#maldonian

General Overview

Maldonian is a Romance Language.

Meaning it’s Latin-based and has a similar sentence structure and conjugation style as French, Spanish, etc.

Most of the language is made from smashing together Spanish, French, and Italian words, with a sprinkle of Portuguese and Romanian when the mood strikes

Since I don’t have a full language developed, the typical way I achieve this is with words is writing out a sentence in French, Spanish, and Italian and combining the words into something that sounds halfway decent. If I don’t like the way it sounds, I’ll go to Portuguese and Romanian. (And then they’re added to the dictionary.)

For example: “The boy ran to the dog.”

Fr. - “Le garçon court au chien.”

Sp. - “El niño corre al perro.”

It. - “Il ragazzo corre al cane.”

Mal. - “Di ragaño couro a canero.”

Grammar

I haven’t had to conjugate yet, but conjugations are a thing that happens. It would look something like this.

Verb: couret (to run)

E couro/a (I run)

Te couros/as (You run)

In couro (He runs)

Ini coura (She runs)

Ei couris (You (plural) run)

Nem couros (We run)

Em courin (They run)

Maldonian is also has gendered verbs. Ex. “Di ragaño couro” vs “Di fiña coura”.

[verb form]+o = masc, [verb form]+a = fem.

Does not apply to plural nouns, only singular.

Singular “the” is always “di,” regardless of noun. Plural “the” is always “dis”.

Di canero vs. dis caneros

Possessives follow the same rule; only a singular and plural.

Me canero/Mes caneros (My dog(s))

Ti canero/Tis caneros (Your dog(s))

Se canero/Ses caneros (His dog(s))

Sa canero/Sae caneros (Her dog(s))

Eir canero/Eis caneros (Your (plural) dog(s))

Ne canero/Nei caneros (Our dog(s))

Eme canero/Emes caneros (Their dog(s))

Grammar notes

Unlike most Romance languages, in Maldonian the adjectives always come before the noun.

Di Fraggi Pruto (The Frog Prince)

Di Soiréda Éstoila (The Evening Star)

Di Hermeau Jevon  (The Handsome Youth)

Affectionate titles have different endings depending on the gender and status/respect/affection

Fromo (brother)

Fromanno (big brother)

Fromanni (little brother)

Sorma (sister)

Sormanna (big sister)

Sormanni (little sister)

Buonama (sweetheart-lit. “Good love”)

Buonamadi (Pet name, often shortened to Amadi by younger Maldonians)

Names

Most Maldonian surnames are based in Romanian, which means that there are set endings for native names.

Common endings are -inu/-anu (descriptive), -escu (location), and -an (occupation)

For example, the Maldonian Royal Family’s surname (in my headcanon) is Adaruinu (based on the Romanian phrase a dărui, roughly meaning “an act of giving that is accompanied by a genuine desire to make the other person happy.”)

Given names are almost always Indian names for boys and Portuguese names for girls.

Maldonian names do have diminutives! The general rule is that it’s a shortened form of the name + im (for boys) or imi (for girls).

Note: pronounced ihm and eemee respectively.

Ex. Ravim, Navim, Luzimi, Irimi.

Can also be used on non-Maldonian names, if name structure permits

I.e. Timi (pron. Teemee) for Tiana, Rodim (pron. Roh-dihm) for Rodrigo.

Some names, like Esteban and Keith, unfortunately don’t work as well for diminutives. In that case, native nicknames (like Teban) are more widely used.

Vocabulary

As mentioned above, most Maldonian words are a mishmash of whatever sounds right when you smash words from different Romance languages together. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of Google translate, but it winds up working pretty well.

That said, there are loan words and words derived from English peppered through Maldonian

I.e. di jazz (jazz), di telifo (telephone), di tibi (television)

There are also some words I (and Disney) have already come up with for the Maldonian vocabulary. Here’s a selection of them:

Family

Madri/Madimi/Mamai - Mother/Mom/Mama

Padri/Padim/Papai - Father/Dad/Papa

Fromo - Brother

Sorma - Sister

Vovo - grandparent (either gender)

Teo - uncle

Tanti - aunt

Greetings

Buono dios - good morning/day

Buono soiréda - good evening

Buono nuitte - good night

Chilo - Hi/Hello

Abinaza - Bye/See you later

Exclamations

Faldi Faldonza - Oh my god!

Achedanza - Amazing!/Wow!

Chie Pelize - How annoying (rude)

D’escha - Okay

Misc.

Pruto - Prince

Prutia - Princess

Rei - king

Reyeni - Queen

Maldonescu - Maldonian/of Maldonia

Bianturnu - Maldonian capitol

Please - Porfavo