Mandalorian Time System

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Time management and counting was made very simple for mandalorians. Mostly they measured time in minutes and hours, for ancients didn’t need so small measure as a second:
minute - sol'nara [sohl-na-RAH]
hour - nara [nah-RAH]

The year on planet Mandalor was exactly 366 days. It was divided into four seasons, much like we have here on Earth:
year - simir [see-MEER]
season - canar [kah-NAHR]

The seasons were named simply:
Winter (93 days) - cir'canar [SEER-kah-NAHR]
Spring (90 days) - pir'canar [PEER-kah-NAHR]
Summer (93 days) - nadal'canar [nad-AHL-kah-NAHR]
Autumn (90 days) - haast'canar [HAHST-kah-NAHR]

Each season was divided into three months, the longest were in winter and summer, but only by 3 days. The names were very simple, they just counted the months in order from the first day of winter:
First month (31 days) - sol'tuurar [sohl-too-RAHR]
Second month (31 days) - tad'tuurar [tahd-too-RAHR]
Third month (31 days) - ehn'tuurar [ayhn-too-RAHR]
Fourth month (30 days) - cui'tuurar [coo-ee-too-RAHR]
Fifth month (30 days) - ray'tuurar [ray-too-RAHR]
Sixth month (30 days) - reso'tuurar [reh-soh-too-RAHR]
Seventh month (31 days) - eta'tuurar [eh-tah-too-RAHR]
Eighth month (31 days) - sheh'tuurar [shay-too-RAHR]
Ninth month (31 days) - shecu'tuurar [shay-koo-too-RAHR]
Tenth month (30 days) - taray'tuurar [ta-ray-too-RAHR]
Eleventh month (30 days) - tarayso'tuurar [ta-ray-soh-too-RAHR]
Twelfth month (30 days) - tareytad'turar [ta-ray-tahd-too-RAHR]

Standard week on Mandalor was five days with last day being the weekend:
First day, Monday (weekday) - sol'tuur [sohl-TOOR]
Second day, Tuesday (weekday) - tad'tuur [tahd-TOOR]
Third day, Wednesday (weekday) - ehn'tuur [ayhn-TOOR]
Fourth day, Thursday (weekday) - cui'tuur [coo-ee-TOOR]
Fifth day, Friday (weekend) - ray'tuur [ray-TOOR]

The next weekdays are just for use on Earth as we have 7 day weeks:
Sixth day, Saturday - reso'tuur [reh-soh-TOOR]
Seventh day, Sunday - eta'tuur [eh-tah-TOOR]

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

Mostly they measured time in minutes and hours, for ancients didn’t need so small measure as a second:

I understand that having a measurement of time as small as a second would have been essentially useless to them in every day life, but I feel that the ancients would have still needed a word for second, where situations such as attacks on fortified positions required the amount of time between waves of attack to be precise. Then again, I could be way off on that, so....... Anyways, just wanted to put in my two credits worth.

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Okay, lets correct this bit. Im outta ideas for "second", any suggestions?

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

Perhaps Kih'nara (lit: small time)?

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Sounds good. But id say ki'nara then, just to shorten it more. Its "small" time after all.

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

touche...

[Jaster Mereel]

Very interesting. I'm curious where you got the time stuff from. In the existing dictionary there is a word for week: ray'ture. It would seem this word came from rayshe'a tuure meaning five days. Is there any reason why you chose to go with ten days rather than five?

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Seems to be just my mistake, i may have overlooked it.
Corrected it.

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Guys, was looking through the net and found an interesting document. Seems someone invented (or described) mandalorian time measurement and lexicon for it. Donno how authentic it is, but maybe you do.
It’s described as followes:

The time measurements are different than with the standard clock. The Mandalorian time measurement are based on the kis’lun, second. There are thirty kis’lune in one kumana. A kumana is similar to a minute but is thirty seconds less. The next unit is the getu, there are thirty two kumare in one getu. The getu is less than an hour but two hundred ten seconds longer than a minute. The next highest unit is the hakba this unit is over twice as long as an hour. There are nine getue in one hakba. There are ten hakbe in one tuur, day.

The piece didn’t give the transcription or translation to the terms, so I figured they could be called like this:
Second - kis’lun
30 seconds (minute) - kumana
32 minutes (hour) - getu
9 hours (period) - hakba
10 periods (day) - tuur

And if you count the seconds out in the end you’ll get our standard 24-hour day.

