けむ

See also: ケム

Japanese

Etymology 1

Alternative spellings
煙 烟 (uncommon)

/kemuri/ → /kemu/

Clipping of 煙 (kemuri, “smoke”).^[1][2]

Attested since at least 1275.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) けむ [kèmú] (Heiban – [0])^[2][3][4]
• IPA^(key): [ke̞mɯ̟]

Noun

けむ • (kemu) 

1. [from 1275] 煙, 烟: (informal, colloquial) smoke

Etymology 2

⟨ke₁mu⟩ → */kʲemu/ → /kemu/

From Old Japanese けむ. Attested in the Kojiki of 712^[1] and the Man'yōshū of 759 and earlier.^[1][5]

Various theories exist regarding the ultimate derivation of this auxiliary verb suffix.^[1][5][2]

• Compound of け (ke, a hypothetical 未然形 (mizenkei, “irrealis or imperfective form”) of past-recollective auxiliary き (ki), usually found instead as せ (se)) +‎ む (mu, suppositional auxiliary suffix).^[1][2]

The ke conjugation for past-recollective き (ki) is only hypothetically considered to be the irrealis form. This ke is not found outside of a small handful of suffixes such as this けむ (kemu), its derivative けまく (kemaku), and separate けく (keku), and it remains largely unexplained. That said, the initial /s-/ ↔ /k-/ alternation exhibited in the better-documented conjugated forms is also largely unexplained.

• Compound of 来 (ki, “coming”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 来る (kuru, “to come”)) +‎ 経 (he, “passing through, as of a process or time or place”, the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of verb 経る (heru, “to pass through”)) +‎ む (mu, suppositional auxiliary suffix).^[1]

*/ki pe mu/ → */kifemu/? → */kiemu/ → /kemu/

Due to the presence of initial /p-/ in the medial Old Japanese 経 (pe, continuative stem, terminal form was pu), the phonological shifts required for this derivation ultimately make this theory seem quite unlikely: linguists generally reconstruct initial /p-/ for Old Japanese and hold that this did not undergo lenition until the late Nara period (710–794) or early Heian period (794–1185), while ⟨ke₁mu⟩ → /kʲemu/ is already attested in the Kojiki of 712.

• Compound of き (ki, past-recollective auxiliary suffix) +‎ あむ (amu, hypothetical earlier form of suppositional auxiliary suffix む (mu)).^[1][5]

*/ki amu/ → */kiamu/ → /kʲemu/ → /kemu/

This hypothetical reconstructed amu form for the suppositional suffix is favored by linguists such as Bjarke Frellesvig and Alexander Vovin.

Alternative forms

• けん (-ken)

Suffix

けむ • (-kemu) 

1. [from 712] (Classical Japanese) used to make the past conjectural form of verbs
   1. presents a supposition about a past event
   2. presents a supposition about the cause of a past event
   3. presents hearsay about a past event

Conjugation

Stem forms
Irrealis (未然形)	けま[1]		kema
Continuative (連用形)			-
Terminal (終止形)	けむ けん		kemu ken
Attributive (連体形)	けむ けん		kemu ken
Realis (已然形)	けめ		keme
Imperative (命令形)			-
[1]The irrealis form of けま (kema) is only found in Old Japanese as part of the suffix けまく (kemaku).[1][5][2]

Classical conjugation of "けむ" (マ行四段活用, see Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Attaches to the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”).

This word is morphologically an inflectional suffix. It is classified as 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) in traditional Japanese grammar.

Synonyms

• 〜たろう (~tarō)
• 〜ただろう (~ta darō), だっただろう (datta darō)

References

1. Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
2. Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
3. Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
4. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
5. Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN