Kesmmi

Note: This is an older draft of Medh Chêl.

Lexicon

Se leth Medh Chêle zil (This page in Medh Chêl)

Medh Chêl (meaning "our language") is a divergent Finnic language spoken on the island Têræzmâ east of England in a parallel universe. Its main sources of aesthetic inspiration are Estonian and Sindarin, and a significant fraction of its vocabulary is from Old English.

It features a system of initial consonant mutations similar to Celtic languages and Biblical Hebrew.

Todo

Personal names: Lemmid, Âthi, Fænœ, Calev, Aeno, Mariath, Îmar, Anner, Cŷlic, Teler, Fellam

Morphology

Pronouns

Pronouns in Medh Chêl inflect by polarity (positive/negative). There are also copular pronouns which historically derive from contractions of pronouns with the copula, which inflect by tense (present/past) and mood (indicative/subjunctive).

[TO EDIT]

Person	Simple (non-copular)		Copular
			indicative				subjunctive
	positive	negative	present		past		present		past
			positive	negative	positive	negative	positive	negative	positive	negative
1sg	mæ	mine	mole	minœl	moli	minœlyd	môth	minœ̂th	môthol	minœ̂thœl
2sg	sæ	sine	sole	sinœl	soli	sinœlyd	sôth	sinœ̂th	sôthol	sinœ̂thœl
3sg animate	hæ	hæne	ho	hænœl	holi	hænœlyd	hôth	hænœ̂th	hôthol	hænœ̂thœl
3sg inanimate proximal	sê	sî	seio	seiœl	seioli	seiœlyd	seioth	seiœ̂th	seiothol	seiœ̂thœl
3sg inanimate distal	tô	toe	tôo	toiol	tôoli	toiolud	tôoth	toiôth	tôothol	toiôthol
1pl	mec	mê	molem	meiœl	molim	meiœlyd	môthim	meiœ̂th	môthimol	meiœ̂thœl
2pl	tec	tê	tolet	teiœl	tolit	teiœlyd	tôthit	teiœ̂th	tôthitol	teiœ̂thœl
3pl animate	hec	hê	hova	heiœl	holiv	heiœlyd	hôthiv	heiœ̂th	hôthivol	heiœ̂thœl
3pl inanimate proximal	nêd	nede	nêdo	nêiœl	nêdoli	nêiœlyd	nêdoth	nêiœ̂th	nêdothol	nêiœ̂thœl
3pl inanimate distal	nôd	node	nôdo	nôiol	nôdoli	nôiolud	nôdoth	nôiôth	nôdothol	nôiôthol

Verbs

Verbs in Medh Chêl have four principal parts: the infinitive stem, which ends in -dh, -n, -l, -r, or -th; the present stem; the past stem; and the supine stem, which ends in -m.

Tenses

Simple present

The simple present is analogous to the English simple present. It uses the simple pronouns with the following suffixes attached to the present stem:

	Singular	Plural
1st person	no ending	-me
2nd person	no ending	-te
3rd person	no ending	no ending
Negative	no ending

For example, here's the conjugation of pêth (to wash), which has the following stems: infinitive pêth, present peze-, past pezi-, and supine pezem.

pêth	Singular	Plural
1st person	mæ peze	mec pezeme
2nd person	sæ peze	tec pezete
3rd person	hæ peze	hec peze
Negative	mine/sine/hæne/... peze

Simple past

The simple past is analogous to the English simple past, and uses the same endings as the simple present, except attached to the past stem.

pêth	Singular	Plural
1st person	mæ pezi	mec pezime
2nd person	sæ pezi	tec pezite
3rd person	hæ pezi	hec pezi
Negative	mine/sine/hæne/... pezi

Perfect tenses

The present and past perfect tenses use the present and past indicative copular pronouns. The supine stem is used, with final -m replaced by -nud or -nyd depending on vowel harmony.

Plural pronouns trigger an aspirate mutation on the verb, while other pronouns and nouns trigger a soft mutation.

[to insert here]

Progressive tenses

The progressive tenses look the same as the perfect, except that the suffix -nud/nyd is replaced by -mas/mæs.

The perfect progressive tenses insert the word olud between the pronoun and the verb (ending in -mas/mæs). Unlike in the perfect and progressive tenses, the verb doesn't mutate.

[to insert conjugation of pêth]