feat(i18n): add a language key overriding the system locale

The interface language followed the environment and nothing else, so
choosing it meant setting LANG for the whole application. [general]
language overrides it in both directions: it selects Italian on an English
desktop, and en_US forces English on an Italian one.

A short code or a full locale name both work, since Qt resolves "it" to
it_IT when the QLocale is built and QTranslator::load falls back from
qtmaildir_it_IT to qtmaildir_it. "system" is the default written down, so
the default can be expressed rather than only reached by deleting the key.

Validated on the locale NAME rather than on whether a translation loads,
because those are different questions and only one is an error. QLocale
accepts any string and degrades an unrecognised one to C rather than
failing, so `language = itallian` loads no translation and is otherwise
indistinguishable from asking for English on purpose; meanwhile
`language = en_US` legitimately loads nothing, English being the source
language and shipping no .qm. Checking the name separates the typo from
the deliberate choice, and the typo is reported.

The translator is now installed after Config is loaded, since the config
is what chooses it. The cost is that config warnings are generated before
the translator exists and are therefore built in English; retranslating
them would mean re-running load(), and a warning about the config file is
the one string a user can still act on in either language.

Verified against the real loader across six configurations, under both
LANG=en_US and LANG=it_IT: short and full codes select Italian, system and
an absent key follow the environment, en_US forces English whatever the
environment says, and a bad name reports a problem and falls back. Two
mutations checked: dropping the name validation and treating "system" as a
locale name each fail a test.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

1 files changed, 12 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/config.h b/src/config.h
index d1f8e65..70f7181 100644
--- a/src/config.h
+++ b/src/config.h
@@ -292,6 +292,17 @@ public:
     /// the same fixed string on every card rather than failing visibly.
     QString dateFormat() const { return m_dateFormat; }
 
+    /// Interface language, or empty to follow the environment.
+    ///
+    /// A locale name, short ("it") or full ("it_IT"); Qt resolves the short
+    /// form to a country. `system` reads as empty, so a user can write the
+    /// default down rather than having to delete the key to get it back.
+    ///
+    /// Validated at load, because an unrecognised name does NOT fail: QLocale
+    /// degrades it to C, which then loads no translation and is indistinguishable
+    /// from asking for English on purpose. A typo would otherwise be silent.
+    QString language() const { return m_language; }
+
     /// The saved query to open at startup, by name. Falls back to "Unread"
     /// when unset, and to the first saved query when no query by that name
     /// exists: [queries] is read through childKeys(), which sorts
@@ -404,6 +415,7 @@ private:
     int m_toolbarIconSize = 24;
     QString m_notmuchConfig;
     QString m_dateFormat;
+    QString m_language;
     qreal m_messageZoom = 1.0;
     bool m_completionOnFocus = false;
     int m_markReadDelayMs = 2000;