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How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 17 Jun 2020 22:38
by brala
How do you think a Mando'a word for "loophole" would be constructed? I'm writing a fic where two characters are discussing politics and a new piece of legislation, and one suggests that they need to figure out a "loophole" to accomplish their goals.

I'm fine with either a fairly literal translation of "loophole," which would presume that Mando'a carries a similar euphemistic meaning to the English.

Right now, the word that I'm using as a stand-in is rud'palon ("around" + "hole"), which doesn't have exactly the same connotation, but it's alright for now. If there's a better "literal" translation, let me know what you would use.

But if you have any ideas for a word that more closely approximate the English equivalent of "loophole," even if the literal words used are very different, I'd love to hear it!

Some ideas to get you thinking: the ideas of
- escaping/slipping past boundaries set in place
- discovering an unintended weak spot (perhaps in relation to a military context) and taking advantage of it
- perhaps even winning by cheating/dishonorable means (though I don't want to play this up too much. In my story, the Mandalorian character speaks about the positive aspects of finding loopholes, which in a political context, can result in important legislation being passed without getting bogged down in bureaucracy)

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 20 Jun 2020 18:34
by Vlet Hansen
Ash'duumyc is the first idea I have, in the sense of "this other thing is also technically permitted" but I'm not sure it's quite good enough

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 25 Jun 2020 16:25
by Cin Vhetin
I like Vlet's suggestion.

At the risk of getting things too long and thus unwieldy, one might replace ash by nuhaatyc. So nuhaatyc duumyc, as in something that was unnoticed to be allowed.

Shortening this to a double negative nu'neduumyc - something that is not not allowed (not forbidden)- also works, in fact somewhat better in Mando'a than in English even, I would argue.

[ Sidenote: Duumyc is an adjective. Maybe use duumi as an associated noun? ]

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:17
by Vlet Hansen
I like where you're going with that, but in Mando'a negatives aren't boolean, they intensify when you stack more on top. Nu'neduumyc just means REALLY not allowed.

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 26 Jun 2020 04:17
by Vlet Hansen
Maybe ge'duumyc?

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 26 Jun 2020 22:38
by Cin Vhetin
Oh, bummer. I didn't know that about the double negative. Do you have a reference for that by any chance? I couldn't find it in the (admittedly quite limited) Kar'buir rule set.

I honestly liked ash'duumyc better than ge'duumyc, because the latter seems to refer to something that is technically still forbidden.

Exploring a different but similar idea, maybe g'ara'novyc? Or n'ara'novyc for that matter - depending on how obvious the loophole is.

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 01 Jul 2020 04:47
by Vlet Hansen
Look at the dictionary entry for nu draar. Took me a while to remember where it was, thought I was going crazy!

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 15 Jul 2020 23:49
by Spork
Perhaps:

hodar'tor or Deceive Justice

Re: How would you say "Loophole?"

Posted: 16 Jul 2020 02:15
by Vlet Hansen
Interesting take on it, I can see it working