Tìng Mikyun fte Tslivam: Listening Comprehension #1

Here’s a little two-minute listening comprehension exercise for intermediate and advanced learners that I hope will be fun.

You can use it any way you like, but I’d suggest the following:

First, review the recent vocabulary. Some of the newer terms appear in the passage.

Then listen to the narrative all the way through without stopping, and do that several times. Your goal is simply to follow the gist of the story. It’s likely you won’t get everything, and that’s perfectly OK—the important thing is to understand as much as you can without analysis. Try to avoid translating the passage—do your best to put your own language out of your mind. Just see and feel as much as you can of the story in your head.

After that, if you want to jot down a few things to look up or transcribe anything that’s puzzling for later analysis, that’s OK. Just don’t begin that way.

By the way, there are a couple of new words here (based on ones you already know) and also a new idiom. You should be able to understand all of these from the context.

Sivunu ayngar fìtskxekengtsyìp! Have fun!

P.S.—Continued thanks for all the comments. I owe a lot of people replies, which I’ll try to get to soon.

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21 Responses to Tìng Mikyun fte Tslivam: Listening Comprehension #1

  1. Gisle Aune says:

    Irayo nìtxan! Oe tslolam stum nìwotx.

    Is there a possibillity to read for us with a bit limited vocabulary?

  2. Le'eylan says:

    Txantsan 😀
    Slä, oe zene tìving mikyun pxaya ayalo…
    Ulte oe lu nitram, tsnì oel tsivun tslam ‘a’awa ayhapxit 🙂

  3. KalaKuival says:

    Sìltsana vurtsyìp!
    Nìkeftxo ke tsängun mi tslivam nìwotx. Oel nivew kop futa tsive’a pamrelit vurä.

  4. Tirea says:

    Lu tskxekengtsyìp fte tslivam fa tìstusawm. The whole POINT is NOT to see the words. The idea is to break the complete rut of learning a spoken language by txt only methods.

    GREAT STUFF ma Pawl! Irayo seiyi ngaru nìtxan!

  5. Prrton says:

    Fìvurtsyìp yawne lu oer nìwotx!!! And thank goodness for rational folks like Txewì’s mom AND the fact that neither his father nor Loak died in the war. «Frawzo» indeed! The verb aspect/tense usage and context-sensitive gender marking are also fascinating and invaluable ‘native’ examples. Irayo nìtxan, ma Karyu.

  6. *This* is exactly what I have been hoping to tse’a ulte and stawm, fpi increased conversational comprehension. Na’vi as a *spoken* language just took a huge step forward for me. Irayo seiyi nì’ul to nìwotx, ma Karyu!

  7. Mikko Wilson says:

    Iryao ma karyu!

    Oel kepllxte asìtsan leNa’viti. Oeru numeyu lìNa’vi lu.
    Yeah, my conversational Na’vi (without cheating off a vocab list) is still very rough…

    I’ve been learning Na’vi since I first saw Avatar in December. Never before have I had such an interest in learning a language, and it’s kinda strange that my Na’vi is better than various languages I’ve studied in school some years ago. Not sure what that says about Na’vi, the other languages, or perhaps me as a student.

    Thanks Pawl for posting this blog, I’m very glad to see your support of us learning the one language that allows us to express amongst each other a form of communication that is very special. Na’vi has to me some words (concepts) that the “Earth” languages I’m familiar with could really use too. I find it amusing, and of course a little melancholy, that there’s a Na’vi word “Kunsìp”, yet I know of no English word for “Kameie”.

    This particular posting with the spoken Na’vi exercise is wonderful. Not only as an extremely welcome learning tool for improving spoken Na’vi; but also – more importantly – as a huge motivational encouragement. The fact that I can pick up and comprehend words and sentences from the clip is very gratifying. It serves to refuel the energy of learning by providing a “payoff” and a feeling of personal accomplishment. I don’t understand enough to make out the whole story – yet, but once I got parts of it, my yearning to learn the rest is only strengthened.

    Part of me would like for you to post the text of what you spoke, but part of me would rather not have that option.

    Thank you again for this fantastic support you are giving us who over the past 8 months have unwittingly become your students, and for this direct personal connection you have decided to provide us to help us nurture and make Na’vi our own.

    Ngayä numeyu,
    – Mikko

  8. C'tri says:

    This is awesome. I can get small bits of it, just like when I watch the film without subtitles.
    It’s not easy, but each time something new jumps out at me 🙂

    • Sxkxawng says:

      Oeri nìteng.

      Kop, is it just me, or do I hear the “ä”s more like “e”s? The last thing I would want is mergers in Na’vi.

