Okay, the pronunciation thing was totally my fault. I saw "punctuation" and read "pronunciation." Not sure how those two words got so crosswired, but I guess they do look similar.
I'm sure there's a place for complex sentence structures in Mando'a. It just would probably be for more formal language use and more archaic Mandalorian eras. Common usage would tend to avoid it, as we all know.
Since Mando'a follows English grammar aside from particular exceptions, I would presume it follows English punctuation likewise.
This doesn't mean that we can't come up with some new exceptions of our own, but creating our own grammar should follow the same process as creating our own words.
For example, if you wanted to use some grammar that was more related to German than English (though I think their grammar structures tend to be quite similar already), then there might need to be a little bit of justification as to why the Mando's would deviate from English grammar in favor of German grammar, but if we can all agree that it would make more sense for the Mandalorians to do so, then I think it's fair enough to do something like that. Otherwise, I would assume normal English rules for lack of better option.
MsLanna wrote:Where things get difficult is fixed expressions. I would say '
der tickt nicht richtig' (he doesn't tick correctly) in German but that is '
he is off his rocker' in English. The words invovled to creat the same meaning are completely different. Also 'narir' which can be simply 'put' in English can pose a problem because English put is easy meaning 'setzen, stellen, legen' in German.
On the other hand 'sitzen' can bei either 'to seat' or 'to sit' in English...
Actually, this "problem" is also the solution to many translating problems. Each culture absolutely WILL have expressions like this which don't translate well into other languages (usually because they are strongly metaphorical and represent a cultural view of things). Of course, this makes translating our own expressions into their language difficult and a little silly because saying someone is, "off their rocker" in mando'a would have little meaning to them. A Mando would ask, "What's so special about that rocking chair?" Similarly with "he doesn't tick correctly." A Mando might be confused that you would expect a person to tick. However, if you said
kaysh ba'slana can'gal nu'ti kute, they might appreciate the metaphor a bit better. What I'm saying is that while it can represent a difficulty to us trying to find different ways of saying things we're used to using metaphorical expressions for, it actually also gives us the advantage that we can make up metaphorical statements for the Mandos using the words we already have. So long as you can figure out what the real meaning of the metaphor is ("off his rocker" = "doesn't tick right" = "crazy, doesn't think clearly") you can always make a new picture which might give people the right impression ("he leaves the starship without a flightsuit/underwear").
This is the reason I like to tackle translation through semantics in that other thread. The more you understand about what you really mean to say, the better equipped you are to find a good way to say it.
