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The alphabet of Hervelski uses 28 letters, including six outside of the plain Latin alphabet (č, ň, š, ž, æ, and ų). Each letter has exactly one pronunciation, and thus, contrary to Polish and Slovak, Hervelski does not have word-final devoicing (e.g., pronunciation of the word “rad” as /rat/) nor voicing assimilation (e.g., pronunciation of Polish “wtedy” as /ftɛdɨ/ and Slovak “vtedy” as /ftɛdi/). The only deviation from the letter-per-phone rule is the pronunciation of m as /ɱ/ before v and f and n as /ŋ/ before k, g, and h.
| Letter | Name | IPA | Equivalent | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian | Polish | Slovak | |||
| A a | a | /a/ | a | a, á | |
| B b | be | /b/ | b | ||
| C c | ce | /t͡s/ | c | ||
| Č č | če | /t͡ʃ/ | č | cz | č |
| D d | de | /d/ | d | ||
| E e | e | /e/ | e | e, é | |
| F f | ef | /f/ | f | ||
| G g | ge | /g/ | g | h, g | |
| H h | ha | /x/ | h | ch, h | |
| I i | i | /i/ | i | i, í | |
| J j | je | /j/ | j | ||
| K k | ka | /k/ | k | ||
| L l | el | /l/ | l, lj | l, ł | l, ľ, ĺ |
| M m | em | /m/ | m | ||
| N n | en | /n/ | n | ||
| Ň ň | eň | /ɲ/ | nj | ń | ň |
| O o | o | /o/ | o | o, ó | |
| P p | pe | /p/ | p | ||
| R r | er | /r/ | r | r, rz | r, ŕ |
| S s | es | /s/ | s | ||
| Š š | eš | /ʃ/ | š | sz | š |
| T t | te | /t/ | t | ||
| U u | u | /u/ | u | u, ó | u, ú |
| V v | ve | /v/ | v | w | v |
| Z z | ze | /z/ | z | ||
| Ž ž | že | /ʒ/ | ž | ż | ž |
| Ų ų | dlugo u | /uw/ | u | ą, ę | u, ú |
| Æ æ | široko e | /æ/ | a, e | a, ą, e, ę | a, á, ä, e, é |
There is no national keyboard layout containing all these letters. Thus, the writer can use the dedicated custom keyboard layout creating software for an operating system of choice.
Hervelski has the initial dynamic word stress, as in Slovak. The first syllable of a word has a slightly higher pitch and loudness (e.g., “niakovi” is pronounced as /ˈni.akovi/). The only exclusion from the rule is words after single-word prepositions (e.g., “do mnæ” is pronounced as /ˈdo‿mnæ/ but “s-pomocų ňega” as /ˈs‿pomot͡suw ˈɲega/).
Pronouns (substituting nouns) are the only part of speech declined by the grammatical case (Nominative, Accusative, and Genitive).
Personal pronouns (e.g., I, you) also inflect by number, person, and gender (for 3rd person singular). The reflexive pronoun (i.e., oneself) refers directly to the sentence subject and does not have the Nominative form. The short Accusative forms of pronouns can be used only as a direct object of sentences.
| Person | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | Long | |||
| 1p sg | ja | mæ | mnæ | |
| 2p sg | ti | tæ | tebæ | |
| 3p masc | on | go | ňega | |
| 3p fem | ona | jų | ňų | ňe |
| 3p neut | ono | go | ňega | |
| 1p pl | mi | — | nas | |
| 2p pl | vi | — | vas | |
| 3p pl | oni | ih | ňih | |
| reflexive | — | sæ | sebæ | |
Interrogative (i.e., who, what) pronouns appear in questions, relative (i.e., who, what) pronouns do so in relative clauses, and negative (i.e., nobody, nothing) pronouns occur in negations. They decline by animacy.
| Type | Animacy | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Int/rel | Human | kto | koga | |
| Non-human | što | čoga | ||
| Negative | Human | nikto | nikoga | |
| Non-human | ništo | ničoga | ||
They substitute adjectives and inflect only by gender and number.
There are two ways to mark possession—prepositional phrases using the word od (i.e., of) and possessive pronouns (e.g., my, your), which also have the reflexive (i.e., one's own), the interrogative (i.e., whose), and the negative (i.e., nobody's) variants.
| Person/type | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1p singular | moj | moja | moje | |
| 2p singular | tvoj | tvoja | tvoje | |
| 1p plural | naš | naša | naše | |
| 2p plural | vaš | vaša | vaše | |
| Reflexive | svoj | svoja | svoje | |
| Interrogative | čij | čija | čije | |
| Negative | ničij | ničija | ničije | |
There are four determiners—demonstrative (i.e., this), existential (i.e., some), alternative (i.e., other), and universal (i.e., each).
| Type | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demonstrative | tæj | ta | to | te |
| Existential | jedæn | jedna | jedno | jedne |
| Alternative | drugi | druga | drugo | druge |
| Universal | švæki | švæka | šveko | švæki |
The general pro-adjectives have three types—interrogative (i.e., which, what kind of), demonstrative (i.e., such, that kind of), and negative (i.e., neither).
| Type | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interrogative | akovi | akova | akovo | akove |
| Demonstrative | takovi | takova | takovo | takove |
| Negative | niakovi | niakova | niakovo | niakove |
They cover location (including movement), time, and substitute adverbs in general. Pro-adverbs do not inflect and divide into interrogative or relative (where, when, how), demonstrative (here, there, then, that way), and negative (nowhere, never, neither way). The demonstrative pronouns for space have two variants: proximal (here) and distal (there).
| Type | Location | Time | General | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interrogative | gdje | kæd | kako | |
| Demonstrative | Proximal | tu | tæd | tako |
| Distal | tamo | |||
| Negative | nigdje | nikæd | nikako | |
Noun definition includes the dictionary form (singular form for regular and singular-only nouns, plural form for plural-only nouns, and both for irregular nouns) and gender (for all nouns except the plural-only). In regular declension, the noun ending marks its number. E.g., the feminine singular noun osoba (i.e., person) has the plural form osobi, as the result of a—i ending change, or the masculine singular noun dæn (i.e., day) has the plural form dæni as the result of ∅—i change.
