Yafkeykìri pängkxo frapo — Everyone talks about the weather

Here’s the first of several posts about weather language. Thanks to the Vocabulary Committee for some great ideas!

To begin with, the subject of our discussion:

yafkeyk (n.: YA.fkeyk) ‘weather’

To understand the derivation of this word, note the following:

fkeytok (v. intr.: FKEY.tok, infixes 2, 2) ‘exist’

Ngal fwerew a tute ke fkeytok.
‘The person you’re looking for doesn’t exist.’

(Fkeytok comes from kifkeyti tok, ‘be in the world.’)

Derived form:

tìfkeytok (n.) ‘state, condition, situation’

Tìfkeytok lefkrr lehrrap lu nìtxan.
‘The current situation is very dangerous.’

Kilvanä tìfkeytok lu fyape fìtrr?
‘What’s the condition of the river today?’

Now phrases like kilvanä tìfkeytok were common, and these eventually developed into shortened forms such as kilvanfkeyk ‘condition of the river.’ So while the above sentence is perfectly correct, the more usual way to say it in present-day Na’vi is:

Kilvanfkeyk lu fyape fìtrr?
‘What’s the condition of the river today?’

In this way a new suffix developed, -fkeyk. It’s widely productive. For example:

Sawtuteri ronsemfkeykit ke tsun kawtu tslivam.
‘No one can understand the state of mind of the Sky People.’

Some very common -fkeyk words have been lexicalized with special meanings, most notably yafkeyk, which originally meant ‘the state of the atmosphere’ but is now used to mean ‘weather.’

To ask about the weather, use za’u:

Yafkeyk za’u fyape? / Yafkeyk za’u pefya? Etc.
‘How is the weather?’

(Note: Be sure to place the stress in the right place with fyape and pefya: FYA.pe and pe.FYA.)

In colloquial conversation, za’u may be omitted:

Yafkeyk pefya?
‘How’s the weather?’

To answer this question, Na’vi breaks weather up into several categories. The one we’ll discuss in this post is precipitation.

A. Precipitation

When things fall from the sky, Na’vi uses, naturally enough, the verb zup ‘fall’:

Zerup tompa.
It’s raining.

Here are some other forms of precipitation:

tompameyp (n.: tom.pa.MEYP) ‘drizzle’  [Comes from tompa ameyp ‘weak rain’]

tskxaytsyìp (n.: TSKXAY.tsyìp) ‘hail’  [Comes from tskxepay + tsyìp (diminutive): ‘little ice.’]

Note: tskxepay (n.: TSKXE.pay) ‘ice’  (literally: stone water)

herwì (n.: HER.wì) ‘snow’

tomperwì (n.: TOM.per.wì) ‘sleet’  [Comes from tompa + herwì]

Example:

Herwì zereiup fìtrro nìwotx!
‘It’s been snowing all day!’ (Said by, for example, a skier.)

When precipitation is particularly bad, you can use the verb ’eko ‘attack.’

Fìrewon tompameyp zarmup, slä set ’ìmeko nìtxan nang!
‘It was drizzling this morning, but it’s really started coming down now!’

Related vocabulary:

txanfwerwì (n.: txan.FWER.wì) ‘blizzard’  [Comes from txan + hufwe + herwì ‘much wind (and) snow’]

hermeyp (n.: her.MEYP) ‘snow flurry’

hertxayo (n:. HER.txa.yo) ‘field of snow’

ìlva (n. ÌL.va) ‘flake, drop, chip’  Note: When this word is used in compounds, the l drops. So:

txepìva (n. TXE.pì.va) ‘ash, cinder’  (Don’t confuse with txepvi ‘spark.’)

herwìva (n. HER.wì.va) ‘snowflake’

payìva (n. PAY.ì.va) ‘drop of water’

tompìva (n. TOM.pì.va) ‘raindrop’

And now you know what this means: Oeri aysompìva sìn re’o var zivup. 🙂

Next time: “steady state” weather terms, including temperature.

Hayalovay, ma eylan.

P.S.—I need to respond to some comments on the previous post. Zaya’u ye’rìn.

This entry was posted in General. Bookmark the permalink.

