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In Episode 5 of The Mandalorian, Mando uses a form of sign language to communicate with two characters.

From an out of universe perspective, do any of the signs he is using correlate to ASL (American Sign Language) or any of the other formal signs used around the world?

The Mandalorian stands facing a point to the viewer's left. His left arm is in front of him, horizontally from the elbow, with the fingers straight and hand oriented vertically with the back facing outward. His right hand, also with straight fingers and held vertically, is above his left hand as though making a chopping motion.

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    Could you also add to the question, what is this sign language "in" universe? Is it a tuskan raider specific sign language, or something else? How did mando know this sign language? or was he just improvising.
    – vikingsteve
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 12:16
  • @vikingsteve - no, for a couple of reasons. 1) there should really only be one question per..well..question. I'm specifically asking about the production, not the story. 2) I asked a question in meta re: this show specifically and I personally would prefer to wait until the season at least has ended before asking questions that may get answered next week - scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12826/…
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 15:33
  • Well I asked another question about the "in-universe" reference to this language, and they closed it.
    – vikingsteve
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 22:33
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    The actor, Troy Kotsur, playing the Tusken Raider conversing with Mando is deaf.
    – L.T.Smash
    Commented Dec 11, 2019 at 13:28

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According to Troy Kostur, the deaf actor who developed it (and played one of the Tusken Raiders), it is an in-universe language developed by the Tusken people named Tusken Sign Language, and he purposefully tried to avoid ASL to avoid it being a gloss.

"I did research on the culture and environment of Tusken Raiders," says Kotsur. "My goal was to avoid [American Sign Language]. I made sure it became Tusken Sign Language based on their culture and environment."

It is currently unknown how developed the language actually is. They may have just invented specific phrases or signs for the episode. Given the iconic origin of most sign languages (starting as pantomime, and developing into a fully-featured language), it would be unsurprising if there's some crossover in signs with something like American Sign Language, but it has been stated to not be ASL.

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  • Forgive me, but I edited your comment to remove the comment about sign languages being descended from pantomime. There is no proof for this, and it is about as valid as saying that spoken languages are descended from grunting - i.e neither helpful nor polite for the matter under discussion.
    – Tomato
    Commented Dec 1, 2021 at 0:57
  • @tomato: Admittedly, there have been few cases where we've been able to see signed languages originate, the same as any other language, but in cases where people have been bereft of a formalized language to learn, they do tend to start with pantomime and iconic signs so that they can communicate with others without reading them the language and even in modern ASL, we've seen formerly iconic signs made more abstract (admittedly, in many cases, I think more to remove signs with embedded stereotypes like nationalities).
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Dec 1, 2021 at 1:51
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    Troy Kostur- now an Academy Award winning actor - starwarsnewsnet.com/2022/03/…
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 14:10
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Some, most can make out of what he said. He said “we ride to mountain over your land”

Then they said “you ride over, no” (maybe mean will kill you) Then mando said “mountain, (something, maybe how much?)”

They said want device that can see afar?

I am Deaf and use ASL and know few other foreign sign languages.

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    Just to clarify, are you seeing ASL signs or are you "translating" from iconic signs?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Dec 7, 2019 at 22:48
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    This is interesting but if you could get into more detail that would be awesome
    – Levi C. Olson
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 22:11
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    I'm an ASL amateur but I could recognize "across"- lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/a/across.htm
    – MatthewMartin
    Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 3:44

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