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | -∅, -a, -o | -i |
| Feminine | ||
| Neuter | -o, -e | -a |
The pronoun referencing a noun has to be in the 3rd person and the same number and gender as the noun.
The adjective appears before nouns and declines by number and gender through ending changes. Its dictionary form is masculine. Each adjective and adjectival pronoun has to be in the same number and gender as the described noun.
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | -∅, -i | -e |
| Feminine | -a | |
| Neuter | -o |
Adverbs are not inflected. They appear before the modified words (adverb, adjective, verb) or as sentence adverbial. When derived from adjectives, they have the same form as the neuter adjective. E.g., the adverbs descended from the adjectives sam/sama/samo/same (i.e., alone) and dobri/dobra/dobro/dobre (i.e., good) are samo (i.e., alone) and dobro (i.e., well).
Both adjectives and adverbs have the comparative (more, less) and superlative (the most, the least) forms, both obtained through the usage of preceding adverbs, either positive (more, the most) or negative (less, the least) ones.
| Degree | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Comparative | višej | mæňej |
| Superlative | najvišej | najmæňej |
A regular verb is defined by infinitive and its 3rd person singular form for present tense, which determines the conjugation patterns. In the sentence, the verb should have the same number, person (for present tense), and gender (for past tense) as the subject.
In the present (non-past) tense, there are three patterns of conjugation: a-type, i-type, and e-type.
| Person | a-type | i-type | e-type | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sg | pl | sg | pl | sg | pl | |||
| 1st | -am | -ama | -im | -ima | -em | -ema | ||
| 2nd | -aš | -ate | -iš | -ite | -eš | -ete | ||
| 3rd | -a | -ajų | -i | -i | -e | -ų | ||
For each regular verb, the past tense forms derive from the infinitive and conjugate by number and gender.
| Infinitive | -t, -c | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
| Masculine | -l | -li |
| Feminine | -la | |
| Neuter | -lo | |
The passive past participle is an adjective used primarily in passive voice. For verbs with infinitives ending in -a-, -nų-, and -æ-, they derive from the infinitive.
| Infinitive | Singular | Neuter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| -at, -ac | -ani | -ana | -ano | -ane |
| -nųt, -nųc | -nųti | -nųta | -nųto | -nųte |
| -æt, -æc | -æti | -æta | -æto | -æte |
For the rest of the verbs, the passive past participle depends on the singular 3rd person form or its relation to the infinitive.
| Infinitive | Pres. 3p sg | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |||
| -t, -c | -je | -ti | -ta | -to | -te |
| (various) | -i, -e | -jeni | -jena | -jeno | -jene |
Gerund is a neuter noun derived from a passive past participle with a change of ending. It forms only for the nouns with -n- endings.
| Past participle | Gerund |
|---|---|
| -ni, -na, -no, -ne | -ňe |
As there is no future tense construction, the time-related adverbials substitute them. Conditional mood construction of the verb utilizes the past tense form, followed by the bi particle. The “nek” particle preceding the verb in the present tense forms the imperative mood.
The verb “pisat” (to write) has “piše” 3rd person singular present form. It implies e-type conjugation in the present tense, -an- past passive participle, and the existence of gerund. The verb “vijdet” (to see) uses “vidi” in 3rd person singular, has i-type conjugation in the present tense, -jen- past passive participle, and a gerund.
| Infinitive | pisat | vidjet | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present tense | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | pišem | pišema | vidim | vidima | |
| 2nd person | pišeš | pišete | vidiš | vidite | |
| 3rd person | piše | pišų | vidi | vidi | |
| Past tense | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | pisal | pisali | vidjel | vidjeli | |
| Feminine | pisala | vidjela | |||
| Neuter | pisalo | vidjelo | |||
| Past participle | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | pisani | pisane | vidjeni | vidjene | |
| Feminine | pisana | vidjena | |||
| Neuter | pisano | vidjeno | |||
| Gerund | pisaňe | vidjeňe | |||
| Imperative | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | nek pišem | nek pišema | nek vidim | nek vidima | |
| 2nd person | nek pišeš | nek pišete | nek vidiš | nek vidite | |
| 3rd person | nek piše | nek pišų | nek vidi | nek vidi | |
| Conditional | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Masculine | pisal bi | pisali bi | vidjel bi | vidjeli bi | |
| Feminine | pisala bi | vidjela bi | |||
| Neuter | pisalo bi | vidjelo bi | |||
The verb “bit” (to be) is irregular in the present tense and imperative mood, regular in the past tense, and does not have a passive past participle and a gerund.
| Infinitive | bit | |
|---|---|---|
| Present tense | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | je | sų |
| 2nd person | ||
| 3rd person | ||
| Past tense | Singular | Plural |
| Masculine | — | |
| Feminine | ||
| Neuter | ||
| Gerund | — | |
| Imperative | Singular | Plural |
| 1st person | nek bųdem | nek bųdema |
| 2nd person | nek bųdeš | nek bųdete |
| 3rd person | nek bųde | nek bųdų |
| Conditional | Singular | Plural |
| Masculine | bil bi | bili bi |
| Feminine | bila bi | |
| Neuter | bilo bi | |