20 Responses to Yafkeykìri pängkxo frapo — Everyone talks about the weather

  1. Txantsana aylì’u!!

    Slä…. Vay krr a tsolun ayoeng pivlltxe san zerup tompa sìk, zerup tompa nìtxan! Set, lu tsawke mì saw nì’aw, ha ke lu oeru tìkin a pivlltxe tsat.

  2. Plumps says:

    Wou!
    These posts amaze me every single time! 😀

    Txantsan. Mipa aylì’u lu lesar fìtxan!

  3. Txonä Rolyu says:

    Txantsan nì’aw! Set yafkeykìri tsun pivlltxe hrh. Fraporu irayo seiyi. Nìrangal slayu oe hapxìtu Ponguä Ayngopyuä ye’rìn.

    -Txonä Rolyu

  4. Sxkxawng says:

    Next to beware: literally translating “how are you?” into something like “Fyape lu ngeyä tìfkeytok?” 😛

    At least I would expect it to work krr a “ngaru lu fpom srak?” ke tam…

    • Pawl says:

      Actually, in certain situations you can indeed use tìfkeytok the way you’re suggesting. “Ngaru lu fpom srak?” is a politeness formula with a set answer–“Lu fpom”–in much the same way that we say “How are you” in English, expecting to hear nothing more than “Fine, thanks.” But suppose a friend of yours has been ill and you’ve been concerned about her; when you talk to her you could say, “Ngari tìfkeytok (lu) fyape?” That would be more like, “How are you doing?” where you really want her to tell you about her condition. (“Ngeyä tìfkeytok” is possible too.)

  5. Nyx says:

    Txantsan!

    Tsalì’u alu ìlva yawne lu oer =)

  6. Tirea Aean says:

    Fascinating. It’s great to finally be able to have words like these. And a big gap was closed.

  7. Kamean says:

    Ma Karyu!
    Aylì’uri amip ngaru irayo seiyi oe nìtxan.
    Txantsana aylì’u ulte lesara nìtxan.
    Sunu oeru mipa aylì’u nìwotx ulte nìpxi pxelì’u alu yafkeyk, herwì sì ìlva.

  8. Tswusayona Tsamsiyu says:

    tewti!! had so many difficulties without these words. I have been expecting that for so long. I was amazed. irayo nìtxan ma Karyu sì pongu aylì’uä.

  9. `Eylan Ayfalulukanä says:

    Herwì sì hufwe nì’i’a ‘i’a mì Reno

    Tewti Tewti Wou nang

    Irayo nìtxan, ma K. Pawl, fpì li`u ayafkeyk

  10. Prrton says:

    Wonderful!

    I’m very curious about the combination fì.____.o nìwotx in the following example.

    – Herwì zereiup fìtrro nìwotx!

    What is the literal gloss of the combination of morphemes? And what would this mean (if grammatical)?:

    – Pol yolom tsa.teylu.o.ti nìwotx!

    Can’t wait for the the next installment either! 🙂

  11. EMIBH says:

    Yeey! Aylì’u amip!
    It is not a joke… right?

  12. Raiden says:

    Needs moar lightning/thunder.

    I would also accept storm. 😀

  13. Tswusayona Tsamsiyu says:

    ma karyu, lu oer ‘awa tìpawm.
    txo san tskxaytsyìp sìk slu nì’ìnglìsì “hail”, san tskxay sìk slu peu?

  14. Vawmataw says:

    Tsole’a fìtìkenongit: [i][b]Ngal fwerew a tute ke fkeytok.[/b][/i]
    Pelun ngal lì’utsyìpit alu [i]a[/i] yolem fìfya?

    • Kame Ayyo’koti says:

      Fmivi ivinan fìfya (Try reading it this way):
      “Tute a ngal fwerew ke fkeytok.”
      “The person who you are searching for does not exist.”

      Fwa aylì’u kä fya’one alahe lu tìketeng nì’aw. (The only difference is that the words branch the other way.)

      Kxawm pivlltxe awngal tsaylì’uti fìfya nìteng (we might also say it this way as well):
      “Ngal fwerew tuteti a ke fkeytok.”
      “You are searching for a person who doesn’t exist.”

      Nìvingkap, leiu fì’u oeyä säpllxtevi a’awve fìpìlokmì. Kaltxì ma Pawl! 😉
      (By the way, this is my first comment in this blog. Hello Paul!)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *