Qualdomelic

Qualdomelic
cwaldeumẹlj
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|kwaɫdɛʊ̯ˈmɛʎ]]
Created by	Lili21
Date	Mar 2014, revived Feb 2018
Setting	Calémere
Ethnicity	Qualdomelic
Native speakers	40,000,000 (3874 (642410) /2312)
Language family	Samaidulic languages Western Samaidulic Qualdomelic
Official status
Official language in	Qualdomailor

The Qualdomelic language (natively toj cwaldeumẹlj [tɔɪ̯ kwaɫdɛʊ̯ˈmɛʎ] or, in full, toj cwaldeumẹlj toj γrămaț [- tɔɪ̯ ɣɾəˈmats]) is a language spoken on the planet of Calémere, native language of virtually all people in Qualdomailor (Qua.: Cwaldewmăjlor), a country in central Márusúturon, where it is the only nationwide official language, and also by some minority in the northwestern Chlouvānem Inquisition (the country Qualdomailor shares half of its land border with), far western Brono and Ylvostydh (the other two neighboring countries on land), as well as in Leny-tḥewe, Ebed-dowa, Oempras (all three divided from Qualdomailor by the Western Sea (in Qua. ivulit căd ittungaq), as well as some diaspora communities in other parts of the former Kaiṣamā (notably in Nerekton), in Greater Skyrdagor, and also in the West.
There are about 40 million native Qualdomelic speakers, the vast majority in Qualdomailor.
It belongs to the Samaidulic language family (Qua.: tăjț samăjdul tăjț γrămaț), more specifically to the Western Samaidulic languages - it is thus distantly related to another major language of the area, the Eastern Samaidulic Brono-Fathanic.

As the language of a people - the Qualdomelics (Qua. cwaldewmẹljăd) - situated in a vital bottleneck of commerce between the Eastern and Western parts of central-northern Márusúturon, many words from it have entered languages of neighboring peoples, and an older form of Qualdomelic was a lingua franca in a vast area of the continent. In the next centuries, its importance on the continent began to sharply fall, mostly due to the rise of the empire of Greater Skyrdagor to the northeast and the conquest of most lands to the south of Qualdomailor — where Qualdomelic was the lingua franca — by the Chlouvānem from the southeast. Qualdomelic still influenced both languages, with often loanwords from Chlouvānem to Skyrdagor and vice versa showing signs of being borrowed through the means of Qualdomelic first. Still, Qualdomelic itself absorbed lots of loanwords, especially religious terminology and modern-day concepts from Chlouvānem, starting from the Qualdomelics' conversion to the Yunyalīlti religion.

After a long period where its international importance was overshadowed by the far greater reach of Chlouvānem and Skyrdagor, the Qualdomelic language is now getting a revival in abroad learning, aided by the less strict visa policies and better human rights record for foreigners in Qualdomailor when compared to the Chlouvānem Inquisition, so that the country has become an obligatory destination for most Westerners interested in Eastern Calemerian culture, lifestyle, and sciences, as well as life in the environmental-friendliest country on Calémere.

External History

Qualdomelic is a revived version of what I consider my first ever "serious" conlang (that is, not a relex), which I created in March 2014 - along with my first conworld sketch I used the name Calémere for - and was called Valdimelic (Hvaldeimήḷta in the orthography I used back then) - conworld-wise, it was Chlouvānem but about fifteen versions before the current one. While, after four years, I can safely say that in my original Valdimelic there were many too naïf elements and a bit of kitchen-sinkyness here and there, in the end there was something in its sound I liked and therefore, in February 2018, I decided to "revive" it (even if apart from a few lexical items it is, grammar-wise, a totally different language) and use it to replace saKalurilut, a long-standing language in my conworld but which was too much of a Kalaallisut giblang to be justified after all those years. Its place in Calémere and a few words are thus taken from saKalurilut. As far as aesthetics are concerned, I replaced many of the too much Greek-looking words, as well as ēta and ōmega (but I kept gamma for /ɣ/) of the original Valdimelic, as well as those ideas that still survive in some way in Chlouvānem, with an aesthetic mostly inspired by Romanian, with hints of Irish, Yoruba (mainly ẹ and ọ), and that beautiful Māori wh.

