Ithkuil/Formatives

Ithkuil has three parts of speech: Formatives, Adjuncts, and Referentials. Formatives are the primary part of speech, and can act as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Formatives have a structure of ten "slots" as shown in the table below:

Slot 1
Slot 1 is called the Cc. Its default value is a glottal stop, which is unwritten word-initially. It indicates whether the formative is concatenated. Concatenation of formatives links a concatenated formative to a parent formative. In concatenated formatives, Slot 9 is Vf (Format). It also indicates whether Slot 2 gives "shortcut information" for Slots 4 and 6, so that those slots can be elided and thus shortening the word. The unconcatenated values of Slot 1 are the glottal stop, w, and y. The concatenated forms all begin with h.

Slot 2
Slot 2 is called the Vv. Its default value is a (Stem 1, Processual Version, and no "shortcut" information for Slots 4 and 6), and may be omitted if both it and Slot 1 have their default values and the sequence of consonants in Slot 3 is allowed at the start of a word. For example, kšil, meaning "a clown", has the initial a omitted, as -kš- is allowed at the start of a word. However, ukšal ("a piece of surrealist art") must include the Vv (and unwritten Cc!) since it has a non-default value, and alvwal ("moose") must include the Vv since a word cannot begin with the consonant sequence -lvw-.

Each Root has three Stems to further specify its meaning. For example, the Root -kš- has stems for "clown", "absurdist/Dadaist art", and "surrealist art". In addition to these three Stems, there is also a "Stem 0" form referring to the overall concept of the raw root, irrespective of the three Stems. Stem 1 is the default form.

Version is a two-way distinction of Processual (an end in itself, that is not goal-oriented) versus Completive (goal-oriented). For example, the sentence "My cousin studied the Ithkuil language" would be in the Processual, while "My cousin learned the Ithkuil laguage" would use the Completive Version of the verb -rţt- (to study/learn).

Slot 3
Slot 3 is called the Cr. It is a sequence of consonants that form the Root of the word. The Root is the main part of the word that gives it its meaning. Examples of roots include -L- "human being", -KŠ- "clown", -RZL- "right triangle", and -ŘPSTL- "uranium".