Standard Average Indo-European

sl̥Hwéje! ghr̥jé! némostoj! sr̥wós! priwójtos! sqéjttis! kl̥Hâjō! jánu! and finally, hello!

Thank you very much for your interest in Standard Average Indo-European. I began this project on June 10th, 2024, without the intention of taking it particularly seriously. A few months and much research later have transformed the project into something that has exceeded my expectations at every stage. So, it is with great pleasure that I present the following document for public viewing.

The major principle of SAvIE is its adherence to the features of Standard Average European as set out by Martin Haspelmath (2001). This essentially projects a set of features shared by many modern Indo-European languages onto Proto-Indo-European. The result is a language which appears and sounds as though it were a proto-language, but operates with much more modern features, especially those confined to western Indo-European.

Given my choice to use Proto-Indo-European as the basis for this language, I have both had to make specific choices in reconstruction based on preexisting academic work (chiefly Leiden etymological dictionaries), and ensure a wide range of vocabulary within the language in order to be representative of vocabulary in modern languages. This becomes very clear with the examples above, which are remodeled from Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and multiple Slavic and Germanic varieties, as well as examples of internally-constructed vocabulary.

The result is an extraordinary and rich language with features and words that should fundamentally be instinctive or familiar to speakers of many families outlined in Haspelmath (2001). Ultimately, however, this was an artistic project above all, and has given me so much more pleasure than I ever expected.

I would like to recognise the important work of Indo-Europeanists in making this project possible, and the contributions made by individuals in the Celtic Tearooms and IE Conlangs Discord servers.

Hsubhrūgéte! Enjoy!

These appear as ⟨m⟩ [m] and ⟨n⟩ [n].

⟨n⟩ before velar consonants can be pronounced as [ŋ].

Both consonants can be syllabic resonants, written ⟨m̥⟩ and ⟨n̥⟩ or ⟨ṃ⟩ and ⟨ṇ⟩.

⟨r⟩ can be pronounced as any rhotic sound, including but not limited to [ɾ], [r] and [ɹ].

⟨l⟩ is pronounced as [l].

Both consonants can be syllabic resonants, written ⟨l̥⟩ and ⟨r̥⟩ or ⟨ḷ⟩ and ⟨ṛ⟩. When ⟨r⟩ appears as the syllabic resonant ⟨r̥⟩ or ⟨ṛ⟩, it should avoid being pronounced as [ɾ], and a sonorant sound should be used instead.

This appears as ⟨s⟩ [s], but following the evidence of daughter languages, it can be pronounced [z] in the cluster /sd/ or /sdʰ/, in which case it can optionally be written as ⟨z⟩ [z], such as nizdós "nest" for nisdós or sízdō "I am sitting" for sísdō. In addition to [s] it can be pronounced [s̱], [θ], or even [ɕ], [ʃ] when adjacent to the sounds ⟨y⟩ [j] or ⟨i⟩ [i].

The s-mobile is written ⟨S⟩, such as in the word Stégos "roof", and may be pronounced [s] or be entirely silent.

These appear as ⟨j⟩ [j] and ⟨w⟩ [w].

The realisation of dorsal consonants is very complex and hotly debated by Indo-Europeanists. This document will present the traditional reconstruction of these sounds, but the reader should feel free to apply any other realisations with which they agree more, if that should be the case.

These appear as plain consonants, not labialised or palatalised, as ⟨k⟩ [k], ⟨g⟩ [g], and ⟨gh⟩ [gʰ]. In alternative reconstructions they may be pronounced as [q], [ɢ], and [ɢʰ] (per Kümmel); [k], [ˀk], and [kʰ] (per Beekes); and [kː], [k'], and [k] (per Kortlandt), among others.

These are palatalised consonants, and appear as ⟨ḱ⟩ [kʲ], ⟨ǵ⟩ [gʲ], and ⟨ǵh⟩ [gʲʰ]. The alternative reconstructions above have corresponding palatalised forms.

These are labialised versions of the plain velars. They appear as ⟨q⟩ [kʷ], ⟨c⟩ [gʷ], and ⟨ch⟩ [gʷʰ]. The alternative reconstructions above have corresponding labialised forms.

These appear as ⟨t⟩ [t], ⟨d⟩ [d], and ⟨dh⟩ [dʰ], or as the alternatives with pre-glottalisation, or ejectives.

These appear as ⟨p⟩ [p], ⟨b⟩ [b], and ⟨bh⟩ [bʰ], or as the alternatives with pre-glottalisation, or ejectives.

Since the pronunciation of laryngeals is so uncertain, they either colour vowels or disappear entirely. /*eh₁/ becomes [eː], /*eh₂/ becomes [aː], and /*eh₃/ becomes [oː]. Similarly, /*h₁e/ becomes [e], /*h₂e/ becomes [a], and /*h₃e/ becomes [o]. Laryngeals do colour inherently long vowels as though they were short.

When any laryngeal begins a word before another consonant, it can become [a] or [ə]. Any laryngeal between consonants can also become [a ~ ə].

An alternative and fanciful pronunciation collapses all three laryngeals into one to allow them to be pronounced, as in Anatolian and Persian languages, in addition to being deleted entirely.  This can be written as ⟨H⟩ and pronounced [h], [ħ], or similar. This pronunciation must shorten long vowels.

For the laryngeal which does not colour a vowel, it can also be pronounced as a syllabic consonant, and be written as ⟨H⟩ as expected, or as ⟨H̥⟩ or ⟨Ḥ⟩ to make it absolutely clear that it is a syllabic consonant.

*h₄ and *hₐ are not frequently included in this document as they appear only within certain analyses of Proto-Indo-European. However, if they should appear, or if speakers should choose to project words on to SAvIE using analyses where these laryngeal values are present, they should be treated exactly the same as *h₂, including all the same vowel colouring of that laryngeal value.

*H, also notated *hₓ, indicates an unknown laryngeal. Often this is done because the actual value is contested, or possibly unknowable. SAvIE treats such a laryngeal as though it were /*h₁/. /*eH/ gives ⟨ē⟩, lengthening the vowel without colouring it, while /*oH/ and /*uH/ also lengthen the previous vowel giving ⟨ō⟩ and ⟨ū⟩. /*He/ does not colour /e/ at all, giving ⟨He⟩.

Using the rules defined above for the levelling of Proto-Indo-European laryngeals, the same phonological processes are expected to apply to laryngeals when they could colour vowels at morpheme boundaries. For example, given the root céjHₒ- (from *gʷeyh₃-) and its thematic suffix -eti, the original -h₃-e- crossing a morpheme boundary colours as expected, with the resulting verb being céjHoti “he/she/it lives”.

The aspirated stops ⟨bh⟩ ⟨dh⟩ ⟨gh⟩ ⟨ǵh⟩ ⟨ch⟩ can be devoiced to [pʰ] [tʰ] [kʰ] [kʲʰ] [kʷʰ] for one of two reasons.

Firstly a speaker may choose to pronounce unvoiced stops in order to match a neighbouring unvoiced stop, such as producing the opposite of Bartholomae's law: *bʰewdʰ → *bʰudʰ-tós → (with application of Grassmann's law) *bʰud-dʰós → SAvIE ⟨bhuddhós⟩ [pʰuˈtʰːos].

Otherwise, a speaker (such as an avid student of Ancient Greek, or perhaps Sanskrit) can choose to pronounce unvoiced stops throughout their speech simply because they wish to match pronunciations of their respective daughter languages of interest.

