Chlouvānem/Morphology

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

Nouns - Halenī

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


• Three numbers:

Singular (lailausis niañis)

Dual (daniausis niañis)


Plural (tailiausis niañis)

• Eleven cases:


Direct (daradhūkah dirūnnevya)

Vocative (halauseh dirūnnevya)


Accusative (dṛṣokah dirūnnevya)

Ergative (darinūkah dirūnnevya)

Genitive (cārūkah dirūnnevya)


Translative (najamarcūkah dirūnnevya)


Exessive (nenijamarcūkah dirūnnevya)

Essive (gyauseh dirūnnevya)

Dative (męliauseh dirūnnevya)

Ablative (tųflunūkah dirūnnevya)

Locative (yutiūkah dirūnnevya)

Nouns also have grammatical gender, being divided in three classes (called dragon, lotus, and parrot based on nouns included in them).

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

Gender

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

Dragon nouns (kaṃšūlñī halenī):

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

Lotus nouns (yujamñī halenī):

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

Parrot nouns (geltañī halenī):

• 1h: nouns ending in -a, -ah, -ā, or -āh
• 2h: nouns ending in -ė or -eh (plus some diminutives ending in -ėh)
• 3h: nouns ending in -uh or -ūh, 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

Dragon nouns - Kaṃšūlñī halenī

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

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

Lotus nouns - Yujamñī halenī

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"	yujandi	yujye	tūlum "worm"	tūlundi	tūluvye	jāyim "girl"	jāyinьdi	jāyiñe	lunai "tea"	lunaidi	lunāye
Vocative	yujam	yujandi	yujye	tūlu	tūlundi	tūluvye	jāyī	jāyinьdi	jāyiñe	lunai	lunaidi	lunāye
Accusative	yujamu	yujandau	yujāmūn	tūlau	tūlundau	tūlumūn	jāyimu	jāyinьdau	jāyimin	lunāyu	lunaidau	lunainū
Ergative	yujamei	yujandeni	yujamān	tūluṃs	tūlundeni	tūlumān	jāyimei	jāyinьdeni	jāyimān	lunea	lunaideni	lunæyān
Genitive	yujami	yujandais	yujammi	tūlumvi	tūlundais	tūloumi	jāyimi	jāyinьdeis	jāyiñumi	lunayi	lunaidais	lunæyumi
Translative	yujaman	yujyoh	yujyoh	tūluman	tūluvyoh	tūluvyoh	jāyiman	jāyiñyoh	jāyiñyoh	lunāyan	lunāyoh	lunāyoh
Exessive	yujamat	yujamyās	yujamyās	tūlumat	tūlumyās	tūlumyās	jāyimæt	jāyiñyās	jāyiñyās	lunāyat	lunāyās	lunāyās
Essive	yujamą	yujamvin	yujamvin	tūlumą	tūlumvin	tūlumvin	jāyimą	jāyimvin	jāyimvin	lunąis	lunaivin	lunaivin
Dative	yujamom	yujyeiti	yujyeiti	tūlumom	tūluvyeiti	tūluvyeiti	jāyimom	jāyimėti	jāyimėti	lunāmom	lunāyeiti	lunāyeiti
Ablative	yujamų	yujamñis	yujamñis	tūlumų	tūlumñis	tūlumñis	jāyimų	jāyimñīs	jāyimñīs	lunāyų	lunaiñīs	lunaiñīs
Locative	yujamñe	yujailīm	yujailīm	tūlumñe	tulŏlīm	tulŏlīm	jāyimñe	jāyælīm	jāyælīm	lunaiñe	lunæyilīm	lunæyilīm

Note that all lotus 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 mālchęn "the kids run".
These unmarked plurals are regular - note that hulin (woman) has both a regular plural (hulin), used in a wider scope (e.g. chlouvānumi hulin "Chlouvānem women") and an irregular plural (hilāni) used in other contexts (e.g. nanā hilāni "those women there").

Parrot nouns - Geltañī 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"	māradi	mārai	javileh "apple"	javiladi	javilei	camūh "group"	camūdi	camūvai	jramih "arrow"	jramīdi	jramīye	lila "person"	lildi	leliė
Vocative	māra	māradi	mārai	javili	javiladi	javilei	camū	camūdi	camūvai	jramī	jramīdi	jramīye	lila	lildi	leliė
Accusative	māru	māradau	mārānu	javilu	javiladau	javilėnu	camou	camūdau	camounu	jramīyu	jramīdau	jrameinu	lilu	lildau	leliu
Ergative	mārei	māradeni	mārān	javiliai	javiladeni	javilėn	camūvei	camūdeni	camoun	jramīyi	jramīdeni	jramein	lilei	lildeni	leliei
Genitive	māri	māradais	mārumi	javili	javiladais	javilumi	camūvi	camūdais	camūmi	jramīyi	jramīdais	jramiūmi	leli	lildais	laili
Translative	māran	māryāh	māryāh	javilan	javilyāh	javilyāh	camūn	camūyāh	camūyāh	jramīn	jramīyāh	jramīyāh	lilan	lelian	lelian
Exessive	mārat	māryās	māryās	javilet	javilyās	javilyās	camūt	camūyās	camūyās	jramīt	jramīyās	jramīyās	lilat	leliat	leliat
Essive	māręs	mārvin	mārvin	javilęs	javilein	javilein	camųs	camūvin	camūvin	jramįs	jramīvin	jramīvin	liląs	lailąs	lailąs
Dative	mārom	mārauti	mārauti	javilom	javiliauti	javiliauti	camvom	camvauti	camvauti	jramiom	jramiauti	jramiauti	lilom	leliom	leliom
Ablative	mārų	mārenīs	mārenīs	javilių	javilenīs	javilenīs	camųu	camūnīs	camūnīs	jramių	jramīnīs	jramīnīs	lilų	lelių	lelių
Locative	māre	mārilīm	mārilīm	javiliye	javililīm	javililīm	camve	camŏlīm	camŏlīm	jramie	jramīlīm	jramīlīm	lile	laile	laile

Exceptions for duals and plurals

A few Chlouvānem nouns have irregular plurals:

• The word chlouvānem 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 chlouvānānu, ergative chlouvānān, genitive chlouvānumi);
• maila “water” does not have a dual form outside of colloquial use (where mailadi 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. chlouvānumi 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.
• švas "animal (including humans)" pluralizes as švai, as if it were a parrot noun; all cases except for direct and vocative are however regular.
• There are some pluralia tantum: pārye “hair”, kāraṇḍhai “guts”, and all ethnonyms; also agṇyaucai (perfect exterior participle, parrot plural, of gṇyauke “to give birth”) when used with the meaning of “sons and daughters”.
• A few nouns are singularia tantum: hærṣūs “lips”, maula “breasts”, kanai “spices”, paʔeh “dust”, nāmvāvi “dust (made by crushing something)”, måris “ash”, ñailūh “ice”.
• 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.

