second part) → hælinaivāṭ). Unlike ordinals, the noun is always in the genitive case. Examples: marti hælinaivāṭ "half of the city" ; alāvi nęltendvāṭ "one fourth of the bottle" ; bhæli tulūɂendvaḍe "in one sixth of the country".

Basic maths

• 1 + 2 = 3

leila nanū dani pāmviå flunade (1.DIR. more. 2.DIR. 3-DAT. go.MONODIR-IND.PRES-3DU.EXTERIOR-AGENTIVE) — rule: A^DIR nanū B^DIR (nanū ...) C^DAT flunade (two addends) / flunīran (3+ addends)

• 3 - 2 = 1

pāmvi isan dani leilå flunade (3.DIR. minus. 2.DIR. 1-DAT go.MONODIR-IND.PRES-3DU.EXTERIOR-AGENTIVE) — rule: A^DIR isan B^DIR (isan ...) C^DAT flunade (two addends) / flunīran (3+ addends)

• 3 * 2 = 6

danihæl pāmvi tulūɂå fliven (2.MULTIP. 3.DIR. 6-DAT. go.MONODIR-IND.PRES-3SG.EXTERIOR-AGENTIVE) — rule: MULTIPLICATIVE-B A^DIR C^DAT fliven

• 6 : 2 = 3

hælinaivadęs tulūɂa pāmviå fliven (2.FRACTION-ESS. 6.DIR 3-DAT. go.MONODIR-IND.PRES-3SG.EXTERIOR-AGENTIVE) — rule: FRACTIONARY-B^ESS A^DIR C^DAT fliven

• 6² = 30 (36₁₀)

danihæl demea tulūɂa pāmvimāmei fliven (2.MULTIP. REFL.GEN-LOC. 6.DIR. 30₁₂. go.MONODIR-IND.PRES-3SG.EXTERIOR-AGENTIVE) — rule: MULTIPLICATIVE-B demea A^DIR C^DAT fliven

Units of Measurement

Chlouvānem units of measurement (lęlgīs, pl. lęlgais) are divided in popular units (leilausirena lęlgais) and scientific units (tarlausirena lęlgais). Scientific units, while understood, are rarely found outside of scientific contexts if corresponding popular units exist, while popular units are found in daily usage. Popular units follow however a measurement standard introduced in 3E 566 (798₁₀) and updated several times in the following two centuries, in order to give a single understood measure for all units whose names and definitions varied across the many countries of the Chlouvānem cultural space.
It is also to be noted that Calemerian scientific units have internationally unified definitions for their base units but are substantially different between the Western and the Eastern world as Western countries use them with a decimal system, while the Eastern countries (the Inquisition, most of the former Kaiṣamā, and Greater Skyrdagor) use them with a duodecimal system.

Length

Units in italics are popular divisions used in speech and not usually written. The nīnas has its own abbreviation but it is nowadays rarely used, and most often written as 2 vā even if spoken as nīnas.

Short	Name	Meaning/name origin	Equivalent to	Metric system (approx.)
thi	thiḍa	Point, tip	1/12 liv	~1.20255 mm
liv	livuka	Short (dialectal)	⅙ de	~1.44305 cm
de	dera	Finger (in A.Kūṣṛmāṭhi)	⅓ vā	~8.65833 cm
vā	vāriṇa	Span	¼ pā	25.975 cm
nī	nīnas	Knee	½ pā	51.95 cm
pā	pājya	Leg	(base unit)	103.9 cm
bru	brujñya	Fathom	2+½ pā	2.5975 m
	vyaṣojrī nęltendvāṭ	Quarter of vyaṣojrā	¼ vya — 90 (10810) bru	280.53 m
	vyaṣojrī pāmvendvāṭ	Third of vyaṣojrā	⅓ vya — 100 (14410) bru	374.04 m
	vyaṣojrī hælinaivāṭ	Half vyaṣojrā	½ vya — 160 (21610) bru	561.06 m
vya	vyaṣojrā	Plough	300 (43210) bru	1122.12 m — 1.11212 km
gar	garaṇa	Hour	6+⅓ vya	7106.76 m — 7.10676 km

Area

The våṇṭa may or may not be written as a separate measure. A measure of 1 jāṇa and 700 doṃryai may be written as 1 jā.700 (do) (most commonly) or as 1 jā.1.100 (do).

