Introduction
The two main languages of Kemedal are Kemese and
Ingallish, which are both official. In practice however,
Ingallish serves as an administrative language only and
is not actively mastered by the entire population. A small part
of the population has Ingallish as their native language,
mostly in the region adjacent to the Ansonian border around
the river Sioned but also in isolated communities on the
westcoast. A larger part of the population used to speak
Ingallish as their native language before 302 but after the
end of the Ansonian occupation a large de-ingallification has
been going on, which is not officially promoted or endorsed,
but not discouraged either by the government.
As a result of these developments, many people, especially in
the ruling elite, still have Ingallish sounding names although
many of them now speak Ingallish as a second language only.
People can adopt a Kemese spelling of their
Ingallish names or translate it altogether if possible. The
other way around is not forbidden but whoever tries it are said
to experience 'clerical obstruction'.
Kemese
The Kemese language (Cwmeg) has a striking
resemblance to the Earth language of Welsh, although
there are some differences, mostly in pronunciation. In
the world of Vexillium, Kemese is a Futuronian language
belonging to the subgroup of Aracimric languages and as
such more or less closely related to Fyldish and Estron.
Kemese is spoken as a first or second language by
approximately 46 million people in Kemedal and by
several millions more in other countries, including
Ansonia.
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Text samples
1). Months of the year
Dates in Kemese are formed with an ordinal number to indicate
the day, followed by the preposition o (which causes
soft mutation) and the name of the month.
There are two sets of names for the thirteen months and the
Ortus and Phoenix Days: the version that is used most often
is the 'international' version, which consists of the
international Vexillian names of the months but in Kemese
spelling; the second set consists of literal Kemese
translations of the international Vexillian names.
The first set:
Aries, Bofis, Castor, Delffis, Ecwys, Ffelis, Gallus, Histrics,
Ibecs, Iwnics, Coracs, Lwpis, Mantis, Ortws, Ffenics
Names of the first set that are mutated by the preposition o:
o Fofis, o Gastor, o Ddelffis, o Allus, o Goracs, o Fantis
The second set:
Mis Hwrdd, Mis Ych, Mis Afanc, Mis Dolffin, Mis March, Mis Cath,
Mis Ceiliog, Mis Ballasg, Mis Alpafr, Mis Gwas y Neidr, Mis Cigfran,
Mis Blaidd, Mis Locust, Dydd Glöyn Byw, Dydd Ffenics. |