You know what's silly? That Mando'a has no word for merchant or shop keeper! It has one for sell (din'waadar) and a fence (cingaanar) but nothing for ordinary merchants. There is also no additive for "one who does", like english uses -er (welder, reader, seller). So I've been using din'waadar'ade as a word for purveyors of goods but it's a mouthful and awkward and I feel like there would be a shorter way. Help?
YOU’RE RIGHT! That is kind of silly actually … after all the shenanigans over mandalorian grocery store, I never thought to check and look at if there was a word for the actual merchants within the store.
So this is one of those cases where the simplicity of mando’a actually works in our favor. Generally when making nouns out of existing verbs, instead of needing to add more to it, you can actually chop it down further … so long as the meaning is still mostly retained.
We don’t necessarily need to add ad or ade to things, if the meaning can be derived from the word itself, but sometimes it can help too. It’s up to you, and if you want to be explicit then tacking on the ‘ad at the end can make it clear. To convert verbs (or other words too, really) to nouns you just need to drop the verb portion (usually [vowel + r]).
Let’s break down the words we do have at our disposal. Sell and Fence, and see what we can do with them.
Cinargaanar, the word to fence or launder, broken down is cinarin, to clean, (which … I’ve never seen a verb like this actually, so I’m wondering if the n is a typo and it should be cinarir or cinar but), and gaan means hand. So literally translated, it means to clean one’s hands, and in the event of fencing a stolen item, you are in the act of “cleaning your hands” of it, metaphorically.
Fence, the person, shortened down still retains the meaning, so it could be something along the lines of Cinar’gaan’ade, or Cinargaan.
Cinargaan — fence (seller/launderer of stolen goods)
Sell is din’waadar. Din appears to be used to indicate line. Not a physical, actual line drawn, but rather a concept connecting one person or thing to another person or thing. We see its use most notably in gift, dinuir, which can be representative of a connection between the giver and the receiver, but also in bloodline, tal’din which specifically has to do with blood relations, a connection of one to another. There’s also dini’la, insane, possibly a corruption of din and ni, or rather … no connection / unable to connect.
Waadas / waadasla means credits, wealth / valuable, respectively. So waadar maybe be the accumulation of wealth, versus din’waadar, which is the exchange or distribution of some goods or services, aka selling.
In that context, the meaning still holds when we drop the verb portion.
Din’waad — seller, purveyor of goods
These would be my first suggestions, without the mention of whatever goods they have. I’m actually inclined to think the merchant would be more indicated by the store or the goods they sell, moreso than a general word just because of the nature of specificity.
And, as you’ve probably seen, since I’m currently in the process of poking around in The Bounty Hunter’s Code, we could try to pull from it. So, they have the word for smith, or metalworker who specializes in beskar, mandalorian iron. Naur’alor translates to forge boss (this word is an alternative to the word, goran, which is also blacksmith / metalworker and has to do more with hellfire lmao).
Following that convention, for grocery stores in particular, of which I’ve taken to calling Shakraan, (which, really, is only a combination of sha, meaning at, and skraan, slang for meal) they could be … Kraan’alor. Or Skraan’alor, or Shakr’alor.
So, I am … so tempted … to say Kebis’alor for a general goods seller.
Kebis’alor — stuff boss
I mean, I’m not entirely serious, but you know. It could be a thing, maybe even slang as opposed to serious as it does kind of fit in a certain convention. Like … let’s say we do have a merchant, and they sell general goods. Does that mean they have a bit of everything? Stuff? Things? Knick-knacks of no particular specialty? then, why not stuff boss?
I feel like it’s also dependent on how the economy and trades are distributed in that area or community. Do the people who source or create the goods in question also sell them? Bc then what they do would be indicated contextually, so you wouldn’t necessarily need to be as specific so long as it’s clear in-conversation.
I have no idea if this helps. Hopefully it does? B’)