The basic short vowels of Proto-Indo-European appear as ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩, and can be pronounced in a variety of ways, such as [e] and [o] or [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Their long counterparts appear as ⟨ē⟩ and ⟨ō⟩, and are pronounced as before, but audibly longer.

There is no real restriction on how they should be pronounced, but my personal preference is ⟨e⟩ as [ɛ], ⟨ē⟩ as [eː], ⟨o⟩ as [ɔ], and ⟨ō⟩ as [oː].

These vowels appear as ⟨a⟩ [a] and ⟨ā⟩ [aː]. They are not basic vowels of Proto-Indo-European; ⟨a⟩ appears most often as a realisation of laryngeals between medial or before initial consonants, and ⟨ā⟩ appears as a contraction of /*eh₂/. Rarely /*a/ can appear in root words, but these reconstructions are often debated.

Only ⟨i⟩ [i] and ⟨u⟩ [u] are inherited from Proto-Indo-European. ⟨ī⟩ [iː] and ⟨ū⟩ [uː] appear as contractions of /*iH/ and /*uH/.

A final vowel [ə], the schwa, can be pronounced in SAvIE but ought not to be written. In cases where syllabic sonorants (l̥ r̥ m̥ n̥ H̥) form a cluster with another consonant (such as in the word wl̥qós which is expected to be pronounced [wl̩ˈkʷos]), an epenthetic schwa can be added before the syllabic consonant to aid in pronunciation, thus giving [wəlˈkʷos] for wl̥qós.

If somebody wants to write the pronounced schwa explicitly, they should use the letters ⟨y⟩, ⟨ə⟩, or the symbol ⟨°⟩, giving ⟨wylqós⟩, ⟨wəlqós⟩, or ⟨w°lqós⟩.

SAvIE follows Proto-Indo-European stress rules and it is mandatory to mark stress with an acute accent (á é í ó ú ĺ̥ ŕ̥ ḿ̥ ń̥ H̥́) at all times. When writing using ⟨ə⟩, that letter receives the acute instead, giving ⟨ý ~ ə́⟩.

Long vowels, indicated with a macron, are instead written with a circumflex ⟨â ê î ô û⟩ when stressed.

In addition, SAvIE has rules relating to the stress of compounds. These can be either close or loose. Close compounds are written as one word, using a stem form of one word and a full form of another. Loose compounds are written as two separate words with the first word in the genitive case without displaying declension, and the second word being fully declinable.

In close compounds, often the first element is stressed, but the second may receive stress in some words, and receives the only stress in the word. In loose compounds, the second element is stressed, and the first can optionally be written without stress marking. Often, words can be written as either type of compound, but they usually appear as only one; for example, ghóstipotis “lord” is a close compound, and can be written, following the correct conventions of stress, as a loose compound ghostejs pótis, specifically avoiding stress marking on the first element.

Optionally, rather than refraining from marking stress entirely, a grave accent ⟨  ̀⟩ can be used on the first word to indicate secondary stress, such as ghostèjs pótis.

The definite article is so. The indefinite article is Hójwos, a variant of Hójnos "one" (from *h₁óynos).

The pronoun jos can be used to introduce relative clauses, but alternatively any correlative word can be used in a relative sense.

SAvIE can use the word kápes, a derivative of *kap- "to seize, hold" (which gives Latin capiō and English have), to form a perfect tense with the participle -tós/-tâ/-tóm of a verb.

Instead of using dative constructions, there can either be a nominative-active-accusative or nominative-deponent-ablative use of the word bhrūgéti to enjoy, to like (from *bʰruHg-e-ti) with a semantic patient.

Instead of using a conjugated passive, the periphrastic passive is formed with the verb Hésti "to be" and a passive participle ending in -(o)mHnos/-(o)mHnā/-(o)mHnom.

Verbs can be implicitly anticausative if a transitive verb is used in anF intransitive sense, with its patient as its subject; for example éǵ bhrêgsm̥ íd "I broke it", but íd bhrêgst "it broke". Optionally the reflexive particle can be used on either side of the salient verb, giving íd bhrêgst s(w)é or íd s(w)é bhrêgst.

The dative can be used to indicate the possessor of the object of an action instead of using a genitive phrase: î léwHeti ésyās sūnéwej tód ǵónu "she washes her son's knee", though literally "she washes to her son the knee".

In phrasing e.g. "nobody comes", English-like phraseology should be used: there should be a negative pronoun with no negation of the verb, giving neqís cémt "nobody came".

Either of the particles Hapó or Hánti should be used to compare against a referent in the accusative: ís Hesti mājoteros Hapó/Hánti (H)mé "he is bigger than me".

The adjective sokós/sokâ/tokóm is used for "as" or "such" (giving sokós méǵHs "so large"). The comparative element is introduced with ḱom "with" with the predicate in the accusative, resulting in ís ésti sokós méǵHs ḱom îm̥ "he is as large as her".

This feature refers to obligatory subject-pronoun agreement with a conjugated verb. It is not widespread so it is unclear why this is included as a SAE feature. So, in SAvIE, this is an optional feature; both Hésmi and éǵH Hésmi are equivalent terms for "I am".

SAvIE distinguishes between an intensifying adjectives somHós/-â/-óm or sélbhos/-â/-óm, and the true reflexive particle s(w)é; the former does not necessarily indicate reflexive action, but intensifies a previous nominal, while the latter is explicitly reflexive or reciprocal.

The features below appear in some members of SAE, so can be used optionally in SAvIE too.

SAvIE polar yes/no questions can front the questioning verb, so éǵH Hésmi can become Hésmi éǵH?

As seen above in the comparative adjective māyóteros/-ā/-om, the suffix -teros/-ā/-om is the comparative (as well as contrastive) adjectival suffix.

In this feature there is no difference between "with" in the comitative ("in the company of") sense, and in the instrumental ("using, by means of") sense. Both of the words me and ḱóm can be used to mean "with" in either sense.

This category includes nouns and pronouns, both of which are declined in much the same way.

They are declined in two numbers, the singular and plural; six cases, the nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, and locative; and in one of three genders, masculine, feminine, or neuter.

These decline in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons singular and plural in all cases except the locative. They also have dedicated adjectival forms, which are used for the possessive.

In addition to the above possessive adjectives mós, tós, etc. alternative forms from daughter languages can be used, including (H)méjnos ~ -ā ~ -om (as in Proto-Germanic *mīnaz), mójos ~ -ā ~ -om (as Proto-Slavic *mojь), and méjos ~ -ā ~ -om (assuming potentially that the Latin form meus represents the dative méj with adjectival ending). Internally constructed forms include méwos ~ -ā ~ -om, formed using the oblique stem with adjectival ending, or the indeclinable genitive (H)méne.

The above can be used as an independent pronoun, as in qís cémt? "Who came?"

In other contexts it can be used as a relative pronoun, such as in kápmi Hábōl qim bhrûghō "I have an apple which I like".

The difference between the two is that the pronoun form is stressed, but the relative form is not.

The above are used as both determiners for other nouns; when in need of a pronoun the form ḱíd is used instead: ḱíd Hésti Hwésu "this is good", and só Hnêr Hésti Hwésus "this man is good". só can also be used as an article, and so the latter sentence can be translated as "the man is good".

There are multiple forms given in the first cell because the root can be reconstructed in each of those forms, all of which can be used as the basis for this demonstrative.

As with so, Hénos is used as a determiner, with its independent pronominal form being ḱênos: ḱênod Hésti Hwésu "that is good", and Hénos Hnêr Hésti Hwésus "that man is good".

Proto-Indo-European had somewhat complex noun declensions, which are carried over to SAvIE. As with pronouns, common nouns decline in the singular and plural, but also in the vocative to give six cases.

The pattern which is seen in many noun declensions is given below.

This only applies to masculine and neuter nouns, as noted in the tables above. Feminine nouns usually conform to the following:

ī-type nouns retain a fixed stress-ablaut pattern, whereas ā-type nouns are much more flexible; these can be o-grade with stress on the ending, e-grade with shifting stress, or zero-grade with stress on the ending.

Many noun declensions are a variation on the above patterns. Some common variations are as follows.

These endings all look very similar to each other, and fulfil relatively similar functions. -mn̥ creates neuter result nouns, while -mō and -mên create masculine agent nouns. There is no appreciable difference in meaning between -mō and -mên; they are both included to use freely when they appear in cognates among daughter languages.

These endings derived masculine, masculine, and feminine agent noun endings.

This is a variation of 4.5.2, all of which produce neuter nouns of tools or instruments. There is no difference between forms with -r- and forms with -l-; however, the forms beginning -dh- are used after roots ending in a laryngeal, whether deleted or not, and -t- is used otherwise. They are all conjugated in the exact same way, so only the conjugation for -trom is given below.

These are called nasal suffixes, because in each case but the nominative, ⟨n⟩ appears in the suffix. -ō creates masculine participant nouns; these are ones which indicate a person or thing which does something, or exists as the result of an action, such as skérō "meat" from *(s)kér- "to cut", with the resulting meaning being "something cut". A derivative of those, -Honos / -ā / -om, is used to create augmentative nouns.

-Hō is similar; it produces nouns and adjectives of all genders to create words which indicate possession of a certain quality, or a responsibility for carrying out or responsibility to carry out a certain action, like pl̥tHús "wide, broad" becoming Pĺ̥tHō "Plato", originally meaning "wide/broad one". It is assumed to be formed from Proto-Indo-European *-h₃en(h₂)-, and colours vowels accordingly (by -h₃-).

These all belong to and are declined exactly as the basic ending -r̥, which is rare and unproductive. It produces very few basic neuter nouns.

This ending is exceptional in having a collective number, which is grammatically plural. So, tâ wédōr means “the collective of all waters”, whereas tâ wódr̥H means “the (particular, definite, definable, countable) waters”.

This suffix produces masculine action nouns from verb roots.

-is produces common gender nouns, that is, those which can be either masculine or feminine. It is not shown with an ablaut pattern because it can be used with multiple, including (é)-is or (ó)-is. It also has the neuter form -i. -tis produces exclusively feminine action or abstract nouns.

Nouns with the pattern (o)-ós create masculine agent nouns denoting someone or something which performs a related action, such as tomHós "cutter, slicer", from the verb tm̥nês (← tm̥-né-h₁-es) "to slice, to section, to cut up". When the stress shifts on to the root vowel, this produces a related result noun, tómHos "a cut, a slice". Both of these noun patterns do not shift stress or ablaut within their own paradigm (giving tomHósjo "of a/the cutter" and tómHosjo "of a/the slice").

The ending -snā is attached usually to verb stems to indicate either a result noun or a noun indicating the a summary of a category, for example converting tétḱes "to create, produce" into tétḱsnā "art, craft".

-sōr is similar to -trī in that it produces feminine gender agentive nouns.

The pattern (o)-â creates collective or mass nouns, or abstract or action nouns. This conjugates exactly as the thematic ā-type is expected to. This can also appear as (∅)-â, with the exact same meaning.

A slight extension of this is the pattern (o)-nâ also creating a deverbal abstract noun.

This is a variation of the feminine ending -ā augmented with -i-, used to create feminine abstract nouns.

Evidence suggests that some of the above suffixes were combined for various purposes. One example is 4.5.7 with 4.5.4: where -tis could be combined with -Hō to give -tīō, giving Latin -tiō and Proto-Celtic -tiyū; -tīō for example can be used to produce nouns of action or result.

Adjectives decline in all three genders, two numbers, and six cases. Their deeclensions follow many of the same patterns that nouns do. In particular, they follow athematic (méǵHs ~ m̥ǵHés, méǵHī ~ méǵHīs, méǵH ~ méǵH "great, large") or thematic (néwos ~ néwes, néwā ~ néwās, néwom ~ néwā "new") paradigms using a mixture of the basic masculine-, feminine- and neuter-gender endings given above.

Other adjectival formations are as follows.

The Caland system defines reproducible adjectival paradigms and their root forms for creating basic adjectives. Two common endings are -onts and -us, which ablaut as follows.

Although displaying somewhat idiosyncratic ablaut, these declensions are identical to the athematic endings given in 4.5.

A bahuvrihi is a compound word formation indicating possession of a certain quality, or execution of a certain action. These can either be adjectives or nouns in all genders. Its underlying form is *-es-s, due to which it also follows the athematic pattern.

The gendered forms are combined, giving a common-gender form.

-wénts creates adjectives which indicate possession of a certain noun as a quality, or pertinence to that noun as a salient description, like Hn̥twént "limited".

These suffixes are cognate with the English -ish and -(i)an, and fulfil the same function: they create adjectives meaning something that is characteristic or typical of a certain noun.

-ānós conjugates as -nós does, in 4.6.7.

The stress pattern is more similar to regular nouns, with the zero or unstressed full grade throughout.

Any zero-grade adjective extended with -ā- or -ī- are declined identically.

-īnos creates adjectives generally related to a material of which something is made. Stress falls on the suffix at all times, but the root does not need to be zero-grade.

All the adjectives of this class require a zero-grade root. They are all declined with the following pattern:

• -(∅)-kós                                of or pertaining to something 

• -(∅)-lós                                diminutive adjective or noun 

• -(∅)-nós                                capable of (a verb), tending to (verb) 

• -(∅)-rós                                basic adjectives in the Caland system 

• -(∅)-tós                                past participles 

• -(∅)-wós                                basic adjectives from verbs 

• -(∅)-jós (athematic)                        basic adjectives from nouns 

  • -this appears as (é)-jos ~ (é)-josjo if the noun is thematic 

The contrastive adjective produces the slightly complex meaning of "something which is X rather than anything else".

The elative adjectives is one which describes the greatness of something, meaning "very X".

These essentially function as adjectives. They use several special forms of the adjective endings listed above in limited functions.

The present participle uses the form (é)-onts ~ (∅)-n̥tés in thematic verbs, as does the -onts form in the Caland system above, and (∅)-ónts ~ (∅)-n̥tés in athematic verbs. It is directly equivalent to the English "-ing". It is used with Héses in any tense to indicate continuous tenses, such as Hésmi Hdónts "I am eating".

The past participle uses the form (∅)-tós ~ (∅)-tósjo. As a verbal adjective it essentially means "X-ed". Although it can be used as an independent adjective, it is perhaps most commonly used in its neuter form with kápes "to have, get" in the perfect-tense construction, such as kápmi Hdtóm "I have eaten".

Unlike -tós, which is active in meaning, the passive participle indicates something which "has been X-ed". Its form is (é)-om(H)nos ~ (∅)-óm(H)nosjo in thematic verbs, an (∅)-m̥(H)nós ~ (∅)-m̥(H)nósjo in athematic verbs. It is also used with Héses to construct passive verb forms, such as Hésmi Hdm̥Hnós "I am eaten, I have been eaten".

This participle is a special type with optional initial reduplication: masculine (é)-(∅)-wōs ~ (é)-(∅)-usos, feminine (é)-(∅)-usī ~ (e)-(∅)-usjâs, neuter (é)-(∅)-wos ~ (é)-(∅)-usos.

Although Ancient Greek and Sanskrit had a perfect participle, such a formation would be against the spirit of SAE, which specifies a perfect-tense formation using the "have" verb. As such, there is no dedicated perfect participle; rather, a perfect participial formation involves the present participle of kápes and a past participle of another verb, such as kapónts wl̥tóm "having seen".

Adjectives can be further declined in two degrees: the comparative and the superlative. The comparative produces adjectives meaning "more X", while the superlative produces "the most X".

The comparative adjective degree can be expressed either with the contrastive -teros or elative -yōs ending. The comparative element translating to "than" is expressed with Hánti "against", and the noun being compared against is placed in the dative, for example ís Hésti Hl̥tóteros ~ Hl̥tójōs Hánti méǵhjo "he is taller than me".

The superlative degree expresses "the most X". As such, it is always used with the article só.

For ease, I have opted to reduce the potential superlative adjective endings to two, discounting those reconstructions with a laryngeal. The adjective is formed in one of two ways: (∅)-otm̥mós or (∅)-istós. The former is used for thematic adjectives, whereas the latter is used for athematic adjectives.

Although this table describes each form as using a zero-grade root because the stress shifts to the ending, the root can also be made e-grade in all cases.

The superlative can be augmented further, in order to create the absolute superlative, which holds even more force than the superlative. It is a combination of both superlative adjective forms, giving (∅)-istm̥mós. It declines exactly as -otm̥mós does.

SAvIE verbs are complex, but with fewer irregularities than Proto-Indo-European's daughter languages. SAvIE in particular takes the feature of the "have"-perfect tense and expands the concept to include multiple periphrastic tenses and verb forms, including all continuous tenses, and all passive forms.

SAvIE verbs are divided into two kinds: conjugated and periphrastic. Conjugated forms are ones to which a suffix is attached to form a directly usable tense. Periphrastic forms involve a conjugated form of one of a limited selection of verbs, along with a particle. Particles themselves are one of four non-finite forms which indicate tense and aspect.

It should not be necessary to revise non-finite forms, as they are all described in 4.6.8. Two forms not described there are the infinitive, which is used simply to name the verb, the supine, used only in special verb constructions, and the purportative, used with verbs of wanting, owing, or intending.

The infinitive takes the form (é)-es, and is a shortened locative form of the purportative (é)-os and (é)-esos, which creates result or action nouns. This makes it cognate with the Ancient Greek (-ειν) and Latin (-ere) infinitives.

For deponents, the infinitive is formed with (∅)-és, and the purportatives (é)-osm̥ and (∅)-sés.

The supine takes the form (∅)-ént, also a locative form, of the present participle -onts. For deponents, it is (∅)-tój. It is used in combination with verbs of motion in order to indicate purpose, such as ís cémt Had wl̥ént mé "he came to see me".

Verbs each conjugate in multiple tenses, each of which has three persons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), two numbers (singular and plural) and two moods (indicative and optative). In total there are four tenses: the nonpast (which encompasses the present and, optionally, future), the imperfect (semantically identical to the past continuous, but used especially in certain constructions), the aorist (or preterite, or simple past), and the habitual (which is technically tenseless).

All conjugated forms use one of two sets of endings, called the primary and secondary. Primary endings indicate the nonpast tense, and secondary endings most others. Each set of endings can be either thematic or athematic.

Whether a verb is thematic or not is unpredictable, and must be learnt on a case-by-case basis.

The nonpast combines both the present and future tenses. The simple future has an additional periphrastic tense, but the simple present does not. It is indicated by the primary endings.

The first model is of bhéres "to bear, carry". It is a root thematic verb.

This model is Hédes "to eat". It is a root athematic verb.

Since they can be used as a future tense too, a nonpast form bhérō can mean both "I bear" and "I will bear", though for clarity the latter can be expressed with the periphrastic future tense, described later.

The imperfect is indicated by the usage of secondary endings in place of primary ones. It signals a past continuous tense.

The main difference of the imperfect conjugated form from the past continuous periphrastic form is the usage in formulaic constructions, shown later.

The aorist forms a simple past. It also uses the secondary endings, but can be one of two further formations. The derived aorist is given for root present verbs, that is, ones which are not formed with secondary derivation such as the nasal infix. This forms as below.

The second formation is the root aorist, given for derived verbs that do not fit into the above category. It uses the secondary endings attached to a root with no intervening secondary derivations, and can be either thematic or athematic. As such, it is completely identical with the imperfect tense of root present verbs. It differs from the imperfect of derived verbs by dropping secondary derivation. For example, for léjqes "to leave" has the (derived) present linéqti, (derived) imperfect linéqt, and root aorist léjqt.

The habitual has no explicit tense – the position in time of the relevant action depends solely on the context of the sentence. The form of this is a thematic verb with secondary endings.

For very few verbs the present is formed using the Proto-Indo-European stative formation. These have no imperfect or aorist, and have special past participle forms built on -wōs ~ -usī ~ -wos.

A very small number of verbs is a deponent: one which looks like an old mediopassive form, but acts as though it were active. This is not counted as a passive form. Deponent verbs have special forms in all tenses.

The imperative is its own mood, and conjugates only in the second and third person. It is tenseless, so there is only one set of imperative forms for each verb. Their forms differ only slightly based on thematicity.

Some verb forms include affixes which attach to a verb root to form a stem, onto which certain endings are added. In this document, primary indicates verbs whose suffixes do not add significant special meaning, which form a root present and sigmatic aorist (including on suffixes -ê-, -ā-, etc.); secondary indicates verbs which use special derivational suffixes for the present and form a root aorist; tertiary indicates verbs which use meaningful derivational suffixes but do not form an aorist because the meaning of the derived verb contrasts the meaning of its non-derived counterpart.

There is a special form of nonpast and imperfect formed with the nasal infix -né-  ~ -n- on the zero-grade stem. This infix ablauts from the singular to the plural in the indicative, remains -né- in the subjunctive, and is conjugated with athematic endings. The infix is only seen in these two tenses.

The infix -sḱ- attaches to some verb roots to form verbs which occasionally, but not always, have an inchoative meaning. These verbs are thematic.

Some verbs can be formed with (é)-jeti or (∅)-jéti. The former will always form transitive verbs, and the latter intransitive verbs. The intransitive in particular implies an ongoing action, and as such has no aorist tense. Verb roots can be combined with each of these to produce a pair of transitive and intransitive verbs, but this need not be the case. In case it does, conjugated verb forms differ in all forms except the aorist, where both forms are identical.

As with the nasal infix, some verbs will form their present, imperfect, and habitual tenses with -néw-. This is placed after a zero-grade verb root, and is athematic in the present and imperfect. It ablauts to -nu- when unstressed, including in all persons of the habitual.

The verb form (o)-éjeti ~ (o)-éjonti forms causative verbs, such as Hédmi "to eat" becoming Hodéjeti "to feed". This forms verbs meaning "to cause to do X". This makes explicitly transitive verbs, often from existing verb roots or from adjective roots.

The affix -sj- is added to very few verb roots to form desiderative "want to X" verbs. It is thematic, attaches to the zero-grade root, and is accented on the thematic vowel, as Hdsjéti "to want to eat, to be hungry".

The suffix (∅)-êti ~ (∅)-ên̥ti (athematic) or (∅)-êjeti ~ (∅)-êjonti (thematic) form stative "to be X" verbs specifically from adjective roots, such as Hrudhêti "to be red". These verbs can expand slightly in meaning from a stative "to be X" to a dynamic "to go X, to become X". In either case they are explicitly intransitive verbs, and must be made causative to become transitive.

