The Village and the Lizards - A Jôyand čyú Jrĥna

[Matrix]

This is a story I wrote for a Creative Writing class. It's supposed to be a Shorragite folk tale, so I am endeavouring to translate it into Nahakhontl. So far, I have the first paragraph done.

Hôga hén srnva hôga jô iz jôyand ípex ví až vek kômíx vé yrabg-gonðí hôga fôl kev srnva frú jô kômíx ínal nal.
[hoˈga hen ˈsɹ̩n.βa ˈho.ga ˈd͡ʒo iz ˈd͡ʒo.jand ˈi.pɛks ˈβi aʒ ˈβɛk koˈmiks βe ˈjɹab.gɔnˈði hoˈga fol ˈkɛβ sɹ̩nˈβa fɹʌ ˈd͡ʒo koˈmiks iˈnal nal]
upon old year upon of small village PAST-do place out in_front_of state POSS bad-way upon only behind year PL of state PAST-be be
A little village once existed in the west of the kingdom, before it was a kingdom.
So, here, hôga hén srnva, 'upon old year', can roughly mean 'once upon a time', or even just 'back then'. Hôga constructions like hôga jô and hôga fôl are used to separate clauses. The former, glossing as 'upon of', translates as things like 'concerning' or 'thus'. The latter, glossing as 'upon only', translates as things like 'but', 'however', and 'therefore'. Nahakhontl verbal constructions must contain an auxiliary, even when an auxiliary is the action being expressed. The auxiliaries are nal and pex, meaning 'be' and 'do', respectively. These are required because they are the only verbs that can take tense prefixes. Also, which one is used is important because they express the imperfective and perfective aspects, respectively. Furthermore, if constructed in certain ways, mood can be expressed. The word for 'west' is yrabg-gonðí, glossing as 'bad-way'. It refers to the the large desert west of the Kingdom of Shorrag.

Ípex sanal glôžen čyú únah jô yaxlr.
[iˈpɛks saˈnal gloˈʒɛn t͡ʃʲʌ ˈʌn.ah ˈd͡ʒo jaksˈlɹ̩]
PAST-do NEG-be alike with many of all
Unlike many other such places [in the uplands],
Negation is a purely verbal thing in Nahakhontl, which is why this has a verb construction and is its own sentence, instead of a verbless clause like in the English.

Ípex nal rin vek xrml.
[iˈpɛks nal ˈɹɪn βɛk ˈksɹ̩.ml̩]
PAST-do be close in_front_of jungle
this one was close to the jungles.
This is probably a good time to mention that Nahakhontl has no pronouns.

Ža jôyand ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon až vek yrabg-gonðí vé xrml.
[ʒa ˈd͡ʒo.jand ˈðʌ.pɛks ˈi.pɛks ˈkso.ʒat͡ɬ ˈʒa.zɔn ˈaʒ βɛk ˈjɹab.gɔnˈði βe ˈksɹ̩.ml̩]
in village CONT-do PAST-do watch protect out in_front_of bad-way POSS jungle
In this village they kept watch over the west, where the jungles were.
The verbal construction in this sentence, ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon, is quite interesting. It is in the habitual aspect and past tense. However, the habitual cannot normally be expressed in the past or future. This is because a normal habitual is constructed using the continuous aspect prefix ðú- on the auxiliary. Aspect and tense prefixes are mutually exclusive. A regular habitual implies the present tense. So, the workaround is to use the construction for the conditional mood, mark the auxiliary for the continuous aspect like usual for the habitual aspect, and then mark the conditional mood construction's secondary pex for the past or future - in this case, past. Also of note is that this verbal construction has two regular verbs, xôžatl and žazon, after the auxiliary and modal construction. Nahakhontl allows for unlimited stacking of regular verbs in this way in its verbal constructions.

