Early Meddió

Early Meddió vocabulary

Early Meddió affixes

=Name= The name Mesió is a direct descendant of Misiuri which is from misiu + ri (“language”). The word misiu is one that didn’t last long and was outlived by its derived terms. It means “we who fish”, derived from the verb misito (“to fish”). The term was used due to how the speakers had to rely more on fishing to a disease which heavily affected the local game.

=South Middle Mangeodge Loanwords= The speakers of Misiuri had regular contact with speakers of South Middle Mangeodge for two hundred years between 3800AN to 4000AN during the Southern Crusade. During this time a lot of words were from from South Middle Mangeodge into Misiuri, these words related to activities and items that were new to the Misiuri speakers. Since at the the beginning of the Southern Crusade the Misiuri speakers were mostly fishermen and gatherers and the South Middle Mangeodge were part of a warlike, agricultural and religious society, many of the loanwords relate to war, farming and religion. Inanimate nouns which ended in -vi where loaned as -v (or with the whole ending dropped) since it resembled the Misiuri plural suffix so by analogy the -i was dropped to make it appear more like a singular noun. These words survived into Mesió

Warfare
 * aru (“to battle”) > jarue (“to battle”) < jaruti (“to battle”)
 * nafar (“army”) < naujarr (“army”) < naujarri (“army”)

Agriculture
 * sai (“flax”) < salajal (“flax”) < sjalajalvi (“flax”)
 * nia (“to harvest”) < nejae (“to harvest”) < nejati (“to harvest”)
 * snev (“autumn”) < snejev (“harvest”) < snejevi (“harvest”)
 * sov (“retting”) < slov (“retting”) < slovi (“retting”)
 * sariov (“comb”) < sarejov (“heckling comb”) < fzarejovi (“heckling comb”)
 * saiov (“cloth”) < salajalov (“linen”) < sjalajalovi (“linen”)
 * ar (“scythe”) < jarre (“scythe”) < jarjevi (“scythe”)
 * nasó (“stoat house”) < nasuja (“stoat house”) < nasuja (“stoat house”)
 * vafov (“jacket, coat”) < vaujov (“gambeson”) < fnvaujovi (“gambeson”)

Religion/Society
 * efak (“religion”) < levak (“Lesgveiskism”) < levaki (“Lesgveiskism”)
 * de (“Desavrei”) < dera (“the god Desavrei”) < derai (“Desavrei”)
 * saróle < sarules < sjarules
 * ef < jãvo < jamo
 * sarefa < sarõvasa < sjarumasai
 * vah < vathap < vatabi
 * so < sau < sauvi
 * prai < prala < pralja
 * or < joru < joru
 * kea < kealaja < kealaja
 * asofu < pasovakhi < baso vaki
 * raifo (“lord”) < raivon (“lord”) < raevonnejo (“lord”)
 * rasié (“village”) < raseje (“village”) < rasejevi (“village”)
 * pii (“conical tower”) < prienja (“conical tower”) < vrienja (“conical tower”)
 * as < paso (“head of the Lesgveiski church”) < baso (“head of the Lesgveiksi church”)
 * neuiaiseo (“bishop”) < nebhāsejosi (“bishop”) < nepazejosi (“bishop”)
 * na (“parish”) < nas (“parish”) < nasauvi (“parish”)
 * snango (“priest”) < snangjosi (“priest”) < snjangjosi (“priest”)
 * tornga (“church soldier”) < taurngjasi (“church soldier”) < taurngjasi (“church soldier”)
 * reha (“monk”) < rethas (“monk”) < redasi (“monk”)
 * imuesa (“temple”) < imvesas (“temple”) < invesas (“temple”)
 * nem < nemsa (“region, district, province”) < nemsavi (“church administrative region”)

Trade/Commerce
 * euov (“to buy”) < ivaubhe (“to buy”) < ivaubeti (“to name a price, to haggle”)
 * uinka (“coin”) < vinkas (“coin”) < vnkasuja (“coin”)
 * avkai (“bronze”) < avkaja (“bronze”) < avnkajavi (bronze”)

=Phonology=

Vowels

Consonants

Phonotactics

 * When a deer noun ends in a vowel and takes a suffix beginning in a vowel then the vowel of the stem will be dropped, unless the nouns ends in a diphthong in which case the vowel does not drop:
 * ("flower") > ("flower-")

Umlaut
Mesió’s umlaut is inherited from Proto-Sumric's ʉ-umlaut. Thanks to sound changes it is no longer as straightforward as it once was plus some patterns are no longer productive, having become fossilised in some stems. The umlaut is triggered when a syllable containing /i/ follows. This is only when the /i/ comes from Middle Sumri /ɪ/.

Prosody
Mesió has a fixed pitch accent which it inherited from Old Sumrë's mix of mobile and fixed pitch. Middle Sumri experienced a change where all pitches became fixed to their syllable, albeit from a diachronic perspective as the difference pitch patterns of differently inflected stems was inherited (albeit fossilised) into Middle Sumri. This means that the pitch of an older stem appears mobile but fixed in newer stems (which arose due to derivation or loaning). The high pitch is always marked with an acute accent when not on the penultimate syllable, except for verbs where the pitch falls on the final syllable.

Phonological History
l→∅/_V

j p→∅

w→f/V_V

o→a/_#

e →i/accented

i→e/unaccented

u→o/accented

ua au→o

aː ia→ai

VdCV→V̀CV́

VtC→V́C

aβ{a,o,u}→au

Eβ{a,o,u}→juː

y{ɣ x}i→yi

ø{ɣ x}i→y

o{ɣ x}V→o

V{ɣ x}{a o}→ua

V{ɣ x}ø→uo

V{ɣ x}u→uː

V{ɣ x}i→ui

ɸ β θ →f v h

ẽ ã õ → ɤ

ou→u

ɤ→e

v vʷ→w wː

pʷ {ɸʷ βʷ θʷ} sʷ kʷ nʷ xʷ ɣʷ→ pː w p x p ŋ f w

tʷ→twi

V→Ø/_#

r l n m w j s→ Ø/_#

iː eː yː uː oː→ je je iu wi we

ø→i

r→Ø/_{j w}

h→x

=Nouns= Mesió has 3 noun cases which inflect for gender and number. The 12 cases are:


 * Nominative: marks the subject
 * Illative: movement into, inside
 * Allative: marks the indirect object, movement to

Common Nouns
The +U means that the vowel before the suffix is subject to umlaut.

If the noun ends in a vowel then it can be either -f or -m as it is determined by if the Misiuri word ended in the consonants /r l n m w js/ or not, all of which were lost word finally in Mesió:
 * ("coin") > ("coin-") < Misiuri
 * ("stinging insect") > ("stinging insect-") < Misiuri

Some nouns have irregular plural forms. These are quite rare and tend to be relating to animals and everyday life:
 * (“bear”) > (“bear-”)
 * (“buzzard”) > (“buzzard-")
 * ("song") > ("song-")

=Pronouns=

Personal Pronouns
The second person has various other forms which vary for formality which are as follows:

Interrogative Pronouns
is an innovation since the older form of "where" became homophonous with "when". It is from ("which") and  ("place").

=Demonstrative Pronouns=

Existential Pronouns
=Numbers= The number system in Mesió is very typical of Sumro-Letaeric languages, with the order being determined by animacy and agreement determined by the use of adjectives. The way that numbers agree with the head noun can be irregular due to the inflection descending directly from those in Proto-Sumro-Naukl and not experiencing analogy like nouns did. Numbers also do not agree to the case of the noun

Order
A number always follows the noun:


 * Animate: ("one bear")
 * Inanimate: ("one flower")

Agreement
Numbers do not agree with the buzzard or deer genders, instead they agree only with animate or inanimate. If a noun has the buzzard or deer gender then the number will agree to the semantic animacy of the noun (i.e if the noun represents a living sentient being). In terms of agreeing with number, the number 1 agrees with no number for obvious reasons. The numbers 2-10 agree with the plural. It is important to note that numbers higher than 10 do not agree whatsoever with the noun.

