Mando ' a / Legends Mando ' a , sometimes referred to simply as Mandalorian , was the primary language spoken by the Mandalorian culture . Elements of " Mando ' a " were taken from the language of the ancient Taung s of Coruscant , from which the culture stemmed , evolving over time to become something unique . Overview . The origins of " Mando ' a " were believed to have lain with the language of the Taung , an ancient race of Humanoid simians that originated on Coruscant in the time before the Galactic Republic ' s formation . The Taung were driven from Coruscant by the Human Battalions of Zhell after a lengthy war , and under the leadership of Mandalore the First , conquered a new planet they named Mandalore in their leader ' s honor , becoming the first Mandalorians — or " Mando ' ade " , " Children of Mandalore " in " Mando ' a " . Despite this direct lineage , and the fact that the Taung spoke an archaic dialect that evolved into the later " Mando ' a " , contemporary " Mando ' a " contained unique elements unlike any found in other galactic languages . " Mando ' a " had no grammatical cases , only two forms for a verb to take , a tense prefix system , and simplistic rules for forming adjectives from nouns and verb stems . Spelling and punctuation forms were optional , decided upon by the preference of the individual speaker — " " jagyc " " and " " jagla " " , for instance , were both correct ways of saying " masculine . " To understand and be able to speak " Mando ' a " was one of the " Resol ' nare " , the six central tenets that an individual had to observe in their daily life should they wish to be a Mandalorian . This respect for the language , along with " Mando ' a " natural flexibility , meant that words drawn from other languages were a rarity , and " Mando ' a " changed very little throughout the centuries in spite of the many languages the Mandalorians learned to speak , and the vast influence from alien cultures . If a new word for a thing or concept was needed , Mandalorians would typically draw upon the existing " Mando ' a " vocabulary to form an appropriate term . " Mando ' a " was an , meaning that many words were formed by combining two or more others , without changing their form , to create a new word with a new meaning . An example of this was the term " dar ' jetii " , which is a combination of the " Mando ' a " words " dar " , meaning " no longer " , and " jetii " , the Mandalorian word for Jedi . Literally translated , " dar ' jetii " meant " no longer a Jedi " , but was mostly used contextually to mean " Sith . " However , " hut ' tuun " — the Mandalorian word for " coward " — found its roots in the common Mandalorian dislike for Hutts , specifically their tendency to hire others to handle their martial needs in their stead . Concordian , the language spoken on both the planet Concord Dawn and Mandalore ' s moon , Concordia , was a dialect of " Mando ' a " . As such , though they differed in certain aspects , the two languages were , meaning that they were similar enough that an individual speaking one could easily converse with someone speaking the other . The dialect spoken by the Human child Sasha ot Sulem in 3956 BBY , following the girl ' s kidnapping and her time living among the Mandalorians on Dantooine , was believed by the Jedi Knight Revan to be a jumbled off - shoot of " Mando ' a " . Grammar . " Mando ' a " was a primarily spoken language , rather than a written one , and was thus an expressive language that was often thought of as easy to learn , a trait highly desirable in a culture that regularly adopted adults from numerous races and species . The language ' s grammar was relatively uncomplicated , but there were elements that necessitated adjustments for a speaker of Basic , including " Mando ' a " expression of tense , and its gender - neutrality . Because Mandalorians believed in living their history , along with the idea that a tomorrow was not always a certainty , past and future tense were colloquially done away with . Instead , the prefixes " ru " for " past " , and " ven " for " future " , were used in place of the more widely - used tense forms . There was also no passive verb form in " Mando ' a " ; a verb was either active or simply absent from the statement . Furthermore , infinitive verbs ended in " - ir , - ar , - ur , - or , " or " - er . " To produce the stem , removing the " r " at the end was all that was required . " Ni vorer " was incorrect , but " Ni vore " — meaning " I accept " and using the inflected form — was correct . Oftentimes , an apostrophe — known in " Mando ' a " as a " beten " , or " sigh " — was used to separate the terminal vowel , indicating the slight glottal pause of some Mandalorian accents . Other uses for the " beten " were as an indication of a breath , for pronunciation , or a sign of a dropped letter or letters in a contraction . For instance , the sentence " I carry a saber " could be translated in " Mando ' a " as the formal " ni juri kad " , or the pronunciation - marked " ni jur ' i kad " , since the emphasis was placed on the second syllable in the word " juri " , and even the more commonly contracted " ni jur ' kad " . Dropping a terminal vowel when conjugating was quite common , especially in Mandalorian poetry and song . Occasionally , certain verbs would be left out all together , and instead implied via word order . While this tendency to forgo certain words could be confusing to Basic speakers , and make the language appear abrupt , the militaristic Mandalorians had largely assumed the concise speech common in military orders . Whereas the literal translation for " It ' s good " would be " bic cuyi jate " , a Mandalorian was much more likely to just say " jate " , or " good " , instead . Due to " Mando ' a " nature as a gender - neutral language , gender was implied by context . " Buir " meant both " mother " and " father " , just as " son " and " daughter " were both represented by the word " ad " . When it was necessary to specify gender , the adjectives of " jagyc " or " dalyc " — male and female , respectively — would be added . This grammatical system was a rarity for a language spoken by beings who reproduced sexually . To form a question , the interrogative prefix " tion " was placed at the beginning of a sentence . While " Gar verborad ' ni " meant " You are hiring me " , the addition of the " tion " prefix placed before " gar " would turn the previous statement into the question , " Are you hiring me ? " Another example of a meaningful prefix was " ke " , which was drawn from the " Mando ' a " word for " order " , or " ke ' gyce " , and was placed at the start of a sentence to indicate a command . In order to create the negative form in " Mando ' a " , the prefix " n < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > " , " nu " , " nu < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > " , or " ne " was added before either the sentence or the individual word . " Ne ' briikase " meant " unhappy " , while " Nu ' ni juri kad " meant " I don ' t carry a saber " . When forming a plural , " - e " was added to the end of words ending in consonants , while " - se " was added to the end of words ending in a vowel . As with most languages , there were exceptions to the rule , such as in the case of " gett " becoming " gett ' se " . Originally , the indication of a plural was done with an " - a " suffix rather than an " - e " , a practice that went away over time . Adjectives and adverbs were formed by adding the suffixes " - la " or " - yc " to the end of pre - existing nouns . " Di ' kut " , meaning " idiot " in " Mando ' a " , could easily become " di ' kutla " , meaning " idiotic " . Comparatives and superlatives were formed in much the same way . When creating a comparative , the suffix " - shy ' a " was added to the end of the standard adjective . For a superlative , the " - ne " suffix was added . An example would be the word " dral " , meaning " bright " , becoming " dralshy ' a " , or " brighter " , and the word " jate " , meaning " good " , becoming " jatne " , or " best " . No distinction between adverbs and adjectives was made in " Mando ' a " , and although a non - " Mando ' a " speaker might make out a Mandalorian to be uneducated should he say in Basic , " The boys done good " , it was much more likely that they were simply unfamiliar with Basic ' s past tense and adverbial forms . " Mando ' a " also made less use of articles such as " the " and " an " than Basic , generally adding them only for emphasis . " Mando ' a " had a similar pronunciation to Basic , with a few notable exceptions . The letters " f " , " x " , or " z " were not present in " Mando ' a " , although the written form of the Mandalorian alphabet included the letters for greater ease in transliterating foreign words . In the absence of the letter " f " , " Mando ' a " substituted the similar - sounding " vh " combination , and the Mandalorian " s " could be pronounced in the same way as a common " z " . Over time , the pronunciation of " d " lost favor to the more modern " t " , though certain Mandalorian communities still preferred to pronounce the letter " j " as a " y " sound , instead of the more commonly heard hard " j " found in words like " joy " . When speaking , the first " h " present in a word was typically — aside from its archaic form used in traditional songs and poems — and always pronounced when found in the middle of a word . " Mando ' a " possessed no silent letters , though the opposite was often true of Mandalorian songs : terminal consonants could become extra syllables in order to better maintain rhythm and meter . For example , " tor " could easily become " to - rah " , and " tang " could just as easily become " tan - gah " . Written Form . The Mandalorian alphabet consisted of twenty - six characters . The New Mandalorians used written Mandalorian quite frequently in their everyday lives . The True Mandalorians traditionally used it to provide information on personal datapads and ship - board display screens . Behind the scenes . The first hints of a Mandalorian language was a dialect that Revan learns from Sasha ot Sulem in the " " video game . This was followed by Mandalorian words being used in the novel " The Cestus Deception " . However , the creation of " Mando ' a " as an individual language began with the introduction song to " " , known as " Vode An " ( Brothers All ) . Sasha ot Sulem ' s language is a mix of Mandalorian and Galactic Basic Standard , and is therefore unrelated to this one . It is not known if it is a different canonical dialect or if it becomes non - canon . It should be noted that " Mando ' ade " are a garrulous people , and Karen Traviss is British , and as such , the list above includes both obscenities and British slang . Karen Traviss , though developing the majority of the language , has since removed all pages and documents concerning Mandalorian from her website . Development of the language has been left to the fans . A glossary of many different words and phrases are located in the back of Traviss ' s book " " as well as in " Star Wars Insider 86 " ; other official language resources are online . For this article , an unofficial list has been culled from various Internet and literary sources . Prior to 2002 , a typeface consisting of narrow vertical characters was developed to represent the written form of the Mandalorian language . It was developed by Philip Metschan at the request of George Lucas to be used throughout . This typeface , erroneously named " Mandelorian " by Metschan , can be seen on Jango Fett ' s " Slave I " ship - board display screens throughout the film . The full official type - face can finally be seen on his website .