Ðúnal doĥ ípex sanal xrml.
[ðʌˈnal dɔχ ˈi.pɛks ˈsa.nal ˈksɹ̩.ml̩]
now specific PAST-do NEG-be jungle
Not the jungles themselves, mind.
What you might notice here is that the word glossed as 'now', ðúnal, is actually the verb 'be', nal, with the continuous aspect prefix, ðú-. This has taken on a life of its own as an adjective and interjection.

Ðúnal vlm doĥ ípex sanal člvnar frú vé sefrek až vek rin xrml.
[ðʌˈnal βl̩m ˈdɔχ iˈpɛks saˈnal t͡ʃl̩βˈnaɹ fɹʌ ˈβe sɛˈfɹɛk aʒ ˈβɛk ɹɪn ˈksɹ̩.ml̩]
now very specific PAST-do NEG-be mountain PL POSS line out in_front_of close jungle
Not even the mountains not far beyond the jungles.
This continues the pattern of the last sentence. 'Not far' gets translated as rin, 'close', because trying to express that negation as an actual negation would have been a silly thing involving a verb. Člvnar frú vé sefrek, glossed 'mountain PL POSS line' basically just means 'mountain range'. The mountain range being referred to here is the Neshechons, which form the western border of the Kingdom of Shorrag.

Ðúnal vlm doĥ ípex sanal yrabg nelš až vek člvnar frú vé sefrek.
[ðʌˈnal βl̩m ˈdɔχ iˈpɛks saˈnal jɹabg ˈnɛlʃ aʒ ˈβɛk t͡ʃl̩βˈnaɹ fɹʌ ˈβe sɛˈfɹɛk]
now very specific PAST-do NEG-be bad land out in_front_of mountain PL POSS line
Not even the desert beyond the mountains.
Yrabg nelš, 'bad land', is the Nahakhontl term for desert. Hence the aforementioned term for 'west'. It has also had the effect that in foreign lands, the name of this desert usually is something like The Badlands, which is what I call it in English. It doesn't have a name in Nahakhontl because it's the only one around the Kingdom of Shorrag. If for some reason it does need to be differentiated from other deserts, a Shorragite might call it yrabg nelš jô jrĥna frú, 'bad land of lizards'.

Daf. Jôyand vé nôkôčé frú ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon hôga jô zín víþ ípex pex þadax ví ža yrabg nelŝ.
[daf | d͡ʒoˈjand βe ˈno.koˈt͡ʃe fɹʌ ˈðʌ.pɛks ˈi.pɛks ˈkso.ʒat͡ɬ ˈʒa.zɔn ˈho.ga ˈd͡ʒo zin ˈβiθ iˈpɛks θaˈdaks βi ˈʒa jɹabg ˈnɛlʃ]
no | village POSS adult PL CONT-do PAST-do watch protect upon of unknown able PAST-do do hide add in bad land
No, they watched for what could still be hiding in the desert.
In the second clause of the second sentence here, we have an example of the hypothetical mood. not only does víþ ípex pex þadax ví have a secondary pex, it also has the adjective víþ, 'able', before it. This is the only modal construction to use an adjective, though it is not the only one to use a non-verb. The generic mood begins with the preposition až.

Ðúnal vek íz srnva hôga ansu ípex kah xítla ag vek kex jrĥna frú jô yrabg nelš.
[ðʌˈnal βɛk ˈiz sɹ̩nˈβa hoˈga anˈsu iˈpɛks kah ˈksi.t͡ɬa ˈag βɛk ˈkɛks d͡ʒɹ̩χˈna fɹʌ ˈd͡ʒo jɹabg ˈnɛlʃ]
now in_front_of small year upon ansu PAST-do open free A>N in_front_of from lizard PL of bad land
This was not long after the people broke free from the lizards from that desert.
The 'A>N' gloss means 'adjective to noun', such that xítla ag, glossing as 'free A>N' means 'freedom'. Ípex kah xítla ag, glossing as 'PAST-do open free A>N', could be loosely translated as 'opened freedom', and in this case means 'broke free'. Ansu is the word the Shorragites use to refer to themselves. However, in other languages, the word as borrowed refers to their species in general, including the tribes living on the jungled peninsula to the south-west of the Kingdom of Shorrag. This is also the word's English usage.

Jôyand vé nôkôčé frú ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon čyú garid gur frú čyú žakír.
[d͡ʒoˈjand βe ˈno.koˈt͡ʃe fɹʌ ˈðʌ.pɛks ˈi.pɛks ˈkso.ʒat͡ɬ ˈʒa.zɔn ˈt͡ʃʲʌ gaˈɹɪd guɹ ˈfɹʌ t͡ʃʲʌ ˈʒa.kiɹ]
village POSS adult PL CONT-do PAST-do watch protect with red eye PL with truth
With red, truthful eyes the people of this village watched.
Ansu universally have red eyes. They also have a natural affinity for noticing very slight body language, which means they are very good at picking up on lies. The Shorragites have called this ability žakír-ðúyen, 'truthsight', and have associated it with the colour of their eyes.

Full Nahakhontl paragraph:

Hôga hén srnva hôga jô iz jôyand ípex ví až vek kômíx vé yrabg-gonðí hôga fôl kev srnva frú jô kômíx ínal nal. Ípex sanal glôžen čyú únah jô yaxlr. Ípex nal rin vek xrml. Ža jôyand ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon až vek yrabg-gonðí vé xrml. Ðúnal doĥ ípex sanal xrml. Ðúnal vlm doĥ ípex sanal člvnar frú vé sefrek až vek rin xrml. Ðúnal vlm doĥ ípex sanal yrabg nelš až vek člvnar frú vé sefrek. Daf. Jôyand vé nôkôčé frú ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon hôga jô zín víþ ípex pex þadax ví ža yrabg nelŝ. Ðúnal vek íz srnva hôga ansu ípex kah xítla ag vek kex jrĥna frú jô yrabg nelš. Jôyand vé nôkôčé frú ðúpex ípex xôžatl žazon čyú garid gur frú čyú žakír.

Full English paragraph:

A little village once existed in the west of the kingdom, before it was a kingdom. Unlike many other such places in the uplands, this one was close to the jungles. In this village they kept watch over the west, where the jungles were. Not the jungles themselves, mind. Not even the mountains not far beyond the jungles. Not even the desert beyond the mountains. No, they watched for what could still be hiding in the desert. This was not long after the people broke free from the lizards from that desert. With red, truthful eyes the people of this village watched.

[Sevly]

This looks like an interesting folktale, and once again this is an excellent way to present a conlang. Some comments:

• The etymology for "west" and "desert" is very well done.
• The language doesn't have pronouns, so you repeat jôyand vé nôkôčé "village's adults" where the English translation uses "they". Is there any pattern to which noun phrases can be used as a pronominal in a given context, any idiomatic choices, or is the choice always fully analyzable?
• Great etymology for ðúnal. I can see that acquiring a wide range of uses as a discourse particle. Now I'm wondering whether doĥ, which you've glossed as "specific", has other uses as well.
• I see that you have daf "no", but by analogy with ðúnal and since "negation is a purely verbal thing", it might be cool to have "yes, no" as nal, sanal "being, not being".
• I like the interplay between auxiliary choice, inflection, and particles for your TAM distinctions. It works well and feels creative.

Looking forward to more!

[Matrix]

Thanks!

As for this:

The language doesn't have pronouns, so you repeat jôyand vé nôkôčé "village's adults" where the English translation uses "they". Is there any pattern to which noun phrases can be used as a pronominal in a given context, any idiomatic choices, or is the choice always fully analyzable?

It's kind of like Japanese, where pronouns are not used if it's obvious what is being talked about via context. Otherwise, the full thing is said.

Now I'm wondering whether doĥ, which you've glossed as "specific", has other uses as well.

Yes, other things it can mean are 'exact', 'precise', 'correct', 'direct', 'main', and 'elementary'.

[KathTheDragon]

Doĥ, dear Watson!

[Matrix]

Doĥ, dear Watson!

Rin Wačn! Ínal nal doĥ!

