TOL'MÏT
Mando'a is a language that is known for it's brevity, and its grammar often reflects this. Sentences are trimmed down to only requiring essential words, with affices used in favor of adding extra words. This guide is by no means comprehensive, but it does contain many of the basic rules for crafting sentences in Mando'a.
Word Order
Mando’a has many grammatical similarities with English due to Traviss being British. One of those similarities is the SVO (subject-verb-object) word order.
Ex. Verd koti kaysh aru'e. — "The warrior defeats their enemy."
Articles
One aspect of Mando'a that many people (especially Germanic and Romance language speakers) struggle with is the relative lack of articles. The indefinite article eyn ("a") and the definite article te ("the") have no reason to be used outside of poetry. The only article that is used with any regularity is the definite article haar, "the", which only to refer to very important nouns.
Ex. Haar Mand'alor — "The Sole Ruler"
Ex. Ibic haar Yust. — "This is the Way."
Adjectives
Most (but not all) adjectives in Mando'a start as nouns that end in either of the suffices 'yc or 'la. To standardize pronunciation, these suffices are never stressed.
Ex. kyr → kyr'yc — "end → last"
Ex. mesh → mesh'la — "beauty → beautiful
There are a few exceptions for words that don't have a noun form.
Ex. dral — "bright"
Comparatives: When two things are compared to one another in English, the suffices "-er" and "-est". These are replaced with 'shya and 'ne in Mando'a.
Ex. iviin'yc → iviin'shya → iviin'ne — "fast → faster → fastest"
Ex. jat → jat'shya → jat'ne — "good → better → best"
Nouns
Plural: The suffix 'e (after consonant) or 'se (after vowel) is used to denote pluralism.
Ex. Mando'ad → Mando'ade — "Mandalorian → Mandalorians"
Ex. dinui → dinuise — "gift → gifts"
There are, however, some exceptions to this rule. The suffix 'ika is pluralized to 'ike, and some words simply don't follow the consonant/vowel rule.
Ex. ad'ika → ad'ike — "child → children"
Ex. ba'vodu → ba'vodu'e — "uncle → uncles"
Archaic dialects use 'a and 'sa.
Ex. verd → verda — "warrior → warriors"
Possessive: The word be, "of", can be used as either a prefix or a suffix to denote possession.
Ex. kad be'Boba — "Boba's sword"
Ex. kad jetii'b — "the jedi's sword"
Pronouns
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ni | mhi (alt. vi) |
| 2nd person | gar | g'an |
| 3rd person | kaysh | val |
| object | bic | bice |
Possessive: Mando'a is known for being a genderless language, and this extends even to its pronouns.
This makes the pronouns arguably easier to use than most real world languages.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ner | cuun (alt. mhor) |
| 2nd person | gar | gar |
| 3rd person | kaysh | val |
| object | bic | bice |
Verbs
Verbs in Mando'a can end in several different but similar suffices. to standardize pronunciation, these suffices are never stressed. In all cases, the infinitive version of the word ends in 'ar, 'er, 'ir, 'or, or 'ur. This is turned into the stem by removing the "r".
Ex. hukaatir → kaysh hukaati — "to throw → they throw"
Tenses: Different tenses can be denoted in Mando'a by using the prefices
ven' (future), ru' (past), or cuy' (passive). Passive tense,
however, is extremely rare in Mando'a.
Ex. kaysh haa'tayli → kaysh ru'haatayli → kaysh ven'haatayli → kaysh cuy'haa'tayli — "they see → they saw → they will see → they are seen"
Imperatives: Mando'a has an extra tense for giving orders that isn't present
in English. This is denoted by using the prefix ke'. Some commands also
omit the verb suffix.
Ex. motir → ke'mot — "to stop → halt!"
Being Verbs: English has a number of "being" verbs (be, am, is, etc.),
however Mando'a only has one. This is because cuyir ("to be")
is almost never used just like passive tense. The word is simply omitted from
most sentences.
Ex. Ibic (cuyi) haar Yust. —
"This (is) the Way."
Cuyir can also be translated as "to be alive" or "to exist", so some exceptions are made.
Ex. Su'cuy gar. — "You're still alive."
Negation
Mando'a has two prefices that can negate a word. The first is nu' (before a consonant) or n' (before a vowel), generally meaning "not". The second is dar', meaning "never was" or "no longer", and also carries a much heavier significance.
Ex. Ni nu'juri kad. — "I don't carry a sword."
Ex. dar'Manda — "no longer a Mandalorian"
Interogative
Mando'a also has two prefices to denote questions. The more common is tion' ("what") for longer multi-word questions, but occassionally me' ("which") is used, especially for shorter one-word questions.
Ex. Tion'gar gai? — "What's your name?"
Ex. Me'bana? — "What happened?"