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Mando'a class (Mandalorian language)

Discussion in 'Literature' started by KarenTraviss, Sep 12, 2005.

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Page 16 of 34

Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

Karen might be away, but she still releases new words:

Karen on her sw.com-blog said:

Anyway, the Mando'a word of the day is ad. Ad is one of the most frequently-used words because is has so many subtle meanings, depending on context. It means son, daughter or child - there's no gender in Mando'a, remember - and the plural is ade (pronounced AH-day).

Anyone over three is techncially ad. Mando'ade is what the Mandalorians call themselves - sons or daughters of Mandalore. (They're big on compounding and eliding words.) So a parent would call their child their ad.

The diminutive form - which is usually affectionate - is ad'ika (ah-DEE-kah), formed by adding the suffix 'ika. (Plural - ad'ike, ah-DEE-kay.) And this is where the word "son" becomes interesting.

As in UK English, ad'ika can be an informal and friendly form of address, or sometimes not:. "You're not going to park your car there, are you son?" a policeman might say to a young driver, by way of warning.

It also means lad or boy in every sense - again, like "Don't do it, lad..." or even "one of the boys". See how useful a word ad'ika can be?

And because it also applies to women, ad'ika can double for the English sweetie, darling, or even girlie. And it also does duty as the unisex kid or little one. The age range and shades of meaning it spans are enormous.

Context will clue you in to what a Mando means when they call you ad'ika. Mostly, it'll be friendly and affectionate. Sometimes, though, it can be ironic or sarcastic, in which case you should brace for trouble and look for the nearest door...
Click to expand...

Karen on her LJ-blog said:

-what is mir'osik?
-Umm...

It means you have something undesirable where your brains ought to be.
Click to expand...

sweet new words...

Corran_Fett, Sep 22, 2005

#376
Sinrebirth Mod-Emperor of the EUC, Lit, RPF and SWC Staff Member Manager

Registered:

Nov 15, 2004

Thanx, Fett.

Good to see Mandalore kept her word. I had no doubts

Sinrebirth , Sep 22, 2005

#377
DarthReven Jedi Youngling

Registered:

May 8, 2005

Great, a new word. As long as Corran Fett keeps on checking her blog, we are OK.

DarthReven, Sep 22, 2005

#378
Kudzu Jedi Knight

Registered:

Jun 18, 2005

Wonder why she left the boards here, anyway

Kudzu, Sep 22, 2005

#379
Sinrebirth Mod-Emperor of the EUC, Lit, RPF and SWC Staff Member Manager

Registered:

Nov 15, 2004

Probably because she was slowly but surely being dragged into the Maw of the Internet....

I can sympathise

Sinrebirth , Sep 23, 2005

#380
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

I will check her blogs, for sure...

and btw, it's just Corran, please

Corran_Fett, Sep 23, 2005

#381
DarthReven Jedi Youngling

Registered:

May 8, 2005

Ok, Corran it is, ner vod.

DarthReven, Sep 23, 2005

#382
Delta_Marine62 Jedi Youngling

Registered:

Sep 22, 2005

hey guys whats up?

Delta_Marine62, Sep 24, 2005

#383
Mandalorian_Crusader Jedi Youngling

Registered:

Jun 6, 2005

Delta_Marine62 said:

hey guys whats up?
Click to expand...

Not much, you have to fight your way in to these threads.

Mandalorian_Crusader, Sep 26, 2005

#384
CeiranHarmony Force Ghost

Registered:

May 10, 2004

no new words? no new blog info? no karen? whyÂ´d she leave?

CeiranHarmony, Sep 26, 2005

#385
Daniel-K Jedi Youngling

Registered:

Jul 29, 2004

When I'm able to make the grammar guide public, all will become clear. It really is easy, I promise.

I'm curious as to why you can't. Micheal P Kube McDowel put his ship guide up on his personal site. Has their been a change in policy since then?

Also, does stuff like this get incorporated into the Holocron?

Daniel-K, Sep 26, 2005

#386
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

Karen Traviss on her SW.com-blog said:

Mando'a word of the Day...

Repeat after me: vor'e. Short for vor entye.

This is how Mando'ade say thanks. Despite their rather aggressive habits, the Mando boys (and girls) know that manners maketh man (and woman). Grunting and scowling is for other warrrior races. If you're going to lay waste to half the sector, you might as well be pleasant and charming when you do it.

Vor entye actually means "I accept your debt". (Vor'e is the informal form, like saying, "thanks" or "ta!".) A Mando'ad is saying that he or she is grateful: the nearest equivalent in English is "I owe you one". Vorer is to accept, and entye is debt. The ni (I) is dropped.

Of course, please is de rigeur too. Gedet'ye. More on that later.

Pronounciation:
Vor-ENT-yay.

VOHR-ay.

Geh-DET-yeh.
Click to expand...

Old words, new intel...

Corran_Fett, Sep 30, 2005

#387
Commander5052 Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Aug 28, 2005

Vor'e for that Corran.

Commander5052, Sep 30, 2005

#388
Sinrebirth Mod-Emperor of the EUC, Lit, RPF and SWC Staff Member Manager

Registered:

Nov 15, 2004

Vor'e indeed

Sinrebirth , Sep 30, 2005

#389
CeiranHarmony Force Ghost

Registered:

May 10, 2004

we need a pronounciation audio cd for mando'a class! well, anyone wanting to record somemp3's?

CeiranHarmony, Sep 30, 2005

#390
Joser_Kyind Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Feb 10, 2005

I've seen people use the word shebs on this thread, but I haven't found a definition. Could somebody clue me in?

