I'll always talk up internet radio stations because I don't think the average person is aware that they're free, can run in your browser (or in any program that can connect to them), work on your phone, run better than a youtube tab, and give you a much better selection of music than you could get from a general algorithmic playlist
(also lots of them have live shows which you can tune into for free)
if u like folk and/or roots music: wumb.org !!! it is AD-FREE it has ZERO MORNING TALK SHOWS it is on air at 91.9 FM in the BOSTON AREA but streams WORLDWIDE on the WEB it is perfect.
Maybe niche but for any Irish speakers or learners out there, Radio na Gaeltachta streams online and is a great way to listen to some Gaeilge without YouTube.
All of these resources are fantastic, but I wanna give a specific shoutout to Raidió na Gaeltachta streaming online - and I say this as a person who works in Irish-language visual media - if you wanna gainna better grasp of spoken Irish and how the language is used in casual settings, Raidió na Gaeltachta is the way to go, not visual media 😬📻😁
“There are no ifs ands or buts when it comes to secual assault/rape. No matter what, the person who did it should be punished. If the person has no proof, still believe the victim. It is better to believe a victim and be wrong than support the person who did it and be right.”
"Try our ai-powered-" and I've stopped reading. You've instantly lost me. I don't trust anything that labels itself ai-powered. I'd rather deal with something that's squirrel-powered. Like Norm. I trust Norm. He won't try to sell my data.
Violence: A Writer’s Guide: This is not about writing technique. It is an introduction to the world of violence. To the parts that people don’t understand. The parts that books and movies get wrong. Not just the mechanics, but how people who live in a violent world think and feel about what they do and what they see done.
Hurting Your Characters: HURTING YOUR CHARACTERS discusses the immediate effect of trauma on the body, its physiologic response, including the types of nerve fibers and the sensations they convey, and how injuries feel to the character. This book also presents a simplified overview of the expected recovery times for the injuries discussed in young, otherwise healthy individuals.
Body Trauma: A writer’s guide to wounds and injuries. Body Trauma explains what happens to body organs and bones maimed by accident or intent and the small window of opportunity for emergency treatment. Research what happens in a hospital operating room and the personnel who initiate treatment. Use these facts to bring added realism to your stories and novels.
10 B.S. Medical Tropes that Need to Die TODAY…and What to Do Instead: Written by a paramedic and writer with a decade of experience, 10 BS Medical Tropes covers exactly that: clichéd and inaccurate tropes that not only ruin books, they have the potential to hurt real people in the real world.
Maim Your Characters: How Injuries Work in Fiction: Increase Realism. Raise the Stakes. Tell Better Stories. Maim Your Characters is the definitive guide to using wounds and injuries to their greatest effect in your story. Learn not only the six critical parts of an injury plot, but more importantly, how to make sure that the injury you’re inflicting matters.
Blood on the Page: This handy resource is a must-have guide for writers whose characters live on the edge of danger. If you like easy-to-follow tools, expert opinions from someone with firsthand knowledge, and you don’t mind a bit of fictional bodily harm, then you’ll love Samantha Keel’s invaluable handbook
The Color Game. “Humans can’t reliably recall colors. This is a simple game to see how good (or bad) you are at it. We’ll show you five colors, then you’ll try and recreate them.” I scored 39/50 but got a perfect score on one color.
Gaza today is broken in ways that are hard to describe. Everything has changed, and the homes that were once full of life are now just memories. Tents are everywhere, as if we are living through an ending that never ends.
Many people write about us with beautiful words, and express our pain through poetry and music, but the truth is, that doesn’t ease what we are going through. We don’t just need words, we need real support to keep going.
Every day we try to hold on, but the exhaustion keeps growing, and the fear never leaves us, especially with my father’s illness and his constant need for treatment.
Please donate to my family . If you are able to help, please don’t let this be just something you read and move on from.
Thank you to everyone who truly cares and tries to help.