Very few verbs will form their nonpast and imperfect with (í)-(∅)-eti ~ (í)-(∅)-onti; they have a reduplicated element with -i- as the vowel which retains the stress, such as sísdeti "to sit". These have no special meaning, and are simply formations of the tense.

Similarlty to the above, some verbs will form with (í/é)-(e)-ti ~ (í/é)-(∅)-nti, such as stístāti "to stand up". These verbs also have no particular nuance, and are formed arbitrarily.

The so-called tudati type verb forms all tenses from (∅)-éti ~ (∅)-ónti, in which case its habitual and imperfect are identical.

The factitive verb form (é)-āti ~ (é)-ān̥ti creates verbs that imply "to make X", such as néwāti "to renew, to make new".

Despite their similarity with the -j- infix verbs described in 5.2.7.3, the verb forms (∅)-ejéti ~ (∅)-ejónti and (∅)-ājéti ~ (∅)-ājónti are denominative (and occasionally deadjectival) suffixes; they are derived from (mainly) noun stems to indicate a performance of that noun.

These verbs are marked by the thematic suffix -ājéti ~ -ājónti, and may appear as o-grade among others. This suffix forms verbs with iterative (repetition of an action, but only during one distinct occasion), frequentative (occasional repetition of an action on several undefined occasions), or intensive meaning.

The resultative formation (é)-dhHeti ~ (é)-dhHonti generally expresses “to become X”. As a result it is most commonly formed from adjective roots.

These verb forms are a combination of a conjugated form and a non-finite form: a conjugated verb and a participle.

Although the nonpast tense can be used as an implicit future, a periphrastic future can be expressed with the verb Héjes "to go", with the supine form, such as éǵ Héjmi Hdént "I am going to eat, I will eat".

The perfect tense is handled by the verb kápes, which is only used to form this particular tense. It carries the meaning of "have X-ed". The nonpast tense is used with the past participle, such as éǵ kápmi Hdtóm "I have eaten".

If there is no direct object, the neuter form -tóm of the participle should be used. However, if there is a direct object, the past participle should match the gender of the object, such as íd kápti Hdtâ îm̥ "it has eaten her".

The pluperfect "had X-ed" can be formed by changing the conjugated from of kápes from the nonpast to the aorist, such as éǵ kâpsm̥ Hdtóm "I had eaten". The participle must also agree as in the perfect tense.

Instead of using kápes, the future formation of Héjes must be used with the supine form kapént and a past participle, such as éǵ Héjmi kapént Hdtóm "I will have eaten". Once again, that the participle must agree with the object's gender is retained.

A continuous tense indicates an explicitly imperfective tense, showing that an action is underway and incomplete.

Continuous tenses can be formed with the nonpast and imperfect conjugations of Héses along with a present participle, such as Hésmi Hdónts "I am eating", or Hésm̥ Hdónts "I was eating".

In addition, the future tense can form a continuous: Héjmi Hsént Hdónts "I will be eating", and Héjmi kapént Hstóm Hdónts "I will have been eating".

SAvIE makes no distinction between the middle and the passive, preferring only to use a passive. This is formed with any conjugated form of Héses with the passive participle, such as bhéwHsm̥ Hdm̥Hnós "I was eaten".

Periphrastic tenses can also be made passive: Hésm̥ Hjónts Hsént Hdm̥Hnós, qomóḱs ís cémt "I was going to be eaten when he came".

The subjunctive is a conjugated verb form used either to express uncertainty semantically, or to express a relative clause.

The subjunctive of root thematic nonpast verbs simply lengthens the theme vowel, with -ō gaining -H; given the proto-form is *-ōh₂, no change is expected, but -H is added to distinguish the subjunctive form from the indicative.

The athematic nonpast verbs, meanwhile, are converted to thematic verbs with acrostatic stress.

There is no imperfect subjunctive in SAvIE; the habitual subjunctive should be used instead.

Since the aorist uses athematic secondary endings, the subjunctive changes these to thematic primary endings, and keeps a lengthened e-grade root with acrostatic stress.

In the habitual subjunctive of dynamic verbs, the theme vowel is lengthened and used with primary endings, against a zero-grade root, with accent always falling on the endings as in the indicative.

The habitual subjunctive of stative verbs, by contrast, takes an e-grade root with acrostatic stress, and thematic primary endings, identical to root thematic verbs.

As is the case with active verbs, there is no form for the imperfect, and the habitual must be used to cover both tenses.

Héses "to be" is an irregular verb; it is suppletive in the aorist indicative and aorist and habitual subjunctive tense, where it takes from the stem bhū-, from *bʰuH-. It is important to note that the lengthened grade (seen in the aorist) is bhéwH-, filling in an -e- by analogy, treating bhū- as the zero-grade and bhéwH- as the full-grade form.

This is the complete conjugation of Héses.

In SAvIE, there exists a newly-developed gender-neutral form which encompasses a pronoun and large selection of adjectival endings corresponding with each of the adjectives above that has explicitly gendered forms, meaning that common-gender forms are not covered by this paradigm.

The basis of the gender-neutral paradigm is the sound /a/, spelt as ⟨a⟩.

Its pronominal form is as follows:

Adjectives, consequently, all decline with a.

An example of this is éǵ wéjdō qid jás Hésti Hwéswas "I know that they (sg.) are good".

SAvIE pro-forms include pronouns and demonstratives, and question forms known as wh-words. They are outlined in the table below.

These forms will be explained below.

There are differences between determiner forms and pronoun forms. Determiner forms are bound morphemes, and can only be used in conjunction with a nominal. So, qós? cannot be used independently, but must always be used as qós ǵhmô? "which person?".

Similarly, the pronoun form can only be used independently, and not to qualify a nominal, such as qís cémt? "who came?".

In addition, the dual forms qóteros? and qíteros? also display this distinction: qóteros ǵhmô cémt? "which of the two people came?" as opposed to qíteros cémt? "which (of the two) came?".

As mentioned in 2.2, there is absolute syncretism between the interrogative (question) forms, and relative forms, so the same word will be used for qís cémt? "who came?" as in só ǵhmô qis cémt "the person who came". The difference between the words, as seen in the examples, is that the interrogative forms must be stressed, but the relative forms do not need to be.

There are three levels of deixis in SAvIE. If one imagines two people speaking to each other, deixis works like this: the proximal indicates something which is closest to the speaker, the medial indicates something close to the listener, and the distal far from both.

There is a small difference between these forms. Since source and goal are fairly self explanatory (indicating respectively where something comes from and what something goes to), location indicates where something exists statically, and lacks any implication of movement. As such, it tends to be used with Héses often: kúr Hésti ís? "where is he?", whereas the source/goal forms tend to be used often with verbs of motion: qôdhe cémt ís? "where did he come from?", and qómde Hêjst ís? "where did he go to?".

However, colloquially, the location form can be used for both of these: kúr cémt ís? and kúr Hêjst ís?, especially when the context is clear.

There are two major classes of numerals, the cardinal and the ordinal. Cardinal numerals indicate plain numbers, and ordinal numerals indicate the order of a number in a series.

The number 1 conjugates as a regular adjective. Its base form is Hójnos, which is related to the indefinite article Hójwos, with a suppletive ordinal form pr̥Hwós.

There is no plural form for the cardinal, since you cannot express one of multiple things.

