Word Order

The basic word order. is nominative dative accusative time manner place verb, where any of these other than nominative and verb can be omitted. The order can be modified so that any argument other than the verb can be placed at the front to emphasize it as topic.

The word order for relative clauses is similar, except that which the relative clause qualifies is placed after the verb (and may be separated from it).

The word order for possession is possessor (in genitive case) followed by possessed (which may be separated from it).

Relative clauses

Normal relative clauses take the relative element (which is not marked for case within the relative clause) following the verb (at some point, there may be other relative clauses in between) as their subject, which is not marked on the verb.

Inverted relative clauses take the relative element (which is not marked for case within the relative clause) preceding the relative clause as their subject, which is not marked on the verb. These are typically very short, normally consisting only of the verb itself.

Complex relative clauses take a series of one or more relative clauses before a relative element, which is marked for the case of its role in each relative clause in order of appearance before its own case marking for the containing clause, which are marked on corresponding verbs except when the relative element is in nominative case in the corresponding relative clause. Note that the case markings on the relative element corresponding to a particular relative clause are marked for singular number; only the last case marking on a relative element corresponding to its containing clause is marked for the relative element's number. Also note that the case markings on a relative element corresponding to relative clauses go immediately before the case marking on a relative element corresponding to its containing clause.

Note that the role of relative pronoun is taken by the personal pronoun.

Subordinate clauses and gerunds

Subordinate clauses and gerunds are unified simply as verb phrases where the verb, after all its normal verb markings, are marked for case and number (usually singular), but without any consonant gradation or ablaut. They thus act as nouns of gender A, and consequently can be the subjects of relative clauses themselves. They can both have and lack subjects, marked by the presence or lack of nominative agreement marking; note that in various usages the presence or lack of a subject may be mandatory, and in this way "subordinate clauses" (with a subject) can be separated from "gerunds" (without a subject). Note that these can in any mood except imperative mood.

For most verbs that take a subordinate clause (with a subject), the subordinate clause is in accusative case. However, subordinate clauses in ablative case are commonly used in a way analogous to subordinate clauses in English marked with because. Many verbs take subordinate clauses in subjunctive mood, but this is not the case uniformly.

Subordinate clauses follow the same word order as noun phrases with the same case, such that commonly subordinate clauses get nested inside their parent clauses (i.e. with the subject preceding the subordinate clause which is in turn followed by any other verb arguments and the main verb). This is not necessarily the case, though, and it is common to switch around word order to place subordinate clauses before rest of the main clause, especially if the subordinate clauses are longer in length.

Optative mood and third-person commands

The optative mood is commonly used to form third-person commands, generally albeit without not as much force behind them as commands in imperative mood.

Compound verbs

It is common for verbs to form V-V compounds, composed of two verb stems, of which the second, and which receives all of the marking; there is the exception that the first verb can also receive passive and causative marking before the stem of the second verb. Note that the formation of causatives is in a way an example of this, where the causative marker modifies the stem of the first verb. Many V-V compounds take the form of where the stem of one verb that determines much of the actual meaning is followed by the stem of another verb which modifies it, but there are also others where the first verb stem takes on an adverbial meaning, typically being an adjectival verb stem, and modifies the second verb stem.

N-V compounds can also be formed, where the noun stem modifies the verb stem, and may take the form of noun incorporation, where the noun stem indicates a verb argument.

It is possible to also form V-V-V and V-N-V compounds, where a verb stem taking on an adverbial meaning modifies the following V-V or N-V compound. It is at least theoretically possible to form V-V-V-V and V-V-N-V compounds and so on, but these are increasingly rare with greater levels of compounding.

Compound nouns

It is common for nouns to form N-N compounds, which generally take the form of one noun preceding another noun, which it modifies or qualifies, which itself receives case and number marking. Note that generally the second noun stem receives consonant gradation and ablaut, except in cases where the second noun is perceived more as a suffix onto the first noun (such as in the formation of the names of countries or languages), where then instead the first noun receives consonant gradation and ablaut. Subsequent layers of N-N compounding can form N-N-N compounds, and theoretically greater layers of compounding. Generally compounds take the gender of their last noun stem, even if a different noun stem takes consonant gradation and ablaut.

Note that noun stems participating in compounds that do not receive consonant gradation are generally taking the medium stem and ablaut form I, even though some may take different stems in various cases.

V-N compounds can also be formed, which follow the same rules except that the second component always determines consonant gradation and ablaut, as verb stems undergo neither. In this case the verbs stem is always qualifying the noun stem.

Nouns from adjectival verbs

The aforementioned agent noun marking /(ɛ)mː/ <(e)mm> (with gender C) will be used to form a wide range of nouns out of their corresponding adjectival verbs, where their "default" forms will be the adjectival verbs, and the forms in which they are to be most commonly used. For instance, the basic forms for colors are adjectival verbs, but when speaking about the colors themselves one will use nouns derived from them with this ending. Many other things will follow this pattern as well, e.g. flavors, except more ad-hoc flavors formed with the adjectival verb from noun marking /la/ <la>.