#constructedlanguage

What is Lexember?

Lexember is a social media event where for the month of December, participants coin new words (lexemes) in their constructed languages.

Lexember is a little like NaNoWriMo: the point is to have fun and get the creative juices flowing. You’ll have the rest of the year to tinker with and polish the finished product, so don’t worry overly much about perfection.

What is Mando’a?

Mando’a is the language of the fictional Mandalorian people in the Star Wars universe. It is a constructed language, originally created by the composer Jesse Harlin for the soundtrack of Star Wars: Republic Commando video game and developed into a functional language by the novelist Karen Traviss in the Republic Commando novels and supplementary materials. Mando’a has also made appearances in other Star Wars media, including The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Mandalorian.

Traviss stopped working on Mando’a in 2009 when she stopped writing for Star Wars, leaving the language incomplete. Many fans have since continued to expand the lexicon and develop the language.

What is Mando’a Lexember?

Mando’a Lexember is a fandom event where, for the month of December, participants coin a new word in Mando’a every day.

Mando’a Lexember is in part aimed to rectify the problem of incomplete lexicon—and in part aimed to bring the fans together to have fun!

Mando’a Lexember will run for the first time in 2025. If it’s a success, hopefully we can do it again next year. 🤞

Who can participate?

Anyone! The more the merrier.

How do I participate?

Follow along the daily prompts (or not—you can also do something else if inspiration strikes), make a post on your blog, and remember to tag #mandoxember to share it with others! We’d love it if you wrote a little explanation of how you came up with your word.

Follow the #mandoxember tag to see what others are doing. Remember to share, like and comment on other’s posts! If you don’t want to participate in creating words, you are welcome to participate in just this way too.

Please do remember to tag your posts with #mandoxember so other participants can find them! Several of the prompts ask you to find another participant’s word to use as your starting point. You can also tag #lexember, if you want to share your posts with the wider conlanging community on Tumblr, or follow the #lexember tag for ideas!

Do I have to know Mando’a?

It helps! But you can also learn as you go—the first few prompts will all have you digging through existing dictionaries to get started. There’s no need to know grammar for the purposes of this event.

It is helpful to have some familiarity with who the Mandalorians are as a people and culture. However, you don’t have to have consumed all (or any) of the Star Wars media—a quick romp through Wookieepedia will get you up to speed on most things. But if you want to give Mandalore a skip and, for example, create your own clone trooper specific dialect of Mando’a, that’s fine too!

Here are more Mando’a resources you can explore!

Do I have to have previous conlanging or linguistics experience?

No. There will be a prompt with instructions for every day. This event will also function as a sort of a Mando’a specific mini course in word creation.

If you have questions about the prompt of the day, you can ask them in the notes or replies. I’ll try to answer as I have time, but participants are also welcome to help each other out & discuss the prompts together!

Here are more conlanging resources you can explore!

Do I have to know and/or use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)?

No. Nice if you do, but no, this is not a phonology course. You do have to think about how the words will sound, but it’s fine to just do your best attempt to put it in writing. You can leave phonetics out altogether, but if you want to make an attempt, it is also fine to ask help, or even make a recording instead of IPA representation.

Phonology & romanisation resources & sounds of Mando’a

Do I have to do all 31 days?

No. Do as many or as few as you want and have time for. It’s supposed to be fun, not a chore. The more, the merrier though!

Some of the prompts build on the previous prompts. If you haven’t done the previous prompt, you can always do the previous prompt instead or pick another one.

Do I have to use the prompts?

No! You can also do something different if the inspiration strikes you. Or you can use another day’s prompt. You can answer a prompt several times, they won’t wear out anytime soon.

Why are all the prompts so technical?

Because the rules for word formation in Mando’a are not clearly laid out & this event does not presume previous conlanging experience, so we kind of have to give some basics along the way… so this year lays out how to. If this event runs the next year, we’ll probably do more thematic prompts, because we’ll have already built up a good “library” of tools.

I disagree with the prompt’s explanation?

Great!

Mando’a is a pluricentric language. The canon Mando’a itself has two versions—Harlin’s and Traviss’s. Fans have created several more. There’s no one true way of doing Mando’a, so you’re welcome to do it your way instead & we’d love it if you shared your interpretation with others too!