[KathTheDragon]

Wítam nei, watr zígidrt.

[Matrix]

Another paragraph done!

Ža jôyand ípex ví narôðú čyú xézr jô Krža.
[ʒa ˈd͡ʒo.jand ˈi.pɛks ˈβi naˈɹo.ðʌ ˈt͡ʃʲʌ kseˈzɹ̩ d͡ʒo ˈkɹ̩.ʒa]
in village PAST-do place MASC-child with name of Krzha
In this village lived a boy called Krzha.
Here we have the first instance of a gender prefix! Nouns inflect for two genders in (standard) Nahakhontl with the masculine prefix na- and the feminine prefix le-. This doesn't get crazy like in various European languages. These only apply when the thing the noun refers to actually has a gender/sex. We also have our protagonist!

Krža víþ saípex pex xôžatl žazon čyú garid gur frú čyú žakír až hôga gur frú ípex nal jôtur-ketra.
[kɹ̩ˈʒa βiθ ˈsa.iˈpɛks pɛks ˈkso.ʒat͡ɬ ˈʒa.zɔn ˈt͡ʃʲʌ gaˈɹɪd guɹ ˈfɹʌ t͡ʃʲʌ ˈʒa.kiɹ ˈaʒ hoˈga guɹ ˈfɹʌ iˈpɛks nal ˈd͡ʒo.tuɹˈket.ɹa]
Krzha able NEG-PAST-do do watch protect with red eye PL with truth out upon eye PL PAST-do be gray
He could not watch with red, truthful eyes, because his eyes were gray
The word for gray here is compounded from the words for black and white, jôtur and ketra respectively.

Gur frú ípex sayen.
[guɹ ˈfɹʌ iˈpɛks saˈjɛn]
eye PL PAST-do NEG-see
and saw nothing.

Krža ípex pex jan dalu kex rt ĥn a vek kučig ža yaxlr jatí frú.
[kɹ̩ˈʒa iˈpɛks pɛks ˈd͡ʒan daˈlu kɛks ˈɹ̩t χn̩ ˈa βɛk ˈku.t͡ʃɪg ˈʒa jaksˈlɹ̩ d͡ʒaˈti fɹʌ]
Krzha PAST-do do get water from wet hole by in_front_of family in all day PL
He would get water each day from the well, for his family.
Rt ĥn = 'wet hole' = 'well'. Also, there's no preposition really equivalent to 'to' or 'for', so you get things like a vek, 'by in front of'.

Hôga ípex aĥex čezex gôla až a rt ĥn čyú hôga agôh hôga jô jôyand vé nôkôčé frú ípex pex vég xôžatl čyú zaraxen dakru ža garid gur frú čyú žakír.
[hoˈga iˈpɛks aˈχɛks t͡ʃɛˈzɛks goˈla aʒ ˈa ɹ̩t ˈχn̩ t͡ʃʲʌ ˈho.ga ˈag.oh ˈho.ga ˈd͡ʒo d͡ʒoˈjand βe ˈno.koˈt͡ʃe fɹʌ ˈi.pɛks ˈpɛks βeg ˈkso.ʒat͡ɬ ˈt͡ʃʲʌ zaˈɹaks.ɛn ˈdak.ɹu ˈʒa gaˈɹɪd guɹ ˈfɹʌ t͡ʃʲʌ ˈʒa.kiɹ]
upon PAST-do touch guide walk out by wet hole with upon below upon of village POSS person PL PAST-do do fade watch with sad knowledge in red eye PL with truth
As he felt his way to the well and back, the people of the village would keep their distance and look at him with pity in their red, truthful eyes.
Things of note here: hôga agôh, lit. 'upon below', means 'back to'; vég, lit. 'fade', refers here to staying away or keeping one's distance; and zaraxen dakru, lit. 'sad knowledge', is how Shorragites refer to pity.

