Mem

Mem Words

When I met Erin in college, she introduced me to the game Civilization (the current sequel at the time was Civilization 3)—a brilliant and terribly addicting game (never have I seen a game where you sit down, play for a few minutes, and then look up and it's nine hours later). Throughout each iteration I would always love to play the Egyptians, because they usually got the Pyramids for free (or for cheap), and the Pyramids really help an early civilization get its footing.

It was while playing a game of Civ as the Egyptians that I learned that the city of Memphis was originally an Egyptian city (when you play as a given civilization and you found a city, it autogenerates a name from that civilization, if you don't override it with your own name). I'd always assumed that Memphis was just some made up name for the city in Tennessee that came from who knows where.

Learning the true origins of the name Memphis gave me a distinct sense of jamais vu. I, of course, had known the name Memphis for some time, but learning that it was a former capital of the Egyptian empire altered its associations in my head radically. Perhaps coincidentally, this was the same time that I was studying the Middle Egyptian language at Berkeley (taking an actual class on it! What incredible luck that I should be going to a college with such a class!). Naturally, I looked up the original meaning (certainly the "-is" part of "Memphis" came from Greek), and learned that it came from mn-nfr: enduring and beautiful.

I was quite taken with the city name Memphis thereafter—and, in particular, with the root "mem". It felt...powerful. I made it a point thereafter to start using "mem" in all my languages in some place or other. It always felt good to have such a root around. Plus, the sounds are such that it works in most spoken languages (I think I've only done one without labials, and even that turned out to be unnecessary).

Collected below is a list of every "mem" word used in my various languages (note: these are just the base forms, not morphologically inflected forms):

• Nelvayu: mem
• Væyne Zaanics: mem
• Veda: mem

Nelvayu

Etymology

From an invisible proto-language.
The etymology of this word comes from an invisible proto-language. If you're confident you know the etymology, feel free to add it, but reader beware should the etymology be added by someone other than the creator of the language!

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mem/

Determiner

mem

1. this, these

Creation and Usage Notes

I had extremely limited real estate with this language, since it only had...what, two lines? If I was going to get my special words in there, I needed to take any opportunity to jam them in. Since this language was so highly inflected, I thought it might be fun to have simple, uninflected determiners. They wouldn't even change for number. Reminded me of Dothraki. So I did that, and I threw mem in there for the proximal. Seemed to fit, what with the emminess of Dormamu. -David J. Peterson 02:24, 16 March 2020 (PDT)

Væyne Zaanics

Etymology

Created jointly by Thomas Lyr, Bernard Severn, and Isabelle Lyr.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mem/

Orthographic Form

mem

Root

mem

1. (root) having to do with knowledge

Derived Terms

• bimemeneh
• memeneh
• memonoh

 

Creation and Usage Notes

Something Lyr and Severn admired so highly—knowledge—simply had to have the best root available in the language. -David J. Peterson 11:46, 4 October 2023 (PDT)

Veda

Etymology

From Proto-Veda *mʔjm.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mem/

Orthographic Form

mem

Conjunction

mem

1. and (used postpositively to coordinate two or more nouns; more common with three or more nouns)

Related terms

• lin
• lin mem

 

Pronoun

mem

1. everything, all

Related Terms

• ghor mem
• ung ... ghor mem

 

Creation and Usage Notes

"Everything" felt like a good meaning to associate with mem. This may not be the only time I've used this. I'll have to see if I run into another. -David J. Peterson 02:24, 11 February 2020 (PST)