Dedicated Translation Help Thread

[MsLanna]

A bummer.

Oh, you meant in translation.

Same. Been there and asked myself that a lot.
It should be some derivation starting with 'oya'. Though you could probably getting away by explaining culturally why the noun for 'life' is also the word used for everything good and motivation*. You wouldn't have far to go, I guess.


*Bit like 'hell yeah', 'hell no' or all the grammatical and lexical functions the f-word has taken on.

[Vlet Hansen]

yeah, I was looking at oya as well.
Maybe an'oya, the totality of life?

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

I'm trying to translate a poem I found online into Mando'a, and two of the words I'm having trouble finding a translation for are the noun gain, and the noun loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Vaar vor'e!

[MsLanna]

parkebi/darkebi
parjir+kebise/dar+kebise
+ my unaccountable love for things that are connected somehow.


OK. I'll pledge a life debt this fall and need some words. English was easy:
My head and arm are yours to command
My deeds are yours to decree and decide
If my life or death can serve you, they will,
For my debt to you cannot be repaid.

Oi, don't laugh. I know I have a poetic problem.
Now Mando. Not so easy becasue missing words. (What's new...)
Gar ke'gyceri ner mirsh bal irud (You caommand my head and arm)
Gar gaanade ner nari (You chose my actions)
Meh ner oyay ra kyr'am vencuyni gar, ke'vabi (If my life or death serve you, done)
Jorcu ner entye draar like mashukir (Becasue my debt can neve be dispersed)

Words made up:
ke'gycerir - to command, from the noun ke'gyce
oyay - life

But waht bothers me most is that I can't come up with a nice, snappy way to translate the 'I will' or 'they will'. Help?
A more poetic end version would also be nice. Becasue of my poetic problem...

[Vlet Hansen]

ve'nar-will act, will do

[Vlet Hansen]

You think Ijaatir would work for the verb of "to honor"?

And would dar be a better prefix than ne for dishonor?

[Vlet Hansen]

Okay, so take rangir, which could mean "incinerate"

How would you say "incinerator"?

[An'u Biss]

Okay, so take rangir, which could mean "incinerate"

How would you say "incinerator"?

I like the method that Taljair listed in the Total Guide - replace -ir with -ur to create the "<verb>er" noun.
In this case, you'd have rangur

Simple and effective.

[Vlet Hansen]

Very similar pronunciations...

[An'u Biss]

Very similar pronunciations...

Huh? Not really. rang-EER vs rang-OOR.

Pretty difficult to confuse the words "tier" and "tour" - same sounds in those.

[Vlet Hansen]

I suppose. There's just not enough people speaking this, I haven't had practice in ages...

[An'u Biss]

I suppose. There's just not enough people speaking this, I haven't had practice in ages...

Agreed... would love the chance to practice. (Seems like there should be a quick Mando'a word for "agreed"... Suvar? Koor?)

[Belandrie Meave]

Um, y'all...sorry to cut in on the speaking-Mando'a discussion... 'priest'? I've tried be'Te'Solus jag (using the Bible Translation thread word for God) and I've probably got my noun and adjective reversed, but anyway 'man of God' isn't really cutting it, particularly as there are places I'll have to use those exact words for something else entirely.
I could use 'servant' or a derivative, which contextually would be better, but there doesn't seem to be a concept for that in Mando'a, let alone a word.

[Koja Kar Akaan'uliik]

Tal'jair has an excellent Excel document that I use as my main source for Mando'a, and he suggests urman'alor as the word for priest/preacher, from urman - belief; culture - and alor - leader, chief, "officer", constable, boss; Chancellor. I've spent a few minutes looking through the file and looking at the real etymology for priest online, and I haven't come up with anything that I like better. If you want to stick closer to the real etymology though, priest came from the Greek "presbyteros", meaning "elder." So maybe rug'alor - old leader.

[Belandrie Meave]

Awesome, thanks - hadn't realized urman could be separated out as a root. (I'll go and track down the dictionary you mentioned as well so I can stop being a pain over here.)
Think I'll use ja'hailur rather than alor, though, to keep in tone with the Jewish tradition, where priest is a job more than an honor.

[Koja Kar Akaan'uliik]

Interesting choice. So "Watcher?"

I need some help as well actually. I need a word for "struggle." I'm tempted to use akaan, but would real Mandalorians use "war" flexibly like that, or would they have many ways of expressing the nuances of different kinds of conflict? For context, I'm trying to translate pieces of Frederick Douglass' West India Emancipation speech

[An'u Biss]

...would real Mandalorians use "war" flexibly like that, or would they have many ways of expressing the nuances of different kinds of conflict?...

It appears that they already do, actually. With words like "sol'akaan" (Battle) and "akaanir" (to Fight). You could probably go with adding "umaan" / "urakto" for "Difficult battle" to convey the idea of Struggle.

Interesting choice. So "Watcher?"

I'd think something like ja'hailur. The verb "observe / watch over" - ja'hailir, modified with what amounts to a "do-er" suffix -ur

[Belandrie Meave]

Q: I've come a bit unstuck, because I need a word for servant, and completely aside from the fact that I'm really unhappy that the feminine form is 'whore around' when the masculine form of the exact same thing is 'serve or lackey' (dalgaanir cf. jagaanir)
But anyway, ignoring the gender politics for the moment, what does -aanir mean anyway, because it shows up in a lot of verbs, and my best guess at the moment is that jagaanir (which I wanted to use in the context) literally means be a man.
So:

• I need a word for 'servant'.
  I'd quite like to know what -aanir is.

...Some help here would be great if anyone's got a moment.

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

Looking for a word for tank. I likely just missed it (because I can be quite the or'dinii at times), but the fact remains that it still eludes me...

[Vlet Hansen]

For a storage tank, I'd use ya'tayat.

Armored vehicle, I'd follow in the footsteps of Tal'jair with something like bes'got'uliik, though he might already have a word for it. I'm not caught up...