[2] It is also known as Chulupí and Ashluslay, and in older sources has been called Ashluslé, Suhin, Sujín, Chunupí, Churupí, Choropí, and other variant spellings of these names.
Much of what is handled in syntactic constructions in many other languages is signalled in Nivaclé by its rich bound morphology and clitics.
It also has the basic orders GN (Genitive-Noun, that is, possessor-possessed), NA (Noun-Adjective), and NP-Rel (Head Noun-Relative Clause).
It has few adpositions (prepositions or postpositions); rather these relational and locative functions are signaled by a rich set of suffixes and clitics attached primarily to verbs, but also to other parts of speech; it also has some relational nouns (possessed noun constructions that function as adpositions).
[4] The main lexical categories (parts of speech) of Nivaclé are noun, pronoun, demonstrative, adjective, adverb, and verb.
As mentioned, these contrasting semantic traits of the demonstratives play a role in inferring the tense of an utterance.
Indicative, negative, and irrealis verbs have distinct morphological markings of their own for personal pronoun subject agreement.
[4] Nivaclé has a very rich system of directional affixes and clitics, marked primarily on the verbs, sometimes on other parts of speech.