      Txantsanmi, ma Pawl.

  9. AP Nova (LN.org) says:

    Lu ‘awvea pawnlltxea lì’fya Na’viyä a oe stolawm mungwrr mì rel arusikx.
    Tslolam txampxìt, slä zolene stivawm pxaya alo ulte mi ke fra’u lu law oer.
    Tsalsungay lu txantsana ‘u fpi sìnusume fìlì’fyayä

  10. Plumps says:

    Wou tskxekeng!

    Tìstusawm fwa lì’fya slu rusey nì’ul a fì’u oeru prrte’ lu!
    Oe zene tskxekeng sivi oeyä famru alu « p, t, k » yaluke tì’i’aro aylì’uä 😉

  11. Txantsana tskxekeng, seiyi irayo!

    I notice you do what everyone else I’ve heard tries to do and pronounce ‘ìnglìsì like “English” but with the Na’vi vowels and the sh removed… Namely, that means the /ng/ gets a little bit of a voiced stop thrown in like we would say in English, rather than purely being a nasal like would be said in Na’vi.

  12. I suppose I should also point out… The play button does not work in Chrome.

  13. Ftiafpi says:

    Anyway, finally got around to sitting down and working out the details of this story. After listening to it in the car about 5 or so times I could get the gist of the story but couldn’t figure out the details. I found it was really hard to pick out names, until I sat down with it I didn’t figure out that Txewì was a name and for some reason it also took me that long to figure out Toktor Kerasì (sic) was Dr. Grace (though I figured it was by the context).

    This was extremely useful though, I found that it was easier than I thought it would be to switch my mental language over to Na’vi for this. I think that the only thing that’s really holding me back it instantaneous recognition of phrases and words. “Kaltxì ma eylan…” clicks right away but “frawzo” puzzled me until I looked it up. These things become difficult for speech recognition because I get only snatches of a phrase and the rest I have to puzzle over but, by that point, the speaker has already moved on.

    Well, I do hope to see more like this though, this was a great exercise in many ways as well as useful for the more advanced linguists to pull apart and find little nuggets of information.

    Fì’uri ngaru seiyi irayo ma Karyu Pawl

  14. tigermind says:

    Ma karyu Pawl, fìtskxekengìri ngaru irayo seiyi oe. Tsaru tìmìng mikyun oel. Zene pivlltxe san Fì’u oeru ngäzìk lu fìtxan nang! sìk. Kolängin oel futa tìng mikyun tsaru alo apxay. Slä lì’fyat leNa’vi nerume ‘awsiteng ayoel nìwotx, ulte fìfnel tskxekengä srung seiyi ayoeru. Ha, irayo nìmun!

    Karyu Pawl, thank you for this exercise. I just listened to it. I must say, this is so difficult for me! I needed to listen to it many times =( But we’re all learning the Na’vi language together, and this kind of exercise is helping us. So, thanks again!

    ta Lawren (alu tigermind)

  15. Kxrekorikus says:

    Ma Karyu Pawl.
    Txantsana tskxekeng.
    Oel tsleiam ngeyä aylì’ut. 🙂
    Oe tsun nivume Lì’fyat leNa’vi ulte fwa oeru prrte’ leiu 🙂

    Lu Ngengaru ätxäle.

    Oel ngeyä srungit kin.
    Tìng nari oeyä kelkuro ( http://www.polskxa.lenavi.avatar.net.pl – Pìlok Na’vi nì’aw)
    Txo Ngenga terìng nari aylì’uru oeyä, rutxe, tìng oeru aungia. Ngeyä tìfyawìntxuri srung sivi oeru nìtxan.
    Wivìntxu oer oeyä keyeyit, txo lu fo.

    Ngeyä Numeyu
    Kxrekorikus

  16. Kemaweyan says:

    Irayo seiyi oe ngar, ma Pawl. Txantsana vurtsyìp leiu fì’u, oeyä eltur tìtxen soli nìngay 🙂 Oe tsolun tslivam stum nìwotx, mungwrr mestxot a ke amomängum oel nìkeftxo. Ngian set olomum oel mesat, irayo 🙂

    Lu oer tìpawm alu teri txura fam aylì’umì alu hu tì’i’a alu -e. Nì’awnomum eyawl lu fìfya alu poé ulte tsafya nìngay stawm fko. Slä lì’uri alu tsmuke oe sì eylan oeyä nìlaw stawm san tsmúke sìk, hufwa lu ro Wiki koren a pam -e maylì’u letuté frakrr lu txur. Rutxe oeyktivìng ayoer fìtxeleri. Irayo 🙂

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