Adjectives and adverbs - Maihaleniausī khladaradhausī no halenī

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

Dragon gender (kaṃšūlñis)

There are three main adjectival declensions: -as, -us, and -is; a small subset of -es adjectives (mainly ordinal numbers) follows the -is pattern except for plural direct and vocative (having -eye instead of -ī) and having -e as a thematic vowel instead of -i before endings.
The irregular adjective līleskais (new) declines as if it were *līleskis.

Translative, exessive, essive, dative, ablative, and locative forms are exactly the same as for nouns. Forms that are different from the nominal declensions are in bold:

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

Lotus gender (yujamñis)

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

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

Parrot gender (geltañis)

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

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

Irregular adjectives

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

• The possessives: liliā - lilem - liles (my, mine), sāmiā - sāmim - sāmes (your(s) (sg)), demiā - demim - demes (one's own), tamiā - tamim - tames (his, her(s), its), maiyā - maiyem - maiyes (our(s)), najyā - nagem - nages (your(s) (pl)), tomiā - tomim - tomes (their(s))
• The Classical/modern demonstratives: nenė - nenayem - nenayes (proximal), nunū - numvem - numves (medial), nanā - nanām - nanās (distal)
• The archaic demonstratives: ami - em - es (proximal), uteni - utam - utas (medial), āteni - ātam - ātas (distal)
• All compounds with one of these (most commonly ami).

There are three main declensional paradigms: all of them follow the ā-paradigm except the parrot forms of nenė and nunū. Note that ami, uteni and āteni keep the palatalization also in the locative case (e.g. amiea):

Case	ā-paradigm			ė-paradigm	ū-paradigm
	Parrot	Lotus	Dragon	Parrot	Parrot
Direct Vocative	liliā	lilem	liles	nenė	nunū
Accusative	liliau	lilemu	lileṣu	nenæyu	nunūyu
Ergative	lilie	lilemie	lilesie	nenæye	nunūye
Genitive	liliai	lilemñi	lilesiai	neniai	nunūyai
Translative	liliān			nenėn	nunūn
Exessive	liliāt			nenėt	nunūt
Essive	liliąa			nenęe	nunųu
Dative	liliåh			neneah	nunouh
Ablative	liliąu			nenėhu	nunūvu
Locative	lilea			nenėhea	nunūvea

Adverbs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comparatives and superlatives

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

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

Absolute superlatives (very,...) are formed by reduplicating the adjective (or, colloquially, part of it, like for ñæñuchlim "beautiful" → ñæñu-ñæñuchlim) or by putting taili (many, much) in front:

kaṣrūm saṃhāram "handsome boy" → kaṣrūm kaṣrūm saṃhāram "very handsome boy" (or taili kaṣrūm saṃhāram)

ñæñuchlim laleichim "beautiful wife" → ñæñuchlim ñæñuchlim laleichim "very beautiful wife" (or taili ñæñuchlim laleichim)

taili naviṣya "many books" → taili taili naviṣya "a lot of books"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Irregular forms

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

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

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

Verbs - Daradhūvī

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

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

Potentially every Chlouvānem verb, no matter if exterior or interior, has a causative conjugation which is considered an inflection and not a derivation, even if the meanings may vary: mišake is an extreme example as each form has a different meaning (with particularly interior forms having many meanings) - non-causative exterior mešu "I am seen", interior meširu "I know; I see myself"; and causative exterior 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 (dṛṣokas tadgeroe) (unmarked);
• agent-trigger (darīnūkas tadgeroe) (transitive and ditransitive verbs only);
• benefactive-trigger (chārimęlīnūkas tadgeroe);
• antibenefactive-trigger (tatflunsusūkas tadgeroe);
• locative-trigger (yutiūkas tadgeroe);
• dative-trigger (męliausis tadgeroe) (mostly ditransitive verbs);
• instrumental-trigger (drausis 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 (tailьcārṣusas tadgeroe).

Chlouvānem verbs also conjugate for four different tense-aspect combinations (simply tenses (avyāṣa - pl. avyāṣai)): present (kaminænikah avyāṣa), past (dāṃdeniah avyāṣa), perfect (mīraṃnajauseh avyāṣa), and future (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.

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

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

The nine primary moods (lalladarišam, pl. -šye) are:

• indicative (chlåvdiausim darišam) - the realis mood;
• imperative (spruvyūkam darišam) - used for giving orders or commands;
• desiderative (daudiūkam darišam) - used to express a desire or will (e.g. I want to X);
• necessitative (rileyūkam darišam) - used to express need or obligation (e.g. I have to X);
• potential (novam darišam) - used to express the ability to do something (e.g. I can [= am able to] X)
• permissive (drippūkam darišam) - used to express the permission to do something (e.g. I can [= I’m allowed to] X)
• optative (purmanūkam darišam) - used to express wishes or hopes;
• propositive (maikitūkam darišam) - used to express proposals (e.g. let’s X; why don’t you X);
• subjunctive (milkausim 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.

The seven secondary moods (šudarišam, pl. -šye) are:

• five of them 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 (lailehūkas daradhūs) (the -ke form, called infinitive hereafter) as well as a large number of attributive and adverbial participles (maihaleniausis daradhūs and khladaradhausis daradhūs), with forms for most voices and tenses and a distinction into modal adverbs, homofocal gerundives and heterofocal gerundives.

Verb classes and infinitive

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

• a-root, or thematic: the most basic and regular, formed by adding a to the root before non-vocalic endings.
• Athematic: as above, without a; endings are added directly to the root.
• Ablauting root: formed by the root with ablaut changes in its main vowel, plus a before non-vocalic endings.
  • Athematic ablauting root: a small subset conjugating as above, but without a.
• ah verbs: verbs which add -ah (or its allomorphs -ar, -aš, -ą) to the root.

