dé sorud

making up words and meanings and... things

[nabooro]

Nabooro is a WIP conlang based on the planet and culture of Naboo, and an effort to develop a language for a planet that has very little to go off - along with this, there are cultural elements I am building, as language and culture go hand in hand

I am trying to keep it as consistent as possible with the sounds in the words, names, and places of actual Naboo as seen in canon, but I am not going to trawl wookieepedia for every single Naboo-related term

Nabooru is written in Aurebesh, so I will not be developing an alphabet of any sort - though at one time they had an alphabet which involved a few additional vowels to Basic

The language is very much a WIP and so things are likely to change, maybe significantly, but I am attempting to record elements of the language as I work on it

I always appreciate any questions, especially sentence-building and vocabulary questions, as it gives me time to consider them myself!

It’s also my first language, or really my first attempt to do something like this to this extent so. Be kind? I suppose?

Naboo-Basic Dictionary (wip)

Basic-Naboo Dictionary

[nabooro]

How do you come up with the vocabulary and terms? I love it. I want to get some inspiration for some my headcanons if that’s alright.❤️😊

Hi, thanks for the q!

I work mainly on vibes for most of vocabulary, especially for root words - I know which sounds are kind of 'allowed' (i.e. part of my phonetic inventory) and work with those to set up words that hopefully are not the same as a previous word I've invented, and then I have a sound change process I put them through for consistency, I suppose.

For words that aren't meant to be literal, I turn to thinking of how the things I know or previous words would work as metaphors for different things - which is one of the most interesting parts of language to me!

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! Ok so I did lie, I had one more question, but this one is a lot less conlang based and more culture based - are there any traditional foods or dishes or drinks on Naboo? Or do you have any names for some foods on Naboo even if they're not traditional?

Séto!

Hi! I'm not quite up to thinking of specific cultural foods or dishes, and haven't yet, but here is my existing food-based vocab for you:

Grain nime

Milk nonât

Honey munâne

Cheese nâse

Salt tag

Meat hashe

Fruit sodne

Seed thâ

Coffee séa/caf

Nut sénâs

Butter vândâs

Tea naro

Bread nofol

Hay malâto

Oyster rarooke

Plum gyutane

Sugar tarigo

Fish sunsuk

[nabooro]

Wow this is some seriously awesome worldbuilding...you don't happen to have any ideas for festivals on Naboo?

I've talked a little bit about some festivals on Naboo here!

Regarding the auspicious days every month (or just about) which acts as a sort of planetwide holiday for celebrations and so on, here they are in roughly the order they appear in the year (bold are more important):

Tabim, or the Winter Auspicious Day. Specific sweets, honouring ancestors, ice-skating based performance, including in those put up by towns/cities. Lots of offerings to Dod Veruna and Enshadu, but no swimming).

Sâshumie, or the Spring Auspicious Day. Parades, flower walks and dances, forest walks, [flower] tea ceremonies. Lots of offerings to Shiraya and Rojile. This time of year is also often popular for stargazing, though that would not be on full moon nights.

Réd s' Ohma D'un, or Ohma D'un night, is celebrated the holiday closest to when Ohma D'un is largest in the sky. This is celebrated at night. Lots of poetry readings, art exhibit openings, books published, and craft fairs of different kinds. Turquoise everywhere.

Map so Cuyéré, or a day celebrating onset of summer, specifically the blooming of a specific blue flower that shows that summer has almost arrived.

Niyémbe, or Midsummer Auspicious Day. Riverside picnics, [fruit] tea ceremonies. This is when you'll find a lot of travelling theatrical troupes or fairs and things of that nature, sometimes organised by cities and towns. A lot of praying to Zenda and Rojile.

Rénidme, or the Autumn Auspicious Day. Parades again, and this is the main period of moon-based rites and ceremonies, anything that requires specific auspicious events related to Onoam, especially merchantry or trade-based affairs, because this is the time of year Onoam appears biggest. Lots of offerings to Dressig and Shiraya.

Map so Veruna, or Veruna Day, the full moon when Veruna is largest in the sky. This is about the moon, but it's not not about Dod Veruna, or even just about House Veruna as a historically influential family in Naboo. This is the one major you can wade into the water relatively, because Dod Veruna is keeping you safe. Lots of offerings to Dod Veruna and Enshadu by association, many performances and theatrical arrangements about various Dod Veruna myths. Probably considered highly romantic as well.