📌🛑📌 Fundraiser vetted (#167 by el-shab-hussein & nabulsi), But we created a new GoFundMe page because GoFundMe suspended the beneficiary’s account on the platform, which put us in a very difficult situation.
“Love Languages” are just common couples therapy techniques mangled and repackaged by an unqualified homophobe. Relationships generally need all 5 love languages to be fulfilled, which is to say, everybody needs to communicate with, spend time with, and do things for their partners, and that’s got nothing to do with any special way you communicate affection.
MBTI has been proven completely ineffective at predicting anyone’s success at a particular job, and half the people who take it twice will get different results. Reputable psychologists do not recognize it, and the company that owns the rights to it uses it to scam people. People don’t adhere to strict binaries in basically anything. Very few people are going to be exclusively introverted or extroverted. It’s just astrology repackaged as pseudoscience. Shockingly enough, you can’t boil the complexity of the human experience down to a dozen Types of Guy.
The concept of IQ is flawed from the start— “intelligence” is an abstract concept that encompasses many different skills, from social intelligence to emotional intelligence to the very narrow kind of problem solving intelligence IQ tests generally measure for. It cannot predict how fast you learn, how much you know, or how logical and well read you are. It mostly measures how good you are at solving puzzles. Coincidentally, it’s also a pretty good predictor of income and education level, take a guess why. Most people’s IQ will change throughout their lives, because it’s inconsistent bullshit we’ve only held onto this long because we’re still kinda hoping we can breed the ubermensch. IQ tests and the way they attempt to categorize people are explicitly eugenicist and racist.
BMI was developed by a man known as the grandfather of eugenics, who first of all was a mathematician, not a doctor, and second never intended the formula to be used to categorize individuals. It’s intended to give a rough estimate of obesity in populations, and it’s not even good at that. It hangs around because of fatphobia and insurance companies who want it as an excuse to charge fat people more.
The study which determined people’s prefrontal cortex was still developing at 25… stopped measuring at 25. Evidence suggests your brain probably never stops developing. Stop infantilizing grown adults. This is a branch off from the larger mess of misinformation surrounding fMRIs.
If you haven’t put together what all these things have in common yet, here’s the moral of the story: STOP TRYING TO CATEGORIZE PEOPLE. STOP TRYING TO PUT PEOPLE IN A GODDAMN BIOLOGICAL HIERARCHY. EUGENICS IS BAD, AND WILL ALWAYS BE BAD, NO MATTER WHO’S DOING IT.
Earthlings are both Force Sensitive and sing, but unlike the rest of the galaxy? That force sensitivity adds DEPTH to their singing. Conveys EMOTION unlike "normal" music, which exists purely to just... sound pretty.
Because "Art=Convey Meaning or Emotion" is apparently??? A purely Force Sensitive thing! And yeah, people LIKE it? But it's not something they can really DO without some degree of force sensitivity? Or even THINK to do? Humans are just one of those "mostly force sensitive to some degree" races.
So it is "normal" to us.
Which? Has got me THINKIN? Siren Au 👀? Siren au~☆ What if??? Si-Oc! Everything from Life 1 is pretty much stamped and stored! Couldn't forget it if she tried! Cause it isn't stored in the MEAT any more. Oh no! No that shit has been effectively "uploaded" to "the cloud" as it were!
You die, you pass into the Force, the Force goes "hey, thanks for The Sum Total of ALL you were as a person! I will lovingly and carefully keep that safe for you! Because you are a part of US and WE are the great and endless primordial energy soup!" And? Dispite being somehow spit back out?
Everything still got put into the system! Your Death+ Account is Now Active!
(What do you mean "alive"? How the fresh FUCK are you stuck back in a physical meat suit? We're energy now! Shit, dude. Uuuuuuh... hold on. Let me get some of the guys. We'll ask around? Maybe someone knows something?)
Cause like? Being One with the Force is awesome. Nothing hurts and the wonders stretch on forever. You can learn anything, see anything, BE anywhere! Watch that one perfect sunset for centuries or ten thousand sunsets all at once. You're okay. Forever. WE'RE okay. Forever.
Except this kid. Who is somehow alive? Again? 😱😬🤔😬😔 Big Yikes™
Don't worry, man. We'll.... uuh, shit. We'll figure something out! If nothing else, though? You SHOULD be able to wait it out? Since, you know, you'll end up back with us eventually? (But MAN that sucks. Our condolences.)
Which like???
DEEPLY haunted baby. SO haunted. Fuckin POSSESSED. Her parents? Can NOT deal with this Actual Straight From A Horror Movie Child (cowards). The jedi are unimpressed. But of COURSE they will take the Haunted Baby. Better the child be with them then with people who will not love or support her.
Even if her relationship with the Force is... odd.
(Because Ghosts Don't Exsist. So this is obviously ______, instead.)
And like? What's a kid to do? She ain't got no physical agency! She am Baby. A toddler. Her limbs barely listen to her; when they DO listen, she can barely crawl anywhere, AND? She's often picked up and moved around! At the scheduling of Creche Masters! It's FRUSTRATING.
Well... since she can't get her grubby lil hands on any data pads (yet), reading isn't much of an option. But! She can move her mouth just fine! And? Frankly? It bothers her. That there aren't many, if ANY, lullabies being sung in the Creche. Oh, sure, there are stories a plenty! But songs? Where are the "bed-dy bye" songs?? Kids need those! It's part of a healthy development or something! *clenchs smol Baby fist in determination*
Luckily? Since (no one ELSE seems to be willing to step up) (because that's not culturally a THING here. Not that she knows that.) She remembers a lifetimes worth of music! Including a LOT more kids songs then she thought she did.
Which is how lil OC becomes known for her "noise" (what the fuck is an "english"?) And her music. They kinda low-key assume it's a variant of visions or some sort of Force interaction. Possibly a natural healing technique she has some aptitude for? It certainly DOES help with emotional wounds and difficulty sleeping... *various adults quietly taking notes*
But like? Then she starts translating in her head.
Learning how to fit the words to the music. Figuring out how to... for lack of a better term? Make the "air" "wiggle right", which produces SOUND beyond what her voice alone can create. It's like carrying a portable symphony! Yay! *notes become more frantic in the background. Oh Dear. The child might be prodigious, she's playing with Force Techniques!*
Or like? She catches sight of Palpatine in the news just after a segment on some planets disaster and just? Has a lil Sad. Only too Spook The FUCK out every passing adult. Because somethings don't translate, so Ol' Satan becomes Darth Satan. Which? Bit clunky, not her best work, but fuck it. She's havin A Sad.
It's just?? Heeeeeey there kiddo. We know we said ghosts aren't real... but, uuuhhh... Who's Chatting? And you Should NOT Talk To Strangers, ooookay? *very worried*
Then? Oh THEN!? She fuckin BREAKS OUT THE MANDALORIAN WAR CHANTS‽ is that-!!? *frantically checks the archive* Fuckin "Vode An"!? WHO THE FUCK ARE THOSE ADULT VOICES!? High council EXPLAIN!!!
Which?? Leads to wittle Baby Oc getting a? VERY Special~☆ Talk~✨️🎉 😀 about the IMPORTANCE of NOT talking to Dead Mandalorians, mmmm'kay sweety?
It... does NOT help her case that she reflexively corrects them. Mando'ade, not Mandalorians. Don't be RUDE. (......Okay! Time to research the FICK out of how to keep dead Mandalori- *baby scowls at them* Mando'ade from HAUNTING our kids! Because the Galaxy isn't complicated ENOUGH and this might as well just happen!)
Obviously, they can't find shit.
And SHE, hasn't figured out yet that NO ONE ELSE DOES THIS SHIT. So she's just like: :this is BECAUSE IT'S MANDO'ADE, ISNT IT??OH you BIGOTS! Hypocrites! Just because they were our historical enemies DOESNT MEAN THEY DONT HAVE A BEAUTIFUL AND DIVERSE CUL-"
Like? Bby. Baby, no. We are WELL past that. This is about about you Talking To Heavily Armed(?) And Suspicious DEAD PEOPLE who might, HISTORICALLY, wish terrible TERRIBLE harm upon you, a JEDI CHILD. Honestly? If you start singing in Sith? We are going to LOSE OUR SHIT. We are THIS👌fuckin close, sweetie.
The councilors? Arguing. The Elders? Worried and Arguing. The CRECHE MASTERS? Crying, screaming, throwing up AND ARGUING. It's?? A young(er) Qui-gon who's like *slides up to his Master* *softly* "if you watch Xanatos, I think I got an idea" "deal. Here, take cab money and bring us back some tea. Try not to stay arrested." *dooku hands over the child who has been aggressively singing songs of hope and love at him*
(He suspects the child may like him, strangely enough.) (She DOES. No sith! Sith=Bad. Repeat after me "I will NOT throw my life away for Palpatine's wrinkly ass, his dumb fuck plan is NOT worth it. Because the Sith and their beliefs are NEVER WORTH IT."!!!)
So... they take the rail system...
Which is COOL!
..........for the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately, Coruscant is a PLANET. And planets are large. So even the long distance line TAKES a bit. And now she's boooooored. Does your phone Datapad got any games, Knight Qui-gon? No. What about movies? No? 눈_눈 you... you do realize I'm a toddler right? You've put me on a long hauler with no entertainment. What the fuck are you expecting here, buddy? Patience?
So, looking around for entertainment and finding none? Time for the ol fall back! She sees a Nautolan. She stars singing some songs, sounding UNBELIEVABLY fucking haunted, once again. Spots a factory as they pass, maybe switchs it up! New song! Nothing, of course, that would cause Problems™.
Which, like? Obviously more then a few people were not so discreetly recording the Fuckin Haunted Jedi Baby™. Holy SHIT. Is THAT why they're all kept in that temple of yours? Cause they can't control their weird jedi powers yet? Do fucked up Jedi shit? But also... Cool!
The Jedi Baby's channeling dead people! That's HORRIFYING :D! What else can she do? *uploads the videos to the holonet*
Qui-gon is like ( -_-) *accepts death* "oooooh, the council is gonna come for my SPLEEN. But honestly? Might as well see this through. We're already in it, aren't we youngling? Might as well finish what we started, hmm?" *can physically FEEL when the council sees the videos and their blood pressures all start to spike at the same time, from half way accross the planet* *his comm starts blowing up*
Mmmmmaybe if he Doesn't Pick Up? He can pretend it's not happening until AFTER he's (hopefully) fixed thing? And really, they left him unsupervised. It was the will of the Force.
......Master Dooku said I could. (Oh, don't throw ME under the-!)
So THEN? Keldab'ika. In all it's wonder. Mando'ade EVERYWHERE. The baby is all◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜Mandos!!! Yaaaaay! Which is both objectively cute AND the only reason Qui-gon isn't shot at on sight. Still... low, using an Ade as a meat shield.
But like? No. No you misunderstand, Mr Highly Confrontational Mandalorian (Mando'ade! Say it RIGHT!) (DEEPLY adorable. They love the kid already. Kid should stay, the Jettii should leave.) See, we think? She's being haunted by dead manda- *aHEM!* *sigh* Mando'ade.
And like? The "Helpful" toddler is actively correcting him even as he says "dead"? It's not "DEAD" it's "marched on" or "marched far awa-" wait, wut? Like?? Kid. Child. You are VERY MUCH not helping your case here. Who's been teaching you all this Cultural Mando'ade Knowledge?
*toddler cold sweat* uuuuuuuuuuuh..... no habla English?
(Again. What the fuck is an English? Was that a language? That sounded like a language. Are you talking to MULTIPLE dead people?!)
