Learn Mando'a

Are there any hard and fast rules for the pronunciation of mando'a? Specifically, how do you know which syllable to place the stress on, especially after pluralizing it?

Also, are their any specific words for yes/no? I'm guessing there probably are....just haven't found them yet.

I'd check the pronunciation guides word for word until you build up kind of a feel for it. I personally generally don't stress the terminal E in a plural. For example, mirsh and mirshe, I'd pronounce it MEERSH-ay.

Yes is elek or 'lek and no is nayc.

In another thread here... we had some discussion going on about modifying the Romanization of Mando'a to make the pronunciation immediately obvious and more accessible to newcomers. Feel free to take a look and possibly add your input

I think however you pronounce it isn't technically wrong, since you can always argue for it just being another Mando dialect. My own pronounciation is pretty close to the letter of the words and influenced by the fact that my mother tongue is German. By contrast, the pronounciations used in SWTOR and the Legacy of the Force audiobook sound a bit more "English" though. Example: Mando'ade is pronounced Mando'aid.

Here is an example of how I pronounce Mando'a (in case that helps): http://nemireblogs.tumblr.com/post/1404 ... rsation-in

It's always fascinating hearing other people pronounce Mando'a, I find everyone seems to do it very differently.

I wish there were more people doing audio recordings of the language, I imagine it sounds really cool in different 'accents'. So far I could only find some vocab lessons on Youtube though and nothing longer than a few phrases. I'd love to hear more Mando'a conversations, aside from my own stuff.

I suspect the reason there are so few recordings is because by our very nature, most Humans recoil at the sound of their own voice in recorded form, because it sounds nothing like what we hear from inside our own heads. It takes a special sort of person -- the sort who enjoys sharing and broadcasting and having a mild dose of authority or an audience -- to make and distribute recordings of any kind. Combine that with our status as a subgroup of a much larger fan group which itself is a subset of another fan group which itself is a subculture...there are not likely to be many of us who are accustomed to recording ourselves.

Or we all just have to suck it up and record some sound files and share them and just deal with the disconnect between our own idealised perceptions of our voices and the reality of their recorded forms.

I never thought about it like that, that's an interesting insight! I guess that disconnect can put people off, especially those who are more self-conscious or shy. But I guess it's like fanart, a supportive community fosters sharing. At least it's like that in my experience. I only really got into recording Mando'a when I got some feedback on my first one.

I'm sure I could record something, though my microphone isn't exactly anything quality. I'll think about it

I think the most important thing is ot have fun with it, then the quality doesn't really matter THAT much. After all, you can't expect to have great reception all over the galaxy, in some places the transmission is going to be a bit rough.

Question to ask for pronunciation. I noticed in study I came across gal'gala and the pronunciation is GAL-gal-arr. Is that correct? Even though there is no 'R'.

Huh. Maybe just pronounce it very gutturally. Get in a piratical mood with it!

Digital necromancy strikes again... no, I did only just now find this.
I'm pretty used to recording studios and hence to hearing my own voice, and I might have some free time in the next couple weeks, so I'd be happy to read some Mando'a into a microphone and stick it on YouTube - my accent's probably deeply dodgy, but eh, life.
Q: does anyone have any strong feelings on what Mando'a wants recording? If I don't hear from anyone I'll just cherrypick stuff I like the sound of from around the forums.

Could you read Taljair's translation of the Address to the Consul of Luon? If Taljair doesn't mind, of course.

I kept tripping up over ashi'se for some reason, but for what it's worth... here you go.
This is unlisted, so it's no biggie to take it down if there's a problem or make it public if we think that's worthwhile.
https://youtu.be/e_i-7cT5y40

Belandrie Meave wrote:I kept tripping up over ashi'se for some reason, but for what it's worth... here you go.
This is unlisted, so it's no biggie to take it down if there's a problem or make it public if we think that's worthwhile.
https://youtu.be/e_i-7cT5y40

I like!! Definitely going to listen multiple times. Hearing it spoken at conversational speed really helps.

Me again.
https://youtu.be/oCit0xWl53o
This is a lot easier than the translation work I was doing, and I'm finding saying it out loud helps me remember the words, so I might sort of keep going sporadically.
Also - this isn't strictly conversational speed, this is a lot slower than I usually talk. I might try translating a random piece of something just so I can get it up to conversational speed, for reference.

Void

From what I understand there isn't really an explanation for why it's spelt that way. It's also the only word in the canon lexicon that's like that pronunciation wise from what I know. In theory there'd probably be other words spelled that way in the language. My personal theory for why is that it was at one pronounced as a glottal stop but then we said "You know what? Fuck this. It's gonna be an 'o' sound instead because that's easier on the throat". But we'd been spelling it this way for ages and also didn't update the spelling because updating spelling based on sound shifts all the time is a fool's gambit.

Unless you're French in which case you really need to have a talk with your spelling.

There is also jorso'ran, which is pronounced jor-roh-soh-rahn in vode an...