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

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

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

The infinitive (lailehūkas 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));
  • 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).

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. ru verbs change -ru with -su.

Person		a-root		Athematic		Ablaut		-ah-		-ru-
		nāmvake "to crush, press"		gṇyauke "to give birth; int.: to be born"		mišake "to see"		lilke "to live; int.: to get healed"		pāṭṭaruke "to study; int. to be taught"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvu	nāmviru	gṇyāvu	gṇyāviru	mešu	meširu	lilah	lilęru	pāṭṭasū	pāṭṭasuru
	2nd	nāmvi	nāmviris	gṇyāvi	gṇyāviris	meši	meširis	lilaši	lilęris	pāṭṭasuvi	pāṭṭasuris
	3rd	nāmvė	nāmvire	gṇyāvė	gṇyāvire	mešė	mešire	lilah	lilęre	pāṭṭasuvė	pāṭṭasure
Dual	1st	nāmvayou	nāmviryou	gṇyauyou	gṇyāviryou	mešayou	miširyou	lilahou	lilęryou	pāṭṭasuyou	pāṭṭasuryou
	2nd	nāmvadia	nāmvirdia	gṇyaudia	gṇyāvirdia	mešadia	miširdia	lilardia	lilęrdia	pāṭṭasudia	pāṭṭasurdia
	3rd	nāmvade	nāmvirde	gṇyaude	gṇyāvirde	mešade	miširde	lilarde	lilęrde	pāṭṭasude	pāṭṭasurde
Pl.	1st	nāmvalieh	nāmvirileh	gṇyaulieh	gṇyāvirileh	mešalieh	miširileh	liląlieh	lilęrileh	pāṭṭasulieh	pāṭṭasurileh
	2nd	nāmvašin	nāmviršin	gṇyaušin	gṇyāviršin	mešašin	miširšin	liląšin	lilęršin	pāṭṭasušin	pāṭṭasuršin
	3rd	nāmvīran	nāmvirean	gṇyāvīran	gṇyāvirean	mešīran	miširean	lilah	lilęrean	pāṭṭasuvīran	kumesurean

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	nāmvildeyou	nāmvildṛyou	maišildeyou	maišildṛyou	uvaldildeyou	uvaldildṛyou
	2nd	nāmvildedia	nāmvildṛdia	maišildedia	maišildṛdia	uvaldildedia	uvaldildṛdia
	3rd	nāmvildede	nāmvildṛde	maišildede	maišildṛde	uvaldildede	uvaldildṛde
Pl.	1st	nāmvildīleh	nāmvildrīleh	maišildīleh	maišildrīleh	uvaldildīleh	uvaldildrīleh
	2nd	nāmvildešin	nāmvildṛšin	maišildešin	maišildṛšin	uvaldildešin	uvaldildṛšin
	3rd	nāmvilderie	nāmvildrelie	maišilderie	maišildrelie	uvaldilderie	uvaldildrelie

Imperative

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

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

Person		Non-causative			Causative
		nāmvake "to crush, press"
		Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior	Ex. patientive	Ex. agentive	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvikṣam	nāmvyasti	nāmvirkam	nāmviljam	nāmvildasti	nāmvildṛṣam
	2nd	nāmveik	nāmva	nāmvih	nāmvildeik	nāmvilda	nāmvildireik
	3rd	nāmveitte	nāmvya	nāmvirda	nāmvildeitte	nāmvildya	nāmvildirda
Dual	1st	No dual imperative forms
	2nd
	3rd
Pl.	1st	nāmvikṣumi	nāmvyasmi	nāmvirkumi	nāmviljumi	nāmvildasmi	nāmvildrumi
	2nd	nāmveikus	nāmvyęs	nāmvirkus	nāmvildeikus	nāmvildęs	nāmvildṛkus
	3rd	nāmveicąt	nāmvyęt	nāmvircąt	nāmviljąt	nāmvildęt	nāmvildṛcąt

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!").

Past Indicative

In the past indicative, -ah verbs are not distinguished as a conjugation, behaving instead like root verbs. Frequentative verbs in -ve(y)- are completely regular, but the suffix becomes -vi(y)-, e.g. mīmīšviyo "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, and plural interior forms. Exterior forms:

Person		a-root		Athematic		Ablaut
		nāmvake "to crush, press"		gṇyauke "to give birth; int.: to be born"		mišake "to see"
		Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior	Exterior	Interior
Sing.	1st	nāmvau	nāmvirau	gṇyāvau	gṇyāviru	mišau	miširau
	2nd	nāmvei	nāmvirei	gṇyāvei	gṇyāvirei	mišei	miširei
	3rd	nāmvo	nāmviro	gṇyāvo	gṇyāviro	mišo	miširo
Dual	1st	nāmvaram	nāmvirlam	gṇyauram	gṇyāvirlam	mišaram	miširlam
	2nd	nāmvares	nāmvirles	gṇyaures	gṇyāvirles	mišares	miširles
	3rd	nāmvadat	nāmvirdat	gṇyaudat	gṇyāvirdat	mišadat	miširdat
Pl.	1st	nāmvanāja	nāmvirāja	gṇyaunāja	gṇyāvirāja	mišanāja	miširāja
	2nd	nāmvaneši	nāmvireši	gṇyauneši	gṇyāvireši	mišaneši	mišireši
	3rd	nāmvayivė	nāmvirivė	gṇyauyivė	gṇyāvirivė	mišayivė	miširivė

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	nāmvildo	nāmvildra	maišildo	maišildra	uvaldildo	uvaldildra
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, formed by prefijing the root vowel (shortened, oral, and with the basic root ablaut) to the stem. 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 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

Future indicative

The 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)).

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

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:

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

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

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

The subjunctive mood

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

The subjunctive is fairly regular for all verbs, using (except in the causative conjugation) the most basic form of the root — that is, without nā/nī suffixes and in basic grade ablaut; the only exceptions being inverse ablauting roots which use their weakened form (e.g. valde uses uld- and not vald-). A peculiarity of the subjunctive is that number is distinguished only in the first person: second person forms are the same for all numbers, as are third person ones.

