Dundulanyä: Difference between revisions

|fam1              = East Mandabudi <small>''(areal)''</small>

The relationship of Dundulanyä to other languages is poorly understood, given the limited attestations of neighboring languages contemporary to archaic Dundulanyä. It is classified as an East Mandabudi language, an areal grouping that includes Dundulanyä and some ancient - and scarcely attested - languages of that area based on some criteria that have been found, such as Austronesian-type alignment, a possessive system like the one of Dundulanyä itself, a duodecimal number system, and heavily inflected nouns, that are not found in the most thoroughly attested languages of that era, the neighboring West Mandabudi and Dailishi languages.

The two diphthongs {{IPA|/aɪ̯ aʊ̯/}} were most likely realized as {{IPA|[aɪ̯ aʊ̯]}} in Classical Dundulanyä and that one is considered the most literary and formal pronunciation today, however, it is most commonly used by speakers from the North Shore (excluding Līlah), parts of Śola, the Śusopai (Western Lusaṃrīte) and most of Jūhma. The majority of speakers - in Mandabuda, Śubhāla, the Toyubeshian islands, Western Jūhma, and the majority of inland Central and Southern Lusaṃrīte pronounce them as {{IPA|[ɛɪ̯ ɔʊ̯]}}. In Northern Lusaṃrīte and southwards along the coast including the city of Līlah and the Dendāɂneye, as well as in some of the northern islands, the intermediate pronunciation {{IPA|[æɪ̯ ɑʊ̯]}} with more open but non-centralized first elements are most commonly heard.

# In Classical Dundulanyä, subjunctive 2nd person terminations ''-ās'' (singular) and ''-aus'' (plural) are found in many texts; in the early and mid Classical period, the distribution is clearly dialectal: the dialects of coastal Mandabuda and the course of the Hundhura downstream from the confluence of the Lāmbera, the Lātlaka region to the southeast, as well as the majority of the Yuṣṇiya valley (western Mandabuda) and North Shore colonies of these territories use the ''-ās/-aus'' forms, with the rest of Mandabuda, nearly all of Śubhāla (which underwent Dundulanyä-ization during the Classical period) as well as - forming a linguistic island - the Śola peninsula (far northern Mandabuda, between two of the Inland Seas) using the ''-āt/-aut'' forms. By the late Classical period, ''-āt/-aut'' forms became predominant because of both sound changes (especially in the North Shore) and greater cultural and political dominance of some ''-āt/-aut'' cities such as Nallalitle (along the Lāmbera), Mūmäfumbe and Līlekhaite (in Śubhāla), Udunna (in Śola), and Ṭäleneśāma (on the North Shore)<ref>While the broader political and cultural center of the Dundulanyä world remained the plains of Mandabuda, Śola, Śubhāla and the North Shore, at the borders of the Classical Dundulanyä world, would later become the centers of expansion of Dundulanyä culture respectively towards the western Inland Seas, the East (the Toyubeshian realms and then Jūhma), and Northern Lusaṃrīte.</ref>, although sometimes even the same authors used both forms, in a few cases even in the same text. In the post-Classical period, ''-āt/-aut'' became the standard forms, although local languages in ''-ās/-aus'' areas developed from the original ones.

Dundulanyä is one of the few human Eventoan languages - together with the other ancient languages grouped as East Mandabudi languages, a few other languages scattered in southern Lusaṃrīte, and a handful of others around the world, as well as those which have had considerable influence by Dundulanyä itself - with a pure duodecimal numeral system.

As for the two forms for the numeral "one", ''emi'' is used in disjunctive counting (count-ins or countdowns), while ''emibe'' is used elsewhere. Compounds always have the full form, i.e. forms such as *hälimūmāyemi do not exist, only ''hälimūmāyemibe''. <!-- <br/>Some compound words, especially technical and scientific ones, use UNDEFINED-WEST-MANDABUDI-LANGUAGE morphemes for the quantities from 1 to ᘔ (though from 5 onwards they're rarer): ''mån-''&nbsp;1, ''yūn-''&nbsp;2, ''lyāš-''&nbsp;3, ''alan-''&nbsp;4, ''tamb-''&nbsp;5, ''jiruṇ-'' or ''ciruṇ-''&nbsp;6, ''tulyæn-''&nbsp;7, ''neim-''&nbsp;8, ''šid-''&nbsp;9, ''abar-''&nbsp;ᘔ. -->

The start of the calendar year is on the Southern hemisphere fall equinox, while days start at dawn. Months are grouped according to astronomical seasons of the Southern hemisphere, but it is the same nevertheless in the few areas of the Dundulanyä world north of the Equator; these are not immediately related to climatical seasons, as the Dundulanyä heartlands of Mandabuda have a monsonic climate with two distinct seasons and most of the Dundulanyä live in areas with tropical or equatorial climates.

Eleven out of the fourteen month names are related to constellations transited through during that month; two of them (the eighth and eleventh months) are related to religion and one (the last month of the year) is related to climatical conditions of Mandabuda.