The Vocabulary Committee has been working overtime! The February submission was particularly rich, inventive . . . and massive. It’s going to take me a while to work through all the suggestions, discussions, and examples, and getting out the results will require more than a few blog posts. But I wanted to get in one more post before February turns into March, at least here in California. So for the time being, here are a couple of innovations I liked, which are now officially part of Na’vi. Much more to follow. Livu faylì’fyavi lesar ayngaru!
1. wan ‘hide’ (vtr.)
Pol sä’oti wolan äo ayrìk.
‘He hid his tool under the leaves.’
As reflexive (with the –äp- infix), ‘to hide oneself’:
Wäpan! Sawtute za’u!
‘Hide! The Sky people are coming!’
Nga pelun wäperan?
‘Why are you hiding?’
Idioms and derivations:
Pol säfpìlit verar wivan.
‘He’s keeping his idea a secret.’
nìwan (adv.) secretly; in hiding, by hiding
Samsiyu perey nìwan.
‘The hunters lie in wait, prepared to ambush.’
tìwan (n.) ‘obfuscation, cover-up’
letwan (adj.) ‘dodgy, sneaky (of a person)’
2. slele ‘swim’ (vin.) (SLE.le; infixes 1,2)
Lehrrap lu fwa evitsyìp slele mì hilvan luke fwa fyeyntu terìng nari.
‘It’s dangerous for tiny ones to swim in the river without an adult watching.’
Derivations:
nìslele ‘by swimming’
Tsun fko tsatsengene kivä nìslele fu fa fwa ikranit makto nì’aw.
‘You can only get there by swimming or riding an ikran.’
Edits Mar. 1: Changed n. to adj. for letwan. Corrected Samsiyul to Samsiyu in example sentence for nìwan.
Great! 🙂
Yes, it was a massive list. Please, take all the time that you need, ma Karyu. It’s better these things take time and are well-thought through instead of rushing things.
’Ivong nìk’ong 😉 as the saying goes.
Great! 🙂
Yes, it was a massive list. Please, take all the time that you need, ma Karyu. It’s better these things take time and are well-thought through instead of rushing things.
’Ivong nìk’ong 😉 as the saying goes.
letwan is probably (adj.) instead of (n.), kefyak?
Srane, ngaru tìyawr. Irayo!
I like both roots. 🙂
Nang! I’ve been wanting a word for swim for quite a while now.
And I’m so happy to see that this project is going so well.
‘happy to receive any and all additions to the lexicon. Thank you.
Ma Karyu, melì’uri amip ngengaru irayo seiyi oe. 🙂
Slä lu oeru ‘awa tìpawm, pelun ngenga sar “ergative” mi melì’u alu san pol sì samsiyul sik?
Pol säfpìlit verar wivan.
Samsiyul perey nìwan.
Tsun fì melì’u livu san po sì samsiyu sik srak?
Irayo, ma Kamean. Ngaru tìyawr–tsalì’u alu Samsiyul zene livu Samsiyu. Fìkxeyeyri tsap’alute. Ngian lahea lì’u alu Pol ke lu kxeyey. Tìoeyktìng za’u ye’rìn.
Irayo seiyi ma Karyu! 🙂
Tìoeyktìngiri ngeyä pivey oe. Ngeyä mipa säfpìl oeri eltur tìtxen seiyi nìtxan.
Kxeyeyiri oeyä tsap’alute soli oe. Mi oeyä syena upxaret zene livu “agentive” tup “ergative”.:(
“Pol säfpìlit verar wivan.”
This is particularly interesting because up until now we have seen modal constructions containing transitive verb arguments as follows:
Po verar wivan säfpìlit
po new tivìng tskoti
oe tsun ngati tsive’a
oel kaman futa tivìng poru tsat trram.
so NOW we can do stuff like:
oel tsat new tsive’a
fkol tsat tsun pivlltxe
Is this correct? Thank you for the post!
Excellent observations, entity. You’re right to notice the unusual use of the agentive in this sentence. In a nutshell, you CAN do stuff like this, but it takes a bit of explanation. I don’t have time right now, but I’ll get to it asap.
Seiyi irayo ma Pawl. Ke tsun pivey!
This made my day. ;D
Tewti!! A word for ‘obfuscation’! One of my favorite `Inglìsì words.
Irayo, K. Pawl
what does this mean pls?
Ftxozäri aylrrtok ngaru, trr livu kosman!
it usually means Happy Birthday (or whatever the celebration is), may the day be wonderful. 🙂
Sorry for the late response.