WE WIN!!!!!!!

ASSOCI-MANDO

an associd where you associate yourself with and want other people to associate you with mandalorians, but isn't necessarily something that you are

MANDO XENITATION

a queer presentation label based off the concept of mandalorians, aesthetics of mando'ade, or just mando'ad, etc. a presentation outside the traditional/typical gender binaries.

MANDO KIN FLAG

The belief that you are a mandalorian, whether it be psychological, spiritual, or other.

(colors are from mando armor paint)

associd definition (link) @associd

xenitation definition (link)

Ni nu lise jate'shya meh kaysh nu hayc.

Today's issue, well every day's issue really: active vs passive voice in Mando'a.

A piece of simple yet very good advice I received once was "stop thinking in English. Start thinking in Mando'a." It sounds like an easy shift, but like Mandalorians themselves, it's deeper & more complex than it seems. Thinking in Mando'a isn't as simple as swapping words around. Mandalorians translate meaning more than direct words. It's one of the things I love most about the language & I'll come back to, probably more than once, in later posts. The thing that's currently tripping me us is another Mando'a favorite; the active vs passive voice.

What's an active or passive voice? Yeah, English class has been a minute for me too. I'm not giving a full lecture here, and you are online - study & search to your heart's content if you need the refresher-, but I will give the tiniest overview.

The active voice asserts that the person or thing represented by the grammatical subject performs the action represented by the verb.

The passive voice makes the subject the person or thing acted on or affected by the action represented by the verb.

Thanks, Merriam-Webster! So, what's that mean & how is it relevant to Mando'a. Easy, Mandos love writing/speaking in the active voice. Just like in other aspects of Mandalorian life, if given the option Mandos always go for being active.

Mhi epa kai'tome - We eat food together.

Kai'tome ru'epa de mhi - food was eaten together by us.

Active: doing something, passive: affected by something. So where's my hang up? Me. I'm the hangup. So I mentioned how Mandos usually go for the active option in things. They don't ask, they tell. There's a phrase in the culture that there's no word for hero, because everyone is just expected to act like one. I rather like that about them, that having competency, that keeping your word, that feeling fear & getting past it are the norm. I love that, but I'm not like that. My culture didn't train me to default to hero, it trained me to be silent, to be helpful, to put others before myself & cast my things to the side. I wasn't taught strength, I was taught invisibility.

What do my hang ups have to do with learning a language, especially an imaginary one that practically nobody speaks anyway? Language reflects the culture that produces it, and culture is about how you think & how you see the world. My world is about being small, being quiet, not being in anyone's way, it's about ignoring my worth for the benefit of others. And, if I keep following that path, if i can't find my voice, I'll never make it -metaphorically- to Mandalore. So, let's try thinking in Mando'a, let's try finding the right voice & being active:

Mando'ade tayli val miit.

Ni baj'hibi. Gar drashaa. Val kotep.

Mhi Mando'ade.

Studying Mando'a is frequently surprising. Sometimes it's understanding a word you didn't realize you picked up, other times it's knowing enough that you can answer questions of your own. It's putting words together in ways you wouldn't have previously thought and finding new ways to say things. Learning Mando'a means diving in to the culture of an extraordinary people and it means taking on mindsets you didn't have before. And for this & so much more since I started learning, ni gedetya.

Ni sur'eyi ner jorad - I'm trying to find my voice

Kai'tome - food together, a meal

Mhi - we, us

Epa - the verb 'to eat', conjugated. (Its infinitive form is 'epar')

Ru' - prefix to denote past. Only occasionally used. Mandos tend to not fuss with temporal placement in their words much. I'm using it for emphasis.

De - by, via, by way of

Mando'ade tayli val miit - Mandalorians keep their word

Ni baj'hibi - I will learn

Gar drashaa - You grow

They are strong

Mhi Mando'ade - We are Mandalorians

Ayhapxì tokxä! Parts of the body!

Small note on kuru vs. tswin: Both terms are listed as "neural queue" in the dictionary. However, the definition for tswin also includes the word "braid" while the definition for kuru does not. This has led some to speculate that kuru refers to the actual flesh-and-nerves organ while tswin refers to the braid of hair that encompasses it—so all Pandoran fauna, including Na'vi, have kuru, but only Na'vi have tswin. I like this theory and chose to reflect it on this chart; however, keep in mind that (as of the time of this post) this distinction is merely speculation/headcanon; it's very possible that the words are actually completely synonymous and interchangeable.

.

A few terms that didn't make it onto the chart for various reasons:

ta'leng - skin (wasn't sure how to label something that encompasses the entire body) snatxärem - skeleton (same reason as above) seyri - lip (wasn't enough space left on the face image) reypay - blood (wasn't sure how to represent it in the illustration)

.

Versions with English translations available under the cut

-tsyìp (diminutive suffix)

natkenong: // for example:

'itan - son; 'itantsyìp - little/cute son

oe - i/me; oetsyìp - little me

yawntu - loved one; yawntutsyìp - darling

utral - tree; utraltsyìp - bush

txep - fire; txeptsyìp - flame

Ralu - male Na'vi name; Ralutsyìp - smol Ralu

eltu - brain; eltutsyìp - little brain