Na’viteri.org

Kaltxì, ma frapo! Sìlpey oe, ayngaru livu fpom nìwotx.

Here are about twenty new words and expressions that I hope you’ll find useful. The majority came directly from, or were inspired by, the recent submissions I received from the Lexical Expansion Project. Irayo, ma smuk! Seysonìltsan!

In no particular order:

kxäl (adj.) ‘apathetic, feeling of apathy’

Fìtìngäzìkìri ’efu po kxäl; pori tsa’u ke tsranten kaw’it.
‘She’s apathetic about this problem; it doesn’t matter to her at all.’

tìkxäl (n., tì.KXÄL) ‘apathy’

Tìkxäl lu peu? Lu tskxepay a mì te’lan sì kxitx a mì eltu.
‘What is apathy? It’s ice in the heart and a death in the brain.’
(This evocative example is from the LEP.)

nìkxäl (adv., nì.KXÄL) ‘apathetically’

lìlì (n., LÌ.lì) ‘breast’

hilu (n., HI.lu) ‘nipple’

wantseng (n., WAN.tseng) ‘hiding place (temporary)’

A wantseng is a temporary hiding place, where for example a prey animal might hide from a predator. It’s not used for a permanent refuge.

mu’nitkan (adj., MU’.nit.kan) ‘effective’

This word is derived from mu’ni ‘achieve’ and tìkan ‘goal, target.’ Something that’s effective reaches its target or achieves its goal.

Tsayerikìl mu’nitkana wantsengit rolun; ke tsun fko pot tsive’a kaw’it.
‘That hexapede has found an effective hiding place. He can’t be seen at all.’

(NOTE: Whether you refer to an animal as a “he/she” or an “it” depends on how you feel about it. In this example, however, using pot rather than tsat has a practical function: it avoids an ambiguity. If it were tsat, you wouldn’t know if it was the hexapede or the hiding place that couldn’t be seen!)

kemu’nitkan (adj., ke.MU’.nit.kan) ‘ineffective’

tìmu’nitkan (n., tì,MU’.nit.kan) ‘effectiveness’

nìmu’nitkan (adv., nì.MU’.nit.kan) ‘effectively’

(NOTE: “Effectively” means two different things in English: (1) ‘in such a way as to reach a target,’ and (2) actually rather than officially or explicitly, as in “His campaign is effectively over”—that is, it’s over for all practical purposes, even if its demise hasn’t yet been announced. Nìmu’nitkan only has the first meaning, not the second.)

txeylan (n., TXEY.lan) ‘best friend’

This word evolved from txe’lan ‘heart’ + ’eylan ‘friend.’ In Na’vi, your best friend is your “heart friend.”

napxì (adv., na.PXÌ) ‘partially, in part’

This adverb originally had the regular nì– prefix—i.e, *nìhapxì—but due to the stress pattern, where the first two syllables were unstressed, it evolved to its present irregular form.

Fìtìkangkemvi hasey lu napxì nì’aw.
‘This project is only partially complete.’

tsup (n.) ‘chasm, ravine’

This yields the proverbial expression:

Rä’ä zup nemfa tsup.
‘Don’t fall into the chasm.’ (That is, don’t fall into the trap that someone has laid for you.)

wätum (n., WÄ.tum) ‘antidote’

As you can tell, this comes from wä ‘against’ + txum ‘poison.’ (Recall that wä is one of those adpositions that trigger lenition.)

Peyä aylì’uri atxumnga’ wätumìl pesenget?
‘Where is the antidote for his poisonous words?’

mewn (vin.) ‘sigh’

Nga merewn pelun, ma paskalin?
‘Why are you sighing, sweetie?’

sämewn (n., sä.MEWN) ‘sigh, an instance of sighing’

Zola’u ftu käpxì numtsengviyä sämewn awok.
‘From the back of the classroom came a loud sigh.’

tì’ewan (n., tì.’E.wan) ‘youth (time of life)’

tìkoak (n., tì.KO.ak) ‘old age’

A proverbial expression:

Nìwin ’ìp tì’ewan, nìwin pähem tìkoak.
‘Youth vanishes quickly, old age arrives quickly.’

kxal (adj.) ‘strict, demanding proper behavior’

This word refers to someone who’s a strict disciplinarian or a “stickler for the rules.”

Another proverbial expression:

Ftumfa kxala karyuä kxa za’u sänume a ley.
‘From the mouth of a strict teacher comes valuable instruction.’

tìkxal (n., tì.KXAL) ‘strictness, discipline’

And yet another proverb:

Tìkxalìl tìkxälit zeyko.
‘Discipline cures apathy.’

Finally, some new uses of a couple of familiar words:

As you know, the terms for ‘ascend’ and ‘descend’ are fäkä and kllkä respectively. When accompanied by the adpositions sìn ‘onto’ and ftu ‘from,’ they’re also the terms for getting on or off a vehicle or conveyance. When used with an animal, they mean ‘mount’ or ‘dismount.’

fäkä sìn (v.) ‘get on, mount’

kllkä ftu (v.) ‘get off, dismount’

Po sìn pa’li fäkolä makto neto.
‘She got on her direhorse and rode away.’