Qualdomailor

The Communist Republic of Qualdomailor

Native name	iă njăwțarnẹdarficu niă nnăaqappartut căiši Cwaldeumăjlor
Capital	Cănțe Inarviut
Ethnic groups	Qualdomelic (cwaldewmẹljăd) 81,5% Chlouvānem (țẹnwhanem) 17% others 1,5%
Religion	Yunyalīlti (junjăliltărfic) 96% others 4%
Nationwide official language	Qualdomelic
Other languages	Chlouvānem (regional, South)
Demonym	Qualdomelic; Qua: cwaldewmẹljăd
Area	～TBA
Population	39,838,427 (386ᘔ (641810) census)
Population density	～TBA
Government	Single-party presidential republic
President	Răjultiq Mittuk jamhni Whănguljtọq
Time zone	LIL−3 (Qualdomelic Time) (CER+9:53′40″)
Currency	Qennguk
Drives on the	left
Calling code	+840

Qualdomailor (natively Cwaldewmăjlor [kwaɫdɛʊ̯ˈməɪ̯lor]), officially the Communist Republic of Qualdomailor (iă nJăwțarnẹdarficu niă nNăaqappartut căiši Cwaldeumăjlor [iə̯ ˌnjəʊ̯tsarˌnɛdarˈfiku niə̯ nːəaˌqapparˈtut kəˈiʃɪ kwaɫdɛʊ̯ˈməɪ̯lor]), is a country in central Márusúturon, a continent of Calémere. It borders, clockwise from the north, Ylvostydh, Brono, and the Chlouvānem Inquisition; its western borders are maritime, on the Skyrdegan Inner Sea, more precisely the two inlets called Western Sea (ivulit căd ittungaq, a.k.a. High Ivulit in Chlouvānem sources) and (its southernmost part) Southern Passage Gulf (ciswulit căd allațeă sa nănngiup, a.k.a. Little Ivulit), which divide it from the countries of Leny-tḥewe, Ebed-dowa, and Oempras. Most of its current borders are mountainous, with the country's highest peak, Mount Šuvăṛuc (păsjănngul Šuvăṛuc; Chl.: šūlābdeyān ga ñariāh), on the Chlouvānem border and very close to the tripoint with Brono, being 3.ᘔƐ2 pā (6758₁₀ = about 7021.5 m) high.

Qualdomailor lies almost entirely between latitudes 30° and 39°N; its southernmost point is just about one mile south of the 30th parallel north. The country may be divided, thanks to its various mountain chains, in three distinct zones: the Arănngallaq plain, along the Vălțẹšp river, which lies in the central-northern part of the country and is its most densely populated part; the long but narrow western coast; and the central highlands, which are river basins that ultimately all drain into the western coast through two major rivers - the Qasivănnẹq in the central part and the Ọrăisărpiq in the far south - that cut through the mountains in impressive canyon systems.
The two largest cities, Cănțe Inarviut ("City of the East", the capital), and Arvallivăt ("Red Castle"), lie in the Arănngallaq plain.

Qualdomailor, today, is a linguistically and religiously homogeneous country, with 96% of its inhabitants being religiously Yunyalīlti. Historically predominantly inhabited by the Qualdomelics, in the half century since the Kaiṣamā era there has been a steady influx of Chlouvānem people, so that 81.5% of its population is Qualdomelic, 17% Chlouvānem, and the remaining 1.5% of other ethnic backgrounds. Qualdomelic is the only nationwide official language - Chlouvānem is only official in the four southern regions, but it is widely spoken as a L2 also by native Qualdomelics due to its status as lingua franca of the Eastern bloc and sacred language of the Yunyalīlta. At the last census in 6418 (six years ago), the population amounted to 39,838,427 people; according to more recent estimates, it has grown to slightly more than 40 million people.

Phonology

Orthography

Qualdomailor is written in its own, alphabetic script (called ta Whaldewmẹlje sa šowsẹ), which is a derivative of an older form of the Skyrdegan script, a script it retains a large degree of mutual intelligibility with, despite a few differences through further simplifications the Skyrdegan script underwent and a different printing and typesetting style (the Qualdomelic script is characterized by more curved lines).

Qualdomelic orthography is morphophonemic and, to some extent, etymological. In the following table, only the most common, non-mutated spelling for each phoneme is given.

Consonants

→ PoA ↓ Manner	Labial	Labiodental	Dentoalveolar	Alveolopalatal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	m m		n n				ŋ ŋ
Plosives	p p b b		t t d d				c k g g	q q
Affricates			ț ts x dz
Fricatives		f f v v	s s z z	š ʃ ž ʒ			ch x γ ɣ		h h
Approximants			r r l l		ṛ ɽ	lj ʎ
Semivowels						j j	w w

Notable instances of allophony:

• /r/ is [ɾ] after consonants (e.g. γrămaț "language" [ɣɾəˈmats]);
• /l/ is [ɫ] before consonants (e.g. mălpa "room" [ˈməɫpa]) and geminate /ll/ is [ɬː] (e.g. Arvallivăt [arˈvaɬːivət]).