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	nāmvireneh	nāmvildīneja	nāmvildṛneja
	2nd	nāmvīniši	nāmvirenis	nāmvildīniši	nāmvildṛniši
	3rd	nāmvīyevatь	nāmvirevatь	nāmvildīvatь	nāmvildṛyevatь

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 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.

The stem is formed by taking the root with vowel lengthening and adding -eina- after consonants (-ouna- after l) and -vūna- after vowels.

Example (nāmvake “to crush, press”):

• Imperfective: exterior nāmveinu, nāmveini, nāmveinė, … interior nāmveiniru, …; causative ext. nāmveinajrām, …; caus. int. nāmveiniljrām, …
• Perfective: ext. nāmveinau, nāmveinei, nāmveinitь, … int. nāmveinirau, …; caus. ext. nāmveinajriou, …; caus. int. nāmveiniljriou, …
• Propositive: ext. nāmveinikṣam, nāmveinikṣa, nāmveinikṣai, … int. nāmveinikuru, …; caus. ext. nāmveiñjriṣam, …; caus. int. nāmveiñjriuru, ...

The desiderative mood

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

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

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

• f- as p-;
• l- in the initial clusters lk-, lkh-, lg-, or lgh- reduplicates as n-.
• Initial clusters which begin with s-, ṣ-, š-, or v- use the first consonant which is not one of them (but šv- reduplicates as š-);
• Verbs with ablaut always have middle-grade ablaut; ṛ reduplicates as a;
• Inverse-ablaut verbs have the consonant of the unreduced root but the reduced vowel;
• Roots beginning with vowels are regular, reduplicating the otherwise allophonic initial ʔ.
• Prefixes are added before the reduplicated root.

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

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


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

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 mood stems are:


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

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

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



A few verbs have completely irregular stems:

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

• milke “to take”: mūṃchl-.

The necessitative mood

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

Examples:

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

The potential mood

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

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

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

The permissive mood

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

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

Bisyllabic roots which have as their second syllable an unstressed vowel between two consonants that may form an allowed cluster (thus sonorant-vowel-stop/fricative, except -m-velar) lose this vowel while adding the suffix, e.g. nąroṃke > nąrmippu-.

Secondary moods: evidentiality

NOTE: This section is currently outdated

The four secondary moods expressing evidentiality are formed in two different ways. One of them has a special set of endings, while the other three add a morpheme to the verb. They are only used in the indicative, desiderative, necessitative, permissive, and potential moods, plus in first person imperatives.

The visual evidential is made by adding -mī at the end of the verb, e.g. yąlėmī "it is [being] eaten (I see it)", yąlėnilьmī "(s)he eats (I see it)". The ending is actually a worn down version of mešė, meaning "it is seen".

The first inferential, which refers to any non-visual inference that is probably true (often translatable with "apparently", "looks like"), is formed by special endings, which replace the normal ones (example with pūnake "to work"):

		First inferential endings
		Present	Past	Perfect	Future
Sing.	1st	pūnitasu	pūnitto	upūnitenim	pūnišenim
	2nd	pūnase	pūnitte	upūnitenis	pūnišenis
	3rd	pūnate	pūnitti	upūnitena	pūnišena
Dual	1st	pūnadāsu	pūnadaitu	upūnitanda	pūniṣṭāsu
	2nd	pūnadāse	pūnadaiti	upūnitandes	pūniṣṭāse
	3rd	pūnadātte	pūnadaite	upūnitena	pūniṣṭātte
Pl.	1st	pūnitami	pūnichlīm	upūnitemna	pūniṣyāmna
	2nd	pūnitai	pūnichlīs	upūniteṃša	pūniṣyāṃša
	3rd	pūnitet	pūnitāl	upūnitena	pūniṣyāna

Interior forms add these endings after -ir- (e.g. dældirte "(s)he apparently speaks"); causative forms add them after -ild- for interior verbs and -ilder- for exterior ones, e.g. maišilditenilь "(s)he apparently shows", maišilderite "(s)he apparently learns".

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 -mū after the first inferential endings, e.g. pūnatemū "(s)he might be working, but probably isn't". This is a worn down version of mbu gu (or not).

The reported evidential marks something the speaker does not know first hand; it is formed by adding -kye after the normal endings, e.g. pūnėkye "[I was told/I heard] (s)he works". The ending is a worn down version of kulė (it is said).

The consequential secondary moods

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

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

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

Participles and adverbials

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

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

• Present: exterior -susas, -susam, -susah — interior -sūnis, -sūnim, -sūneh
• Past: exterior -(n)das, -(n)dam, -(n)dah — interior -dris, -drim, -dreh
• Perfect: exterior -cās, -cām, -cāh — interior -cænas, -cænam, -cænah
• Future: exterior -iṣvas, -iṣvam, -iṣvah — interior -iṣunis, -iṣunim, -iṣuneh

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

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

Adverbials (khladaradhausis daradhūs, pl. khladaradhausī daradhūvī) are formed just like participles by adding a set of endings to the stem. There are two types of adverbials: homofocals (tūtulūtimūkas, pl. -ūke), used when the trigger of the adverbial and of the main verb are the same, and heterofocals (vālūtimūkas, pl. -ūke), used when they are different.

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

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

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:

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

glidrirāyem låh ñælftė “I’m sorry for how I behaved.”

priūsimęlīṃsętå gårḍitь “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).

Irregular verbs

Chlouvānem has fourteen major irregular verbs, plus other three with peculiar irregularities. The thirteen major irregular verbs all have different stems in either past and perfect or both; the verb gyake (to be) is extremely irregular due to suppletion, while æflike (to plan, to be going to) is a truly defective verb.
The other twelve major suppletive verbs are (regular stems are in smaller size italic):

Verb	Present stem (without ablaut)	Past stem	Perfect stem
aphake (to turn)	aph-a-	aph-a-	āft-a-
einerke (to float (multidir.))	einer-	paiṇṣ-	iʔīneṣ-
flulke (to go, walk (monodir.))	flun-	dām-a-	elīs-
ghūmake (to blow)	ghūm-a-	ghūm-a-	ghumuṣṭ-a-
ikhlake (to stab)	ikhl-a-	ikhl-a-	īkheṣṭ-a-
keṃšake (to use)	caṃš-a-	keṃš-a-	ekeṃš-a-
khilyake (to write)	khily-a-	paṃšy-a-	ikhily-a-
milke (to take, seize, catch, capture)	milūk-/milk-	milk-	ilak-
mṛcce (to run (monodir.))	mṛc-	pañc-	amṛc-
peithake (to go, walk (multidir.))	peith-a-	papth-a-	apoth-a-
yahike (to read; arch.: to understand)	yahь-	taiši-	ašahь-
yuṇake (to powder; to break with the hands)	yuṇ-a-	yuṇ-a-	yuṇuṣṭ-a-

Note that paiṇṣ-, dām-, paṃšy-, pañc-, papth-, and taiši- all use the present endings instead of the past ones.