And just a couple more things before I sign off:

First, I have some comments to respond to from previous posts. I’ll get to them as soon as I can.

And second, it’s possible you’ve come across something on the Internet that says I’ve created another constructed language for a major non-Avatar-related film coming out towards the end of the year. That is not true. It’s just one more example of someone misreading something and then repeating it erroneously, at which point the misinformation spreads virally. (Sämewn atsawl.)

Hayalovay!

Edit May 2nd: wätum peseng –> wätumìl pesenget

Ma eylan,

Zìskrrmipaw Lefpom ulte Zìskrrtsawn Lefpom! Happy Spring and, for those in the Southern Hemisphere, Happy Fall! (Also Happy Now Ruz, the Persian New Year!)

I’ve owed you a post for a long time, but for now just a quick one to let you know a couple of things:

First, as some of you are aware, this weekend is Conlang Adventure.

It should be interesting and fun. And registration is free. As you see, I’m one of the speakers. But I’ll be speaking to an audience that doesn’t know much about Na’vi. For members of the lĩ’fyaolo’, I’m afraid there won’t be anything new in my talk. So unless you really want to hear me say the same things you’ve heard me say many times before, please feel free to skip my presentation. 🙂

HOWEVER, several members of our community will be speaking about Na’vi as well! These folks are Tekre, Stefan Mir-Mackiewicz, and Tsyili. I’m really looking forward to what they present! Check the schedule for when on Saturday they’ll be speaking.

And just a few new items related to the things I’ve been working on:

lare (vin., LA.re, inf. 1, 2) ‘be watchful, alert’

Lare is more general than nari si ‘be careful.’ You’d use nari si, for example, to tell someone to walk carefully over rough terrain so as not to trip. Lare implies staying alert and watchful, keenly aware of your surroundings, particularly in dangerous circumstances.

Tsun na’rìng lehrrap livu, ma ’eveng. Zene livare frakrr.
‘The forest can be dangerous, child. You need to be alert at all times.’

Here are some words for politely addressing older people. Although the words koaktu, koaktan, and koakte (‘old person,’ ‘old man,’ and ‘old woman’ respectively) do not have any negative connotations, there are variants that are especially polite and culturally significant, especially for direct address:

leiokoaktu (n., le.i.o.KO.ak.tu) ‘respected elder’

leiokoaktan (n., le.i.o.KO.ak.tan) ‘respected male elder’

leiokoakte (n., le.i.o.KO.ak.te) ‘respected female elder’

These words are compounds containing the component leioae ‘respect’ in condensed form.

Note that in normal conversation, these six-syllable words are usually shortened to five syllables: leyokoaktu, etc.

Ngengeyä hafyonìri irayo, ma leiokoakte.
‘Thank you for your wisdom, respected female elder.’

And finally,

keve’otu (n., ke.VE’.o.tu) ‘troublemaker, one who habitually creates chaos and disorder’

From keve’o ‘chaos.’

Aysäleymfe’it peyä yune rä’ä. Lu po keve’otu nì’aw.
‘Don’t listen to his complaints. He’s just a troublemaker.’

Hayalovay!

ETA: I forgot to mention something. A number of you have pointed out that the word Mangkwan, the name of the Ash People which has now appeared in numerous places, is not standard Na’vi, since kw is not a permitted consonant cluster. That’s correct. I’ll have more to say about this as we get closer to the premiere of Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Kaltxì, ma frapo.

A very belated Mipa Zìsìt Lefpom. Nìrangal oe tsirvun pivlltxe san fìzìsit sngolä’i nìltsan sìk, slä ke tsängun. At least there’s room for things to get better as the year progresses.

Kezemplltxe, I have a lot of comments and submissions to respond to, but the situation in Los Angeles right now is difficult, and my mind is on other things. I’ll get to the needed responses as soon as I can.

In the meantime, let me share a recent email discussion with you that I think you’ll find interesting.

A member of the lì’fyaolo’ wrote:

A question came up about pum:

Could pum ever be used without a narrowing descriptor attached? (We seem to have no examples of this.)

e.g., Is the following translation valid?

‘You have too many arrows? Give me one!’
Lu ngaru swizaw nìhawng srak?  (?)Tìng oer pumit!

Or, is the sentence Tìng oer pumit ungrammatical because pum has no narrowing descriptor like an adjective or clause or genitive along with it?

My response:

Your analysis of pum, in that it requires a narrowing descriptor (I like that terminology!), is correct. That’s the only thing we’ve seen so far, and I’d like to keep it that way.

 So I would not consider Tìng oer pumit grammatical. But there’s a simple way out of this:

 When you’re saying “Give me one,” it really is one, not two or three or twenty. If it were, “Give me five,” for example, what would that be?

Lu ngaru swizaw nìhawng srak? Tìng oer pumit amrr!

 That’s fine, since pumit has the descriptor amrr.

 So ‘Give me one’ would be:

Tìng oer pumit a’aw!

That being said, some related things came to mind.

First, when you say “Give me one,” what are you really saying? It’s “Give me one OF THEM,” i.e., give me one of the things you have or that we’ve been talking about.

Some languages make “of them” in this context obligatory. Take French and Italian, for example. (I’ll switch from “arrow” to “book” for familiarity.) For “You have too many books. Give me five.”:

FRENCH: Tu as trop de livres. Donne-m’en cinq.

ITALIAN: Hai troppi libri. Dammene cinque.

Here, en in French and ne in Italian are obligatory particles, often classified as pronouns, that mean “of them.”

But other languages don’t require this.

SPANISH: Tienes demasiados libros. Dame cinco.

GERMAN: Du hast zu viele Bücher. Gib mir fünf.

You could specify “of them” in these languages by adding “de ellos” (Sp.) and “davon” (Ger.), but it’s not obligatory.

I’d like Na’vi to have the non-obligatory “of them” option. That would be sawta (from aysa’u + ta) for non-animates, fota (ayfo + ta) for people. So, for example:

 Lu ngaru ’eveng apukap, slä smon oer fota pum amrr nì’aw.
‘You have six children, but I only know five of them.’

Note that without fota, the sentence could conceivably be ambiguous. Perhaps you’re saying you’ve only known five kids in your entire experience, not necessarily the kids of the person you’re speaking to! Adding fota rules out that admittedly unlikely interpretation.

Another thing: “Give me one!” made me consider a different use of “one,” as in “You have a house and I have one too.”

Should we use pum here? *Lu ngaru kelku ulte lu oer pum kop?

That violates the “narrowing descriptor” rule, and this time you can’t save it with a’aw, because you’re not talking about one as opposed to more than one. So I would rule that ungrammatical. How to translate the sentence, then? Probably just:

Lu ngaru kelku, ulte oeru nìteng.

Another hapxìtu lì’fyaolo’ä responded:

The only complication is that the genitive is sometimes used in this partitive sense, adding questions for me for the {sawta} and {fota} uses.

Na’viyä luyu hapxì.
‘You are part of the Na’vi.’

Tsu’teyìl tolìng oer mawlit smarä.
Tsu’tey gave me a half of the prey.

So, you’ve used both genitives and {ta} for a partitive. How would you say, “send five of the warriors” (out of a larger group) vs. just “send five warriors?”

My response:

Good point about the genitive option. I actually considered it myself. The reason I went with the ta forms is because of the ambiguity of genitives like feyä:

Lu ayngaru pxaya tsamsiyu. Fpe’ ayoer __?__ pumit amrr.
‘You have many warriors. Send us five of them.’

The genitive form here would be feyä. But that looks like a possessive adjective, i.e. ‘their,’ with a resulting meaning something like, ‘Send us their five ones,’ which doesn’t make sense in this context. Fota doesn’t run into that problem.

But the examples you’ve pointed out with the genitive aren’t wrong. There are two related ways to form partitives, which are sometimes but not always interchangeable:

1a. Na’viyä luyu hapxì.
1b. Na’vita luyu hapxì.

2a. Tsu’teyìl tolìng oer mawlit smarä.
2b. Tsu’teyìl tolìng oer mawlit smarta.

The a and b forms are acceptable in both cases. I’ll have to consider whether there are rules for preferring one over the other; right now I can’t think of any. But sawta and fota should be used with pum.

Hayalovay.

Kaltxì, ma frapo.

Whether you’ve been celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Festivus, or anything else, I hope this holiday season has been, and continues fo be, a healthy and happy one for you all.

Before anything else, I want to reassure you that I haven’t forgotten about the UDHR submissions! I was hoping to have some comments for you by this time, but other matters have intervened. I will, however, get to them in the next few days. Ayngeyä tìmweypeyri irayo!

In the meantime, here are some odds and ends I hope you’ll find useful:

More on indirect questions

There’s nothing here that’s really new. It’s more of a completion of things we already know.

Many of you have seen this explanation before—back in 2011, actually!—but I think it’s worth a review. An Indirect question is a question embedded in another sentence, which allows you talk about the question. For example, “Why did he leave?” is a direct question; “I know why he left” is indirect, where the speaker is commenting on the direct question. As this example shows, some languages—English, for instance—require different syntax for direct and indirect questions:

DIRECT
Why did he leave?
*Why he left?

INDIRECT
*I know why did he leave.
I know why he left.

As you know, Na’vi prefers directness, retaining the original quote for reported speech and the original question for embedded questions. So rather than the equivalent of “She said she would come,” Na’vi retains the speaker’s original statement: Poltxe po san oe zasya’u sìk, “She said (quote), ‘I will come’ (unquote).’

For embedded questions, Na’vi makes the underlying semantics clear. When we say, “I know why he left,” what are we really saying? It’s that we know the answer to the question, “Why did he leave?” Na’vi spells this out explicitly, using the noun for answer, tì’eyng, in a shortened form, teyng,as the base of various subordinate conjunctions: tì’eyng + a  teyngla, tì’eyngit + a –> teyngta, etc.