Note that the Chlouvānem phoneme /ɴ̆/ l is typically adapted in Qualdomelic as /q/ word-initially and as /ŋ/ otherwise; however, in many Yunyalīlti religious words it is adapted as /l/.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i i		u u
High-mid	e e	ă ə	o o
Low-mid	ẹ ɛ		ọ ɔ
Low		a a

Diphthongs are typically categorized depending on their first element:

• a-: /aɪ̯ aʊ̯/ aj aw
• ɛ-: /ɛɪ̯ ɛʊ̯ ɛə̯/ ej ew eă
• ɔ-: /ɔɪ̯ ɔʊ̯ ɔə̯/ oj ow oă
• ə-: /əɪ̯ əʊ̯/ ăj ăw
• i-: /iə̯/ iă
• u-: /uə̯/ uă

Hiatuses are usually permitted - see e.g. căiši "N/M.PL/F.PL of" /kəˈiʃi/, nănngiup "passage" /nəŋːiˈup/.

Prosody

Stress

Stress is phonemic and unmarked in the orthography. The most common position is on the penultimate (e.g. vẹfnăro "sleep" /vɛʊ̯ˈnəro/; cwalăš "apple" /ˈkwaləʃ/), but words ending in stops or affricates are usually stressed on the last syllable (e.g. γrămaț "language" /ɣrəˈmats/, ivulit "sea" /ivuˈlit/).

Compound stress is usually on the last element, but if the last element is stressed on the first syllable and the preceding element is stressed on the last, then the last syllable of the penultimate element is stressed - as in the toponym Arvallivăt /arˈvallivət/ from arvan /arˈvan/ "red" and livăt /ˈlivət/ "castle" (the latter among the few common words ending in a stop which are not stressed on the last syllable).

Morphophonology

There are two mutations (căṛăwhăro /kəɽəˈfəro/) that influence the initial consonant, or the initial absence of a consonant, of a Qualdomelic word in the same noun phrase when after certain other words: the softening mutation (iă njențejbu niă găṛăwhăro) and the hardening mutation (iă nuzwhăbjoăbu niă găṛăwhăro).

The softening mutation has the following effects:

• p t k q → f s ch γ
• b d g → v z γ
• s z → h
• f → ∅ (orth. fh)
• v cw → w (orth. wh)
• h → ăh-
• ț x → s z
• (in internal saṃdhi only) C-V → CːV

The hardening mutation has the following effects:

• p t k → b d g
• b d g → mm nn nng
• s z → z ṛ (the latter orth. ṛz)
• f → pf
• v → nwh /ŋw/
• h → q (orth. qh)
• j → nj
• initial vowel → n-

Words that trigger the softening mutation are marked by a following ʰ (e.g. the feminine singular definite article taʰ), while those that trigger the hardening one are marked by a following ⁿ (e.g. the neuter singular definite article iăⁿ). As "mutation" - căṛăwhăro is a neuter noun, in the names of both mutations we may clearly see how e.g. underlying iăⁿ uzwhăbjoăb-uⁿ iăⁿ căṛăwhăro becomes iă nuzwhăbjoăbu niă găṛăwhăro.

For the internal saṃdhi softening mutation Cʰ-V → CːV, a good example is the word năaqappartut "republic", composed of nă-aqapʰ-artut (literally "large decision organization").

Morphology

Numerals

Modern Qualdomelic has a duodecimal number system because of Chlouvānem influence, which completely replaced the earlier, decimal one: only the roots from 1 to Ɛ, optionally 10₁₂, and the old number 100₁₀ (qọlbră, which nowadays is not a numeral anymore, but simply a noun meaning "a lot of", "a large quantity") survive. However, most numerals are hybrids of native roots (for the units) and Chlouvānem ones (for the dozens and other powers of 12).

As for types of numerals distinguished, Qualdomelic has cardinals, ordinals (analytic from Ɛ on; they double as fractionaries, with only ½ having a separate root), and distributives (analytic, formed by reduplication). Numbers from 1 to 5 also have adverbial numerals (once, twice, three times...).

