Learn Mando'a

It has been suggested that we put together a book for publication, as a fan resource for Mando'a, in a similar vein to the Star Wars Galactic Phrasebook and Travel Guide or How to Speak Wookiee. Before devoting much focus and many resources to a project of this scope, I would like to gather a sense of the community's interest in such a project. If we are going to ask for permission from Lucasfilm, we will need to have as much support as possible. Being able to show full community support for the idea when we ask would put that much more weight on the request.

Please cast your votes, and feel free to post ideas, questions, comments, and concerns. If you feel like it, go ahead and talk to other fans as well and ask them what they think. They can share their opinions and ideas as well; either by communicating through you, by creating a forum account of their own and weighing in here, or by emailing the administrator of mandoa.org (me). I am not sure if the form on the website functions, as I have never received an email from anyone but my own test emails, so valid email addresses include: admin [at] mandoa [dot] org / mandoa [dot] org [at] gmail [dot] com.

Of course, waiting until a later date to pursue this line of action is also reasonable. That is also an option in the poll.

Ke'solus, Mando'ade!

Here are a few suggestions from me, personally:

• A foreword by a sci-fi/fantasy language-smith, a professional linguist, or perhaps Karen Traviss herself might be an appropriate addition to the volume, for a nice touch of class and some personal shared insight. I love books with forewords, and I almost always read them.
• Possibly include more than just language information; like a cultural portrait of the Mandalorians, a history/timeline, an examination of the Resol'nare, and some artwork (both well-known from other books/games if we can get rights, and some new original artwork as well).
• Perhaps include a guide to making one's own Beskar'gam, written in an in-universe style, but still "translatable" into real-life, so one might still glean information on how to create a costume (plastic, etc.) beskar'gam, rather than a fully-functional technologically-advanced and lightsaber-resistant suit of armour.

Needless to say, these suggestions are shaping the book more into a Mandalorian guide, rather than strictly a Mando'a guide, but I think the book might have wider appeal if it could pass as an artbook, an in-universe fan resource, and a practical real-life guide all at once. If it becomes this diverse a project, we could name it "How to Be a Mandalorian," or "What it Means to Be Mandalorian," or something in that vein.

I'd say definitely yes, just possibly not right now

Okay guys, it's been about a month, and I think the majority of us agree with this idea. Or mayby I'm just eager...

Is one of you going to contact LFL?

As Cuyan said, I think this is a good idea, however not right now. TBH 4 people propbably isn't enough support for the idea as far as LFL are concerned, and if we were serious about it we would need to have a much better outline of what would be included before we put the idea forward to them.

I'm on board with the idea (if the first post didn't make that apparent), but broaching the topic with LFL might be a challenge without some kind of wider fanbase support, and, as Tracyn Ordo mentioned, a full, detailed outline and a list of resources we intend to include.

I have never attempted to publish a book, much less so with the blessing of a company as large and influential as LFL -- so I am understandably unfamiliar with the whole process.

I agree with both of you, we should all do some research on the book creation process; then we can create the plan for publication.

I think once we get a good idea of what we are going to do we can decide about LFL. But I see no reason to not start the writing now.

On the subject of people, I consider the small amount of active users on this form -- i.e. 4 -- to be the real pioneers of Mando’a, and I don't really think that anyone else really cares what we do, as long as they get more language to play with.

To be fair though, should I start a thread over at the Mercs?

If you want to talk about it over at Mercs, I would ask Novall Talon first. Any discussion based on using copyrighted works from LFL to do something else (other than costuming) on that forum needs to be sanctioned, as I found out when I first started showing off the translator I made. PMing him might take a short while to get a reply, but it is worth the time spent to keep them within their agreement with LFL as well. Before the forum got too big, Novall had to speak with LFL himself, I believe.

If it all checks out with Novall, there certainly wouldn't be any harm in posting on the mercs, if just to see if there is any more interest in helping on it. Some members over there may not have heard of mandoa.org, I certainly hadn't until a few days ago when I stumbled across the link and I've been on the mercs forums for several years now...

After my initial attempted introduction, and subsequent discussion with Novall, and sub-subsequent introduction to LFL, I was honoured with a link in the links section of the Mercs forum, but I did not push a discussion or anything, so it wasn't exactly widely advertised.

As a test we could set a small "travel guide" in the forum, like those "learn a language in 15 minutes guide". It would be a follow on the 2 lessons created by Cuyan.

I am on vacation and i can help this project, can someone else take part in it?