Short	Name	Meaning/name origin	Equivalent to	Metric system (approx.)
sǣ	sǣca	Small, Piece (in A.Namaikehi)	1 nī * 1 nī	51.95 cm2
dar	dariā	unknown; name first used in the Near East	60 (7210) sǣ	3,740.4 cm2
re	relya	Carpet	3 dar	~1.12212 m2
do	doṃrya	ultimately from doman (room)	4 re	~4.48848 m2
vå	våṇṭa	probably from a Tamukāyi word meaning "fence(d)"	600 (86410) do — ½ jā	~3,878.0467 m2
jā	jāṇa	Field	1,000 (1,72810) do — 2 vå	~7,756.0934 m2
e	ekram	Expanse (in A.Namaikehi)	100 (14410) jā	~1.1168 km2

Weight (and mass)

Short	Name	Meaning/name origin	Equivalent to	Metric system (approx.)
vaj	vaji	dimin. from vaḍa (part)	1/100 (1/14410) dū	~51.79398 mg
dū	dūdha	Seed	⅙ lit	~7.45833 g
lit	litveh	Cut (in A.Namaikehi)	¼ aut	44.75 g
aut	auṭikā	probably an augmentative from PLB *wutərus	(base unit)	179 g
tū	tulūɂendā	ultimately from tulūɂendes (sixth)	6 aut	1,074 g
pau	paurā	Rock (dialectal)	70 (8410) aut	12.53 kg
māp	māmipaurā	māmei (twelve) + paurā	10 (1210) pau	150.36 kg
lap	lallapaurā	lalla (high, further) + paurā	10 (1210) māp	1,804.32 kg

Volume

Short	Name	Meaning/name origin	Equivalent to	Metric system (approx.)
sjė	sejyėh	dimin. from segen (spoon)	½ seg	~5.78704 mL
seg	segen	Spoon	⅓ cel	~11.57407 mL
cel	celia	Small glass	⅙ lun	~34.72222 mL
lun	luneyāvi	from lunai (tea)	⅓ val	~0.20833 L
val	valdhėna	Flagon	(base unit)	0.625 L
al	alūs	Bottle	2+ ⅓ val	~1.45833 L
då	dåṣṭis	Bucket	8 al	~11.66666 L
raš	rašah	Barrel	16 (1810) då	~210 L

There are also two further units for dry measures only:

• the purṣa ("pot", pur), equivalent to 1+½ val (~0.9375 L);
• the ręnah ("jar, urn", rę), equivalent to 6 pur (~5.625 L).

Temperature

Temperature measuring in the Chlouvānem world uses the Jahārāṭha scale (shortened ºj; named after scientist Ṣastirāvi Jahārāṭha Nukthalin), which is fixed with a zero degree at water freezing temperature at sea level. 100 ºj is the rough boiling temperature of water, but, being a duodecimal scale, it is 100₁₂ (144₁₀), thus 1 ºj equals 25/36 of a degree Celsius, or 1 ºC = 1.44 ºj.
The median body temperature of a Calemerian human (which is slightly lower than for Earthly humans) is of 41 ºj (49₁₀), thus ~34.0278 ºC.

Time

→ See also: Chlouvānem Calendar and time § the Chlouvānem calendar

English	Chlouvānem	Equivalent to	rough Earthly approximation
Year	heirah	418 Calemerian days	609.6 Earth days
Day	pārṇam	2812 (3210) hours	~35 hours
Hour	garaṇa	1012 (1210) tetacuṃlāṇai 16012 (21610) tetacunīye	~65 min ~37 sec
group of "minutes"	tetacuṃlāṇa	1612 (1810) tetacunīye	~5 min ~28 sec
"Minute"	tetacunih	(base unit)	~18.2292 sec
1/12 of a "minute"	(tetacunīyi) māmendvāṭ	1/1012 (1/1210) tetacunih	~1.5191 sec
1/144 of a "minute"	(tetacunīyi) nihælendvāṭ	1/10012 (1/14410) tetacunih	~0.1266 sec
1/1728 of a "minute"	(tetacunīyi) tildhaindvāṭ	1/100012 (1/172810) tetacunih	~10.5493 ms