This event is run and the prompts written by @ranahan, so the prompts naturally privilege their dialect. But you are free to use any dialect at all or do your own interpretation.

Can I use other people’s words?

Short answer: Yes. This event has several prompts that will have you deriving words from other participants’ words.

Long answer: It’s good form to link back to the creators from whom one gets their ideas to share the love. This is another reason why we hope you will tag your posts—it will make them easier to find and link back to in the future!

However, we can’t enforce crediting the original creator. Words aren’t quite like other creative works—they aren’t covered by copyright. You don’t need to cite your English teacher or a dictionary every time you use English, do you?

Language is at its core a cooperative creation. It’s all about communication, after all! So let’s share our words and ideas with each other—hopefully they will be adopted by other Mando’a enthusiasts and live on.

I don’t want my words to be copied by others?

Frankly the point of this event is to share words with others—if you aren’t okay with that, this event probably isn’t for you.

Who are you?

Mandoxember is run by @ranahan.

Who made your icon and header?

Icon is the hammer and tongs by @starwarsbookclub to represent creation, with the nonbinary colours adjusted to represent the conlang flag. Header is this photograph by Vincentiu Solomon, also chosen for its resemblance to the conlang flag.

I have another question?

Rílin nezeletŭ called Tímalípin ‘We Remember’.

Not a nezeletŭ (journey-story) per se, but a nature-based poem in Rílin. Written when I was in Anchorage, Alaska, watching sea birds wheel in the air by the water. Some were gathering nesting materials near my bench.

I wanted to develop the language of the Orikrindians. I knew their language was called Ori, but I wasn't inspired to flesh it out until recently.

~

Ori is a nominative/accusative language (like Indo-European languages tend to be). It uses suffixes to indicate different persons/numbers on verbs. There are three different ways to conjugate verbs, depending on the what sound the verbs stem ends with.

The first conjugation includes verbs ending in -i as well as all alveolar sounds (-t, -d, -n, -s, -l, -r). Some of these verbs are below:

meri 'dance'

boltin 'keep, save, guard'

culi 'avoid, go away'

tistit 'whisper'

pyalir 'see via divine gift'

sullin 'flow'

The first conjugation endings determine the subject of the verb. For the first conjugation, the endings are:

-m (1st person singular) meri-m 'I dance'

-t (2nd person singular) meri-t 'you dance'

-r (3rd person singular, animate/inanimate) meri-r 'he/she/it dances'

-l (3rd person singular, celestial/abstract) meri-l 'he/she/it dances'

-bra (1st person plural) meri-bra 'we dance'

-dra (2nd person plural) meri-dra 'you all dance'

-nda (3rd person plural, animate/inanimate) meri-nda 'they dance'

-lta (3rd person plural, celestial/abstract) meri-lta 'they dance'

You will notice that in the 3rd person, there are different forms, one for "animate/inanimate" nouns and the other for "celestial/abstract" nouns. These are different forms that agree with different noun cases that Ori has. These are like grammatical genders in some languages (e.g. Spanish, French, German) but come in four varieties: animate class includes animals and people (generally), while inanimate includes any type of inanimate object or thing. However, the other classes complicate things a bit. Abstract class includes most concepts that have no direct physical manifestation (necessarily): death, life, love, enjoyment, resentment, disdain, joy, etc. Celestial is a somewhat special class. It includes things that naturally exist "up" or in the sky, such as: the sun, moon, clouds, stars, the sky itself, wind, light, darkness, planets, etc. But it also includes anything and anyone related to spirituality or religion--anything sacred as well. Such things as: priests, temples, gods, altars, devotions, faith (note this is included here and not in abstract), holy garments, holy places, chants, hymns, sacred objects, etc. These nouns are grammatical categories, lexically determined, but they have semantic origins.