[Vlet Hansen]

Where'd you find that? Sounds intriguing...

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Old archived web page of mand-alor.com
By the way, where can i get the latest vocabulary by Kar'buir (Karen Traviss)? Looks like im working with little outdated one. And her mando'a page is nonexistent anymore

Never mind, found it.

[Jaster Mereel]

I suggest we develop a decimal time system. So much easier.

1 Day = 24 hours = 10 "hours"
1 "hour" = 2.4 hours = 10 "long minutes"
1 "long minute" = 14.4 minutes = 10 "minutes"
1 "minute" = 1.44 minutes = 10 "long seconds"
1 "long second" = 8.64 seconds = 10 "seconds"
1 "second" = 0.864 seconds

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Ummm... And this is "easier" because...?

[Jaster Mereel]

Easier for calculation. It would be easier to deal in units of ten, rather than what we currently have. Sixty seconds in a minute. Sixty minutes in an hour. Twenty-four hours in a day. Isn't that why metric vastly superior to imperial? Rather than having to deal with sixteen units in an inch. Twelve inches in a foot. Three feet in a yard. 1760 yards or 5280 feet per mile.

Decimal time is the way to go.

[Vazquar Tra'tabuur]

I agree that metric is vastly superior to imperial in terms of length, weight, and volume, but time is another matter entirely. Where length etc. can be based on a decimal system, time is based on inherently sexagesimal circles.

[Vlet Hansen]

The only time measurement that needs not be decimal is months and years. A day's time measurements can be arbitrarily divided into whatever you please. I think jaster's suggestion has as much merit as any.

[Tal’jair Rusk]

Figured out the time count. Making a mechanical clock would be quite a fit, I admit, but not an impossible one. We'll just have one hand more on the watch. But digital clock, as in HUD or something like that, pretty easy:

6:07:24:00 which is period:hour:minute:second

But more importantly is how you tell time in mando'a:

Bic e'tad (getu'e) ad’eta cuir (kumane) be e’tadyc hakba.
(It's seven twenty four of the seventh period)

Mark that seventh period is between 6 and 7, exactly as we count centuries (21st being between 2000 and 2100).
I figured quite a simple formula in Excel to translate our time in mandalorian count, could be used if for entertainment only.

[Vlet Hansen]

It'd probably make it easy to make watch schedules, too, given the larger time periods.

[Vlet Hansen]

It'd probably make it easy to make watch schedules, too, given the larger time periods.

[Adi'karta]

As for telling time, I am personally a big fan of circular systems -- anything that divides well into 360 degrees (like the numbers 12, 24, 60; or in this case 366 days, so maybe 6, 61, 122, 183...but I don't like those numbers for practicality) -- the planet is circular, its orbit around the star is circular, the star's orbit around the galactic centre is likely somewhat circular -- but I can see an argument for decimal systems, especially if we can come up with a system of time which meshes well with the base 5 number system. Being able to count and tell time using one hand would be a boon to a soldier.

The piece didn’t give the transcription or translation to the terms, so I figured they could be called like this:
Second - kis’lun
30 seconds (minute) - kumana
32 minutes (hour) - getu
9 hours (period) - hakba
10 periods (day) - tuur

I must admit, I am not a fan of the irregularity (and the difficulty of reconciling this with a circle). 32 minutes in an hour (does not divide evenly into 360 or into 60), but 9 hours in a period (does divide evenly into 360)? They have different factors. If it were 24, 30, or 36 minutes per hour, then 9 hours per period would make sense to me. The problem then is reworking this all to fit back into 86400 seconds.

Figured out the time count. Making a mechanical clock would be quite a fit, I admit, but not an impossible one. We'll just have one hand more on the watch.

While Mando'ade are unlikely to have mechanical watches, and as a result this system of time will work fine in a theoretical digital/HUD system, the biggest reason why I personally am so vehemently in favour of a system of time which conforms to a circle is because then it directly maps onto an intuitive whole-number mapping of the rotation of the planet (32 minutes per hour breaks down to 11.25 degrees per minute, which is not a whole number). We even use minutes and seconds to break longitude and latitude degrees down into smaller increments for more precise global positioning.

It'd probably make it easy to make watch schedules, too, given the larger time periods.

I agree with that for sure. We could call the "periods" "watches" instead. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the classic Chinese military epic, time is frequently referred to in watches: 1st watch, 5th watch, etc. (I know very little of modern military practise when it comes to keeping time, beyond the 24-hour clock).