Digit12	Base 10	Cardinal	Ordinal	Distributive	Adverbial
0	0	axar	(săga axar)	(axar axar)	—
1	1	sọr	samăt	sọssọr	saruman
2	2	nad	năjen (½: bănic)	nannad	nămman
3	3	călẹt	călẹtupsi	călẹcălẹt	călẹmman
4	4	iwhăs	iwhățupsi	iwhăssăs	iwhățan
5	5	but	burupsi	but but	burnan
6	6	tọja	tojcupsi	tọja tọja	—
7	7	seț	sițecupsi	seț seț
8	8	naz -eⁿ	nazenupsi	naze nnaz
9	9	kow	kubrupsi	kow kow
ᘔ	10	urăn ʰ	urănupsi	urăn urăn
Ɛ	11	urănțọr (vẹngdeng)	săga urănțọr	urănțọr urănțọr
10	12	mamej (urănad)	săga mamej	mamej mamej
11	13	sọr-u-mamej	săga sọr-u-mamej	sọssọr-u-mamej
12	14	nad-u-mamej	săga nad-u-mamej	nannad-u-mamej
13	15	călẹt-u-mamej	săga călẹt-u-mamej	călẹcălẹt-u-mamej
...
1Ɛ	23	urănțọr-u-mamej	săga urănțọr-u-mamej	urănțọr urănțọr-u-mamej	—
20	24	naxamamej	săga naxamamej	naxamamej naxamamej

The roots axar (< ajrā), vẹngdeng (< vælden), and mamej (< māmei) in the table above are of clear Chlouvānem origin. The forms urănțọr and mamej are preferred to vẹngdeng and urănad, but the latter two can still be found sometimes.

The other dozens are:

30 (36₁₀) călẹțemamej

40 (48₁₀) iwhăšamamej

50 (60₁₀) buțemamej

60 (72₁₀) tọjoămamej

70 (84₁₀) sețengmamej

80 (96₁₀) nazengmamej

90 (108₁₀) kọwhamamej

ᘔ0 (120₁₀) urăngmamej

Ɛ0 (132₁₀) vẹngdemamej

and 100 (144₁₀) nichẹng.

Further numbers are simple juxtapositions, written as separate words, e.g. 101₁₂ nichẹng sọr, 179₁₂ nichẹng kow-u-sețengmamej, 200₁₂ nad nichẹng, 8ᘔ5 naze nnichẹng but-u-urăngmamej, etc.
Higher numbers still follow the Chlouvānem system: 1.000₁₂ is tingda; 1.00.000₁₂ is a rajț; 1.00.00.000₁₂ a qangărajț; 1.00.00.00.000₁₂ a tăjskawț (or simply nichẹng qangărajț), and 1.00.00.00.00.000 a qangtăjskawț (or mamej nichẹng qangărajț).

Vocabulary

Time

→ See also: Chlouvānem calendar

The modern Qualdomelic calendar, as well as time reckoning, is essentially the same as the Chlouvānem one.

The fourteen months (asenă) of the year are:

1. mangdaparnaj (Māltapārṇāvi)
2. canămpraț (Kanamiprātas)
3. pandăngaš (Pāṇḍalañši)
4. canămmaj (Kanamimaila)
5. muqqase (Murkāsena)
6. bušpraț (Būṃṣprātas)
7. qangjan (Laliāñaiṭa)
8. brawsase (Brausāsena)
9. chejra (Mailaheirah)
10. ajamja (Ñariāyāmyah)
11. băjvavăm (Bhaivyāvammi)
12. ilamjase (Īlāmyasena)
13. hẹngvjase (Hælvyāsena)
14. țamimẹț (Camimæchliė)

The main divisions of time are:

English	Qualdomelic	Equivalent to	rough Earthly approximation
Year	šlăwhelẹc	418 Calemerian days	609.6 Earth days
Day	fendur	2812 (3210) hours	~35 hours
Hour	garăn	3 naxamamăljo 6012 (7210) răng	~65 min ~37 sec
group of "minutes"	naxamamăljo	2012 (2410) răng	~21 min ~52 sec
"Minute"	răng	(base unit)	~54.6805 sec
"Second"	namišoă	1/4012 (1/4810) răng	~1.8986 sec
1/12 of a "second"	(namišoă ceda) săgămamej	1/1012 (1/1210) namišoă	~0.1582 sec
1/144 of a "second"	(namišoă ceda) săgănichẹng	1/10012 (1/14410) namišoă	~0.0131 sec
1/1728 of a "second"	(namišoă ceda) săgătingda	1/100012 (1/172810) namišoă	~1.0987 ms

The whole territory of Qualdomailor lies in time zone LIL−3 (AKA Qualdomelic Time), that is, three hours behind the reference meridian of Līlasuṃghāṇa, capital of the Inquisition. In the Cerian/Western standard, this time zone is noted as CER+9:53′40″₁₀ - about 9¾ hours ahead of the Western reference meridian of Mánébodin, capital of Ceria.