So, since she's obviously gonna lie her little ass off. Because she's CLEARLY doing something she's not supposed to and KNOWS it. Time to take this to the Goran. Which? Qui-gon is like? Oh, thank force. Yes. Please! We've been VERY worried. We don't THINK they're hurting her... but... *meaningful Worried Eye Contact w/ Heavy Historical Subtext*
Ah. Yeah. Yeah they could see why that would be a big concern. There have been some real bastards that've both marched on and would be the sort to harras baby Jetti. So off to the Goran they go. Buuuut, of course, nothing is instant. You still got to WALK there. And THAT gives time for Cursed Babies to do as Cursed Babies do.
Just LOOK at all those prosthetics. All those young eager verde. Ready to throw their lives away, fighting their parents wars. The tensions between Mereel and Vizsla in full swing. So quick to sign up for and sign onto something they don't fully understand.
*every Mandalorian in hearing distance takes psychic damage*
Dude! Control your Haunted Toddler! You're giving people EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!! D:< (Qui-gon is TRYING! He's bad with small kids! T^T)
Just?
*bludgeon everyone with Emotional Damage/Healing*, *accidentally causes a Revolution*, *inspires a MASSIVE "oh thank god. We got a NORMAL person" reaction when literally any jedi but her is sent anywhere.*
Like? What!? She's beginning to suspect ya'll don't like her singing or something!! D:< rude.
Also, the other younglings are still malleable enough to learn this new technique. They have not been stilted by the rules of the force that the adults insist are real, so they put their best feet forward to attempt the vocal technique.
It has varying success, but imagine the horror when the jedi in charge of that particular creche group comes back from a day off to find that they're all chanting the same song. SI-OC is sitting facing them and conducting them like an orchestra, glad that their friends are finally taking interest in learning the songs of their homeland.
The best part? None of the Jedi (ESPECIALLY and SPECIFICALLY Creche Masters) are assholes enough to make a youngling feel self conscious about being "weird". We ALL have unique relations with the Force. ALL Crechelings go through some variation of "cursed horror baby".
Oc is just... especially Cursed and somehow playing up to the Tropes, we guess. How fun. *is surrounded by infants singing about sharks/worms/spiders. Various other children's songs.*
Cause a lot of kids songs are Silly or Gross. That's why they're fun! But like? YOU try to figure out the "message" in that randomness. The potential theme. Is this some malicious Sith Ghost, trying to suborn our Crechelings?
Or are they just sorta... accidentally tapped into The Galaxy Itself Radio™?
*shrugs*
But! PLEASE lil Oc! Stop deliberately spreading your... "hobby"(?)! We are going to call it that! Because we don't want to make you feel self conscious and impede your personal growth! But at the SAME TIME, we are also growing concerned you are TALKING TO THE DEAD and we would very much like you to NOT spread that dangerous possible cognito-hazard to OTHER TODDLERS!!!
Critically? Oc can't read the Calm Jedi "this is fine" Mask of Distress for SHIT yet. She's takin them at their word. Cause like... SURELY they would have SAID something, right? If she, an infant, was doing something that upset them? SURELY.
And? It occurs to me??
Mixed IN to all this?
She IS legitimately fucking Talkin To The Dead.
Cause SHE was dead. And you can't UNLEARN that shit. It's the Curse Of Knowledge. Once you KNOW, you legitimately can not remember your state of ignorance any longer. The past is now colored retroactively with this Knowledge. And SHE? Died. Became One With The Force.
Somehow got spat out. No one is certain HOW? There is much debate. Might have been a Sith thing, could have been Force Construct/Manifestation sneezing, who can say. But like? She DOES legitimately see dead people.
It's just not relevant to the whole singing thing. THAT is all her.
Which?? If the test her for "hey kid, can you see dead people? How many ghosts are in the room with us right now?" They ARE gonna get a test positive. It's just... not the root cause of the Thing Your Worried About.
She has Two(2) horror movie powers. Talented Baby!