Number 1

The number one agrees only with the singular number and takes the following forms:


 * Animate nom:
 * Inanimate nom:

Numbers 2-3

The numbers 2 and 3 agree only with the paucal numbers and take the following forms:

("two")

("three")


 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate/inanimate nom.pl:

Number 4
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate nom.pl:
 * Inanimate nom.pl:

Number 5
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate/inanimate nom.pl:

Number 6
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate nom.pl:
 * Inanimate nom.pl:

Number 7
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate nom.sg, inanimate nom.pl:

Number 8
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg/pl:
 * Ianimate nom.pl:

Number 9
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate/inanimate nom.pl:

Number 10
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg:
 * Animate/inanimate nom.pl:

Numbers 11-19 The Numbers 11-19 are totally uninflectable and are as follows:
 * 11
 * 12
 * 13
 * 14
 * 15
 * 16
 * 17
 * 18
 * 19

The numbers cause the noun to take the delative plural and they always go before the noun:
 * (there_is seventeen badger-) "there are 17 badgers"

Numbers 20+ The numbers 20-100 are also don't agree with nouns and also trigger the delative plural case. The numbers 20-100 are as follows:
 * 20
 * 30
 * 40
 * 50
 * 60
 * 70
 * 80
 * 90
 * 100

To form numbers such as 25 or 74, the smaller number is placed before the larger number, with the larger number taking the allative ending -fat:
 * (five twenty-) "25"
 * (four seventy-) "74"

To form numbers such as 200 or 300, the number ("100") is replaced with  and modified by another number (which may follow or come before). The words for "1000" or "2000" are simply made in this manner by saying "10 100s" or "20 1000s" up until "10,000" which is "100 100s":
 * (hundred- two) "200"
 * (hundred- seven) "700"
 * (hundred- ten) "1000"

For more specific numbers like "438" or "694" the smaller number is placed before or after the larger number, with the last number taking the conjunctive clitic  ("and") after the allative ending:
 * (hundred- four eight thirty-) "438"
 * (hundred- six four ninety-) "694"

=Adjectives=

Agreeing with Buzzard nouns

 * ero ("big") > moha ero ("big buzzard")
 * re ("strong") > moha re ("strong buzzard")
 * nea ("weird") > moha nea ("weird buzzard")
 * maki ("angry") > moha maki ("angry buzzard")

Examples in the plural:
 * mot erof ("big buzzards")
 * mot ref ("strong buzzards")

Agreeing with Deer nouns
When agreeing with a deer noun, the adjective takes on the same plural suffix -ue and not -ie.
 * seri ("old") > meu seri ("old world")
 * si ("holy") > meu si ("holy world")

Examples in the plural:
 * meuie seriue ("old words")
 * meuie siue ("holy worlds")

Agreeing with Animate nouns
Adjectives agree to animate B-nouns by adding the following suffixes onto the adjective. Adjectives agreeing to animate and inanimate nouns don't take on regular case ending like the deer and buzzard nouns do. Rather they have their own case paradigm shown below, this is true only for the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases with the locative cases being the same as as they are on nouns. When the adjective ends in a vowel the final vowel of the stem is deleted, when the stem ends in two vowels only the second vowel is deleted.


 * ero ("big") > ref erue ("big trapper")
 * seri ("old") > ref seriue ("old trapper")

Comparative and Superlative
The comparative is formed with a suffix on the adjective and with the compared to noun in the allative case. The suffix is :


 * ("sad") > ("sadder")
 * ("foreign") > ("more foreign")

Some commonly used adjectives have irregular comparatives:
 * ("old") > ("older")

be.3S man old-COMP woman-ALL

"The man is older than the woman"

The superlative is formed with the suffix, or if the adjective ends in a bilabial or velar followed by /a/, or  if the adjective ends in an alveolar consonant followed by /a/.


 * ("sad") > ("saddest")
 * ("foreign") > ("most foreign")

Some commonly used adjectives have irregular superlatives:
 * ("old") > ("oldest")

be-3S man old-SUPL

"The man is the oldest"

It is very important to note that the comparative and superlative adjectives can only ever be predicative. If a noun must be modified by a comparative or superlative adjective then rather than being attributive, the adjective is placed in a relative clause:

man what be.3S old-SUPL

"The oldest man"

Agreeing with Inanimate nouns
Adjectives do not agree with inanimate O-nouns. Instead they have only their nominative singular forms when agreeing with inanimate O-nouns.