The number 2 does not decline for case, its form is dwô, dwâH, dwój(H) in cardinal form. Its ordinal form is either Hánteros, Hánterā, Hánterom (noting the contrastive ending), or séqonts, séqontī, séqont (from a participial form of the verb séqeti "to follow"). It also has the special prefix form dwi-.

Beginning with tréjes "three", the ordinal numbers become more regularised. Despite being slightly irregular, these forms do in fact decline as though their nominative singular ended in -s, with the oblique stem trí- or tr̥j-. The feminine stem, exceptionally, is tisr-, and also declines as a noun in -s. It also has the special prefix form tri-.

Similarly to "three", the number 4 has a feminine stem qétesr- (oblique qetesr-) and a stem for all other genders qetwór- (oblique qetur- and qetwr̥-).

These numbers do not decline for gender or case.

These numbers do not seem to have reconstructible proto-language forms. As such, I am assigning them values with internal morphology: the number déḱm̥, followed by the augment particle Hé, and a number between 1 and 9, such as déḱm̥ He Hójnos "eleven", to déḱm̥ He Hnéwn̥ "nineteen". Alternatively, the numbers can be prefixed unstressed to déḱm̥ as below.

In counting without referring to any specific object, the neuter forms of the numbers 1-4 should be used. When the numbers are used attributively, they should match the gender and number of the following numeral.

Each multiple of 10 has a unique term, and combines with numbers exactly as déḱm̥ does.

There are special forms used for prefixing numbers to nominals.

The numbers 100 and 1,000 are ḱm̥tóm and (sm̥)ǵhéslom ~ tûsonts. ḱm̥tóm and (sm̥)ǵhéslom are invariable, whereas tûsonts declines as a regular -onts noun or adjective. Their ordinal forms are ḱm̥tontós "hundredth" and (sm̥)ǵheslontós ~ tūsontós "thousandth".

A derivative of (sm̥)ǵhéslom, combined with the augmentative suffix, giving (sm̥)ǵhéslHonom (from *(sm̥)ǵhéslHonom) is used to mean "million" with the ordinal form (sm̥)ǵheslHontós; further derivation gives disǵhéslHonom (ordinal form disǵheslHontós), meaning "billion" and trisǵhéslHonom (ordinal form trisǵheslHontós) for "trillion". Prefix forms can be used even further, giving simple prefixes up to deḱm̥ǵhéslHonom "decillion", and much greater numbers up to Hnéwn̥dḱomtHnéwn̥ǵhéslHonom for "novemnonagintillion".

The connector He should only be used between tens and units of each group of three numbers. So, the number 987,654,321 would be represented as Hnéwn̥ ḱm̥tóm Hoḱtodḱómt He septḿ̥ ǵhéslHonā, swéḱs ḱm̥tóm penqedḱómt He qetwôr túsontH, trî ḱm̥tóm (d)wídḱm̥ti He Hójnom.

Each number can be given a special multiplicative form, producing an adjective meaning "X times". Multiplicatives are formed by affixing the special prefix of the numbers 1-10 to the word -pléḱs "-fold".

For example, 1-4 produce the forms sm̥pléḱs "single, onefold", dwipléḱs "double, twofold", tripléḱs "triple, threefold", and qetwr̥pléḱs "quadruple, fourfold".

The numbers 2 and 3 have the special forms dís and trís, meaning "twice" and "thrice" respectively.

A collective numeral is one which specifies "a group of X". The first form is dwôdwō, meaning "pair". The rest are formed by suffixing -ō to the prefix form of a number, with an intervening -l- (as if from -lós) to prevent hiatus. The stress falls on the prefix in the nominative-vocative-accusative, and the ending in the oblique, as expected for -ō. This gives tríō "trio, threesome", qetwŕ̥ō "quartet, foursome", qénqelō "quintet, fivesome", swéḱsō "sextet", septḿ̥ō "septet", (H)oḱtólō "octet", Hnéwnō "nonet", and déḱmō "dectet". Using prefixed numbers makes forms such as dwidéḱmō "dozen". The larger numbers give ḱm̥tolō "group of a hundred", (sm̥)ǵhéslō ~ tûsontō "group of a thousand", and (sm̥)ǵhéslōnō "group of a million" with derivatives thereof.

The numbers 1,3, and 4, given that they decline, are used attributively as though they were adjectives, meaning the noun which they count can be in any case, and the case of the number and noun must agree: Hójnos wīrós "one man", tr̥jôm wīrôm "of three men", qetwr̥mós wīrómos "(for/to) four men". Since other numbers do not decline, only the noun which they modify declines according to the function of the main noun: éǵ wélō pénqe wīróms "I see five men".

Prepositions in SAvIE always precede the nominal which they modify; they will always be placed before nouns and adjectives. They govern only one of two cases: the locative for prepositions which imply location at, near, or in relation to something, and the accusative for motion to or from, and everything else. So, prepositions such as Hén "in" can be used with different cases to modify their meaning, as in Hén dém "in a house" and Hén dôm "into a house".

Positional adverbs, such as déḱs "(on the) right", can also be used, requiring the genitive: déḱs tosjo déms "to/on the right of the house".

Below is a list of prepositions and positional adverbs and their meanings with the cases they govern.

The most important addition to this basic overview of grammar is discursive words; those which can be used to carry and shape conversations.

Ordinarily, questions in SAvIE need not be marked either at the start or the end of the sentence. As per 3.1, questions are indicated by inverting the subject and verb: ís cémt "he came" becomes cémt is? "did he come?". When using pro-forms, these start the sentence: qís Hésti ís? "who is he?".

However, the word Hár ~ Hr̥, meaning "so" or "thus" in positive sentences, can be used to introduce a sentence: Hár qís Hésti ís? "so who is he?".

In addition, the phrase né Hésti…? "isn't it…?" can be used with the regular statement to  form a yes/no question in one of two ways: firstly, it can be used to introduce a subordinate clause, as in né Hésti, qid ís cémt? "isn't it [the case] that he came?"; the second is that it can be used as a tag question at the end of a sentence, as in ís cémt, né Hésti? "he came, isn't it?".

The simple responses to yes/no questions is nójnom, né tód, or Hóju qíd "no", and the positive is já ~ sejḱe ~ tód ~ dô. There is no fundamental difference between any of these words; they have different origins and can be used depending on the speaker's preference for their source. For example, nójnom is a shortening of né (H)ójnom, from Latin nōn, whereas Hóju qíd is the form of Greek οὐ(κ) ~ οὐ(χ) and Armenian ոչ; meanwhile, já is ubiquitous in Germanic, séjḱe also from Latin sīc, (né) tód as seen in Celtic languages, such as Welsh do ~ naddo, or dô as in Slavic да.

In addition to the simple answers, SAvIE can produce yes/no answers to polar questions by repeating the verb either in a positive or negative polarity. If the question were cémt ís? "did he come?", a positive response would be cémt "he came (yes)", and a negative response would be né(ghe) cémt "he didn't come (no)". Note that the negative particle here can either be né or néghe; the -ghe suffix intensifies the previous particle.

These can be introduced in one of two ways.

The first is introducing an entirely independent subordinate clause with the word qid, such as in éǵ wéjdō, qid ís cémt "I know that he came".

Clauses that are more semantically linked to the antecedent use interrogative-relative pronouns: só wīrós, qésjo cên cémt… "the man, whose wife came…", literally "the man, of whom [the] wife came…".

Hypothetical sentences are introduced by sô ~ séj "if", which is an innovated and fossilized thematicisation of só in the instrumental and locative cases, respectively, meaning "with this" or "in this". This is modelled on the etymology of the Latin sī. mā can be used as in Celtic, jéj as in Baltic, or qéj as in some Slavic. None of these words differs in meaning.