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. Here they are listed in Latin alphabetical order:

• dam is an interrogative particle, put after the verb: dalьtah væl dam? "is it a fish?".
• e 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).
• eri means "even", marking a positive emphasis and used with positive sentences (e.g. hūnakumi dældān eri dældire "(s)he even speaks Hūnakumi")
• fras marks the antibenefactive argument outside of antibenefactive-trigger voice, or "to avoid X" with a subjunctive mood verb.
• 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).
• gāri means "not even", being the opposite of eri, marking a negative emphasis in negative sentences (e.g. miąre chlouvānumi dældān gāri gu dældire ša "(s)he doesn't even speak correct Chlouvānem")
• golat translates "meanwhile" or "on the other hand".
• gu(n) — ša is a circumfix around verbs used to negate it, e.g. gu yuyųlsegde ša "(s)he doesn't want to eat").
• laha means "only, just", e.g. lārvājuṣui laha flå "I'm only going to the temple".
• lā (arch. lapi) means "with", in the comitative sense, requiring essive case. Similarly, udvī means "without", with the same case (e.g. liliąa ñæltęs lā "with my sister"; liliąa ñæltęs udvī "without my sister").
• leah translates "already", with a noun in essive case or a verb in the semantically correct mood.
• mbu means "or"; placement with nouns is the same as no/lasь, and with verbs it's often the same as sama.
• 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.
• 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 yuyųlsegde "because (s)he wants to eat").
• mūji translates "almost", "more or less"
• 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...)).
• najinai means "maybe"; it stems from the archaic potential form of najake (to happen). It requires a verb in subjunctive 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).
• nānim translates "almost", with a noun in essive case or a verb in the semantically correct mood.
• natte translates "until", with a noun in translative case (or dative case for places, meaning "as far as") or a verb in the subjunctive.
• ni translates "but" as a coordinating conjunction.
• 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 lasь is used. Both follow the noun they refer to, and in listings with more than two nouns they follow every noun except the first. They can also translate "and" between verbs, but sama is preferred between sentences, especially with different subjects (e.g. yąlute molute no "I eat and drink", either mėlitu yąlute kolecañu molute no or mėlitu yąlute sama kolecañu molute "I eat curry and drink kvas", but most often mėlitu yąlute sama liliā ñæltah kolecañu molegde "I eat curry and my sister drinks kvas". Note that mėlitu yąlute liliā ñæltah kolecañu molegde no is still correct, but mostly found in literary or very formal language).
• pa translates "on, of, about; concerning, on the subject of", and requires a noun direct case or a verb in subjunctive mood.
• sama translates "and" as a coordinating conjunction between clauses. If the following word starts with a vowel, it is shortened to sam'.
• tī translates "because", "for", and it is always in the second clause of a sentence: tū dadrāṃte tī daudiau "I have done it because I wanted to".
• tora translates "also", "too", usually before the verb (e.g. tora tū uyųlaṃte "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 tū dadrāte "even he has done it it").
• tælū means "again".
• væse translates "while", "meanwhile", with an essive (or, depending on meaning, exessive or translative) noun or a verb of the semantically correct mood.

Adjectival-adverbial particles

Adjectival-adverbial particles are those particles that are semantically adjectives or adverbs identifying quantity, but - like particles - usually follow the noun or the verb they refer to instead of preceding it.

• glidemæh translates "only" or "alone".
• lenta means "together (with)"; when used as a particle, it requires a noun in genitive case - e.g. lili buneyi lenta "I, together with my older sister".
• maifu translates "enough"; it requires a noun in genitive case or a verb in the indicative mood.
• udvī translates "without"; it requires a noun in essive case or a verb in subjunctive mood.

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 tū drayivegde "neither Jādāh nor Lañekaica did it".
• X gyęe Y mbu — translating "either X or Y". gyęe is the adverb derived from gyake (to be). e.g. jādāh gyęe lañekaica mbu tū drayivegde "either Jādāh or Lañekaica did it".
• X gyęe Y tora no — translating "both X and Y"; e.g. jādāh gyęe lañekaica tora no tū drayivegde "both Jādāh and Lañekaica did it".

Emphatic particles

A few particles are used (usually sentence-finally) in order to convey particular feelings of the speaker about the statement:

• å expresses either surprise (at the beginning of a sentence) or that the fact is considered annoying (at the end), e.g. å viṣęe dadrāte "wow, (s)he's done it again!" / viṣęe dadrā å "oh no, (s)he's done it again!"
• dā gives the sentence, especially a command or a proposition, an informal tone - cf. German "mal" or Italian "un po'", e.g. najire tū mešute dā "I'll just see what happens"; peithos dā "just calm down and take a walk around here."
• e is a basic declarative particle when used word-finally, and is often used as an introduction (much like "you know, ...") or as a generic filler.
• nane is a tag question, e.g. camiyūs vali dam nane? "you're from Cami, aren't you?"
• naihā is a tag question much like nane, but is used when the speaker is in doubt and/or expects a contradictory answer, e.g. flære draute dam naihā? "did I do it yesterday, or...?"
• pos is a filler with a meaning similar to tau, but it is more properly translated as emphasizing that the speaker considers the statement as a general truth or a widely accepted thing, e.g. ālīce jeldegde pos "yeah, everybody knows (s)he acts that way/does that kind of things."
• sāṭ expresses the speaker's doubt about the honesty of the expressed action, e.g. tamie tamiu draukæ sāṭ "(s)he did it for me, but I don't believe that's what (s)he really wanted" or "as if (s)he really did it for me!"
• tau emphasizes that the fact expressed is considered obvious, and is fairly colloquial, e.g. lārvājuṣe mos tau "huh, I was at the temple, nothing else"; kitui vasau tau "I drove home [what else could I do?]"
• tva puts strong emphasis on a declarative sentence; it is fairly colloquial and not polite, and thus avoided in formal speech, e.g. nenėyu daudiute tati ukulaṃte tva! "damn, I said I want that, shut up!"

Derivational morphology - Vāmbeithausire 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.
With a few roots whose vowel is -o-, -un is used instead.

• lgut (to buy) → lgutūm (something bought)
• peith (to go, walk (multidirectional)) → peithūm (walk)
• yālv (to be sweet (taste)) → yālvūm (sweet taste)
• storg (offices, factories: to be open, to work) → storgun (working hours)

-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 -aus- adjectival verb (e.g. chlærausake ((to be) 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) → ñailūvišam (coldness)
• nevь (to model, to give a form) → nevīšam (plastic) (This word underwent a meaning shift from "modellability" to a common material with that quality, replacing the derived form nevīšandhūs previously used. "Modellability" is niavyāva in contemporary Chlouvānem.)

-āmita (-ьāmita when used with nouns with thematic e or i), often with high-grade ablaut, is another suffix forming quality nouns, but it is often more abstract, being translatable with suffixes like English -ism.

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

-endān (-indān after voiced stops, and -innān after d), with middle-grade ablaut, has various generic and sometimes unpredictable meanings.

•  māl (to keep together) → mālendān (number)
•  lij (to sing) → lejindān (choir)
•  dæld (to speak) → dældinnān (voice)

-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:

• lalteh (friend (female)) → laltelāṇa (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.

