New Vocabulary, Part 2

Here’s Part 2 of the new vocabulary post from last time. Some of these words, I think, will turn out to be quite useful.

1. li (adv.) ‘already’

Tìkangkem li hasey lu.
‘The work is already finished.’

Li pol terok fìtsengit srak?
‘Is she already here?’

Ayfohu li oe ultxa soli.
‘I’ve already met with them.’

What does li add to a sentence? To paraphrase the lucid analysis of one of the vocabulary committee members, li does two jobs: (1) it indicates completion, and (2) it’s a way for speakers (or writers) to react to their reasonable assumptions about what listeners (or readers) are thinking.

For example:

A: Srake new nga oehu yivom wutsot?
‘Do you want to have dinner with me?’
B: Oer txoa livu. Li yolom.

‘Sorry. I’ve already eaten.’

Here, B sees from A’s question that A is assuming she (B) hasn’t yet eaten. B’s response says, in effect, “You evidently think I haven’t had dinner, but in fact I have.”

For the negative, Na’vi doesn’t use a separate lexical item like English (already ~ not yet) or French (déjà ~ pas encore) but simply negates li:

A: Fo li polähem srak?
‘Have they already arrived?’
B: Ke li.

‘Not yet.’

Li has some idiomatic uses as well:

A.     In imperatives to convey strong urgency:

Ngal mi fìtsengit terok srak? Li kä!
‘You’re still here? Get going!’.

(Note: It’s the verb that gets the sentence stress, not the li: li KÄ!)

Also note the set phrase:

Li ko.
‘Well, get to it, then.’ OR ‘Let’s get on it.’
(Here li gets the stress: LI ko.)

B.     As a somewhat hesitant or weak ‘yes,’ as in colloquial English “Well, yeah, kind of.”

A: Nga mllte srak?
‘Do you agree?’
B: Li, slä
‘Well, yes, I guess so, but . . .’

The negative of this usage is simply ke li, which could be translated in colloquial English as ‘not really.’ This overlaps the ‘not yet’ usage above, but in most cases the context will disambiguate.

C.     Combined with sre (ADP+) to indicate ‘by’ in the time sense—that is, ‘before or up to, but not after.’ For example:

Kem si li trraysre.
‘Do it by tomorrow.’

If sre comes before the time expression, it fuses with li into lisre (LI.sre), an adposition that is still ADP+ . . . i.e., that will cause lenition:

Kem si lisre srray.
‘Do it by tomorrow.’

Regarding ‘already,’ I want to say a big irayo to the vocabulary committee for an extremely rich discussion from which I learned a lot. I got great examples of how the corresponding words for ‘already’ are used in Japanese, Thai, Spanish, Irish, German, Swedish, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Nahuatl. Tewti, ma eylan! Lì’fyari lu aynga sulfätu nìwotx.

2. ronsrelngop ‘imagine, envision’ (vtr., infixes 33) (RON.srel.ngop)

Tsat ke tsun oe ronsrelngivop.
‘I can’t imagine that.’

Oel ronsrelngop futa Eywevengit tok.
‘I imagine that I’m on Pandora.’

The etymology of this word is probably clear: ronsem + rel + ngop, ‘mind-picture-create.’ Note, however, that in colloquial as opposed to careful or formal speech, ronsrelngop is usually pronounced ronsrewngop. (The sound change vowel + l –> vowel + w has occurred in Earth languages as well, for example in the history of French. Compare “salsa” and “sauce”!) This has led to a popular misunderstanding, or “folk etymology,” where the word is connected to srew, ‘dance,’ as if imagination were a dance in the mind. It’s a nice idea, but that’s not where the word actually comes from.

Derivation: ronsrel (n.) ‘something imagined’ (RON.srel)

Ayronsrel peyä hängek nìtxan.
‘His imaginings are (unpleasantly) weird.’

Derivation: tìronsrel (n.) ‘imagination’ (tì.RON.srel)

Lu poru tìronsrel atxanatan.
‘She has a vivid imagination.’

Note: txanatan (adj.) ‘bright, vivid’ (TXA.na.tan, from txan + atan)

Derivation: leronsrel (adj.) ‘imaginary’

Oe new sivop ne tsakifkey leronsrel.
‘I want to journey to that imaginary world.’

Derivation: nìronsrel (adv.) ‘in/by imagination’

Oe pxìm pängkxo ngahu nìronsrel.
‘I often talk with you in my imagination.’
OR
‘I often imagine I’m talking with you.’

3. srefey ‘expect’ (vtr., vitr., infixes 22) (sre.FEY, from sre and pey)

This verb can be transitive or intransitive, so there are alternate structures to express the same idea:

Set srefey oel futa tsampongu tätxaw maw txon’ong.
OR:
Set srefey oe tsnì tsampongu tätxaw maw txon’ong.

‘I’m currently expecting the war party back after nightfall.’

Note the useful idiom srefereiey nìprrte’, ‘looking forward’:

Tsaria ngahu ye’rìn ultxa si nìmun, oe srefereiey nìprrte’.
‘I’m looking forward to getting together with you again soon.’

You can use this phrase by itself as a positive response to someone’s offer:

A. Oeng rewonay ’awsiteng tivaron ko.
‘Let’s you and I go hunting together tomorrow morning.’
B.
Srefereiey nìprrte’.
‘I’ll look forward to that.’ OR ‘I’d love to.’