=Verbs=

Common Verbs
Unlike its ancestor Misiuri, Early Meddió requires that the subject is explicitly marked via the pronoun instead of being pro-drop. In the present tense common verbs take no inflection at all.


 * ("I worry")
 * ("you worry")
 * ("it worries")

In the present negative the suffix is applied to the verb.


 * ("I don't worry")
 * ("You don't worry")

The future tense common verbs do agree to the subject as follows:

The 1S suffix is used if the verb stem ends in a biliabial or velar consonant.


 * aesoñphô iñphitjijn

The future negative is formed by replacing the final of the future suffixes with.


 * ("you will not worry")

The past tense is formed by placing the past tense copula after the verb. The past negative is formed with the suffix on the verb.

worry PST you

"You worried"

worry-NEG PST you

"You didn't worry"

In the present there are a small number of irregular verbs which take different forms in the present affirmative.
 * ("to take") > ("takes")

take/PRES I

"I take"

vs

take.NEG I

"I don't take"

Analytic Verbs
Analytic verbs do not inflect at all̇ Instead they are accompanied by an auxiliary that follows the verb and inflect to show TAM information. Verbs in this class are always loanwords, originally coming from a way for Old Sumrë to deal with exotic Widosiuge loaned verbs. This class remained quite small until Misiuri when the language came into heavy contact with South Middle Mangeodge and loaned a large amount of words. All loaned verbs are analytic verbs. The auxiliary is and it inflects as a common verb. In the past negative the auxiliary is


 * ("to calm, to subdue")

tame AUX-1S bird

"I tame a bird"


 * ("to harvest")

harvest AUX.1S.NEG COP.1S.PST flax

"I didn't harvest flax"

E-Verbs
Eas-verbs are verbs which have been derived from nouns and adjectives with the suffix.

The variants with two forms are used depending on the preceding consonant. If the consonant is velar then the forms are used. Elsewise the form is used.

Negative e-verbs are formed by suffixing to the present verbs or by switching  to  in the future.

T-verbs
To-verbs are verbs which descend from Old Sumrë verbs which were derived with the suffix -two or the suffix -oswu. The Early Meddió descendants end in or. T-verbs differ from common verbs only in the future tense.

Imperative Mood
The imperative is marked by placing the particle before the verb.


 * ("to carry") > ("carry!")

When placed before adjectives or nouns it has the meaning of "be X!">


 * ("be a bird!")
 * ("be holy!")

Interrogative Mood
The interrogative mood is marked by using the interrogative copula after the bare verb stem. This is from the older interrogative form of the auxiliary formed by a once productive nasal infix.

entertain AUX.INTERR I you

"Do I entertain you?"

The interrogative negative is formed with the auxiliary.

entertain AUX.INTERR.NEG I you

"Don't I entertain you?"

Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive mood is marked only in the present tense with the following suffixes.


 * ("to rest")
 * ("you rest") > ("if you rest")
 * {{Smallcaps|isaikhi ti} ("you- rest") > ("if you- rest")

The negative is formed with the suffix :
 * ("if you rest") > ("if you don't rest")

Jussive Mood
The jussive mood ("should, must") is marked with the following suffixes.

If the verb ends in /Vx/ or /Vɣ/ then they will be subject to the following alternations: >. The negative if formed with the suffix.


 * ("to sleep")
 * ("you must sleep")
 * ("you shouldn't sleep")

Conditional Mood
The conditional mood ("would") is marked with the following suffixes. The same alternation described above applies here too.


 * ("you would rest")

Passive
The passive is formed with the following suffixes:

The negative is formed the suffix.



sell-PASS-NEG 3

"It isn't sold"

The passive and subjunctive mix together with the following suffixes.

Supine
The supine is a nominal verb which is required for a number of constructions. It is formed with the auxiliary for all verbs.
 * ("to sell") > ("selling")
 * ("to travel") > ("travelling")
 * ("to weave") > ("weaving")

=Conjunctions=

Early Meddió has three words for "and", ("VP-and"),  ("NP-and") and  ("ADJ-and") respectively. :

write I VP_and age you

"I write and you age"

serves to join two nouns:

man NP_and woman

"The man and woman"

serves to join two adjectives since no two predicate adjectives can appear right next to each other (neither attributively or predicatively):

woman old AP_and angry

"The old and angry woman"