Tag: languages

Less-Than-Comprehensive Devaronese Dictionary [WIP]

thefoodwiththedood:

thefoodwiththedood:

While I was researching Devaronians (y’know, like I always am), I noticed the Wookieepedia article on the Devaronese language is pretty sparse—so sparse, in fact, that it doesn’t actually contain any Devaronese words. SO, despite me being less than a linguist, I decided to try and come up with some of my own!

Basically, I extrapolated what I could from what few Devaronese words we know (all of which are italicized on the list itself, just for reference), while with others I and Nick (@of-stardust-and-wanderlust) gave meanings to our OCs’ names—the rest I basically just pulled out of my ass derived from the other words. This is of course an ongoing, ever-expanding list, and I’d be happy to add more to it if anyone has any ideas!

For now though, feel free to read through this, leave comments about what you find interesting, bash me for my misunderstanding of how languages work, or anything else! I’d love to hear your guys’ feedback on this 😀

Reblogging cuz I (and some pals in the Devaron’s Angels group chat) made some additions to the dictionary 😀

Take a look at this fantastic project by @thefoodwiththedood!

Less-Than-Comprehensive Devaronese Dictionary [WIP]

When writing certain aliens whose in-universe languages aren’t already fleshed out, would you say it’s alright to substitute real life languages in for them? Like, would it work to have a Twi’lek speaking French, a Devaronian speaking Russian, etc?

I suppose it’s really a matter of personal preference. I can’t really judge the suitability of Russian for Devaronese, but the Twi’leki we do know does not resemble French at all. Perhaps because I speak French, I would personally find it very odd to read a Twi’lek speaking it. I would rather avoid having any non-English dialogue if the alien language is not well-established (often, it’s much more trouble to have them speak it, as opposed to simply stating that they spoke in Twi’leki, especially if your POV character does not understand the language) or, if I really needed them to say a few words, I’d probably prefer to make up a sentence or two. That’s just my preference, though, there are certainly circumstances in which this could work. 

I hope that helps!

~ Jacen

I have a character who is mute, and uses a form of sign language to communicate with people they know. I was thinking of having them have an arm brace thing with a keyboard and a holoprojector that displays text as their way to communicate with people who don’t sign, would this make sense in-universe? I’m writing between Revenge of the Sith and New Hope, if that helps.

Yes, there seems to be nothing stopping you from doing this. I would guess that the holoprojector would need to be modified in some way to display text from a keyboard. I couldn’t tell you exactly how because I am not an expert in real-life technology and I don’t know of a case like this being mentioned in-universe. Just keep in mind that in the time period you’re writing in, a holoprojector cost somewhere around 1000 credits. If your character can afford this, you shouldn’t have a problem.

I hope that helps a bit!

~ Jacen

Thank you for answering that! Is there any type of “ceremony” that either is a thing, or could be repurposed? The non-Mando has been having a VERY bad time of things, and the Mando wants to distract him with excessive pomp.

The closest thing I can find is a few old songs and chants that the Mando could preform. None of them are very relevant to your specific scenario, but your non-Mando doesn’t have to know that. Ka’rta Tor is one that’s a nice length, you can look at it here. Naasad’guur mhi – Mhi n’ulu (the “official” name of the song is unknown) is supposed to sound pretty solemn even though it really isn’t, so that could be a pretty convincing stand-in. Here’s the link to it. And a few more songs if you want more options. As for actual, full-on ceremonies, I couldn’t think of or find any that would work. There aren’t many records of ceremonies, besides the death ceremony. Sorry :/

A lot of these songs were preformed with some kind of drum or instrument, though, so there’s no reason why you couldn’t spice it up a bit. Hopefully one of these will work alright for you!

~ Jacen

I’m having a Mandalorian character swear, to a non-Mando, that they will not perform a certain action. Is there any type of oath that would work for that in Mando culture? And if there isn’t anything in sources, what might it be like? The non-Mando character hadn’t been serious in suggesting a formal oath, but the Mando character decided to take him up on it for lulz, and to make it as fancy/formal/etc as possible.

Haat, ijaa, haa’it is something said to seal a pact, meaning “truth, honor, vision.” It’s not that fancy, but I figure it would still throw your non-Mando character a bit. You could also develop your own little phrase to suit the conversation more specifically, in which case you might want to use ori’haat (it’s the truth, I swear) somewhere in there. An ending like oya! could serve to add a little humor and further confuse your non-Mando. Anyway, if you do want to make up your own saying I would give this Mando’a dictionary a shot, and the Wookieepedia artice on grammar.

Feel free to ask again if you get stuck. Good luck!

~ Jacen