So with verbs, you have to make sure the verb form agrees with the class of the noun you are using. So if you want to say "the priest is dancing" vs "the queen is dancing", the form of "dance" is different: ti-celunyas merilvs. tu-syalanyas merir. Note the difference of the forms of meri'dance'

Examples of nouns in the animate class:

etyu 'bird'

lyuha 'dog'

ori 'person'

cama 'horse'

syalanya 'queen'

porin 'shepherd'

Inanimate nouns:

bu 'house'

kapya 'desk'

pyen 'blade'

Abstract nouns:

gerum 'death'

sesta 'life'

hustu 'trust'

Celestial nouns:

cul ‘moon’

aster ‘light’

tellen ‘star’

lya ‘sun’

yutar ‘cloud’

roru ‘darkness’

hilacul ‘sky’

belta ‘wind; air; breath’

comul ‘spirit’

nelca ‘deity’

galacil ‘smoke’

apya ‘fire’

~*~

I wanted to give some more detailed context behind the nezeletŭn (pronunciation in IPA: /nɛ’zɛlɛtɯn/). These poems are meant to be from the perspective of Rílin people who have been forced from their homes in northern Izoi by the invading armies of the Tosi Empire.

Prior to this invasion, the Ríli people had been highly isolationist and pacifist. They had been largely protected from any outsiders by the venomous flora and fauna of the deep forests they lived in, but they were unprepared for the might and determination of the Tosi, whose large Empire was running short of natural resources that the Rílin forests were rich in—especially wood and mineral deposits.

The invasion of the Tosi ended up causing a rift in Rílin society. Some Ríli stayed in their traditional lands and formed a defensive militia to engage the Tosi in guerilla-style warfare. Despite the military might and physical size and strength of the Tosi, these Ríli had the advantage of deep knowledge of the forest—also the venomous plants and animals of the woods were deadly to the Tosi, while harmless to the Ríli. These Ríli who stayed and fought became known as the Sunuli. They drifted from their strictly pacifist religion (based on the goddess Ifinshe) and cultural mores. They formed an alliance with the Gotevians, who aided them with resources while they fought the Tosi.

Another group of Ríli, known henceforth as the Lunauli, decided to move north, into the deeper and harsher recess of the forest around a great mountain, beyond where the Tosi were willing to penetrate. They settled around this mountain and eventually even built underground settlements within and under the mountain and its foothills. They remained here, kept their tenets of isolation and pacifism, and slowly their society began to change. Whereas the Ríli had been egalitarian for centuries and had democratically elected leaders, the Lunauli began to reinstate ancient hierarchies and a much more strictly stratified society, instituting a monarchy. Linguistic changes began to appear as well; the Lunauli reverted to an older style of speech, which had been abandoned for a while. This style was based largely on verbal endings and pronouns that indicate different degrees of formality (think French tuvsvousbut with three degrees instead of two and application to all persons/numbers on verbs). The Sunuli dialect, by contrast, gained a number of Gotevian loanwords from their new allies, especially words for different technology  from Keta (the hemisphere where the Gotevians live) and material culture from Keta (terms like saŕe from Got. sazdem ‘razor’, mena from Got. mena ‘lute’ and many others).

The writers of the nezeletŭn (journey-stories) are neither Sunuli nor Lunauli, for these poems were mostly written before either term came to be used. They were just Ríli, suffering and grieving for their lost family members and occupied or destroyed homes. They were written as they wandered the wild lands to the north, as much of Rílin land was not actively settled at the time of the invasion, and settlements and cities were far apart.

Hopefully this gives a little context and maybe some more meaning to the journey-stories as I continue to write and share them.

Image here is the kind of flower I always envisaged as the national symbol of Orikrindia.

Last time I showed you some Ori verbs and how they are conjugated. I mentioned that there are essentially three ways to conjugate verbs (1st, 2nd, 3rd conjugations), and showed you some verbs from the 1st class of those verbs. I kind of lied, as it is not quite as simple as that sounds. Despite all verbs ending in -i and in all alveolars being grouped as one class, there is a little variation inside the conjugation, depending what the individual sound in the verb stem ends in. I go into a little more detail for the 1st conjugation below. Note some of the differences marked in bold where there are some variations in the stems and endings.