•  haisah (pineapple) → haisænah (pineapple tree)
•  maɂika (uncooked rice) → maɂikænah (rice plant)
• šikālas (prickly pear) → šikālænah (prickly pear cactus)

-yūs is used with toponyms and is one of the most common ways to form demonyms. 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 → līlasuṃghāṇyūs
• Cami → camiyūs
• Galiākina → galiākyūs

Verbs

Denominal verbs, in Chlouvānem, are not formed with derivational suffixes; a "light verb" is attached to the semantic root instead; the semantic root remains invariable but the light verb is conjugated (as a prefixed one). The light verb used are especially dṛke (to do, make), but also jilde (to do an action), jānake (to feel (physical)), and gyake (to be). Some examples:

• āmaya (collection) → āmayadṛke (to collect)
• språma (glue) → språñjilde (to glue)
• jålkha (cold (sensation)) → jålkhajānake (to be/feel cold)
• ñailūh (ice) → tæñailūgyake (to freeze) (note the tæ- dynamic prefix).

The other basic derived formation is the frequentative verb, formed with reduplication (with a long vowel) and -ve(y)- (-vi(y)- in the past tense). -ṛ reduplicates as ṝ, but becomes a in the root.
Due to the common use of this form in modern Chlouvānem, some grammarians consider it as an inflectional category instead of a derivation. Note though that for motion verbs only multidirectional ones have a frequentative form (with iterative meaning); the multidirectionals already act as frequentative forms of the monodirectionals.

• dṛ- (to do) → dṝdave- (to repetitively do)
• na-gya- (to happen) → nagājave- (to keep happening; to regularly happen, to occur) (gya- reduplicates as gi-ja-, with the i from the root y).
• -gya- (to be) + various prefixes → bīgijave- (to cease to be); galagijave- (to remain in one place; to visit; to keep being)
• tvorg- (to fear) → totvargve- (to fear over and over again) (tvo- reduplicates as to- instead of tva-).
• låvy- (to slip) → laulavive- (to slip around here and there) (-å- reduplicates as -au- and becomes a in the root).

Note that nairīveke conjugates as a frequentative verb, but is not frequentative and does not have frequentative forms.
Frequentative perfect stems have the ablauted vowel in the reduplication and a long one in the root (cf. miš-, bare frequentative mīmišve-, perfect frequentative memīšve-); both vowels are long for non-ablauted stems (cf. nāmv-, nānamve-, nānāmve-).
Inverse ablauting roots have similar rules: the bare frequentative uses the reduplication of the nonreduced root and the reduced vowel in the root itself (vald- → va-uld-ve- → voldve-); the frequentative perfect is like the normal frequentative of other verbs, with the long vowel in the reduplication only (vald- → vāvaldve-).

Adjectival verbs

Adjectival verbs, however, do have some ways to be derived from other parts of speech.

-ūk-ke is the most common adjectival verb-forming suffix, denoting something strictly related to an object or a verb. Note that they are all thematic verbs, even if their infinitive is contracted (Archaic Chl. -ūkake → Classical and Modern -ūkke). Often they are interchangeable with the genitive form of the noun they derived from:

• avyāṣa (time) → avyāṣūkke ([to be] temporal)
• chlærūm (light) → chlærūkke (of the light)
• daša (rain) → dašūkke (rainy, concerning rain)


-uy-a-ke is a rarer variant of -ūk-ke, most commonly found for qualities related to people, but not exclusively (see third example):

• jāyim (girl) → jāyimuyake (girly, girlish)
• saṃhāram (boy) → saṃhāruyake (boyish)
• irūtākalam (atom) → irūtāruyake (atomic) (the -r is etymological from Ancient Kūṣṛmāṭhi)

-aus-a-ke (rarely -us-a-ke) forms adjectival verbs related to a quality that is applied to some object, but more abstractly related than those formed with -ūkke; sometimes they are only figurative:

• chlærūm (light) → chlærausake (easy)
• pāṇi (side) → pāṇyausake (peripheral, less important)
• namęlь (to make an effort, to apply oneself, to work harder) → namęliausake (Stakhanovite)

-nilt-a-ke translates English -able, and the circumfix uṣ- -niltake translates to "un- -able" or, sometimes, "difficult to X". The rare ñæi- -niltake 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) → tṛlniltake (understandable) → uṣṭṛlniltake (uncomprehensible; difficult to understand) / ñæitṛlniltake (easy to understand)
• yųl (to eat) → yųlniltake (edible) → uṣyųlniltake (unedible)
• lgut (to buy) → lgutniltake (buyable) → ulgutniltake (not buyable)

-ṣeni-ke (morph. senь-ke, all root verbs) translates "having X as a quality", usually added to nouns, or "X-like" in some cases; it may be synonymous with the -dhūs derivative. u- and i- stems (thus -uh, -ih, -us...) lengthen that vowel before the suffix.