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".
Note that the defectiveness does not apply to its derived forms - e.g. švæflike (to believe): švæftilu "I am believed", šunilьyæftilu "I believe" - and æflike itself has regular causative forms (with the meaning of "make X intend to do").

Three verbs have further irregularities:

• The singular present indicative forms of flulke are irregular flå, flin, and fliven.
• milke uses the stem milk- also in the singular present indicative: milku, milki, milkė.
• flulke and męlike have the irregular optative stems fleina- and męliouna- (instead of expected *fluneina- and *męlieina-).

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 ⁓ tanilьmešu (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.

The verb "to be" (gyake)

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

Note that the indicative present is very rarely used, as the copula is usually dropped in most cases; when used with the meaning of "to have" (e.g. lili mæn tulūʔa yambras uñyąt "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.

Indicative mood

Person	Present	Past	Perfect	Future
1SG	valu	mos	egyam	mavū
2SG	vali	moši	egyes	mavei
3SG	væl	moe	egya	mavė
1DU	uñou	moram	egyara	mayou
2DU	undia	mores	egyari	maudia
3DU	unde	moḍat	egya	maude
1PL	ūlieh	monāja	egima	maulieh
2PL	ulšin	moneši	egiša	maušin
3PL	ulīran	mošivė	egya	mavīran

Other primary moods

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

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

Person	Imperative	Subjunctive	Optative	Propositive	Desiderative	Necessitative	Potential	Permissive
1SG	gyekṣam	gyatiam	jeivu	jeivikṣam	muñju	mokṣyu	ginau	maipru
2SG	gyekṣa	gīsei	jeivi	jeivikṣa	muñji	mokṣyi	ginai	maipri
3SG	gyekṣai	gīti	jeivė	jeivikṣai	muñje	mokṣyė	ginai	maiprė
1DU	—	gīderam	jeivayou	—	muñjayou	mokṣyayou	gināyou	maippuyou
2DU	—	gīderes	jeivadia	—	muñjadia	mokṣyadia	ginādia	maippudia
3DU	—	gīdeh	jeivade	—	muñjade	mokṣyade	gināde	maippude
1PL	gyekṣumi	gīneja	jeivalieh	jeivikṣumi	muñjalieh	mokṣyalieh	ginālieh	maippulieh
2PL	gyekṣus	gīniši	jeivašin	jeivikṣus	muñjašin	mokṣyašin	gināšin	maippušin
3PL	gyekṣat	gīyevatь	jeivīran	jeivikṣat	muñjīran	mokṣīran	gineran	maiprīran

In compound verbs

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

• pṛšcāṃgyake "to like" → present pṛšcāmvalu, pṛšcāmvali, pṛšcāmvæl... past pṛšcāmmos, pṛšcāmmosi, pṛšcāmmoe... perfect pṛšcāmegyam... future pṛšcāmmavū ; the same in other moods, e.g. necessitative present pṛšcāmmokṣyu, pṛšcāmmokṣyi...
  Note that in colloquial speech the form of gyake is omitted in the present indicative, e.g. pṛšcām is "to be pleasing" for all persons.
• najake "to happen" (nañ-gya-, irregular saṃdhi) morphologically conjugates like gyake but has some peculiarities:
  • Like gyake, there is no agent-, dative-, and instrumental-trigger voice, but the patient-trigger voice has a dative meaning - e.g. navalu "it happens to me".
  • The basic, semantically patientive forms, are the interior ones (with the stem nañ-gy-ir), and they only exist for the third persons - e.g. najire "it happens", najirde "they (dual) happen", najirean "they happen", and so on.
  • It uses analytic constructions for most moods, e.g. najakenovake "can happen" > najakenovė "it can happen"; najakedaudike "to be wanted to happen" > najakedaudiunilь "I want it to happen" — forms such as the synthetic najinai or namuñjunilь are found only in archaic (mostly pre-Classical) texts or with other uses - as e.g. najinai being the most common word for "maybe".

Analytic constructions and auxiliary verbs

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

• perfect participle in the needed voice + gyake in the 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.
  • uyųlcąnilь mos "I had eaten"
  • uyųlcąnilь mavū "I will have eaten"
• present participle in the needed voice + gyake in the needed tense: compound construction used for the progressive aspect in the three tenses (present, past, future). In the present, the form of gyake is omitted for the third person, or for all persons if a pronoun is present.
  • yųlasusąnilь valu "I am eating"
  • yųlasusąnilь mos "I was eating"
  • yųlasusąnilь mavū "I will be eating"
• infinitive + ñeaʔake (to be used to): compound construction used for a habitual action in present, past, or future tense. It is not used with motion verbs in the present, as the multidirectional verb already unambiguously has this meaning.
  • yaive prājamne yahikeñeaʔunilь "I am used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahikeñeaʔaṃnilь "I used to read every evening"
  • yaive prājamne yahikeñeaʔiṣyaṃnilь "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
  • yųlakenartanilьfliven "(s)he ended up eating"
  • lañšorakenartaflunirean "they ended up marrying each other"
• infinitive (or more formally perfect participle) + kitte (to put): to keep X-ed:
  • valdekitė / uvaldacās 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
  • yųlakayįsnilьtimu "I am about to eat"
  • yahikemaitimė "it is about to be read"
• infinitive + paṣmišake (to look further away): to let X
  • yahikepaknilьmešusė "I let you read"
• infinitive + mālchake (to run (multidirectional)): to keep X-ing (less formal alternative to mai- prefixed verbs)
  • yahikemālchuniliå "I keep reading it" (synonym of mainilьyašutå)

Pronouns

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

Standard Chlouvānem as spoken today uses the following pronouns:

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

The pronouns doubling as adjectives are:

