---

One church at a time....

Why A Mando'a Bible?

The Mando'a language is (c) Lucasfilm 2006. http://www.starwars.com

Mando'a language references at http://www.karentraviss.com/

Once anyone hears of a project to make something like a Mando'a Bible, the question that comes up is "why?" Certainly there is no need for such a version, as there is a need for a Bible in English, Spanish, German, or any other "real" language. There is no person who would only be able to access the scriptures in Mando'a.

But in the study of artificial languages, translating standard works of literature like the Bible is often done, and for two reasons. First, it is a way to exercise and develop the language, and second, it helps to develop a body of literature in that language. This literature can then be used and referred to by people learning and using the language.

For some, there can be other benefits. Though this kind of translation might seem frivolous, the work of producing such a translation can have devotional value even if the translation is never used. The effort of reading the scriptures and considering their meaning for a translation cannot fail to benefit the translator by helping him or her develop a deeper understanding of the text.

For example, the Klingon language community has produced at least three efforts in this direction. The Klingon Language Institute (http://www.kli.org) organized a long-term project to translate the Bible. Currently on hiatus, this project has yielded only a few books, for example, the Gospel of Mark. In addition, the Rev. Glen Prochel published a book, Good News for the Warrior Race, which presents the gospels and other selected scriptures in parallel with a "Star Trek" English paraphrase. Finally, I've created a simple Klingon Language Version, http://klv.mrklingon.org. The software used to create the KLV was adapted to create this Mando'a text.

The project presented here, the Mando'a Language Version, is actually a relexification of the World English Bible (WEB) and serves as a demonstration of what a complete Mando'a Bible would look like. When developed by Karen Traviss, the Mando'a language had a large vocabulary of common words that could be mapped to English. These were used to transform the WEB into Mando'a. Though it may not be a grammatical Mando'a text (actually it is more of a pidgin-Mando'a, mixing English vocabulary and grammar with Mando'a) it does provide vocabulary which can be used in doing a proper Mando'a translation.

By the way, the designation of this project, the MND, may appear to be a mere contraction of "Mando'a" - but I prefer to think it stands for Mando'a Naak Dajun, Mandalorian Peace Plan.

Joel Anderson / joel@mrklingon.org

Note: I've placed a shuk'orok, a Mandalorian Crushgaunt, on the cover because it seems an appropriately brutal analog to the cross. According to the Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia:

a specialized, armored glove created in the Mandalore System, the Crushgaunt was first developed by the Mandalorian Mercs. Each crushgaunt enhanced the wearer's ability to crush objects, such as hands or other body parts, allowing them to do considerable damage with minimal effort. The use of crushgaunts was outlawed by the Mandalorian government many centuries before the Galactic Civil War, but their use was later revived by the Mandalorian Death Watch. It was also rumored that one of Darth Vader's gloves was a crushgaunt, and that the being who recovered it after the Battle of Endor would become the next ruler of the Empire. It was later learned that this was a ruse that was perpetrated by the so-called Church of the Dark Side.

Back to the Mandoa Bible