Makes for good stories though? Probably GREAT for Massive Crowd on One learning. All these dead Jedi Masters! Bored or stopping by, ready and able to explain basic force shit to her. Esoteric force shit to her! (Technically HERETICAL force shit to her.)
(Look, they RECOGNIZE the high council made a decision... but that was both after their time and fucking stupid. They're choosing to ignore it.) (She's TWO!) (Oh, please. We both know she's only PHYSICALLY two. What does mere crude meat mean, in the face of her SOUL? She's [REDACTED] for Force sake!)
But, like? IMAGINE?
The horror movie kid? Has OLD SCHOOL Jedi whispering to her. Fuckin JEDI LORDS and shit. Kel Dor Sages and long dead Goran. Spiritual leaders from Force Sects you've never even HEARD OFF! From BEYOND the known and unknown galaxy! Because the Force is EVERYWHERE.
And like... some of them are just "you know.... many problems can be solved by Stabbing" *wise advisor nods from the group of dead people* like? D:> Child! NO!!!
"Have we considered Revolution?" And "the only good corrupt politician is a dead one" and "you know... in MY day, we hunted the hutts for sport. They deserved it. Sad to see they haven't changed. You should burn their empire down." Etc. Like?
Dude. She is trying to eat her oatmeal. Can barely dress herself on her own yet. Give it TIME. (No! We have LAWS! Modern ETHICAL STANDARDS! Oh force! PLEASE tell me someone has found a way to WARD OF DEAD PEOPLE! They are trying to CORRUPT THE YOUTH!!!)
Can I just say how annoying it is that of ALL the fucking fiction-based conlangs I could have gotten into, it had to be mando'a????? It could have been a well known one like Klingon or high valyrian! It could have been one with a fuck ton of detail like Tolkiens elvish languages!
But no, I had to get obsessed with the half complete half fanon language that no one's fucking heard of even within the wider fandom!
nymphie, you can pick away, but there's not much there XD I think you'll want @ranahan , they have/ know a LOT more than I do. Summoning the expert
I was using your post/ the text to vent some of my own frustration. Trying to write a four-sentence note for an RPG was so HARD last year. I could re-phrase most of what I was trying to say to fit what was available, but there is NO word for "call", as in "give me a call (via telephone/ comms"). The best I could come up with is chaa'johaa'ir (distance-speak; from chaaj -> distance and johaa'ir -> to speak), and that looks kinda... weird... to me. Maybe shortening it down more somehow would work - chaa'johaa maybe? Based on it getting shorted in Ne'johaa as well.
As for making up words - I WISH XD. Only getting into that pile of worms one year in. I do make sentences, with the help of the dictionary at mandocreator.com . I think ranahan makes their own words; I just am playing around for fun/ to figure out how. I'm very much Not A Linguist.
"Smashing words together" sums up what I do pretty well. I think I called it "treating a conlang like Legos" once. Then again, my native language is German, so I'm prone to the whole compound-word thing anyway. And I do not write fanfic; most of my Mando'a use is for fun. In 2024, I was involved in a Star Wars TTRPG, for which I looked up some stock words/ phrases. I just needed to be FAST, not correct, in that context to keep the flow of the game, so my grammar is dodgy also. I pull from grammar rules I read online and from like four languages I tried to learn at some point or other in my life.
I emphathize with your struggles. I share most of them. As for sentences, I usually just... go for it if I have all the words. I usually do translate them all if I do it in wrinting, then look at context to see if I can skip some of them. "The" (Haar) is rarely used as far as I understand, and if it's there, it's for emphasis. So, that's the thing I cut the most. Also, you can imply the subject. "I went to the city" (Ni ru'slana bah haar oriya) would become "went to city" (Ru'slana bah oriya) or maybe even "Went city" (ru'slana oriya) in my version. And I am unsure on my use of "bah" here. The shortening happens - as in some real-life languages - if all people who are in the conversation know what/ who the speaker is talking about.