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

Note that both the demonstrative and the possessives are often not declined for gender in common speech in certain areas, most notably the densely populated area of the Jade Coast, including Līlasuṃghāṇa, Līlta, Galiākina, Ilėnimarta, and a few areas near Līṭhalyinām, Talliė, and Lāltaṣveya — an area inhabited by around 100 million people. This also happens in and near Līlikanāna, fourth largest city of the Inquisition, largest in the Southern Far East.
Among younger speakers in some areas the Jade Coast, most notably in Līlasuṃghāṇa, Taitepamba, and Mileyīkhā, they are not inflected at all, e.g. lili nanā phėcamu mišau "I saw that cat", standard lili nanāmu 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 (em, es), medial uteni (utam, utas), and distal āteni (ātam, ātas), which declined in use throughout Classical times, when they were replaced by the newer nenė — nunū — nanā forms.

ami - em - es 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; c.f. "the tiger is seen by the wolf":

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

(Mid-Lāmiejāyi): ėmīla emie bāḍhmānei mešė.

Personal pronouns

			Direct	Accusative		Ergative		Genitive	Translative	Exessive	Essive	Dative	Ablative	Locative
				Full	Clitic	Full	Clitic
Singular	1st person		lili	læl	-(y)æl	lilęi	-(i)lį	liliā	liñ	litь	lęsь	låh	ląu	lea
	2nd person		sāmi	saim	-(s)es	sāmęi	-(i)sę	sāmiā	sāñ	sātь	sąsь	såh	sąu	sea
	3rd person	Parrot	tami	tamiu	-(t)å*	tamie	-(i)tę	tamiā arch.: tamiai	tañ	tatь	tąsь	tåh	tąu	tea
		Dragon	tes	teṣu		tesie		tamiā arch.: tesiai
		Lotus	tem	temu		temie		tamiā arch.: temñi
Reflexive pronoun			demi	deim	-(i)dan	demęi	-(i)dę	demiā	deñ	detь	dęsь	dåh	dąu	dea
Dual	1st person		lileidi	lildū	-(y)ælda	lilden	-(i)lįda	lildes	lildoh	lildās	lildūn	lildotь	lildīs	lildīm
	2nd person		sāmeidi	sādhū	-(s)erda	sādhen	-(i)sęda	sādhes	sādhoh	sādhās	sādhūn	sādhotь	sādhīs	sādhīm
	3rd person	All genders	tameidi	tadhū	-(t)åda*	tadhen	-(i)tęda	tadhes	tadhoh	tadhās	tadhūn	tadhotь	tadhīs	tadhīm
Plural	1st person		mayan	mau	-(y)ælnu	mayęi	-(i)lįnu	maiyā	maiñ	maitь	maisь	måyoh	mayąu	męea
	2nd person		nagan	nåk	-(s)esnu	nagęi	-(i)sęnu	najyā	negiñ	negitь	negisь	någoh	nagąu	nagea
	3rd person	Parrot	toman	tomau	-(t)ånu*	tomān	-(i)tęnu	tomiā	tomiñ	tomitь	tomesь	tomåh	tomąu	tomyea
		Dragon	tyuše	tyušau		tyušān
		Lotus	tyune	tyumau		tyumān
Emphatic pronoun (archaic)			yani	yaim		yanęi		yaniā	yañ	yatь	yąsь	yåh	yąu	yea

Honorific second person pronouns

Most honorific second person pronouns have been adapted to the -i declension of pronouns, with some exceptions (taken by nominal declensions). Clitic forms are always -(s)es/-(i)sę for singular, -(s)erda/-(i)sęda for dual, and -(s)esnu/-(i)sęnu for plural:

	Direct	Accusative	Ergative	Genitive	Translative	Exessive	Essive	Dative	Ablative	Locative
Singular	nujābi also yonujābi	nujābyu	nujābęi	nujābeah	nujāñ	nujātь	nująsь	nujåh	nująu	nujea
	fåri	fåriu	fåręi	fåreah	fåñ	fåtь	fąsь	fåh	fąu	fea
	yomahi	yomašu	yomahęi	yomaheah	yomañ	yomatь	yomąsь	yomåh	yomąu	yomea
	yañji	yañju	yañjęi	yañjeah	yañjiñ	yañjitь	yañjęsь	yañjåh	yañjąu	yañjea
	ūṣṭhi	ūṣṭhi	ūṣṭhęi	ūṣṭheah	ūṣṭhiñ	ūṣṭhitь	ūṣṭhęsь	ūṣṭhåh	ūṣṭhąu	ūṣṭhea
	yavaṣi	yavaṣyu	yavaṣęi	yavaṣeah	yavṣañ	yavṣatь	yavṣęsь	yavṣåh	yavṣąu	yavṣea
Dual	nujāvdi	nujāvdhū	nujāvdhen	nujāvdhes	nujāvdhoh	nujāvdhās	nujāvdhūn	nujāvdhotь	nujāvdhīs	nujāvdhīm
	fårdi	fårdhū	fårdhen	fårdhes	fårdhoh	fårdhās	fårdhūn	fårdhotь	fårdhīs	fårdhīm
	yañjadi	yañjadhū	yañjadhen	yañjadhes	yañjadhoh	yañjadhās	yañjadhūn	yañjadhotь	yañjadhīs	yañjadhīm
	ūṣṭhodi	uṣṭhodū	ūṣṭhoden	ūṣṭhodes	ūṣṭhodoh	ūṣṭhodās	ūṣṭhodūn	ūṣṭhodotь	ūṣṭhodīs	ūṣṭhodīm

Correlatives

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

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

Note that in common speach ālīce and ūlīce as well as ātmena and utmena are basically interchangeable, 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 proximal, medial, and distal, also for number. Those which end in -i decline like pronouns.

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

Honorifics

Honorific pronouns

There are many different pronouns used for second and third person in honorific speech. The rules for using them are mostly dictated by the distance between the two speakers, and, for third persons, the relative distance between them. If a pronoun has no dual form, in dual contexts either one of the plural pronouns, depending on context, is used.