The consequence can be introduced without any particle, but can also optionally be introduced with the particle tómḱe "then, in that case", or tóqe "then".

The verb skéles "to owe" should be used in the deponent aorist subjunctive to form a periphrastic conditional tense with the purportative, thus giving séj ís cémt, éǵ skêlsōr kápos wl̥Htóm welos ím "If he came, I would have wanted to see him". When there are two verbs that require the purportative in a row, one is in the accusative (é)-os form, and the second is in the genitive (é)-esos form: séj ís cémti, éǵ skêlsōr wélHos wélesos ím "If he comes, I would want to see him". Literally this means something like "...that I owe wanting of seeing".

Nominals must be negated by the particle néghe "not"; this can be attached directly to nominals, such as néghe méǵHs "not great", or néghe wīrós "not a man". Determiners can also precede the nominal: néghe só wīrós "not the/this man".

"Either" and "or" are both expressed by the word Háwti: Háwti cm̥dhí ḱóm mé, Háwti méne "either come with me, or stay".

In conjunction with the imperative verb form, the particle mê "do not…!" (from *meh₁ as seen in Greek μή) is used to express prohibition: Hidhí! "go!" becomes mê Hidhí! "do not go!"

Following the presence of A and B constructions in SAE, this is the preferred structure for the and construction. Rather than using the Proto-Indo-European *-kʷe suffix, alternative strategies are preferred. These are Hé (the augment *h₁é), ḱḿ̥ti (modelled on the Greek καί), Héti (modelled on the Latin et), Hánti (synonymous with the preposition, modelled on Proto-Germanic *andi), Héj (modelled on Proto-Slavic *i), or Hṓd (modelled on Proto-Balto-Slavic *ō, based on a hypothetical ablative PIE form *h₁ōd).

"Also" can be expressed with qōdqe, a fossilised ablative of a thematicisation of qís, meaning approximately "and from which", or Háwghe (modelled on Proto-Germanic *auk).

Consequence in the form of "then" or "so" is expressed with tôd, yet another fossilised ablative of a thematicised só ~ sâ ~ tód, such as éǵ cêm, tôd ís léjqt "I came, then he left".

An intended consequence, expressing "so that" or "in order to", is expressed with a similar form to the above, téj, a thematicised dative meaning "to this", and a subordinate clause introduced by qid with the verb in the subjunctive, such as éǵ qrêjHsm̥ tód, téj qid tû Hédesi íd "I bought this so you could eat it".

The basic words "or" and "nor" are expressed by íwe ~ íwē or éjwe ~ éjwē (based on *i- and *ey- as pronominal bases) in the positive polarity (éǵ íwe tû "I or you") and néwe in the negative (néghe éǵ néwe tû "not I nor you, not me and not you").

-we ~ -wē can also be suffixed to any words meaning "if" to produce "but if" or "if, on the other hand": séjwe né cémti ís, qíd tôd? "but if he doesn't come, what then?".

The word "but" can be expressed either as íde ~ éjde (using the Proto-Indo-European *de contrastive particle) or Heǵhstós (modelled on the Greek εχτός and Proto-Celtic *extos) at the beginning of a phrase, and the postclitic de otherwise to indicate a break in a sentence. Since it breaks a sentence apart, the part of the sentence ending de is considered disjunct, and can refer either to a subject or an object. The case of the preceding nominal can match its function in the following sentence.

So, in só Háljos/tóm Háljom de, né wêlsm̥ éǵ ím "the other one, however, I didn't see it", note the presence of both Háljos and Háljom, both of which are treated slightly differently. In the nominative, the phrase ending de is treated more as a topic and the antecedent as a comment; in the accusative, it is treated as a disjunct object rather than a topic, and matches its expected function in the antecedent.

Several strategies can be employed to introduce formality to SAvIE. The majority of these should be limited to forms of address, but some others exist.

Although many modern Indo-European languages employ a T-V distinction, it is best avoided in SAvIE. However, usage thereof should not be considered entirely incorrect. If a speaker chooses to use a T-V distinction, the expected follows: the 2nd person plural forms take the place of the singular forms in polite speech. So, one person is referred to politely as jû rather than tû, and verbs and adjectives are inflected in the plural rather than the singular. This turns the informal tû Hési méǵHs “you are tall” into jû Hsté méǵHas.

Rather than using the second-person plural for a more classically Indo-European T-V distinction, the third person can be used as it is employed in various modern languages. This category includes some formations innovated by SAvIE.

This follows the pattern of the Spanish usted, which is derived from vuestra merced “your mercy”. As the etymology of merced is so opaque, it has been discarded entirely. Instead, many synonymous constructions can be built from cérHtis “praise, grace”, whose root cérH- gives the Latin grātia.

This can optionally be supplemented with a second-person possessive adjective tós (or any of its variants, if avoiding T-V) or usós (if using T-V), giving tâ cérHtis or usâ cérHtis. The resulting phrase then inflects in its entirety. This is then used with a third-person verb.

The pronoun î, along with the third-person plural verbal forms, can be used to refer to a single person politely.

The pronoun ḱénos / -ā / -as, declined according to both case and number depending on the number of referents, can be used with the corresponding verbal number of the third person in polite speech. In addition to the above established pronoun, the neologism (H)irós / -â / -ás, an adjectival form modelled on the third-person pronouns ís / î / jás can be used as a polite second-person pronoun. This also declines as expected, giving (H)irôs / -âs / -ájes for multiple referents.

People can be referred to with titles attached to their names, in addition to the formal verb constructions given above. The title Mister and its cognates can be given as méǵHisteros / -ā / -as, while common Romance terms señor, signore, monsieur are given as sénjōs / sn̥jésī / -josas.

Due to a close proximity to the meanings of their individual stems, the former should be reserved for distinguished persons with some form of appointed title, and the latter for older people. A much more neutral but familiar term would be soqHjós / -â / -ás, cognate with Latin socius. A less familiar form would be Hwésus / Huséwī / Huséwy.

Each of these titles is abbreviated, respectively, m., s., so., and u.

The default writing system in this document has been the Latin script, but this need not necessarily be the case. In Appendix D there is a full alphabet shown with the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, and Devanagari scripts, all of which can be used effectively to write SAvIE. For ease and universality, the Latin alphabet may be preferred, but this Appendix allows for a wider range of writing.

SAvIE should be written entirely unicase. This means that there should be no distinction made between lowercase and uppercase letters. Although the letters ⟨h⟩ and ⟨H⟩ both exist in the Latin alphabet, it should be noted that these are two different letters with two different functions, not merely variants of one another. Common usages of capital letters in some languages, such as indicating proper nouns, are not treated specially in SAvIE, and should all be written lowercase.

This being said, this might be a difficult habit to break for some users. The practice should be avoided as per the standards of this document, but should not be seen as incorrect otherwise.

In all alphabets, natively-used punctuation should be employed. Where applicable, the comma ⟨,⟩ and period ⟨.⟩ should be used to indicate a break in and termination of a sentence, respectively. The relevant question and exclamation marks should also serve their respective purposes.

For block quotation, such as lines of dialogue, an em-dash ⟨—⟩ should be used for each line of dialogue, followed either by a double space, or a tab stop.

For inline quotation, a double guillemet ⟨« »⟩ should wrapped around a quotation, and a nested quotation within that should be marked with a single guillemet ⟨‹ ›⟩.