Krža vé gur frú víþ ípex pex sadér žakír hôga fôl jôyand vé narinažal ípex pex vaču weh vek.
[kɹ̩ˈʒa βe ˈguɹ fɹʌ ˈβiθ iˈpɛks pɛks ˈsa.deɹ ˈʒa.kiɹ ˈho.ga ˈfol d͡ʒoˈjand βe ˈna.ɹɪnˈa.ʒal ˈi.pɛks ˈpɛks βaˈt͡ʃu wɛh ˈβɛk]
Krzha POSS eye PL able PAST-do do NEG-wonder truth upon only village POSS MASC-cleric_of_Zhal PAST-do do speak loud in_front_of
Since Krzha's eyes could not reflect that truth, the sage of the village would speak it aloud to the boy.
Nahakhontl doesn't have a general word that just means 'priest' or 'cleric'. It's always a priest of something. Rinažal literally means 'close by Zhal'. Zhal is the god of truth and chief deity in the Shorragite pantheon. You might also begin to notice now that truth is a really huge concept in Shorragite culture. To refer to a cleric of any other deity, you just replace the žal of rinažal with the name of any other deity; e.g. rinaúrkanía, 'priest of Uhrkania', Uhrkania being the Shorragite fertility goddess of rain, sex, and song; or, perhaps, if I were using Nahakhontl in the conlang chat thread and the topic came up, I could use rinajízús (or maybe rinakraič?) to refer to a Christian priest.

Narinažal ípex pex satačiwa ðúxô afa ža lešar lôk frú ža jôyand.
[naˈɹɪn.aˈʒal iˈpɛks pɛks ˈsa.taˈt͡ʃɪ.wa ˈðʌ.kso ˈa.fa ˈʒa leˈʃaɹ lok ˈfɹʌ ʒa ˈd͡ʒo.jand]
MASC-cleric_of_Zhal PAST-do do NEG-present CONT-dig sleep in blue lie PL in village
The sage would not let the village wallow in blue dishonesty.

[KathTheDragon]

Why blue dishonesty?

[hwhatting]

This is probably a good time to mention that Nahakhontl has no pronouns.

Here we have the first instance of a gender pronoun!

It's clear that you mean a gender prefix, just wanted to nitpick a bit.
Story and language are quite interesting.

[Matrix]

This is probably a good time to mention that Nahakhontl has no pronouns.

Here we have the first instance of a gender pronoun!

It's clear that you mean a gender prefix, just wanted to nitpick a bit.
Story and language are quite interesting.

Yes, I did, thanks. I don't know where 'pronoun' came from there! I fixed it in the post.

Why blue dishonesty?

Red : blue :: truth : lies.

For a longer explanation from a doylist perspective, it's a reversal of how humans think blue eyes are perfectly normal and red eyes must be evil or something.

[Sevly]

Still following this; it's quite interesting. Preposition choice is always a fun thing to play around with, so I like a vek "by in front of" for the benefactive. And the crash course in Shorragite mythology was a nice cultural addon. How "real" are the gods in your conworld? Will they be involved in the story?

[Matrix]

Still following this; it's quite interesting. Preposition choice is always a fun thing to play around with, so I like a vek "by in front of" for the benefactive. And the crash course in Shorragite mythology was a nice cultural addon. How "real" are the gods in your conworld? Will they be involved in the story?

Thanks! I think I should get to the next part this weekend. I've had a psych project for school, and between that, regular homework, and other projects of mine I haven't found the effort. As for the Shorragite gods, their reality is purely cultural. The primary pantheon, however, is mentioned later in the story, so you'll get to see a glimpse of them.

For now, I have to go to school, so see ya!

[Matrix]

Krža až vek ača víþ ípex pex pex éža ugl jô axíþ hôga jôyand čyú nôkôčé frú čyú zaraxen dakru čyú narinažal ðúpex ípex kru ôdur ža yaxlr jatí frú.
Krzha out in_front_of ready able PAST-do do do more less of nothing upon village with person PL with sad knowledge with MASC-cleric_of_Zhal CONT-do PAST-do multiply think in all day PL
Krzha eventually had enough of the village and its pitying people, and the sage who reminded him of the fact each day.
I guess what's interesting here is how the thing that means 'could do' involves no less than three pexes in a row.. And, I guess, až vek ača, 'out in front of ready', meaning 'eventually' and éža ugl jô axíþ, 'more less of nothing' basically being like a state of complete hopelessness or ineffectuality. And then there's kru ôdur, 'multiply think', referring to reminding... Okay, yeah this sentence is actually pretty interesting.

