vósforms

Vósforms is a term used in linguistics and conlang communities to describe a theoretical class of verb forms that encode address to the second-person plural pronoun vós. The concept draws on historical uses of vós in Iberian Romance varieties, and has been adopted in discussions of marker systems that distinguish plural you from other second-person references. In practice, vósforms are presented as a morphological template that can be applied to a wide range of verbs within a language, rather than as a single fixed language.

In typology, vósforms are typically described as affixal or clitic markers attached to a verb stem, though the exact position and form can vary by language. They are characterized by their function of signaling second-person plural address, often in combination with tense, mood, and aspect. Some proposals distinguish multiple allomorphs for vósforms depending on phonology, morphophonology, and verb class, while others treat the system as a uniform suffixal paradigm. In many sketches, vósforms coexist with other person-number markers that mark the subject or addressee in related clauses.

Usage and status: the term vósforms is mainly encountered in speculative typology, linguistic experimentation in conlangs, and fictional or pedagogical contexts. There is no universally accepted natural-language corpus documenting vósforms as a cross-linguistic feature. Instead, they serve as a convenient label for exploring how second-person plural address might be encoded in verbs, and for illustrating how grammatical agreement with address terms can interact with tense and mood.

Examples (fictional language context): a present vósform might attach as a suffix to a verb root to yield “you all [do]”; a past vósform might shift the suffix to indicate past action. See also: vos, vosotros, vocês, vos.