• rahėlah (health) → rahėlṣenike (healthy)
• nakṣuma (music) → nakṣuṃṣenike (having a musical talent)
• meimairuh (emerald) → meimairūṣenike (emeraldine, emerald-like)

Compound verbs

Chlouvānem uses compound verbs as its main method of deriving verbs from nouns. Such "verbs" are actually a nominal root which does not decline followed by a conjugating verb. The verb used influences the meaning that the compound will have:

• dṛke (to do) is probably the most commonly used, and may have a meaning of using something (denoted by the nominal root) to treat something else (cf. bikṣurdṛke "to deodorize" < bikṣurga "deodorant"), of moving or acting like the nominal root (yināṃdṛke "to protect" < yinām "protection"), or of simply having or creating something (āmayadṛke "to collect" < āmaya "collection").
• kitte (to put) is used for a meaning of addition of the nominal root or its characteristics to something (cf. nanūkkitte "to add salt" < nanūkah "salt).
• męlike (to give) is sometimes used with the same meaning as kitte (cf. juniāmęlike "to plant flowers" < juniā "flower").
• jilde (to act) is used for subjects "emitting" or "giving off" something (cf. lāhajilde "to judge" < lāham "judgement"), also for subjects possessing (dhokajilde "to mean" < dhokam "meaning") or undergoing something (lañšijilde "to marry" < lañši (arch.) braid, wedding), and also for weather phenomena (dašajilde "to rain" < daša "rain").
• gyake (to be) is used, like in one meaning of dṛke, for moving or acting like the nominal root. Typically, it is more for states than actions (the prototypical and most common example is pṛšcāṃgyake "to be pleasing" < pṛšcām "something pleasing").
• jānake (to feel) has a meaning partially overlapping with gyake (and dṛke), particularly marking the "feeling" of a (usually uncontrollable) condition (jålkhajānake "to be cold" < jålkha "cold").
• milke (to take) has a varied range of meaning: getting or gathering something (vīrādhmilke "to adopt" < vīrādhen "orphan"; mailьlut(a)milke "to take advantage" < mailьluta "advantage"), also the opposite, taking something away (cf. rantamilke "to peel (fruits)" < rantas "peel"), and also overlapping partially with kitte and męlike in marking the addition of something or, more, properly, the act of bringing something (prātamilke "to get windy; (figur.) to accelerate" < prātas "wind" - cf. prātajilde "to be windy").
• bismilke (to take away) and bīdṛke (to destroy) are used, more commonly than milke, for the meaning of removing or taking something away: (ssūbismilke "to calm down" < ssūgis "something that worries"; lilembīdṛke "(euphem.) to kill" < liloe "life").

Prefixes

Prefixes are a major part of Chlouvānem derivational morphology. Most of them are the same as for positional and motion verbs — for their formation and use, see the related section. Most prefixes are used with verbs, and are found with nouns only in derived forms; some of them, however, can be used also or exclusively with nouns and adjectives. Prefixes derive usually from Proto-Lahob, but a few chiefly nominal ones are from Ancient Kūṣṛmāthi words.
Here follows a complete list of all prefixes used in Chlouvānem and their meaning. When two prefixes are divided by a wave dash, the first is lative and the second is ablative; NOM marks meanings of nouns derived with that prefix.