Second person generally used these pronouns:

• sāmi, is used in familiar registers and between females or between males if they are not strangers and they're all of the same rank or of similar age.
• nujābi is used by females for all strangers and for males and nonbinary people of the same rank as them; males use it for male strangers and males of higher rank. Dual: nujāvdi.
• yonujābi is a somewhat more formal alternative to nujābi.
• fåri is used by females for all non-stranger females and nonbinary people of higher rank. Males and nonbinary people use it for all females except close friends and relatives. Dual: fårdi.
• yomahi is a moderately familiar pronoun, kinda intermediate between sāmi and fåri/nujābi.
• yañji is used by females and nonbinary people for same rank nonbinary people, and by males for same- and higher rank nonbinary people. Dual: yañjyadi.
• ūṣṭhi is used by females for all people of lower rank, by males for lower rank males, and by nonbinary people for lower rank nonbinary people. Dual: ūṣṭhodi.
• yavaṣi is used by males for lower rank nonbinary people and by nonbinary people for lower rank males.
• gopūrṭham is an extremely formal pronoun, used with public officials.
  • (go)pūrṭhami brausa or yobrausa is used for the highest ranked Inquisitors and for the Baptist.
    • lalla yobrausa is used exclusively for the Great Inquisitor.
• yakaliyātam is a plural pronoun, used when speaking to a representative of a specifically defined group (institution or company).
• yavyāta is a plural pronoun used for generic, less defined groups.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Honorific titles

→ 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 ui-dhārātīye. In its neutralness relative to rank, it can be compared with the Soviet-era use of товарищ.
• 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.

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

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

Honorific particles

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

• spa makes a verb polite and is put after a verb.
• yoṣa has roughly the same function as spa, but is more polite; pay attention that while spa may be used freely with same- and lower-ranked people, yoṣa in those contexts is considered excessive to the point of being insulting.
• īvai makes a verb humble, and is put after a verb, too.
• yaši is an alternative to spa and yoṣa but always used with third-person verbs. It is always after personal suffixes but, in unprefixed verbs, before the voice, e.g. darė yaši → darėyašisŏ
• nami denotes respect towards the trigger of the verb.
• yo- is a prefix for things pertaining to a honourable person, often used together with a verb with nami.
• dŏ- 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. Cardinal 1, 2, 3, and 4 are declinable adjectives, as are all ordinal and collective ones; 1-4 have separate adverbial forms, while all other ones have an invariable adjective used as multiplicative and a derived adverb used as adverbial. All distributive, fractionary, and cardinal (except 1-4 and compounds) numbers are invariable.

Digit12	Base 10	Cardinal	Ordinal	Collective	Distributive	Adv./Multiplicative	Fractionary
0	0	ajrā	(ajrāyendes)	(ajrāmūh)	(ajrehaicė)	(lājrā)	—
1	1	leil leilum leila	lahīlas	leilamūh	leiluhaicė	leilahæl / lāleil (lāleilum, lāleila)	lahīlvāṭ
2	2	dani danīm danīh	hælinaikas	daniamūh	danihaicė	danihæl / lādani (lādanīm, lādanīh)	hælinaivāṭ
3	3	pāmvi pāmvim pāmveh	pāmvendes	pāmvimūh	pāmvihaicė	pāmvihæl / lāpāmvi (lāpāmvim, lāpāmveh)	pāmvendvāṭ
4	4	yårṣe yårṣem yårṣeh	yårṣendes	yårṣmūh	yårṣhaicė	yårṣhæl / lāyårṣe (lāyårṣem, lāyårṣeh)	yårṣendvāṭ
5	5	furḍe	furḍendes	furḍamūh	furḍhaicė	lāfurḍe	furḍendvāṭ
6	6	tulūʔa	tulūʔendes	tulūʔamūh	tulūʔihaicė	lātulūʔa	tulūʔendvāṭ
7	7	chīka	chīcændes	chīkamūh	chīcihaicė	lāchīka	chīcændvāṭ
8	8	tītya	tītyendes	tītyamūh	tītihaicė	lātītya	tītyendvāṭ
9	9	moja	mojendes	mojmūh	mojihaicė	lāmoja	mojendvāṭ
ᘔ	10	tålda	tåldendes	tåldamūh	tåldihaicė	lātålda	tåldendvāṭ
Ɛ	11	vælden	vældindes	vældemūh	vældihaicė	lāvælden	vældindvāṭ
10	12	māmei	māmindes	māmeimūh	māmeihaicė	lāmāmei	māmindvāṭ
11	13	lelimaye	lelimayindes	lelimaimūh	lelimaihaicė	lālelimaye	lelimayindvāṭ
12	14	danimaye	danimayindes	danimaimūh	danimaihaicė	lādanimaye	danimayindvāṭ
13	15	pamihælī	pamihælīndes	pamihælīmūh	pamihælīhaicė	lāpamihælī	pamihælīndvāṭ
14	16	māmiyårṣe (-m, -h)	māmiyårṣendes	māmiyårṣmūh	māmiyårṣhaicė	lāmāmiyårṣe	māmiyårṣendvāṭ
15	17	māmifurḍe	māmifurḍendes	māmifurḍamūh	māmifurḍhaicė	lāmāmifurḍe	māmifurḍendvāṭ
16	18	māmivælka	māmivælkendes	māmivælkamūh	māmivælkihaicė	lāmāmivælka	māmivælkendvāṭ
17	19	māmichīka	māmichīcændes	māmichīkamūh	māmichīcihaicė	lāmāmichīka	māmichīcændvāṭ
18	20	māmitītya	māmitītyendes	māmitītyamūh	māmitītihaicė	lāmāmitītya	māmitītyendvāṭ
19	21	māmimoja	māmimojendes	māmimojmūh	māmimojihaicė	lāmāmimoja	māmimojendvāṭ
1ᘔ	22	māmitålda	māmitåldendes	māmitåldamūh	māmitåldihaicė	lāmāmitålda	māmitåldendvāṭ
1Ɛ	23	māmivælden	māmivældindes	māmivældemūh	māmivældihaicė	lāmāmivælden	māmivældindvāṭ
20	24	hælьmāmei	hælьmāmindes	hælьmāmeimūh	hælьmāmeihaicė	lāhælьmāmei	hælьmāmindvāṭ

Numbers from 20₁₂ above are simply made by compounding teens and units with the appropriate saṃdhi changes, like 21₁₂ (25₁₀) hælьmāmileil (-um, -a), and then hælьmāmidani (-īm, īh), hælьmāmipāmvi (-m, -eh), and so on. Note that other compounds with 6 use -tulūʔa and not -vælka as in 16₁₂.
The other teens are: 30 (36₁₀) pāmvimāmei, 40 (48₁₀) yårṣmāmei, 50 (60₁₀) fūlmāmei, 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 hælinaikah.