Zenda Day and Shiraya Day are celebrated as well, but both are independent of the lunar holiday cycle. Zenda day is the 9th of the 6th month, and Shiraya day is the 3rd of the 8th month. Rojile's 'birthday' is celebrated a week after Sâshumie in Arind but not so much elsewhere.

Do note that there are only 8 of these in a year but there are 10 months, so not all of them land every month, so the dates of the actual festivals move around from year to year, in a cycle of... 5 years, I want to say?

Additionally, there would be local and regional celebrations - various local spring or autumn festivals, historic days of importance for specific cities or regions, days honouring historical figures, etc.

Hope this was what you were thinking of!!

[nabooro]

It may seem like a difficult or strange question, but what do you think Padmé would be like if her gender was changed? I can easily visualize Anakin as a woman, but Padmé as a man is something interesting and difficult to think about since there are many personal details involving Naboo and its culture about women that make me think. I would love to know how you would see it! From how Padmé would be adapted, the handmaids of Naboo, political role, personality...

Hi, thanks for the ask!

I'm not a huge genderbending fan, but the things I like about it are mostly about the insight into what makes a character a character - which parts are intrinsic and what parts are societal, and would necessarily be different. For Padmé, at least the parts of her we see most in canon, are I guess her strong moral backbone and her political presence (and acumen!), both of which are not that difficult to translate.

Naboo does have [elected] kings in the same way it has queens, and a similar parallel figure to Pads' handmaids in cânsag. I've talked about it in a couple of places, I think - and I do think Padmé (let's call him Padim) would probably still be just as enthused to go for the role as in canon.

My HC of the timeline pre-TPM is that the previous monarch - Ars Veruna, who I believe is no longer canon as Padmé's predecessor? - had a long reign and kept being re-elected and didn't do much good for Naboo, so perhaps Padim would stand on a similar platform as Padmé, acting as a sort of youth figure, looking to Naboo's future with a fresh start and a young face, rather than relying on the [corrupt] power that Veruna did. Granted, this would be a weaker platform for Padim, with less Rojile associations, but I think he would probably make it. Of course, this doesn't exactly save him from trouble with the Trade Federation...

Padim would have his own cânsag, of course, boys who resembled him and were handy with weapons and mostly politically fluent, or later trained to be so. On the whole, I think there would be little difference in his role as elected monarch, except that I think he would have to prove himself a little bit more, again due to those lack of associations. I do think his symbolism would change quickly, especially with the events of TPM, but I don't imagine his integrity - or strong sense of process - even in a scenario would let him go too far even with Zenda comparisons.

In the end, this hypothetical doesn't give me anything too different off the top of my head, because I don't believe Padmé's core aspects as a political figure would be any different in a gendered way - at least in my imagination, Naboo is relatively free of assumptions of what men and women can or can't do, and so she's never had to grapple with that, and so little changes. People are probably still socialised somewhat differently, so there would be changes, but I can't imagine what precisely unless I follow them from the start, if that makes sense. Maybe Padim is brasher and makes hastier choices! Maybe he trusts Palpatine more? Maybe he trusts Palpatine less, as he has other [male] figures around him he'd rather rely on? Maybe he decides his place is with his people in a more action-oriented role to align with his new symbolism, and never goes to Coruscant! Anything could happen.

Hope this answered your question a little bit!

[nabooro]

OK so I was looking through your dictionary and I saw something I wanted to ask about spelling - some of the words beginning with c are pronounced phonetically as s and some are pronounced phonetically as k so I was curious about the choice to have that irregularity in spelling? Was that a conscious choice or have some in-universe reasoning?

So the distinction between /s/ and /k/ for c depends on what the letter is followed by. If it's followed by y or ee, it's pronounced like /s/, and everywhere else it's a /k/ sound.

This mainly developed through spelling reform after Aurebesh was adopted, through some mistranslations and combining with /g/ and /k/ and so on.

[nabooro]

Ok I'll bite! Re: the numbers ask you answered, may I ask what calculations you were doing?

my calculations

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! I think that you have several asks from me already in your ask box lol but because you said you were answering questions, I thought this one might be good for everyone - I think you've talked about conjugation and verbs before, but are you able to elaborate any more on them? Being able to conjugate would really help with translating stuff I think haha

Hello hello! You are correct, but I shall continue to ignore those for a little bit longer and finally get to this!

To begin with, Nabooro has 3 tenses, a few aspects (3?), and 3 moods, and all of them conjugate according to who is doing the action in question. Most verbs are regular but take two forms, the -t form or the -d form, simply based on what the last letter of the verb is.

The tenses are past, present and future. Past can be perfective (completed action) and imperfect (ongoing action and repeated action in the past). Future can be simple or conditional (mainly for future-in-past).

The moods are the subjunctive (used to indicate desire, necessity, possibility, also some negations) and imperative (instructions, requests, commands).

Verbs also take the gerund form (for compound sentence constructions), a past participle (mostly adjectival, with cod 'have'), an infinitive, and a negative (literally 'not x').

Conjugation charts really do need to be charts, but lacking that, for the moment, an example of two regular verbs:

T-FORM

so sét (to think)

séchis (thinking; gerund form)

séndo (thought; past participle)

sédne (negative form)

present - séten (1s;3s) - sétek (2s) - séted (1pl;3pl) - sétenk (2pl)

perfect past - sédâd (1s;3s) - sédâk (2s) - sédâm (1pl;3pl) - sétoré (2pl)

imperfect - sétâd (1s;3s) - sétâk (2s) - sétém (1pl) - séték (2pl) - sétrém (3pl)

simple future - sédmád (1s;3s) - sédmâk (2s) - sédmâm (1pl;3pl) - sédmorék (2pl)

future conditional - sédméd (1s;3s) - sédmég (2s) - sédmém (1pl;3pl) - sédméke (2pl)

subjunctive - sétéd (1s;3s) - séték (2s) - sétém (1pl) - sétéke (2pl) - sétyam (3pl)

pluperfect - imperfect of cod 'have' + past participle

imperative - just the 2sg form of the present

D FORM

so anand (to lead)

ananeek (leading; gerund form)

anandu (led; past participle)

anandne (negative)

present - anand (1s;3s) - anang (2s) - ananim (1pl) - ananke (2pl) - ananam (3pl)

perfect past - ananlâd (1s;3s) - ananlâk (2s) - ananlam (1pl;3pl) - ananleré (2pl)

imperfect - ananâd (1s;3s) - ananâk (2s) - ananém (1pl) - ananék (2pl) - ananrém (3pl)

simple future - anammâd (1s;3s)- anammâk (2s) - anammam (1pl;3pl) - anammeré (2pl)

future conditional - anamméd (1s;3s) - anammég (2s) - anammém (1pl;3pl) - anamméke (2pl)

subjunctive - ananéd (1s;3s) - ananék (2s) - ananém (1pl) - ananéke (2pl) - ananyam (3pl)

pluperfect - imperfect of cod 'have' + past participle

imperative - just the 2sg form of the present

So you can see why you kind of need that chart.

[nabooro]

Oh I'm sorry to hear it's not being continued anymore! But I am glad that you're still up for answering questions haha - let me start with something fairly simple in regards to grammar/vocab:

So I've been thinking about numbers - I know that you have the cardinal numbers in your dictionary, but I was wondering if you have any other for ordinal numbers, or even more specific as multiplicative or distributive numbers? And on a more grammar note, are there any specific rules you have when having multiple of something in a sentence?

I was also wondering if you'd ever considered using a different base system to base 10? That's the maths nerd in me being determined to make life difficult for myself when conlanging as well, but I do this Base 12 would suit the Naboo quite well (what with The Six being their major deities and all)

If that made any sense at all haha I would love to hear your thoughts!

Hello, thanks for your question!

Regarding numbers: I do have ordinal numbers and adverb forms for them, but not multiplicative or distributive numbers - to say "once" you would say "one time," and so on, and similarly for multiplicatives. "Doubly" is "two-fold", triply is "three-fold", etc. I'll get to the vocabulary for all that in a bit!

Ordinals form from adjectival forms of the cardinals, so you have, in the order 'two - second - secondly':

kân - kanâ - kanâfe

hâ - hâi - hâfe

téb - tébi - tébife

rén - réni - rénife

sén - séni - sénife

éshe - éshé - éshéfe

hoo - hubi - hubife

mon - monâ - monâfe

thare- tharé - tharéfe

nâ - nâi - nâfe

"First" can also be translated to monâik meaning "the beginning one," (no relation to #8) kind of. Usage depends on context; monâik implies a value of being the first, whereas the ordinal number is just about numeral value or maybe physical position.

To say [x times] you would append the numbers to mo, which means iteration. hâ mo, literally means "two time[s]".

For doubly, triply, etc, you append the numbers to gu. téb gu would mean "triply," but not "thrice".

Regarding the numeral system; I really love base 12 myself, but I did conceive the language as a base 10 language, partly for convenience with all the star wars material, and I have also done all my calculations (ask me what calculations) in base 10, and don't want to convert. Which is maybe not the best reason for it, but it's what I have!

