めり

Japanese[edit]

Thought to be a contraction of 目 (me, "eye") +‎ あり (ari, “to be”) or 見 (mi, "to see") +‎ あり (ari, “to be”).^[1]

めり • (-meri) ^†-ri

(Classical Japanese) A modal auxiliary verb indicating conjecture based on what is seen: it looks like; it seems like
- c. 1001–1014, Murasaki Shikibu, Genji Monogatari
  わざとあめるを、早(はや)うものせよかし。
  Wazato a meru o, hayō monoseyo kashi.
  It seems to be a special [invitation], so please go early.

This word is morphologically a clitic. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.
Attaches to the 終止形 (shūshikei, “terminal form”) of most inflectable words, but to the 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive form”) of ラ行変格活用 (“ra-irregular”) verbs. In the latter case, the final る is usually omitted in writing, e.g. はべめり (habemeri) instead of はべるめり (haberumeri); this is interpreted as unwritten 撥音便 (hatsuonbin), so that はべめり (habemeri) is read as はべんめり (habenmeri).^[2]
Conjectures based on something seen, as opposed to なり (nari) which conjectures based on something heard.

Classical conjugation of "めり" (ラ行変格活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

^ Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010) A History of the Japanese Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 102
^ Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010) A History of the Japanese Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 232