“Receptive Ability” and Hesitation

“Receptive Ability”

What’s the Na’vi equivalent of English -able/-ible? That is, how do say that something is capable of “receiving” the action of a verb? For example, given yom ‘eat,’ how would you say, “This animal is edible”—i.e., can be eaten?

One obvious way is:

1. Tsun fko yivom fìioangit.
‘One can eat this animal.’

But there’s another way:

2. Fìioang lu tsukyom.
‘This animal is edible / can be eaten.’

Here the prefix tsuk- (a development of tsun + fko; no connection with tsuksìm) is attached to the ROOT of the verb to form an adjective. So, for example, you can say things like:

3. Tsukyoma ioang lu lesar.
‘An edible animal is useful.’

Note that the stress is on the root, not the prefix: tsuk-YOM.

For the negative, ke- attaches before tsuk-: ketsuktswa’ ‘unforgettable.’

Tsuk- is widely productive, considerably more so than English -able/-ible. For one thing, you can attach it to virtually any transitive verb: tsukrun ‘findable,’ tsuktxula ‘constructible,’ tsukfrrfen ‘able to be visited (visitable?)’, tsuktaron ‘able to be hunted, (huntable?),’ etc.

Additionally, you can often attach tsuk– to intransitive verbs as well:

4. Fìtseng lu tsuktsurokx.
‘One can rest here. / It’s possible to rest here. / This place is “restable.”’

5. Lu na’rìng tsukhahaw.
‘One can sleep in the forest. / It’s possible to sleep in the forest. / The forest is “sleepable.”’


Hesitation

To my knowledge, all spoken languages mì ’Rrta have words or sounds that indicate the speaker is hesitating, pausing, thinking, buying time, etc. In English, we have “um,” “uh,” “er,” and for some people “like” and “y’know.” Na’vi is no exception.

The Na’vi “hesitation marker” in speech is ìì. Unusually, it’s written with a doubled vowel. (Since it’s not a word any more than “er” is in English, it can flout the phonotactic constraints of the language, just as conversational expressions like oìsss and saa do.) It’s pronounced like a prolonged ì.

6. Lu oeru . . . ìì . . . tìngäzìk ahì’i.
‘I have . . . um . . . a slight problem.’

[Note: If you’re a glutton for punishment, I added some further explanation about case marking with modals at the end of the previous post.]

Edit 23 Mar.: In examples of transitive verbs with tsuk-, tsukftang deleted, tsukrun added.

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20 Responses to “Receptive Ability” and Hesitation

  1. Tirea Aean says:

    Txantsana fmawn nang!

    Irayo seiyi nìmun ma Pawl.

    Somehow, I just KNEW that the hesitation vowel was ì. ìì is very nice.

    tsuk- is a great idea.

  2. Ftiafpi says:

    Very excited about ìì, no longer shall we have to borrow “um”.

  3. Sxkxawng says:

    Ììììììììììì… komum (more Na’vi slang: a contraction of ke-omum) ;D

  4. We need a word for “Hurray!” now 😉

    So, i take it “memorable” is tsukzerok, kefyak?

  5. Txonä Rolyu says:

    Txantsan! Lì’fya leNa’vi leiu tsyukplltxe! Hahaha 🙂

    But I do have a question. You say that tsyuk- can be attached to any *transitive verb* and the first example you use is “ftang.” I recall you saying a while back that “ftang” cannot be used transitively…has this changed?

    -Txonä Rolyu

  6. MIPP says:

    Negyä tìoeyktìngìri, oe irayo seiyi ngaru.

    Kìyevameie, ma karyu! 🙂

  7. Irayo nìtxan ma Karyu, “tsuk-” leiu lesar nìngay.

  8. Wm Annis says:

    Tewti. I will have to meditate for a while to come up with a good way to explain the intransitive tsuk-s in my grammar reference 🙂

    How do these strike you?

    Fìkrr lu tsukhangham.
    Tsaytele lu kem-tsuksi. (kavuk-ketsuksi, etc.)
    Oeri vur ke li lu tsuk’i’a.
    (vs. Oeri vur ke li lu tsuk’eyki’a.)
    Mefo lu tsukkäteng.
    Lolängen kemo aketsuklen!
    Tsaw ketsuknewomuma koren lu nìngay.

  9. Plumps says:

    Kaltxì ma Karyu,

    indeed, very useful!
    Seeing William’s examples, I was also wondering how two k’s are treated. Of course in spoken discourse it almost makes no difference, but is it in fact tsukkäteng (as with ayyayo or maweypeyyu) or tsuk-käteng?

    Irayo nìmun.

    • Pawl says:

      Irayo ma Plumps. Yes, it’s just tsukkäteng. In addition to your examples with -yu, this kind of thing occurs a lot with adpositions: kinammì, ekxanne, Mo’atta, . . . It’s only at morpheme boundaries that you get doubled consonants.

  10. Prrton says:

    🙂

    Example #5 reminds me of the unusual English construct “That sofa sleeps really well.”

    ’O’ lesarsì nìtxan mefì’u leiu! Seiyi irayo, ma Karyu.

  11. Kamean says:

    Irayo nìtxan ma Karyu! Ìì leiu txantsan ulte tsuk nìteng.

  12. EMIBH says:

    Fìhoren …ìì… tsuksar lu nìtxan. 😉

    Irayo ma ayoeyä karyu!

  13. Ma Karyo Pawl,

    A small question from a discussion on the learrnavi forums… William brushed on this briefly in his examples, but I wanted to make sure it was explicit (As his examples could have other interpretations as to what he was asking as well).

    When a compound “si” verb is being used, assuming tsuk- makes sense (Which it seems like it should in some cases such as srung si, tsaheyl si, kelku si, uvan si, etc) does tsuk- go on the si part, or is it formed some other way?

    • Alyara Arati says:

      I, too, am very interested in this question. I would like to say, “That the enemy seems frightenable is good,” in a story that I am writing nìNa’vi. But would that be, “Furia kxutu lam txopu tsuksi, lu sìltsan,” or “…txopu-tsuksi…” or some other form?

      Irayo. ~ Alyara

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