Joser_Kyind, Sep 30, 2005

#391
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

shebs(singular; plural: shebs'e) = arse

not sure with the plurarl... could be shebse as well...

Corran_Fett, Sep 30, 2005

#392
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

Karen Traviss on her SW.com-blog said:

It lives!
Mando'a has just reached a watershed.

It's now at the stage where my two patient beta testers, Ryan and Ray, can do more than just use the dictionary to translate text. They can actually use it to communicate with each other.

That might not sound like much, but in language terms it's a big step forward. It means that Mando'a, even if it's artificial, is now a "live" language.

This is what happens when you start writing a book and think, "Hmmm, I need to create some background..."

[ Kandosii! Ryan bal Ray lise jorhaa'ir Mando'a!
(Kan-DOH-see! Ryan bahl Ray LEE-say jor-har-EER Man-DO-ah)
Nice one! Ryan and Ray can speak Mando'a! ]

-----

Fan: Lise would be the conjugated form of the verb liser, to be able to.

KT: Correct.

Fan: Jorhaa'ir is the infinitive for the verb to speak.

KT: Correct.
Click to expand...

Fan: also is kote glory?

KT: Yes, and it's a plural. As a singular (kot) it means strength.

Source: http://blogs.starwars.com/karentraviss/26/comments

I envy Ryan and Ray.

Corran_Fett, Oct 1, 2005

#393
Ryan_Kaufman DHC Author & Former LucasArts Content Supervisor VIP

Registered:

Mar 15, 2005

You'll be communicating with each other soon enough.

Think of me and Ray blazing the trail through the woods so that when you come through, it's a nice wide path.

Ryan_Kaufman, Oct 1, 2005

#394
Sinrebirth Mod-Emperor of the EUC, Lit, RPF and SWC Staff Member Manager

Registered:

Nov 15, 2004

*looks abashed*

I tripped over on a twig, Mr Kaufman!

Anywho. Lots of new things. Intriguing indeed.

Vor'e!

Sinrebirth , Oct 1, 2005

#395
Senator_Cilghal Jedi Master

Registered:

Jul 19, 2003

What is the singular of Cuy'val Dar?

Senator_Cilghal, Oct 1, 2005

#396
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

AFAIK, there is none... it's a group description like "Royal Guards" or so... you say, he's member of the Royal Guards... he's one of the Cuy'val Dar (Those Who No Longer Exist)

Karen on her SW.com-blog said:

Mando'a colloquialism

I had a good question from adarjapheth about udesii and kandosii on an earlier post. Given the endings, are they the same parts of speech? No, they're not; the first is an imperative, and the second is an adjective, but they both happen to have the double i at the end.

One of the things that happens to language over time is that words become shortened, filed down and bent out of all recognition. Colloquial use tramples all over grammar and sometimes over everything else too. So I tried to get that lived-in vibe for Mando'a by "fast forwarding" in my brain. (Always a messy business.)

Udesii is part of the verb udesiir, to rest or relax or be peaceful. (Yeah, I know, Mando'ade...but they do chill sometimes.) Strictly speaking, telling someone to calm down should be phrased in the imperative form, which I'll get to later. But that's not how people speak or use language. So I tried to imagine how a Mando'ad would tell his buddy to chill, and after a few tries, the most natural contraction of the formal phrase was, "Udesii..."

Same with su'cuy. Take the words that you see, and what you have in English is "still liv'" with the e missing. It means hi, and it's taken from the longer formal phrase meaning so you're still alive. Again, I reverse-engineered that (and that's painful on the knees when you're also fast-forwarding...) to get su'cuy. It's like wotcha and wassup and all those greetings that we use and that bear little resemblance to the grammatically correct greeting from which they originated.

The colloquialisms are proving to be the most revealing parts of the Mando psyche. How do they say "Forget it" or "You're welcome" or "Watch your back"? Examine those English phrases, and you'll see they don't actually mean what the words say on their own. That's what makes language construction fun.

Well, I'm having fun with it, anyway! Dunno about you...
Click to expand...

Pretty interesting, I say... and two new words... *g*

Corran_Fett, Oct 3, 2005

#397
DarthReven Jedi Youngling

Registered:

May 8, 2005

Wow, even more words! I swear, it is kinda freaky how she is just makking a full, usable launguage, it just weird! COol, but kinda weird...

DarthReven, Oct 3, 2005

#398
Corran_Fett Jedi Padawan

Registered:

Jan 17, 2005

Karen on her SW.com-blog said:

Tough!

Today let's look at the name Atin. Good old Atin from Hard Contact: nice lad, even if he's not a bundle of laughs.

Atin (ah-TEEN) means, in a sense, stubborn; It's from the verb atiniir (ah-teen-EER). But in Mando'a that's not an insult. Atiniir means to endure, to stick with it, to tough it out. It's not negative, as it would be in English. It's a compliment. Mando'ade admire tenacity and grit. It means someone who can take it.

You'll hear it used among clone soldiers: "K'atini!" (kah-TEE-nee). In other words - "Suck it up!" Or, as the UK's Royal Marines would say, "It's only pain!" (Yep, one i at the end. Just the way they spell it.)

When the going gets tough, the Mando'ade...atinii.
Click to expand...

Two new words... sweet...

Corran_Fett, Oct 5, 2005

#399
CeiranHarmony Force Ghost

Registered:

May 10, 2004

why does it sound like the Jawas Utinii?

CeiranHarmony, Oct 5, 2005

#400

Page 16 of 34

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