Numbers from 100₁₂ to ƐƐƐ₁₂ are still compounds, e.g. nihælaleil, nihæladani, and so on. Note that 160₁₂ is most commonly nihæltulūʔa, but the more literary form nihælvælka may still be heard.
The other hundreds are 200 (288₁₀) daninihæla, 300 (432₁₀) pāmvinihæla, 400 (576₁₀) yårṣṇihæla, 500 (720₁₀) furḍṇihæla, 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) tulūʔa tildhā daninihælatåldimāmimoja.
Note that 2.000₁₂ may be either one of tildhādi, danīh tildhā, or (only emphatically) danīh tildhādi. As tildhā is a parrot gender noun, 3.000₁₂ and 4.000₁₂ are respectively pāmveh tildhā and yårṣeh tildhā.

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 -endes (-indes 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 1-4 retain all irregularities (suppletive forms, gender), e.g. hælьmāmihælinaikas 22₁₂nd (26₁₀th).

Using numerals

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

• In the most common use, the counted thing is emphasized: the numeral is put before the noun and the noun is always singular (except for "two", see below) plus the appropriate case: e.g. leilum yujam (a lotus flower); danīh māra (two mango fruits); 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 leilum (one lotus flower), māri danīh (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 pāmveh (three cities) but marte pāmviye (in the three cities).
  This form is increasingly less common in everyday use.
• "Two" may be used with either singular or dual number: danīh māra or māri danīh are both as correct as danīh māradi and māradais danīh - note that the dual number alone, without the numeral, has the same meaning. Outside of literary texts, it is however more common to specify "two" with the numeral.

Ordinals, collectives, and multiplicatives are simply used as declinable adjectives, but collectives and multiplicatives are always singular (optionally dual for daniamūh and lādani). e.g. hælinaikah 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 (en) or by context.
Collectives are often used with the meaning of "all X of..." - e.g. tītyamūh lejīn dilu liju lilejlayivėnilь "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 tugīrannilь (with a cardinal) and chīkamūh lalāruṇa tugīrannilь (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 tulūʔihaicė kolecañi alau ulgutaranilь "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 (gen. 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. hælinaikah vaḍa (the second part) → hælinaivāṭ). Unlike ordinals, the noun is always in the genitive case. Examples: marti hælinaivāṭ "half of the city" ; alāvi yårṣendvāṭ "one fourth of the bottle" ; bhæli tulūʔendvaḍe "in one sixth of the country".

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:

• 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).
• en usually requires accusative case and translates to English "than" in comparisons.
• 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. chāra 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 yuyųlsėsŏ ša "(s)he doesn't want to eat").
• laha means "only, just", e.g. lārvājuṣui laha flå "I'm only going to the temple".
• lapi means "with"; when used in instrumental sense it requires ergative case, while the comitative sense requires the essive.
• 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 yuyųlsėsŏ "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. yąlusŏ molusŏ no "I eat and drink", either mėlitu yąlusŏ kolecañu molusŏ no or mėlitu yąlusŏ sama kolecañu molusŏ "I eat curry and drink kvas", but most often mėlitu yąlusŏ sama liliā ñæltah kolecañu molėsŏ "I eat curry and my sister drinks kvas". Note that mėlitu yąlusŏ liliā ñæltah kolecañu molėsŏ 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: dadrāṃsŏvå tī daudiau "I have done it because I wanted to".
• tora translates "also", "too", usually before the verb (e.g. tora uyųlaṃsŏvå "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 dadrāsŏvå "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 have 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".
• maifu translates "enough".
• 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 drāyonasŏvå "neither Jādāh nor Lañekaica did it".
• X jusęe Y mbu — translating "either X or Y". jusęe is a worn-down form of jususęe, adverb form of jususas, present participle of gyake (to be). e.g. jādāh jusęe lañekaica mbu drāyonasŏvå "either Jādāh or Lañekaica did it".
• X jusęe Y tora no — translating "both X and Y"; e.g. jādāh jusęe lañekaica tora no drāyonasŏvå "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 dadrāsŏ "wow, (s)he's done it again!" / viṣęe dadrāsŏ å "oh no, (s)he's done it again!"
• 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?"
• noihā 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 dryāvetsŏ dam noihā? "did I do it yesterday, or...?"
• 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 daudiusŏ tati ukulaṃsŏ tva! "damn, I said I want that, shut up!"

Derivational morphology - Vāmbeithauseh maivāndarāmita

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

Nouns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-yāva with lengthening denotes a quality.

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

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

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

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

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

-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.

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

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

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

Verbs

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 one coda consonant and basic vowel) with diachronic lengthening and -ve(y)- (-vi(y)- in the past tense).
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 this does not apply for motion verbs, as the multidirectional ones are already understood to be frequentative.

• dṛ- (to do) → dadarve- (to repetitively do)
• na-gya- (to happen) → nagijave- (to keep happening; to regularly happen, to occur)
• -gya- (to be) + various prefixes → bīgijave- (to cease to be); galagijave- (to remain in one place; to visit; to keep being)
• tvorg- (to fear) → tvartveirgve- (to fear over and over again)

Adjectives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-ṣenis 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) → rahėlṣenis (healthy)
• nakṣuma (music) → nakṣuṃṣenis (having a musical talent)
• meimairuh (emerald) → meimairūṣenis (emeraldine, emerald-like)

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

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

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)
• nilь- - 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:

• -gaṇūh usually translates "-philia" or "-mania", particularly in medical contexts, e.g. ryukagaṇūh "masochism" from ryuka "pain".
  • -gaṇūvima is the related term for someone who has that (thus "-philiac" or "-maniac"), e.g. ryukagaṇūvima "masochist".
• -rauga is a generic term used in medicine for names of illnesses or conditions affecting health, e.g. tukoṃrauga "obesity" from A.Kūṣṛmāthi tukkom "fat"; vrayegårlauga "dysphagia" (note dissimilation of -rr-) from vre- (bad) and egåram (stomach).
  • -raugotis is the term for someone affected by a rauga, e.g. tukoṃraugotis "obese", vrayegårlaugotis "dysphagic".