Hey folks, got another request for translation help.

I'm trying to write the phrase "Come home in your armour, or not at all," in the same fashion of Spartan wives saying "Come home with this shield or upon it." Any ideas? I have my dictionary here, but I'd like some input and ideas.

I could have sworn that the dictionary had a similar phrase, but upon opening the lexicon, I could find no such saying. As such, here is how I would translate your sentence:

Ke yaimpar o'r gar beskar'gam, ra draar yaimpar. (Literally, "Return in your armor, or never return.")

I kept "yaimpar" in the infinitive because, according to the grammar guide, verb+infinitive is used formally, and I figured a saying like this would be more formal than colloquial. Not sure if you would add the "ke" before the "draar" at the end, however. I assumed that saying "never return" was command enough in itself, but you may wish to add it to emphasize the command.

While we're at translating, I have a question: is there any particular way in Mando'a to take a verb and turn it into a noun? I didn't see anything in the grammar guide about it.

I.e., take "taylir" (to hold) and...I don't know, take off the -ir/-r and put something else at the end, or put in a prefix, or something? Or is it something that would just be understood, in such cases as "taylir be gaane" (hold(er) of hands)? ("Be" being "of," "gaan" being "hand," and "-e" being there to pluralize.)

I was JUST wondering that very same thing the other day, Mel. As far as I could see, there is no hard/fast rule on how to do so, but I may have missed something.

Thanks Mesh! I was coming up with similar results as well.

I dont even understand english grammer... let alone a made up one lol