Our example sentence ‘I know why he left’ then becomes Omum oel teyngta lumpe po holum. In tortured English, this is essentially, “I know the why-did-he-leave answer.’

With that in mind, here are the teyng-forms we’ve already seen:

SUBJECTIVE: teynga

Teynga lumpe po holum ke lu law.
‘It’s not clear why he left.’

AGENTIVE: teyngla

Teyngla lumpe po holum oeti heykolangham.
‘Why he left made me laugh.’

PATIENTIVE: teyngta

Omum oel teyngta lumpe po holum.
‘I know why he left.’

That’s what we’ve seen up to now. But teyng exists in the other three cases as well:

DATIVE: teyngra (from tì’eyngur + a)

Rutxe law sivi teyngra lumpe po holum.
‘Please clarify why he left.’

GENITIVE: teyngä (from tì’eyngä + a)

Tìrunìl teyngä lumpe po holum oeti keftxo ’eykolefu.
‘The discovery of why he left saddened me.’

tìrun (n., tì.RUN) ‘discovery’

TOPICAL: teyngria (from tì’eyngri + a)

Teyngria lumpe po holum oel ke tslam ke’ut.
‘I understand nothing about why he left.’
(‘As for why he left, I understand nothing.’)

Note: The dative and topical forms were submitted to me by the LEP a little over a year ago. Irayo nìtxan, ma smuk!

One more thing: teyng can take adpositions too. For example:

Ayoe perängkxo teri teynga lumpe po holum.
‘We’re chatting about why he left.’

Moving on, here are a few things I’ve discussed with people privately via email that I’d like to share with everyone:

<ay> and <ìy> vs. <asy> and <ìsy>

A question arose about the “intentional future” infixes, the ones with s. How would we translate the well-known quote from Lord of the Rings, “You shall not pass!” Using ftem ‘pass by,’ would it be Ngal oeti ke ftìyem Or Ngal oeti ke ftìsyem? This was my response:

I would say that for “You shall not pass!” it’s better not to use <ìsy> and just use <ìy>. As you know, adding the s to the future infixes adds the idea of intent to a simple prediction about the future. That’s why the sy-forms are used exclusively in the first person: You know what your own intentions are, but you can’t make assertions about someone else’s, since you’re not in their head.

When you say Oe hasyum, you’re actually saying two things: (1) Something is going to happen, i.e., my departure; (2) it’s going to happen because it’s my intention—i.e., I am going to cause it to happen. (Of course, we have sentences like, “John intends to leave,” but that’s a little different. It’s making a statement about John’s current mindset as we understand it, but it’s not really making a prediction about the future. John may wind up not leaving at all, due to circumstances beyond his control.) For “You shall not pass,” we’re not saying, “Your intention is not to pass,” or that “I can compel you to intend not to pass.” It’s really a simple prediction about your behavior, even though it’s based on my own intentions.

Counterfactual ‘should have’

A question arose about how to express counterfactual ‘should have’ expressions in Na’vi as in, “You should have gone (but you didn’t).” Here’s what I wrote:

As you know, “should” in Na’vi is sweylu, which literally means, “it’s best (that).”

So “You should (counterfactually) have gone” is actually “If you had gone, it would have been better.”

From the rules we’ve seen, this is:

(1) Zun nga kilvä, zel sweylilvu. Turning it around:

(2) Zel sweylilvu zun nga kilvä.

But we also know that if the time of both clauses is the same, we can use the bare verb in the zel clause:

(3) Zun nga kilvä, zel sweylu. And turning that around,

(4) Zel sweylu zun nga kilvä. 

Finally, in sentences like (4), we can omit zel in casual conversation to get:

(5) Sweylu zun nga kilvä.

So all of (1) through (5) are acceptable for “You should have gone.”

One wrinkle:

The above assumes that the “better” part was in the past: You didn’t go last year, and LAST YEAR it would have better if you HAD gone. But we could also mean that the better part is NOW: If you had gone last year, the situation would be better NOW. (There were negative consequences of the person’s not going that are affecting the present situation.) This changes (1) and (2) to:

(1’) Zun nga kilvä, zel sweylivu.

(2’) Zel sweylivu zun nga kilvä.

Note that there are no parallels to (3) and (4), since the verb in the zel clause can only go into the root form if the time of both clauses is the same:

(3’) *Zun nga kilvä, zel sweylu.

(4’) *Zel sweylu zun nga kilvä.

However, we can omit zel as in (5) to get:

(5’) Sweylivu zun nga kilvä.

And finally, a new idiom:

na fkxen eo fkio  Literally, ‘like vegetable food before a tetrapteron.’

It’s used in the sense of ‘to go to waste.’ Tetrapterons (ayfkio) are predators and have no use for vegetable-based food. If you place vegetables before them, that food will go to waste.