Hope this helped!

[nabooro]

O cu Nason fuéd riré dé!

[yellow-faerie]

Ok so attempting to translate this I get "That [word i don't know - I'm assuming it's a noun and that the 'the' would be dropped in the translation?] [Verb - I think this is a conjugation of the word 'To be' if I'm right?] with it"

For Nason, the only words I can find which are similar are nasâ (ruler), nasuka (darling), nâse (cheese) and nasé (hour) but I don't think any of these would work nor were what you had in mind lol, even if they'd been made plural or something

So "That the (something) is with it!" ?

[nabooro]

Very close!

You are correct about fuéd - it's the subjunctive of "to be", used here to indicate wish or desire

nason is power

So the literal translation is "that the power be with you" but in a sort of "i hope that" implied in the be

Which is to say. May the Force etc

[nabooro]

O cu Nason fuéd riré dé!

[yellow-faerie]

The tale of the Fisher's Daughter, a fairytale from Naboo.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Characters: Original Characters Additional Tags: Planet Naboo (Star Wars), Naboo Culture & Customs (Star Wars), Naboo Religion (Star Wars), Children’s Stories Series: Part 2 of Myths and Legends Throughout the Galaxy Summary: Ri cu nanké soc Veshinc, co sés fuâd re roje néimâd Târek: in the time of the Six, there was a girl named Târek.

So I wrote a thing! This is a Naboo tale based off @nabooro‘s working conlang: I meant to post it almost half a year ago, and then I couldn’t find a framing device that I liked and then I completely forgot about it lol

But here it is now! A fairytale on Naboo, introducing young children to the idea of death and loss, and the traditions surrounding it: originating from around the time of the last civil war, nearly five hundred years before the clone wars, this particular tale is thought to come from a seashore community in Danank before spreading into more widespread popularity after peace was declared.

[nabooro]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if this is still an active project you're working on? It's so cool and I'd love to ask more questions (especially about the grammar and stuff) if you have any! Totally understand if you're too busy/have lost interest tho!

Hi! This is not currently an active project, but there is a great deal more vocabulary and grammar than I have managed to put on this blog. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have! I do actually want to finish uploading the grammar and updating the dictionary here, so perhaps this will motivate me?

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! It's me again! I had two questions but they're very unrelated so I'm sending them in two asks:

First, I was wondering what sort of terms of endearment were common on Naboo (such as between couples, or between family, or to children, or more teasing names between friends) and whether there were any ways you could make a nickname from a normal name (as in, would you shorten a name/or maybe add something on the end (I believe it's called a diminutive? But I really do not know linguistics that well lol)

Séto!

Dé sorud!

Some terms of endearment:

cureecuree - sweetheart (lit. sweet-sweet)

câkeen - a way of saying "you" that kind of means "the only you"? "you, the one with meaning to me"? this is a very intimate form of address, not a pronoun

nasuka - ~darling

nacuree - honey

sukashisé - dear heart

nad folocâd - [my] beloved

conân - soulmate (would not be commonly used to address someone, but you could say [someone is your] conân)

némmél - (lit. land-star)

These can be as teasing or genuine as the speaker wants, though némmél in particular is often used in a teasing way, as is cureecuree, for... reasons.

There are two ways to go about nicknames. First, cut off the lowest vowel from their name (the order is â>o>u/a>e>i, so a/â will never get cut off, and neither will long vowels like oo, ee, or é) and then attach it to the end, and adjust sounds so the emphasis falls on that vowel and to get rid of weird or phonologically non-matching; the point is to shorten and simplify the name.

This can vary actual results heavily: Tsabin becomes Tsabni, Filla becomes Fllai, Câlude becomes Caldu, Luke becomes Elku or Ylku (instead of just Lku), Jisomb becomes Sombi, Namun becomes Namnu, Eirtama becomes Tamai, etc. Go with vibes.

The second way, for people who simply don't have the vowels to remove from their names: Just cut off the first syllables until you have something short, and maybe repeat it. Padmé might well have been Mémé as a child. Sheev... let's not find out.

Hope this helps!

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! Back again 😅 I just wanted to ask about forms of address, like Miss and Mr etc.! How are they used? Do Handmaidens have separate forms of address? Do ex-monarchs get their own form of address? Or senators? (And do they have nice shortened versions that you might use in written word?)

Séto!

Ono dé sorud!