Positional and motional prefixes

• ta- 〜 tų- - generic direction

• ān- 〜 yana- - on, above
• šu- 〜 šer- - under, below
• khl- 〜 kelь- - between
• gin- 〜 ją- - among
• nī- 〜 ani- - within/from within inside
• ū(b)- 〜 yom- - close to
• bis- 〜 bara- - far, away
• tad- 〜 tasi- - attached to; against
• įs- 〜 hos- - hanging
• na(ñ)- 〜 neni- - inside
• kau- 〜 kuvi- - outside
• viṣ- 〜 vyeṣa- - opposite; somewhere else
• kami- 〜 kįla- - around
• prь- 〜 paro- - behind
• mai- 〜 mīram- - in front of
• vai- 〜 vea- - in a corner; bordering; at the limit
• ėle- 〜 ora- - next to; along; on the side of
• lā(d)- 〜 lo(d)- - in the center of
• vyā- 〜 veši- - left
• māha- 〜 mege- - right
• pid- - facing (positional only)
• nalь- - towards the center; inwards; convergent movement
• vād- - away from the center; outwards; divergent movement

Motional prefixes

• be- 〜 ter- - along the surface
• gala- 〜 hali- - through, across
• naš- - completely, until the end; NOM: omni-, pan-, entirely
• vod- - avoiding
• paṣ- - ahead, beyond; also NOM: further, again, re-
• sam- - movement to the following place/person/object in a set; NOM: after, post-

Verbal-only prefixes

• tæ(m)- - inceptive/inchoative
• raš- - to do something a bit more than needed (ral- or rar- before voiced consonants)
• yā- - too much
• iva- - completely, also intensive
• nare- - applicative (nar- before another prefix)
• min- - transitivizer of intransitive verbs

Other prefixes

• o- - before, pre-, proto-, preceding (os- before vowels)
• tailь- - multi-, pluri-
• lail- or tūt- (alternative forms laili- and tūtu-) - one, mono-, uni-, homo-
• lani- - same, fellow
• vre- - bad
• demi- - self-

Specific terms

Derivational terms considered "specific" are those mostly found in certain jargons. Some of these are applied directly to an Ancient Kūṣṛmāthi root instead of a Chlouvānem one:

Used in politics and/or the arts:

• -nædani has two main meanings: -ism (as in a doctrine) in a political sense, and -esque in the arts, cf. yaivcārṇædani "communism" (< yaiva "all", cār- "to have"), or lanæmiainædani "in the style of writer Nariejūramāvi Lanæmiai Mæmihomah".
  • -nædounah is the term for a person that follows such a doctrine or style, cf. yaivcārṇædounah "communist"; lanæmiainædounah "someone whose writing is Lanæmiaiësque".
  • Note that lija and lejīn (lit. "song" and "singer") were formerly alternatives to these. They notably remain in nāɂahilūṃlija "politico-religious doctrine inspired by Great Inquisitor Kælahīmāvi Nāʔahilūma Martayinām; Yunyalīlti religious extremism" and nāɂahilūṃlejīn, as well as in arāmilija "pacifism".

Used for medical terminology:

• -gulas usually translates "-philia" or "-mania", particularly in medical contexts, e.g. ryukagulas "masochism" from ryuka "pain".
  • -gulašåliė is the related term for someone who has that (thus "-philiac" or "-maniac"), e.g. ryukagulašåliė "masochist".
• -ræṣka is a generic term used in medicine for names of illnesses or conditions affecting health, e.g. nalekiræṣka "obesity" from Lällshag naleki "fat"; vrayegårlæṣka "dysphagia" (note dissimilation of -rr-) from vre- (bad) and egåram (stomach).
  • -ræṣkanis is the term for someone affected by a rauga, e.g. nalekiræṣkanis "obese", vrayegårlæṣkanis "dysphagic".
• -ītsun is a rarer alternative to -rauga, e.g. vrayobulītsun "asplenia" (vre- (bad) + obula (spleen)), or lagukītsun "paralysis" (the latter with the root of Lällshag gahoke (still)).
  • -ītsunis is the corresponding term for affected organisms, e.g. vrayobulītsunis "aspleniac", lagukītsunis "paralyzed".
• -yūtan is used for inflammatory diseases, cf. "-itis", like ṇīṭyūtan (dermatitis) or āḍhyāsnūliyūtan (meningitis).