Ngeyä fìtìkangkemvi atxantsan ke slayu na fkxen eo fkio.
‘This excellent work of yours will not go to waste.’

That’s it for now. Hayalovay!

I’m delighted to announce that the Sarentu Song from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has won Best Song in a Video Game (console & PC) at the 2024 Hollywood Music in Media Awards!

The complete list of winners is here, and you can hear the Sarentu Song and see the lyrics here.

The beautiful melody was composed by Pinar Toprak, and I provided the Na’vi lyrics. The recording and production were under the direction of Patrick Görtjes of Massive Entertainment in Sweden, a division of Ubisoft.

It was a real pleasure to be part of the team that developed this beautiful, moving song. And, of course, I’m proud that something involving Lì’fya leNa’vi has won this recognition.

On another note, irayo nìtxan to all of you who’ve already contributed translations for our UDHR project! I’m so glad you’ve taken the plunge and found the effort worthwhile. I won’t comment on the submissions until after the closing date, December 15^th, but please know I appreciate all of them—and I welcome more! (Related to the UDHR, I’m about to add a couple more resource links to the previous post that I think you’ll find interesting.)

Hayalovay!

Kaltxì, ma frapo, ulte Vospxìvosìng lefpom! Happy December! I hope that those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a great day with family and friends, and that you’re all doing well as we zoom into the holiday season.

I’d like to propose a little project that I think will be fun and productive to work on, and that also has relevance to the current world situation.

What is the most translated piece of writing that exists? If you answered “the Bible,” you’re right in that it’s the most translated book (or, if you prefer, collection of books). But if you’re talking about a document, it’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UDHR, which was adopted by members of the United Nations in 1948. To date, it’s been translated into 569 languages.

I think it’s time for a Na’vi translation!

Translating the entire document, with its lengthy preamble and thirty articles, is a major undertaking. (I should mention that a complete translation into Klingon is now available! It was submitted to and accepted by the United Nations in February of this year.) What we can do, however, is get started with the best-known part of the UDHD, Article 1:

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

So I’d like to invite any and all members of the lì’fyaolo’ who are interested to submit a translation!

Let’s do this: The deadline for submission will be two weeks from now, Sunday, December 15. You can submit your response in two ways: (1) as a comment to this post, which of course will include your Na’vi name, or, if for any reason you’d prefer not to have your name attached, (2) in an email to me ([email protected]) with the subject line “UDHR Na’vi,” which I will then transfer anonymously to a comment along with the others. Either way is fine. Feel free to include whatever explanation and discussion you think would be helpful, and any remaining questions you have. And please don’t feel your version has to be perfect! All efforts, at any level, will be appreciated! Once all the entries are in, I’ll review them and try to put together an “official” Na’vi translation using the best parts of the submissions as I see them.

By the way, don’t think the English version is the original one, with all the others being secondary. The original version was actually the French one, which is considered authoritative if disputes arise about meaning. But the translations are not all parallel. Many, if not most, reflect something about the culture and environment in which the particular language is spoken. As one author has written (see the link below), “Translating this document isn’t self-evident . . . . Every language is a vehicle of different ideas, cultures and philosophical traditions; some would even go so far as to say that languages influence how we see the world.” (Sound familiar? 🙂  )

This means that our Na’vi translation is likely to reflect aspects of the Na’vi themselves: their way of thinking, their environment, perhaps their proverbs, similes, and metaphors, etc. You can use all of the vocabulary we have so far, but given the abstract concepts in Article 1, you’ll probably have to invent some new vocabulary as well. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with! But at the same time, don’t feel that if the English (or French, or German, . . . ) translation has a particular lexical item, you necessarily have to have a parallel item in your Na’vi version! There may be other ways to get the meaning across. (See the example below.)

For any sulfätu lelì’fya who would like to go further than Article 1, I’d suggest Article 19:

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Or you could choose whatever part(s) of the UDHR appeal to you the most. But these additions are not necessary. For the time being, we’re only aiming to produce an official version of Article 1.

Here are some resources you’ll find useful:

First, the official web site of the UDHR.

Next, the Wikipedia article.

Here is the complete UDHR in English.

This article on UDHR translation issues is one I especially recommend.

Finally, this Maori version of Article 1 illustrates how a translation can get the basic ideas across without slavishly following the vocabulary and structure of any other version.

Fìtìkangkemvi ahì’i ’o’ livu nì’aw! I’m looking forward to seeing your creativity!

Update December 2^nd:

Here are two more resource links that I think you’ll find interesting:

First, this is an excellent 12-minute podcast on the UDHR that provides a more in-depth look at its history and context. It’s in the “Documents That Changed the World” series, written, produced, and narrated by Joe Janes, a professor in the Information School of the University of Washington and a personal friend.

And this translation site provides a remarkable collection of UDHR translations in both written and audio form. Type the language you want into the search box and chances are you’ll get a written translation read by a native speaker.

Kaltxì, ma frapo.

I hope you’ve all had an appropriately fun and spooky Halloween, and that November has started out well for you. Ulte ayngeyä tìmweypeyri irayo seiyi oe nìtxan.

I’ve finally replied to the comments I received on the last post—take a look when you can, as there are a couple of new vocabulary items there that you may find useful.

And here, for those who missed it, I’m finally posting the video of my Na’vigation talk from a few months back, which Tekre provided in a form that mercifully eliminated the technical glitches that were entirely my own fault. Irayo nìtxan, ma tsmuk!

The video is available on Google Drive here.

(If there’s any problem with the link, please let me know.)

As you’ll see, the talk was especially targeted to those of you who have created, or are thinking of creating, your own constructed language. The examples I gave, however, are largely from Na’vi.

One new thing in this talk was a brief discussion of orthography—that is, writing systems. So let me say a few things—or rather, ask you a few questions—about orthography as it relates to Na’vi.

For convenience, here are the relevant PowerPoint slides:

Orthography slides–4 Aug 2024

Some questions to think about:

A. Of the five types of orthographies mentioned—alphabets, abugidas, abjads, syllabaries, and logographic systems—which do you think works the best for Na’vi? Why?

B. In particular, what about a syllabic system for Na’vi? Syllabaries work very well for Japanese. Would they work for Na’vi too? (Hint: What is the significance of the number 8,690?)

C. The standard alphabetic system we use to write Na’vi is of course a modified form of the Roman alphabet. In most cases, there’s a one-to-one correspondence between sound and symbol: each distinctive sound is mapped onto one written symbol, and each written symbol is mapped onto one distinctive sound. But there are exceptions: the digraphs. These are pairs of letters that correspond to single consonants. The Na’vi digraphs are ng, ts, kx, px, and tx (and in Reef Na’vi, ch and sh).

For many, digraphs are unappealing—partly for logical or aesthetic reasons (“Why should a single sound need two letters?”) but also because of possible ambiguities. Think of English words like “mishap” and “cathouse” and you’ll see the problem.

Some of you may recall that early on, there were two proposed Roman alphabetic systems for Na’vi—the one we have now, which we can call the “popular” system, and one that eliminated some of the digraphs, which we can call the “scientific” system.

In the scientific system, the ts sound was written as c. Since c is not otherwise used in Na’vi, this is perfectly possible. And in fact some earth languages use c in exactly this way, so there’s ample precedent for this usage.

Also, the ng sound—the velar nasal—was written simply as g. Since g by itself is not used in Na’vi, this works well. And as with c, there is precedent in earth languages for this usage. (Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is actually pronounced “Pango Pango.”)

All this being said, the scientific system was not successful and died out quickly. Why do you think that happened?

Hayalovay, ma eylan.

Ma eylan,

Tse, Vospxìvolaw polähem sneyä tì’i’aro, ulte leiu oe txen. 🙂 

(If you don’t know the reference, try this.)

We haven’t had any new vocabulary in a long time, so here are a couple dozen words I hope you’ll find useful. They’re taken from, or inspired by, the large backlog of submissions I have from the LEP committee. Seysonìltsan, ma smuk!

In no particular order:

keve’o (n., ke.VE.’o) ‘chaos, disorder’

This is from ke + ve’o ‘order.’

Ngeyä aysäfpìlmì tse’änga oel keve’ot nì’aw.
‘In your thinking, I see only chaos.’

lekve’o (adj., lek.VE.’o) ‘chaotic’

Lam oeru kifkey lekve’o.
‘The world seems chaotic to me.’

vurtu (n., VUR.tu) ‘fictional character’

Txon Kihote lu vurtu nì’aw; ke fkeytolok kawkrr.
Don Quixote is a fictional character; he never existed.

tstunlan (adj., TSTUN.lan) ‘kind-hearted’

From tstunwi ‘kind’ + txe’lan ‘heart.’ It’s the opposite of kawnglan ‘bad-hearted, malicious.’

kalintu (n., ka.LIN.tu) ‘sweet person’

Lu nga kalintu nìngay.
‘You’re really a sweet person.’

Kalintu can be used as an endearing form of address, as in ma kalintu, but it’s not as intimate or affectionate as paskalin.

txeym (adj.) ‘interested’

As an adjective, txeym is used with ’efu. So we now have two ways to say we’re interested in something:

Oeri tsavur eltur tìtxen si.
Tsavurìri oe ’efu txeym.
‘I’m interested in that story.’

Txeym, however, yields the noun for ‘interest’:

tìtxeym (n., tì.TXEYM) ‘interest’

Feyä vurìri lolu txana tìtxeym.
‘There was great interest in their story.’

tengralì’u (n., TENG.ra.lì.’u) ‘synonym’

This is clearly derived from teng ‘same’ + ral ‘meaning’ + lì’u ‘word.’