In my view, the main purpose of a language is to be understood. In most fanfic including mando'a I read, the author provided translations in the notes at the bottom. If you do that for your fanfic, your readers will understand what you are going for, made-up words and all. I understand the desire to be perfect - I share it - but I learned when it comes to language, just.... try. I became SO much better in English when I stopped worrying and just talked English to other people. Most of the time, I am understood, even if I'm not textbook-accurate. And if anyone expects you to be native-speaker fluent in an incomplete conlang, they gotta reconsider their expectations. I doubt even the CREATOR was that fluent.
As for me, Ni nu'kartayli mayen (I don't know anything), or, to be more meme-ish, Ni kartayli naas (I know nothing).
Also, if you ever post that fic, please give me the link. I never read a Mando!Anakin one. Obi-Wan seems to get that treatment a LOT, Anakin is new to me. And I'm always open to talk/ rant/ listen.
Sorry for the rant XD
Haha, I do sometimes make my own words, because canon is just far too limited. But I’ve also hoovered a ton of other people’s words—there are many amazingly creative people in this fandom. Sometimes I do the word smash, formally known as compounding (or a little different, portmanteau); sometimes I do a different derivation from a canon root using the same derivational patterns as canon—I think that’s still in the same semi-canon-based league as compound words.
And sometimes I do loans, either from other fictional SW languages, Latin as a stand in for High Galactic, or English as a stand in for Galactic Basic, though I tend to prefer (UK) military English or Geordie/Northumberland English specifically, because that’s what Traviss also did. In my head, there’s English/Basic in Mando’a because Mando’a is a creole language and many of the Neo-Crusader recruits came from Republic worlds and spoke Basic either as their first language or as the language they had in common with the other recruits from other worlds. I haven’t made much headway yet, but on my to-do list is also naval English and I’ve gotten some loans from Polari as well—at the time of its heyday, gay subculture famously had connections to the navy. Am queer myself and I find the thought interesting, that Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders press ganged people into their armies… but some people joined voluntarily. And maybe people who would’ve been discriminated against on their home worlds but not in the Mandalorian armies (at least not for the same reasons) would have found that opportunity attractive. Anyway, I digress.
I’ve also calqued things from probably several dozens of languages. Here it’s unfortunately easy to default to languages I have some fluency in or at least a basic understanding of; but I’ve also stolen etymologies and colexifications and additional senses from others.
I keep telling people to make up their own roots and derive their own words according to what makes sense for the language and culture. But I guess that’s more easily said than done. That’s actually the whole reason I started writing my process out, so it could function as a cookbook for those who want to make or derive their own words. But since I keep telling other people to do that, I suppose I should try to take my own advice and make more words from new roots in the future. Traviss said somewhere (I forget where) that mandos like onomatopoeia, and personally I think several of her words are onomatopoeic in origin. So that’s one option for making up more words/roots!
You may note that my process is mostly based on linguistics/natural languages—that’s because I’m a natural languages guy first and a conlanger second. But other people build Mando’a based on their understanding of Mandalorian culture alone. I personally think it’s useful to have some understanding of how languages work and the diversity in natural languages, so that one doesn’t end up uncritically repeating structures from their native languages. But on the other hand, all people already know how to language, and imo the best kind of an etymology really is “it makes sense for my understanding of Mandalorian culture”—it doesn’t have to be based on “a natural language x does it this way.” I just use natural languages as an easy source for ideas. It’s also not bad in itself to repeat structures/etymologies/etc from your native language! In fact, I’ve come to think that perhaps Mando’a should have influence from dozens of different languages that reflect all those people who have contributed to it (in and out of universe). But before you do that, just pause for a second to think about the cultural context that created that thing and whether it makes sense for Mandalorians.