Oðig ag ípex nal vlm yaka hôga jô naí ípex lrad čyú sôtí agôh jôtur lešar tla až hôga sôtí ípex satačiwa falah.
found A>N PAST-do be more big upon of hidden PAST-do go with night below black blue sky out upon night PAST-do NEG-present moon
Such was his frustration that one night he left in secrecy, under the moonless, dark blue sky.
The adjective oðig literally means 'found, discovered, rooted out', but here is being used to represent frustration. Being found is pretty frustrating when you do not want to be, like some damned skulking toy of Ashkozen thief! (Ashkozen is the Big Bad of Shorragite religion. Motherfucker lies all the goddamn time.) Also, once again we have the word for black modifying another colour. (Though in the earlier case of gray, it's more like modified, since that's been lexicalized as a single word.)

Krža ípex lrad až vek xrml jô yrabg-gonðí.
Krzha PAST-do go out in_front_of jungle of west
He left west towards the jungles,

Ípex sadez baj gonðí.
PAST-do NEG-find quiet way
in which he found no solace.

Víþ ípex pex yen þyah arinet čyú hačop čyú garid čyú šrôža hôga fôl etlí frú ípex nal vég čaþ u agôh sôtí vé tla.
able PAST-do do see beautiful green with brown with red with yellow upon only colour PL PAST-do be fade V>N N>A below night POSS sky
He could not see the beautiful greens, browns, reds, and yellows, even though muted under the night sky.

Krža víþ ípex pex sayen žakír jô zín vek.
Krzha able PAST-do do NEG-see truth of unknown in_front_of
He could not see the truth of it.
Zín constructions like in here are probably the closest thing you'll get to an actual pronoun in Nahakhontl.

Ípex yen axíþ hôga fôl ípex aĥex fôl kmat frú vé vant frú čyú kimmôh vé dagi vé kyav ag čyú vallot frú vé yaríel čyú nom frú vé fúzaĥ.
PAST-do see nothing upon only PAST-do touch only fern PL POSS horn PL with tree POSS skin POSS dry A>N with whip PL POSS surprise with insect PL POSS state_of_humility
He saw nothing, and felt only the prickles of the ferns, the roughness of the bark, the surprise of the vines, and the crawling of the insects.
Tree's skin = bark, whips = vines, and... fúzaĥ, which gets glossed as a state of humility. This state of humility implies groveling or crawling, and is used to describe such. So yeah, babies are in a state of humility in Nahakhontl.

Ípex yen axíþ hôga fôl ípex kínún fôl huya čyú yaha čyú čaka čyú ðaza.
PAST-do see nothing upon only PAST-do listen only hoot with screech with shake with buzz
He saw nothing, and heard only the hooting, screeching, rustling, and buzzing.
Huya, yaha, čaka, and ðaza are all onomatopoeia.

Ípex zum zum zum.
PAST-do run run run
He ran, and ran, and ran.
I had completely forgotten that zum was the word for run... I can't even remember if that was intentional on my part. It makes this sound more silly than it should be. Eh.

Ípex saĥléfo xrml hôga fôl xrml ípex doĥ éža zaš kex jôyand čyú zaraxen dakru.
PAST-do NEG-be_comfortable_with jungle upon only jungle PAST-do exact more good from village with sad knowledge
He did not like this place, but surely it was better than the village with its pity.
Being comfortable is to like.