FRACTION PARADIGM

mawl (n.) ‘half’

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

As you see, to say ‘half of something’ you simply use the genitive of the noun.

pan (n.) ‘third, one third’

Tsu’teyìl tolìng oer panit smarä.

Tsu’tey gave me a third of the prey.

Two thirds is simply mefan (me.FAN), with the dual me effecting lenition in the usual way.

For fractions with denominators higher than 3 we use the prefix form of the number plus the suffix pxì, derived from hapxì ‘part.’ Hapxì is stressed on the second syllable (ha.PXÌ), and this has influenced the fraction words, which retain the stress on pxì.

tsìpxì ‘one-fourth’ (tsì.PXÌ)

mrrpxì ‘one-fifth’ (mrr.PXÌ)

pupxì ‘one-sixth’ (pu.PXÌ)

kipxì ‘one-seventh’ (ki.PXÌ)

vopxì ‘one-eighth’ (vo.PXÌ)

To make higher fractions from these, use simple numbers:

munea mrrpxì – ‘two-fifths’

kipxì atsìng – ‘four-sevenths’

Tam. Hayalovay, ma oeyä eylan.

Edits, 21 Feb.: Example with hek corrected. “A’s response” corrected to “B’s response” in li discussion.

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19 Responses to New Vocabulary, Part 2

  1. okrìsti says:

    Even though my available time has shrunk to its minimal, I am delighted to see new and useful words getting added to the vocabulary.
    Many greetings to all of you awesome people,
    ta okrìsti 🙂

  2. Maweyatan says:

    :DDDDD I can finally translate Imagine by John Lennon. :DDDD

  3. Sxkxawng says:

    ‘Awa lì’u: TEWTI 😀

    …ulte irayo seiyi ngengaru, ma Pawl. Nìltsan vivar!

  4. Carborundum says:

    Ah, fractions! Now we just need irrational and complex numbers too 😉

  5. Ikran Ahiyìk says:

    Kehe.. even mixed fraction is rejected, how to make these..?

    ————————

    Quarters –
    of course 1/5, 1/6, 1/7… can’t take prefix because we don’t have prefixes for 4, 5, 6… but for X/4, they are these,
    tsìpxì (a’aw), tsìpxì amune, tsìpxì apxey

    or these? .. It is possible
    tsìpxì, *mesìpxì, *pxesìpxì

    • Sxkxawng says:

      I would expect that mixed fractions are simply a whole number combined with a fraction using sì.

      N.K.: ‘aw sì mawl: 1½.

  6. Dawid Dahl says:

    Thanks, Paul!

  7. Ma Karyu, mipa aylì’uri ngengaru oe nìtxan seiyi irayo!

    Ngian fìlì’fyari lu oeru yayayr: “Ayronsrel peyä hek längu nìtxan.” Ngal pelun sar kemlì’ut alu “längu” ‘awsiteng kemlì’uhu alu “hek”?

  8. entity says:

    YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Such a GREAT array of new vocabulary! 😀

    Irayo seiyi oe frapor a tìkangkem soli fte fì’u tsivun lilven nìtxan nang!
    A BIG thanks to all contributors.

  9. Tswusayona Tsamsiyu says:

    Tewti! Faylì’u lu nìtxan txantsan!
    Fmayi oe sar fìlì’ut (especially li becuase it is very useful) frakrr.
    Irayo ulte Eywa ngahu frakrr sì fratseng ma karyu Pawl.
    ‘ivong Na’vi!!

  10. xMine says:

    Good to see something new again, thanks Pawl 🙂
    I’ve already translated it to German, and I’ve spotted some really tiny mistakes:
    1. ” A’s response says, in effect, “You evidently think I haven’t had dinner, but in fact I have.” ” Isn’t B’s response meant?
    2. “with the dual me- effecting lenition in the usual way.” ← me+

    Sorry about the nitpicking 😉

    • Pawl says:

      Not to worry–nitpicking is appreciated. 🙂 I’ve corrected “A’s response” to “B’s response”–thanks. As for me-, I simply meant by the minus sign that me was a prefix, not a separate word. But I see how it could be confusing, so I’ve eliminated the minus. Irayo ngaru!

  11. Ftiafpi says:

    Mipa aylì’u li?! 🙂

    Glad to see these, having “expect” and “already” fills some pretty big gaps. I hope they weren’t too much trouble because, if so, you’re going to hate the weather system coming down the pike. 😉

    ~Ta Ftiafpi

  12. Kamean says:

    Ma Karyu, oe ngengaru irayo seiyi nìtxan mipa aulì’uri!

  13. Ma Karyu, ke li ‘oleyng oe a fì’uri oe tsap’alute si. Fwa faylì’u slolu lì’fyayä hapxì, oeru teya si.

  14. Vawmataw says:

    Oel ngati kameie ma Karyu Pawl!

    I know this posts is 5 years old, but I have a question.
    I have reread the section about the fractions and I’m wondering if:
    1. Fractions like volawpxì or zapxì (zam + pxì) would be possible according to that logic.
    2. Percentages exist. If so, how can we express them?

    Tì’eyngìri irayo nìli!
    Kìyevame

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