This usage can be mirrored with quotation marks, directional or otherwise. Double quotation marks ⟨" "⟩ ⟨“ ”⟩ enclose the main quotation, with single marks ⟨' '⟩ ⟨‘ ’⟩ enclosing a nested quotation.

In addition, lowered quotation marks can be used as in German and Slavic languages, either both low ⟨„ „⟩, or high and low ⟨„ ”⟩, with single marks ⟨‚ ‚⟩ and ⟨‚ ’⟩ for nested quotes. It is strongly preferred that the direction of punctuation marks conform to the above examples, but inverting one or both (such as ⟨» «⟩ or ⟨„ “⟩) should not be considered incorrect.

Any piece of text above a sentence can be broken up with special typographical conventions.

Paragraphs are broken by a single newline character, with new paragraphs optionally beginning with a tab stop. Collections of paragraphs can be broken up into logical groups by beginning the paragraph of a new logical group with the section symbol § followed by a tab stop. Groups of sections can be divided by placing an asterism symbol ⁂ on its own line, and beginning a new paragraph on a new line afterwards as expected. The asterism can optionally be padded with an extra empty line on either side of it.

Borrowing from other languages forms an integral part of the function of all Indo-European languages; whether through language contact, colonial or imperial superstrata or adstrata, archaism, or scientific and technical vocabulary, borrowing is crucial in the formation of a wider vocabulary.

The strategies for borrowing words into SAvIE is that they must preferably be nativised, using known etymologies to convert words into SAvIE as though they had originated their to begin with. Where this cannot be done, or where it would not be appropriate to do so, words can be borrowed in directly, using SAvIE phonology where possible, and several additions to the alphabet where not possible.

All sounds native to the language have been listed at the very start of this document. However, these do not encompass all possible sounds that could be represented in SAvIE for borrowings. Extra consonant sounds and their corresponding graphs are as follows.

Uvular sounds such as [q], [χ], and [ʁ] can be converted to their non-uvular counterparts [k], [x], [r ~ ɾ ~ ɹ].

In addition, the following vowel sounds can be used:

Non-native sounds should only be spelled using the above alternative characters where it is necessary or especially desirable to represent non-native pronunciation. This really need only be the case in words which are nativised, or for educational purposes. When writing the names of people, places, and things, and when those are not integrated into SAvIE, their official spelling or transliteration should be used instead.

Equally, words which are grammaticalised can be spelt with nativised phonology. This is often a simple matter of finding the closest representative sounds which exist in SAvIE, but can present some difficulties. In particular, given the lack of fricative sounds /f v h/, the sounds ⟨bh gh⟩ can be used instead.

So, for example, the French word bureau could be borrowed in as any of the following:

• -bűro, büró: indeclinable, with foreign phonology 

• -bűrō, bürô: declinable as a masculine -ō noun, with foreign phonology 

• -bjúro, bjuró: indeclinable, with native phonology 

• -bjúrō, bjurô: declinable as a masculine -ō noun, with native phonology 

in addition to the borrowed spelling and pronunciation bureau.

Note also how the non-native stress pattern is subject to interpretation in how it is represented in SAvIE.

In addition, the grammatical pattern that this word has been made to fit is purely representative. It could just as easily be bűros ~ bűrosjo, bűrom ~ bűrosjo, or even bűros ~ bűresos. Ideally, the chosen form should represent the original word and, if applicable, its declension pattern as best as possible.

Some morphology, such as affixes in particular, is so commonly shared between languages as to be worth borrowing into SAvIE. Affixes in particular can form large quantities of vocabulary and can, with some modification and filling in by analogy, be nativised into SAvIE for use in new vocabulary.

single transitivity:

nonpast thematic:         (é)-e-ti ~ (é)-o-nti                nonpast athematic:         (é)-ti ~ (∅)-énti

né-nonpast:                                                        (∅)-⟨né⟩-ti ~ (∅)-⟨n⟩-énti

imperfect thematic: (é)-e-t ~ (é)-o-nt                imperfect athematic:        (é)-t ~ (∅)-ént

né-imperfect                                                        (∅)-⟨né⟩-t ~ (∅)-⟨n⟩-énti

NP-T subjunctive:        (é)-ē-ti ~ (é)-ō-nti                NP-A subjunctive:                 (é)-e-ti ~ (e)-o-nti

past subjunctive regardless of thematicity:                                (ê)-seti ~ (ê)-sonti

transitive:

nonpast:                         (é)-j-e-ti ~ (é)-j-o-nti                bhrégjeti ~ bhrégjonti

         Hésmi bhr̥gjómHnos

imperfect:                 (é)-j-e-t ~ (é)-j-o-nt                bhrégjet ~ bhrégjont

         Hésm̥ bhr̥gjómHnos

intransitive:

nonpast:                         (∅)-j-é-ti ~ (∅)-j-ó-nti        bhr̥gjéti ~ bhr̥gjónti

           Hésmi bhr̥gjómHnos

imperfect:                 (∅)-j-é-t ~ (∅)-j-ó-nt                bhr̥gjét ~ bhr̥gjónt

                                                Hésm̥ bhr̥gjómHnos

shared:

eventive aorist:                (ê)-s-t ~ (é)-s-n̥t                bhrêgst ~ bhrégsn̥t

                                                bhéwHsm̥ bhr̥gjómHnos

stative aorist:                (ó)-e ~ (∅)-êr                Hwóse ~ Husêr

                                                bhówHe HusómHnos

stative subjunctive:                (é)-e-ti ~ (é)-o-nti                Hwéseti ~ Hwésonti

                                                bhéwHeti HusómHnos

habitual:                         (∅)-é-t ~ (∅)-ó-nt                bhr̥gét ~ bhr̥gónt

                                                bhūóm bhr̥gjómHnos

habitual subjunctive:         (∅)-ê-ti ~ (∅)-ô-nti                bhr̥gêti~ bhr̥gônti

                                                bhūômi bhr̥gjómHnos

non-finite forms:

present participle:                 (é)-onts ~ (∅)-n̥tés                bhrégonts ~ bhr̥gn̥tés

passive participle:                 (∅)-ó-mHnos                bhr̥gómHnos

past participle:                 (∅)-tós                        bhr̥gtós

infinitive:                        (é)-es                        bhréges

compound tenses:

perfect:                        kápti + PastP                kápmi bhr̥gtóm

                                                kápmi bhūtóm bhr̥gjómHnos

pluperfect:                 kâpst + PastP                kâpsm̥ bhr̥gtóm

                                                kâpsm̥ bhūtóm bhr̥gjómHnos

future tense:                Héjti + PresP locative        Héjmi bhr̥gént

                                                        Héjmi bhūjént bhr̥gjómHnos

continuous:                Héses + PresP                Hésmi/Hésm̥/Hêsm̥ etc. bhrégontom

Hésmi/Hésm̥/Hêsm̥ bhûjont bhr̥gjómHnos

Law 1: *Vwm > *Vːm and *VHm > *Vːm  (Stang's law)

Law 2:   /-VRs/, */-VRH/ > *-VːR

                /-VRH-/ > *-VR-                (Szemerényi's law)

The following sections give short lists of vocabulary separated by parts of speech.

verb     infinitive  3sg nonpast  3sg imp.  3sg aorist

be able                gélHes   gl̥Hnéwti  gl̥Hnéwt  gélHt

bake     bhôges  bhôgeti  bhôget  bhôHgst

be                        Héses   Hésti    Hést    bhéwst

begin                        kénes   kéneti    kénet    kênst

breathe out                dhwéses dhwésti  dhwést  dhwêst