[Sevly]

I guess what's interesting here is how the thing that means 'could do' involves no less than three pexes in a row

What's the reasoning behind the double pex irrealis construction? Is it that more auxiliaries increase the feeling of indirectness and thus add uncertainty? Could one possibly use even more auxiliaries for emphasis of uncertainty or comedic effect, e.g. ípex pex pex nal > "He could could could be but I'm really not sure."?

kru ôdur, 'multiply think', referring to reminding

Great creativity! I like it.

vég čaþ u
fade V>N N>A

So čaþ and u are derivational clitics that convert verbs to nouns and nouns to adjectives, respectively. Can these be used universally or are there restrictions on their scope?

So yeah, babies are in a state of humility in Nahakhontl.

I imagine there would be snide remarks about "humble" babies at 2 am in the morning. Heh.

I had completely forgotten that zum was the word for run... I can't even remember if that was intentional on my part. It makes this sound more silly than it should be. Eh.

That sentence is pretty awesome. I lol'd.

[Matrix]

What's the reasoning behind the double pex irrealis construction? Is it that more auxiliaries increase the feeling of indirectness and thus add uncertainty? Could one possibly use even more auxiliaries for emphasis of uncertainty or comedic effect, e.g. ípex pex pex nal > "He could could could be but I'm really not sure."?

Only one verb in a verb construction is actually the auxiliary, and it's usually the one carrying the tense prefix, unless you're doing the habitual aspect, which requires the continuous prefix on the auxiliary.
The hypothetical mood is: víþ [aux] pex [verb]. Auxiliary pex puts the verb construction into the perfective aspect, while auxiliary nal puts it into the imperfective aspect. IIRC, I've only had one verb in the story so far in the imperfective aspect. That was in the phrase kev srnva frú jô kômíx ínal nal, "before it [the kingdom] was a kingdom", since the Kingdom of Shorrag has not finished being a kingdom. Everything else in the story so far is to be considered a finished action, which is why the perfective is so prevalent. So, basically, you cannot add more auxiliaries, since there can be only one. So, ípex pex pex nal would translate something like "would do be". (Removing the víþ from the hypothetical mood makes the conditional mood.)

Great creativity! I like it.

Thanks!

So čaþ and u are derivational clitics that convert verbs to nouns and nouns to adjectives, respectively. Can these be used universally or are there restrictions on their scope?

There's also ag, which converts an adjective into a noun. And yes, they can be used universally.

[Matrix]

Krža až vek ača ípex dez anax.
Krzha out in_front_of ready PAST-do find rock
Eventually he found rock.

Ípex xem hôga jô anax ípex ðúnal člvnar frú vé sefrek až vek rin xrml až hôga ípex kínún a jôyand vé narinažal.
PAST-do be_sure upon of rock PAST-do CONT-be mountain PL POSS line out in_front_of close jungle out upon PAST-do listen by village POSS priest_of_Zhal
He decided that it must be the mountains not far beyond the jungles which he had heard about from the sage of the village.
Instead of something clunky like English's "decide that it must be", we have here in Nahakhontl just the simple xem, "be sure". Not that Nahakhontl isn't clunky elsewhere... It's more analytic than English, after all.

Ípex nal doĥ až hôga jôyand vé narinažal ípex savaču tlôk frú.
PAST-do be correct out upon village POSS priest_of_Zhal PAST-do NEG-speak lie PL
He was right, because the sage of the village did not lie to him.

Krža ípex aĥex čezex gôla až anax.
Krzha PAST-do touch guide walk out rock
Krzha felt his way along the rock,

Anax až vek ača doĥ ípex zyrntl kru lrad vek ža.
rock out in_front_of ready exact PAST-do turn multiply go in_front_of in
and eventually it sharply curved in and kept going.
I think that this whole "multiply x" thing might become a thing. Kru lrad, "multiply go", means 'continue'.

Krža víþ ípex pex sayen žakír jô zín vek hôga fôl hôga ípex lrad éža ža hôga jô ípex nal éža baj.
Krzha able PAST-do do NEG-see truth of unknown in_front_of upon only upon PAST-do go more in upon of PAST-do be more quiet
He could not see the truth of it, but as he went farther in it was quieter.