Melì’u alu pxel sì na lu tengralì’u.
‘The two words pxel and na are synonyms.’

wäralì’u (n., WÄ.ra.lì.’u) ‘antonym’

Recall that wä means ‘opposing.’

zal (n.) ‘clay, usually for pottery’

Fkol fìfnetsngalit txula ta zal.
‘This kind of cup is made of clay.’

let’eylan (adj., let.’EY.lan) ‘friendly’ ofp

tì’eylanga’ (adj., tì.’EY.la.nga’) ‘friendly’ nfp

Ayhapxìtu soaiä ngeyä lu oeru let’eylan nìwotx.
‘Your family members are all friendly to me.’

Ngeyä aylì’uri atì’eylanga’ seiyi irayo.
‘Thank you for your friendly words.’

hasa’ (n. ha.SA’) ‘orphan’

Krrka tsam slängu pxaya ’eveng hasa’.
‘During war, sad to say, many children become orphans.’

yehaw (adj., YE.haw) ‘well-rested, having had enough sleep’

As you recall, ye is an adjective meaning ‘content’ or ‘satiated.’ The second syllable, of course, comes from hahaw ‘sleep.’

Lam frakem letsunslu krra fko ’efu yehaw.
‘Everything seems possible when one is well-rested.’

tseovi (n., TSE.o.vi) ‘work of art’

Fìfkxile lu tseovi alor.
‘This necklace is a beautiful work of art.’

tìnitram (n., tì.nit.RAM) ‘happiness’

We now have three words that refer to happiness: fpom, lawnol, and tìnitram. Although there is overlap, they’re all slightly different in meaning. Fpom refers to the general feeling or situation of peace and well-being in your life. Lawnol is the most intense of the three—a transcendent feeling of joy. Tìnitram usually refers to the happiness resulting from a particular situation or event.

Note the two equivalent grammatical constructions:

Oe ’efu nitram.
Lu oer(u) tìnitram.
‘I feel happy.’

okupsyu (n., O.kup.syu) ‘dairy product’

Clearly from okup ‘milk’ + syuve ‘food.’

stxang (n.) ‘axe, hatchet, tomahawk’

There was some discussion about whether the Na’vi traditionally use axe-like tools, but it seems plausible that they do, since these are natural tools for chopping down trees and other vegetation.

tìwätenga’ (adj., tì.wä.TE.nga’) ‘controversial’ nfp

Recall the word tìwäte, meaning ‘argument’ or ‘dispute.’

Fìpukmì a aysäfpìl lu tìwätenga’ nìtxan.
‘The ideas in this book are very controversial.’

velun (n., ve.LUN) ‘logic’

This is a compound of ve’o ‘order’ + lun ‘reason.’

Ngeyä tìhawlìri ke längu kea velun.
‘I’m sorry to say there’s no logic in your plan.’

säpxor (n., sä.PXOR) ‘explosion’

Stìmawm säpxorit! Tul!
‘(I) just heard an explosion! Run!’

txikx (vtr.) ‘chew’

säkeynven (n., sä.keyn.VEN) ‘step’

This word is colloquially pronounced skeynven and often written that way informally.

Rawng tsaslärä ftu fìtsenge lu vola skeynven nì’aw.
‘The entrance to the cave is only eight steps from here.’

kawlo (adv., KAW.lo) ‘not once’

This is a contraction of ke ‘not’ + ’awlo ‘one time.’

Oel keng kawlo ke solar kea räptulì’fyat ngahu!
‘I have never even once used vulgar language with you!’

That’s it for now. If you see any typos or other goofs, please let me know!

Hayalovay!

Edits Oct. 31: Various typos corrected; vuri –> vurìri 2X.

Ma eylan,

Soaiari Uniltìrantokxä, alo amuve längu fmawn atìkeftxonga’. Ayngari txo ke li ke stilvawm, zene oe piveng san tolerkängup awngeyä eyktan sì ’eylan alu Jon Landau.

It came as a terrible shock to learn that Jon Landau, Avatar’s producer and James Cameron’s dear friend and collaborator, died Friday, July 5^th, at the age of 63.

My acquaintance with Jon went all the way back to 2005, when I first signed on to the Avatar team. Since then, I interacted with him numerous times. He would often call me to give me a Na’vi assignment or ask how to say such-and-such in the language. He was sometimes my conduit to JC when for whatever reason I couldn’t contact Jim directly with a question. And he approved—and sometimes revised 🙂 —the character and clan names for the video games.

Something that stands out in my memory was Jon’s unannounced visit to one of the U.S. Avatar meet-ups, where he surprised and delighted all the fans in attendance with his warmth and support. In talking to the group about things to come, he expressed his enthusiasm for Na’vi and how he wanted to see the language develop. Needless to say, that was good to hear.

Jim wrote a moving tribute to Jon on Instagram. If you haven’t seen it, let me share it with you:

“The Avatar family grieves the loss of our friend and leader, Jon Landau. His zany humor, personal magnetism, great generosity of spirit and fierce will have held the center of our Avatar universe for almost two decades. His legacy is not just the films he produced, but the personal example he set — indomitable, caring, inclusive, tireless, insightful and utterly unique.

“He produced great films, not by wielding power but by spreading warmth and the joy of making cinema. He inspired us all to be and to bring our best, every day.