Verbs in –i

meri-m ‘I dance’

meri-t ‘you dance’

meri-r ‘he/she/it dances’ (animate, inanimate)

meri-l ‘he/she/it dances’ (celestial, abstract)

meri-bra ‘we dance’

meri-dra ‘you all dance’

meri-nda ‘they (an, inan) dance’

meri-lta ‘they (cel, abs) dance’

–

Verbs in -n

Note difference in some endings/stems.

boltin-im ‘I keep’

boltin-it ‘you keep’

boltin-ir ‘he/she/it keeps’ (an, inan)

boltinil ‘he/she/it keeps’ (celestial, abstract)

boltim-bra ‘we keep’

boltin-dra ‘you all keep’

boltin-da ‘they keep’  (an, inan)

bolti-lta ‘they keep’ (cel, abs)

Verbs in -l

Note changed suffix:

potil-im ‘I think’

potil-it ‘you think’

potil-ir ‘he/she/it thinks’ (an, inan)

potil-il ‘he/she/it thinks’ (cel, abs)

potil-bra ‘we think’

potil-dra ‘you all think’

potil-nda ‘they think’ (an, inan)

potil-ta ‘they think’ (cel, abs)

Verbs in -s

Note devoicing on plural endings with verbs ending with unvoiced consonants

cetis-im ‘I cut’

cetis-it ‘you cut’

cetis-ir ‘he/she/it cuts’ (an, inan)

cetis-il ‘he/she/it cuts’ (cel, abs)

cetis-pra ‘we cut’

cetis-tra ‘you all cut’

cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (an, inan)

cetis-ta ‘they cut’ (cel, abs)

Verbs in -d

Note some stem changes.

trellid-im ‘I walk’

trellid-it ‘you walk’

trellid-ir ‘he/she/it walks’ (an, inan)

trellid-il ‘he/she/it walks’ (cel, abs)

trellim-bra ‘we walk’

trellid-ra ‘you all walk’

trelli-nda ‘they walk’ (an, inan)

trelli-lta ‘they walk’ (cel, abs)

Verbs in -t

Note differences in stems and endings.

grasit-im ‘I scrape’

grasit-it ‘you scrape’

grasit-ir ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (an, inan)

grasit-il ‘he/she/it scrapes’ (cel, abs)

grasi-pra ‘we scrape’

grasi-tra ‘you all scrape’

grasi-nda ‘they scrape’ (an, inan)

grasi-lta ‘they scrape’ (cel, abs)

Verbs in -r

Note difference in some stem forms.

lar-im ‘I laugh’

lar-it ‘you laugh’

lar-ir ‘he/she/it laughs’ (an, inan)

lar-il ‘he/she/it laughs’ (cel, abs)

lar-bra ‘we laugh’

lar-dra ‘you all laugh’

lar-nda ‘they laugh’ (an, inan)

la-lta ‘they laugh’ (cel, abs)

~

Alright, that’s it for the regular 1st conjugation verbs. Many of the variations in these verbs are mirrored elsewhere and are probably results of semi-regular morphophonotactic rules…but I’ll need to figure out exactly what those appear to be later on.

Another Ori topic I wanted to talk about are definite articles. Ori has them. It doesn’t have any other articles (like indefinite artcles, e.g. English ‘a/an’, French ‘un(e), des’). These definite articles are roughly equivalent to English ‘the’, but the usage varies in Ori and may not always align with English usage (i.e. you might see an Ori article where you wouldn’t in English (or whatever other language), and vice versa). In Ori, the definite articles are proclitics. They are written with a hypen before the noun, and like other things in Ori, they have to agree with the noun class of the noun. See some examples below.

tu-syalanyas ‘the queen’ (animate, singular)

tun-hilunyan ‘the merchats’ (animate, plural)

ti-yutar ‘the cloud’ (celestial, singular)

tin-celunyas ‘the priests’ (celestial, plural)

lye-buni ‘[of] the house’ (inanimate, singular)

lyen-kapyan ‘the desks’ (inanimate, plural)

co-sestas ‘the life’ (abstract, singular)

con-gerumin ‘the deaths’ (abstract, plural)

As you can see, the plural forms of these articles are made by adding -n to the end. You can get a little preview of some of the case system for nouns too in the above examples….soon we’ll see the rest!

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