MANDOR
Mando'a contains a number of letters simply not present in English, and vice versa. For the sake of convenience, we have chosen to organize our dictionary according to the 22 letters present in both languages.
A B C D E G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y
There is a major controversy regarding the Mando'a alphabet! It's very difficult to read, especially at a distance. It was created by Philip Metschan for Episode II: Attack of the Clones a handful of years before Traviss' dictionary and was created for cosmetic reasons and not with a fully living conlang in mind.
Therefore, Joha'miitbin is open to fanon alphabets to replace the admittedly flawed one we have now. Our current font is the font Disney designed for Rebels with some tweaks based on MLD's expanded alphabet and some of our own artistic liberties.
It still isn't ideal for legibility, but still is much more flexible than any of the canon fontstyles.
Additionally, in canon, Mando'a has several distinct dialects, so you can realistically pronounce the language any way that you prefer. This pronunciation guide is just one interpretation. Feel free to disregard it if you're just here for the dictionary.
For this guide, we have recently started using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). This chart can be a little daunting at first, but this guide may make it easier for English speakers to understand each of the symbols.
Vowels
Vowels in Mando'a have relatively strict pronunciation, and therefore the language needs several more vowels than are present in English. Joha'miitbin has taken several liberties with how these "extra" vowels look and based their appearance off of the five canon vowels.
Our font has these "extra" vowels tied to characters with accents to preserve the use of punctuation keys. These characters can easily be typed on PC through any international keyboard, or on mobile by simply holding down the letter.
There has also been some debate on how to pronounce double vowels. Some prefer to pronounce them like in English as Traviss wrote. Joha'mittbin, however, prefers to pronounce them the same as single vowels but that they typically (though not always) indicate a stressed syllable. This draws from the concept of morae, in which single vowels may be considered one mora and long vowels may be considered two morae. In short: just hold the sound slightly longer or stress that syllable. Otherwise, the sound is identical to a single vowel.
| mando'a | keyboard | galactic basic | pronunciation | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | A | A | [a] | fall |
| Ä | Ä | AA | [a:] | palm |
| Á | Á | AI | [ai] | buy |
| E | E | E | [e] | pâté |
| Ë | Ë | EE | [e:] | pâté |
| É | É | EH | [ɛ] | bed |
| I | I | I | [i] | free |
| Ï | Ï | II | [i:] | league |
| Í | Í | IH | [ɪ] | slip |
| O | O | O | [oʊ] | motto |
| Ö | Ö | OO | [oʊ:] | grow |
| U | U | U | [u] | frut |
| Ü | Ü | UU | [u:] | cruel |
| Y | Y | Y | [i] | free |
Consonants
Mando'a doesn't have quite as many consonants as in English, and a couple of these represent digraphs. Arguably the most important consonant is the Beten, which indicates a glottal stop and/or dropped letters.
As Traviss herself is British and speaks English, the letter C follows the same strange rules and can be pronounced as either K or S. Joha'miitbin has decided to omit that and uses K before A, O, or U and S before E or I. This frees up the letter C to be used exclusively for CH.
| mando'a | keyboard | galactic basic | pronunciation | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | B | B | [b] | book |
| C | C | CH | [tʃ] | choice |
| D | D | D | [d] | done |
| G | G | G | [g] | again |
| H | H | H | [h] | hello |
| J | J | J | [dʒ] | jar |
| K | K | K | [k] | kind |
| L | L | L | [l] | lone |
| M | M | M | [m] | moon |
| N | N | N | [n] | nine |
| P | P | P | [p] | part |
| R | R | R | [ɾ] | rate (Scottish) |
| S | S | S | [s] | sound |
| X | X | SH | [ʃ] | wash |
| T | T | T | [t] | take |
| V | V | V | [v] | vein |
| W | W | W | [w] | wolf |
| Y | Y | Y | [j] | young |
| ' | ' | ' | [ʔ] | uh-oh |
The Beten is likely the most foreign concept to most English speakers, so another familiar pronunciation may "mountain" in some American accents or "little" in some British accents. The majority of IRL Mando'a speakers do not actually pronounce it as a letter, but we have elected to mark it in the pronunciations regardless.
Digraphs
Digraphs (meaning "two letters") is when two letters are combined to make a completely new sound. Some prime examples of this in English are the SH and TH digraphs.
The letter C in the CY/YC digraph is still typed as expected.
While E/EH, I/IH, U/UH are pronounced slightly differently, A/AH, O/OH are pronounced identically.
One contentious digraph is DH. Typically, this is pronounced like ð. In Mando'a, this is only found in the word dha and words derived from it. We have chosen to keep the ð pronunciation; however, we acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Mando'a speakers will pronounce it as d.
| mando'a | keyboard | galactic basic | pronunciation | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AH | AH | AH | [a] | fall |
| AO / OA | AO / OA | AO / OA | [ɔ:] | thought |
| AU | AU | AU | [aʊ] | mouth |
| AY | AY | AY | [ai] | buy |
| CY / YC | CY / YC | CY / YC | [ʃi], [iʃ] | shield, leash |
| DH | DH | DH | [ð] | other |
| GH | GH | GH | [x] | loch |
| MH | MH | MH | [m] | moon |
| NG | NG | NG | ŋ | song |
| OH | OH | OH | [oʊ] | motto |
| OY | OY | OY | [ɔɪ] | choice |
| VH | VH | VH | [f] | find |
Additions
There are a handful of letters that simply do not exist in Mando'a that are either suplemented by a diphthong or are absent entirely. They are, however, still present in the original font made for Episode II.
The letter X has been repurposed for the SH diphhong, but can still be used as an X if necessary.
| mando'a | keyboard | galactic basic | pronunciation | example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | F | F | [f] | five |
| Q | Q | Q | [kj] | queen |
| X | X | X | [ks] | fox |
| Z | Z | Z | [z] | zoo |