Nelvayu Grammar

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Nelvayu is an agglutinative language. It features polypersonal agreement.

Nouns

Nouns decline for case. The cases of Nelvayu include genitive (marked with -u), instrumental (-uze), and dative (-gra).

Possession

Possession in nouns is marked by possessive suffixes:

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Singular		-uk
Plural

Examples

• beyunuk "your name" (name-your)
• bodzamuk "your strength" (strength-your)
• imoruk "your face" (face-your)
• trovelluk "your servant" (servant-your)
• dimostuk "your mark" (mark-your)
• dimostu "of the mark" (of-mark)
• dimostuze "with the mark" (by-mark)
• lonnuze "by the light" (by-the-light)
• hazle "realm"
• hazligra "to the realm" (to-realm)
• nivuneyav "bodies"
• kirza "world"

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Vōv decline for case and number:

	Singular			Plural
	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
Nominative				hela
Genitive
Instrumental
Dative	hingra	uregra		helegra

Determiners

Nelvayu has demonstratives, including proximal ones.

Examples

• mem "this, these"

Verbs

Verbs in Nelvayu show polypersonal agreement, that is, verbs agree with both their subject and direct object. Imperative forms of transitive verbs agree with their object, while imperative forms of intransitive verbs agree with their subject (i.e. the second person). The agreement suffixes are shown in the following table:

	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Singular	-i/-yen	-(a)k	-yet
Plural	-(y)el		-ar

Nelvayu has a null copula.

Examples

• vashik "I call you." (call-I-you)
• vashelak "We call you." (call-we-you)
• odmerelar "We offer (them)." (offer-we-them)
• dandzorelak "We welcome you." (welcome-we-you)
• zorelak "We see you." (see-we-you)
• zorayel "See us!" (see-us)
• vozoyel "Mark us!" (mark-us)
• dembrayel "Take us!" (take-us)
• hessayel "Use us!" (use-us)
• ludayel "Hear us!" (hear-us)
• ludayen "Hear me!" (hear-me)
• ashaloyen "Answer me!" (answer-me)
• ludayet "Hear (it)!" (hear-it)
• merayet/medrayet "Give (it)! (give-it)
• guvoyet "Show (it)! (show-it)
• odzorayet "Behold (it)!" (behold-it)
• germoyet "Find (it)!" (find)
• odbetroyet "Cleanse (it)! (cleanse-it)
• zavak "Come!"
• erinak "Rise!"