I wholeheartedly agree that the only rule of language is intelligibility. The original creators left so little grammar that most grammar you’re going to use is going to be made up anyway. Who even knows how the prepositions are supposed to be used? Not me. I’ve had some ideas, but then the community has went and done something different and more interesting, so I’ve changed to that instead. So just make up a way to say that thing; if it’s intelligible, maybe other people will pick it up too and it will become the grammar. If you don’t have a word, think about how Mandalorians would think of that concept. Make shit up if you need to! Make a new root if that compound feels too clunky! And maybe other people will like that too and that will become the word. Or vice versa, adopt the way other people have done it if it makes sense to you.
Personally I’ve lately been translating tumblr shit posts into Mando’a as a way to just try things out without the pressure of making it something special or something I could defend in front of a jury of peers. Figuring out a fictional language is a process and sometimes you just need to experiment. Figuring out what doesn’t work or leads to ambiguity or aesthetically unpleasing results is valuable too. Perfect is not just the enemy of good, but the enemy of progress as well.
Thank you for your answer. If you don't mind the question, where do you find other people's words? I found the one dictionary, and I got a way less extensive excel table that was hanging out on me and my husband's shared virtual stash since a decade or two ago (no clue where that came from). And of course the dictionaries in the backs of the Karen Traviss books. Google searches for certain words in Mando'a didn't get me anywhere. I pick up what I like from the fics I read, but is there a way to look for if the fanbase made what I need? Or is it all based on luck?
The reason I started to try to make my own, and have it cohesive, is also that so much was missing. I am SURE someone somewhere has made up something. I just have little to no luck finding things in the moment. I guess being older and not really familiar with Discord doesn't help. If that's where everything is, I'll have to jump over my shadow and try to reactivate my account.
I love the idea of translating tumblr shitposts, and you made me laugh more than once. Something like this - randomly translating things - is good practice, I think. So far, I've been randomly trying to say things in Mando'a if it's only me and my spouse. That's how he's picking up on some things, lol.
You saying to consider how Mandalorians would think of a concept is helpful. So far, I tried to figure out what I *actually* want to say, without the metaphor part language always seems to come with (as with the "call" example, what I wanted to say is "speak (to me) from afar"), and going from there if I needed a word. Gotta learn more about Mandalorians for the cultural context, then. Mando-lore is kind of confusing too, though. So many different sources and opinions over the years, like there's multiple ways of being Mandalorian. And that's not even *getting* into the mess that's the New Mandalorians.
Funnily enough, the grammar/ rules I find myself defaulting to the most when trying to Mando'a is a mixture of German (my native, duh) and my limited understanding of Japanese (the way you can leave out so much and still have a sentence make sense created a connection in my brain there, also prepositions). English factors into it less, though it is the language I'm the second-most fluent in.
I can relate to not wanting to feel like you have to defend your creations/ words in front of a jury. The Internet can be like this, very much so. It's intimidating, at times. My only saving grace here (at least saving me anxiety over that) is that I only talk Mando'a/ Star Wars stuff here, and this old blog of mine is so unknown I don't get that kind of attention XD.
In fact, I’ve come to think that perhaps Mando’a should have influence from dozens of different languages that reflect all those people who have contributed to it (in and out of universe). But before you do that, just pause for a second to think about the cultural context that created that thing and whether it makes sense for Mandalorians.
- Ranahan
I think this is beautiful - the fandom recreating the multi-cultural/ lingual aspect of Mando'a in real life with their own creations and additions.
I cannot believe there's absolutely no way to watch free shows and movies anymore, there are too many paid streaming platforms and pirating websites have viruses and ads preventing you from watching it uninterrupted((.)) id rather follow the rules and purchase media moving forward because it is too inconvenient. Seriously, free and no ads or viruses with 1080p streaming is DEAD.
Exactly! It's freaking annoying when I want to watch movies but I would have to subscribe to like 24 different services . Just to watch the shows that I like.
i like using streaming apps but there are waaaay too many and they're all stealing my data .i wish there was a secure and organized way to have millions of shows and movies available one one app. but alas. we've truly gone full circle back to cable + now it spies on you. its a real shame. i dont want to fill my device storage with tons of boring and stupid cash grabs.
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