“I have lost a dear friend, and my closest collaborator of 31 years. A part of myself has been torn away.”

In my note of condolence to Jim, I included the following:

“Human lifetimes are short, but what you and Jon created together will live on as long as people watch movies, bringing awe and wonder and joy to generation after generation.

“Tolerkup tute; tìkangkem peyä tì’i’avay krrä rayey. The person dies; his work will live on forever.”

Ngari hu Eywa salew tirea, ma Jon. Nga lom layu ayoeru nìtxan.

ta Pawl

Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo!

Our LEP (Lexical Expansion Project) team has been working overtime, and I have an impressive list of submissions, some from months ago, that I’m gradually going through. Most of the following new vocabulary items are either taken directly from their submissions or inspired by them.

First, some body parts:

tsyokxtil (n., TSYOKX.til) ‘wrist’  (usually pronounced tsyoktil)

Tsyokx, as you know, means ‘hand.’ Recall that til means ‘joint.’

zektil (n., ZEK.til) ‘knuckle’ (from zekwä ‘finger’+ til)

tstir (n.) ‘palm of a hand’

stang (n.) ‘torso’

sil (n.) ‘body stripe (non-facial)’

Compare pil, which refers specifically to facial stripes.

Pori frapil sì frasil lor lu nìtxan.
’He/She is very attractive.’
(Literally: ‘As for him/her, every facial and body stripe is very beautiful.’)

In Na’vi slang, this proverbial expression is often reduced to:

Frapil frasil!
‘Wow! Check him/her out! He/She is gorgeous!’

tski (n.) ‘jaw’

kxon (n.) ‘internal organ’

Lu tokxur tuteyä polpxaya kxon?
‘How many internal organs does a person’s body have?’

The next few words are not strictly body parts themselves but are related to them:

rumtsyokx (n., RUM.tsyokx) ‘fist’ (lit.: ball hand)

rìktsyokx (n., RÌK.tsyokx) ‘flat hand’ (lit.: leaf hand)

Ateyol Entut tolakuk fa rumtsyokx.
‘Ateyo punched Entu (i.e. struck him with his fist).’

Ateyol Entut tolakuk fa rìktsyokx.
‘Ateyo slapped Entu (i.e. struck him with his flat hand).’

heynyì (n., HEYN.yì) ‘lap’ (i.e., the flat surface created when sitting)

Za’u heyn sìn oey heynyì, ma ’evi.
‘Come sit on my lap, my child.’

A couple of grammatical terms:

rawnlì’u (n., RAWN.lì.’u) ‘pronoun’  (from rawn ‘substitute, replace’)

pamrìrlì’u (n., pam.RÌR.lì.’u) ‘onomatopoetic word’

An onomatopoetic word is one that imitates (rì’ìr si) the sound of its referent. Most if not all languages have such words. An English example is ratatat, ‘a rapid succession of knocking, tapping, or cracking sounds.’ A Na’vi example is kxangangang ‘boom.’

And some miscellaneous words:

tìtok (n., tì.TOK) ‘presence’

I really like this word! It’s obviously from tok ‘be at, occupy a space.’

Tìtokìl ngeyä ngop tìngäzìkit fraporu.
‘Your presence creates a difficulty for everyone.’

tìktok (n., tìk.TOK) ‘absence’

This is a development of tì + ke + tok. Since tìtok and tìktok are close in sound but opposite in meaning, you need to distinguish them carefully in speaking. If there’s any danger of confusion, you can say the original long form of the word, tìketok.

Tìktokit peyä fkol tsoleri.
‘His absence was noted.’

Tìtok slu tìktok fa pamtsyìp a’aw.
‘Presence becomes absence by means of one little sound.’
(A proverbial expression meaning: ‘Small things can make a big difference.’)

pamtsyìp (n., PAM.tsyìp) ‘small or slight sound’

tskxemauti (n., TSKXE.ma.u.ti) ‘nut’

From tsxke ‘stone’ + mauti ‘fruit’

yayl (n.) ‘nonsense, gibberish’

Yayl can refer either to something completely unintelligible or to something that’s foolish and makes no sense.

Faylì’u a poltxe nga lu yayl nì’aw.
‘What you said is nothing but nonsense.’

You can also use the bare word yayl as a rude put-down of what someone has just said or written:

Yayl!
‘Bullshit!’

leyayl (adj., le.YAYL) ‘nonsensical’

tìtxanro’a (n., tì.txan.RO.’a) ‘fame, glory’

This is a nice sentence to practice out loud for stress and rhythm:

Tsatu a new tìtxanro’at nì’aw / ke slayu eyktan atxantsan kawkrr.
‘The person who wants only fame will never become an excellent leader.’

zeklor (adj., zek.LOR) ‘pleasant to the touch’

Clearly from zekwä ‘finger’ + lor ‘beautiful.’

Sunu oer fìfnesrä taluna lu zeklor.
‘I like this kind of cloth because it feels good.’

Hayalovay, ma eylan!

Edit: ZEK.lor –> zek.LOR