Malt§egj Project 04.20.00.12.08.12.00

Mað is mother, since pað is father. It seemed only fair. Those seem to be words that are practically universal in nature; the word mother almost always contains a ma- while father almost always has some sort of bilabial or labiodental quality about it. (c.f. mother, Mutter, moder, madre, 媽媽, father, fǫðr, fader, Vatter, padre, 爸爸, and so on.)

Let's try another verse.

Ec man iǫtna, ár um borna
þá er forðom mic fœdda hǫfðo;
nío man ec heima, nío ívidi,
miǫtvið mœran fyr mold neðan.

New words we need:

giant	grålaga
year	avil
ago	-ið benþ
give birth	vercþid
there	ðraga
nine	nen
tree	victro
renowned	grava
ground	mo§ara

Sometimes it frightens me, the things that spring forth unbidden from my slightly misshapen cranium.

Jåg glacsi acgrålagaðul, vercþidwac acavilið benþ
ðraga parþ dyd cwarþ vercþid jågað
nen margað jåg glacsi, nen iviði,
e grava victraðulo mo§ariþ.

Some grammar here: since i've used it three times now, i think the suffix -wac will signify a past participle when it is used adjectivally (since, of course, there is no other sort of past participle in malt§egj). Also, the word benþ. This doesn't quite equate to "ago" as such, but emphasizes the -ið and together the two imply "ago." The word for "there" (ðraga) you may notice corresponds with its interrogative "where" (mlaga). I've decided that the ml- that denotes an interrogative word may be replaced with ðr- to indicate "this" or "that," and i may further extrapolate other grammar from these words in the future. Hence, we have several new words to look at:

mlåc	which	➨	ðråc	that, that thing
mlaga	where	➨	ðraga	there, in that place
mlaih	how much/many	➨	ðraih	that much, that many
mleð	who	➨	ðreð	that person
mlimiem	why	➨	ðrimiem	for that reason, because
mloc	which	➨	ðroc	wait, where did this come from?
mlumwe	when	➨	ðrumwe	then, at that time
mlycþid	how	➨	ðrycþid	that way, in that manner

Well, okay, i didn't realize that i had a mlåc and a mloc. I think i'll be doing away with the mloc. But moving on, since bleg means not, i'm going to rob the bl- and use it to create still more words...

mlåc	which	➨	blåc	nothing
mlaga	where	➨	blaga	nowhere
mlaih	how much/many	➨	blaih	none
mleð	who	➨	bleð	noöne
mlimiem	why	➨	blimiem	for no reason
mlumwe	when	➨	blumwe	never
mlycþid	how	➨	blycþid	in no way

I shall digress here for now, because it's going to take me a while to add these all to the lexicon.

I've come to this decision: diphthongs are fine and dandy, but in order to distinguish them from two distinct syllabic sounds, i and u when used in a diphthong will always become y and w, respectively. I've gone back and forth on this orthography a bit, but now as official decree of the High Council of Malt§egjaran, so mote it be. Anyway, back to updating the lexicon...