Forms of address like Mr. and Miss are used in official paperwork, in fairly formal settings to address people you don't know very well, and not most other places - instead, it's more common to use titles (i.e. Senator, Chancellor, Chief, etc.) However, they do exist:

nondas, shortened to Ds. is the male form

nudândes, shortened to Dds. is the female form

dâte, shortened to Dt. is the gender-neutral form

These can be used as a sort of equivalent of Ma'am/Sir to show respect, but it would be more common to instead turn to formal speech, using the keene form of the 2nd person pronoun rather than the sé form, and by omitting personal names from speech.

Monarchs, ex-monarchs, senators, handmaidens, and everyone else would be addressed by their title formally, i.e. Yidaruk Amidala, Nâdune Amidala (note, this uses their royal title not their own name) or Nâdune Sabé Amidala for clarification.

Regarding ex-monarchs:

Former elected rulers are referred to as bog kéjuk and bog yidaruk. Particularly unpopular kings and queens, or their spouses are sometimes colloquially referred to after their reign as vosénd [kéjuk / yidaruk / gâchuk]. Spouses of rulers who get married after their incumbency do not get any title, though they are also sometimes referred to colloquially as bog gâchuk.

Some titles in government include:

Kéjuk - [Elected] King

Yidaruk - [Elected] Queen

Gâchuk - Spouse of the elected ruler (not a title per se, but a position)

Masogâe - Advisor

Sankéb - Senator

Néche - Ambassador/Envoy

Tareed - Clan chief, local leader, also the word for a position equivalent to mayor in the south

These can be shortened to just their first syllable, or the consonants of their first syllable for quicker writing, with the exception of Sankéb, which has to be San and not Sn.

Hope this helped, and apologies for how long I'm sitting on your other asks!

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! Me again! Two slightly more specific questions: firstly, in the fic I'm writing, I do reference the Order of Sanctuary as a loose sort of organisation that most of the previous Handmaidens/aides of monarchs are a part of (unless they cut ties entirely after their service) and some of whom assist in training the current Canâk. That's not the best explanation of what they are but I was wondering, if it's not too much trouble, how you might go about translating the Orders name?

And the second question: I know in the queen's novels we're given the surnames of four of the Handmaidens (and the given names of all the Handmaidens in the movies barring Motée - but I think you said in a previous post you have her previous name as Motil) and I was wondering if you had any surnames for (specifically) Sabé, Dormé, Versé, Cordé, Ellé or Motée? No trouble if not, I just love the translations you created for the canon names!

Thank you again!

Hi again!

Order of Sanctuary: Fonué so' Cabeet

I haven't thought of any last names for the handmaidens specifically, but here are some general surnames I have thought of for no specific character:

Tonne

Milaé (forest guardian)

Rémâg (oréasun watcher)

Nosonde (high bridge)

Suchil (river crossing)

Argan / Ycanne / Yenrân (toponymic, central village)

Hodden (toponymic, great village)

Rorne / Yorn (toponymic, of the mountain)

Teecak (toponymic, below the mountain)

Soju (toponymic, eastern parts of the continent)

Camadim (from an old position, lit. 'watcher of the gate')

Mott

Sonât (from the vocational name 'armourer')

Kéck (from the vocational name 'smith')

Noforo (from the vocational name 'baker')

Meero / Nimmero / Neeman (from vocational names meaning 'farmer')

Hope this helps!

[nabooro]

Dé sorud! Ok here's an actual translation question, not just me asking about the fine minutiae of headcanons: do you have any particular words for things like thank you, sorry, please? And expressions like How are you? Or I'm fine thanks?

Thank you! (Also feel free to like disregard any asks I send where you don't have anything to say or have said stuff before! I feel like I'm rather inundating you with asks 😅)

Dé sorud! I'm getting to this one before your other question because I have all the answers here? Haha

Some common words and phrases are:

Good morning - rémap

Good evening - réju

Good night (used when going to sleep, saying goodbye for the night, etc) - réréd

For a more standard greeting for any time - dé sorud

Bye (short term) - canedmic

Bye (strongly implying that one will not meet again, something like the Japanese sayonara) - torile

See you soon - âd chishe

How are you - nénde cheek?

I'm good - rél chired

I'm fine (more in the sense of 'not bad' or 'can't complain') - imbié

Please - dé rasâd

Excuse me (not literally 'excuse me', more of a phrase to interrupt people or draw attention to oneself) - châté

Sorry (formal) - saétâc

Sorry (a casual way of expressing apology literally just meaning 'apology', often used sarcastically) - tolok

Thank you (very casual) - séto

Thank you (fairly formal) - keefand

Congratulations - dé rédab

I hope that helps - and thanks again for your interest!