“By the way, what are you reading?”

After this post, you’ll be able to ask and answer that question.  🙂

By the way

Na’vi has two adverbs that function like English “by the way” but are used in different situations.

mìftxele (adv., mì.FTXE.le) ‘by the way, in this regard, related to this matter’

The derivation of this adverb—mì + fì- + txele ‘in this matter’—makes the meaning clear: the speaker comes in with a statement or question related to something that has just been discussed.  Example:

—Lam oer fwa tsazìma’uyul ke fnan tìtusaronit.
   ‘It seems to me that that newcomer isn’t any good at hunting.’

—Oeru nìteng. Mìftxele pori lu oer letsrantena fmawn a new piveng ngar.
   ‘(It seems that way) to me as well. By the way, I have some important news I want to
….tell you about him.’

zìma’uyu (n., zì.MA.’u.yu) ‘newcomer, someone who has just arrived on the scene’

Sometimes, however, we use “by the way” to change the subject and introduce something new into the conversation, something we’ve just remembered that’s just popped into our minds. That’s a different word:

nìvingkap (adv., nì.VING.kap) ‘by the way, incidentally’

Pronunciation: Note that it’s ving, not vìng.

Example:

—Slä tsalsungay, txo tìtslam for, lu txayo na’rìngto sìltsan.
   ‘But even so, if they’re smart they’ll take open terrain over bush.’

—Mllte oe. Nìvingkap ngeyä tsmukanur alu Ralu lu fpom srak?
Txankrr ngal ke lawk pot kaw’it.
    ‘I agree. Oh by the way, how’s your brother Ralu? You haven’t mentioned a thing
….about him in a long time.’

txankrr (adv., txan.KRR) ‘for a long time’

Nìvingkap comes from the transitive verb vingkap:

vingkap (vtr., VING.kap – inf. 1,2) ‘occur to one, strike one, pop into one’s mind’

Vìmingkap oeti fula poe ke li ke poltxe san oe zasya’u.
‘It just occurred to me that she hasn’t yet said she’s coming.’


Reading

As you know, Na’vi was not a written language until the Sky People arrived on Pandora. So there’s no native Na’vi word that exclusively means “read written material.” Instead, the word for “gain knowledge from sensory input” was adopted to fill this need.

inan (vtr.: i.NAN – inf. 1,2) ‘read (e.g. the forest), gain knowledge from sensory input’

Note: Like omuminan has an irregular stress pattern. When used without affixes, the stress is final: inan. But when prefixes or infixes are added, the stress shifts: erinan, ivinan, olinantinan.

Tìomummì oeyä, pol na’rìngit inan nìltsan.
‘As far as I know, he reads the forest well.’

tìomum (n., tì.O.mum) ‘knowledge’

tìomummì oeyä ‘to my knowledge, as far as I know’

Derivatives:

tinan (n., TI.nan) ‘reading’

ninan (adv., NI.nan) ‘by reading’

Examples:

Tsmìmìri wätx fol tinanit nìngay.
‘They’re really bad at reading animal tracks.’

tsmìm (n.) ‘animal track’

Nari si! Äo fìutral lu tsmìm ’angtsìkä!
‘Watch out! There’s a hammerhead track under this tree!’

Tìtusaronìri fte flivä, zene fko sivutx smarit ninan nìno.
‘To succeed at hunting, you have to track your prey by reading (the forest) with attention to detail.’

(Ninan nìno—NInan nìNO—is fun to say! Thanks to the LEP Committee for the example.)

The following bit of dialog shows you how to use inan for the sense of reading written material:

—Kempe si sempul?
   ‘What is father doing?’

— (Pol) pamrelit erinan.
    ‘He’s reading,’ [Literally: He’s reading writing.]

—Pefnepamrelit?
   ‘What is he reading?’ [Literally: What kind of writing?]

—Inan pukot a teri aysam a ’Rrtamì.
   ‘He’s reading a book about the wars on Earth.’

As you see, when you use inan in this sense, you need to supply an object–something that can be read. If it’s a general statement or question about reading with no particular written material in mind, the object is simply pamrel ‘writing.’

Ulte sìlpey oe, fì’upxaret inan a fì’u silvunu ayngaru nìwotx!

Edits: Spelling of letsrantena corrected; ke added before lipukito –> pukot. Explanations in the comments.

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43 Responses to “By the way, what are you reading?”

  1. Tirea Aean says:

    Absolutely wonderful post with many great new vocab words. very useful as always! Irayo nìtxan to everyone involved!

  2. SGM (Plumps) says:

    Ma Karyu, mipa aylì’uri irayo nìtxan nìngay! 😀

    Ulte sìlpey oe, fì’upxaret inan a fì’u silvunu ayngaru nìwotx! – oh, you have no idea how long I’ve waited for a word for ‘reading’ (either trail of the forest or something written) – txantsan nìngay! 🙂

    A question on the last example sentence:
    Inan pukito a teri aysam a ’Rrtamì. – what is this -o on pukit? I thought the indefinite/durative suffix comes before the case ending? Or is this handled differently with loan words?

    • Blue Elf says:

      Yes, I’d expect pukot too…

    • Kemaweyan says:

      Srane, fìtìpawmìri oe nìteng newomum. Lam oer, sweylu fwa poltxe fko san pukot, pxel fwa nìyawr poltxe li tsm. Blue Elf.

    • Pawl says:

      As soon as I woke up this morning, I thought about pukito. 🙂 Let’s say it’s a non-standard form you hear among some speakers, that inadvertently crept into my example. I’ve now changed it to the standard pukot. [True confessions: This is a place where the rule changed. In the language document I submitted to Lightstorm at the end of 2009, the rule was that the indefinite/durative -o could either precede or follow the case endings. I later tightened that up so that -o only precedes the case endings. But I guess the old form is still in my head. Fìtxeleri zene oe nari sivi!]

  3. Blue Elf says:

    Ma Pawl, ngaru irayo si fpi aylì’u amip.

    Just small correction – for bush we have utraltsyìp (probably ayutraltsyìp in this context), na’rìng is forest

    • Another small correction: in the second example sentence there’s an errant t in letsrantena.

    • Pawl says:

      Kaltxì, ma B.E.

      Sorry–I forgot to reply to your comment before. Actually, I was using “bush” here more in the Australian sense–according to my dictionary, “a wild, uncultivated tract of country: the Australian bush.” So na’rìng would be appropriate. Mìftxele, the line is from the dialog in one of the video games. (At least it’s what I submitted to the company; I don’t know whether it made it to the game itself.) Of course if by “bush” we mean a shrub, then you’re absolutely correct: it’s utraltsyìp.

  4. Kxrekorikus says:

    Tewti 🙂

    Tsaylì’u amip sunu oeru nìngay 🙂
    Ngeyä tìkangkem lu fwa oeru teya si, ma Pawl 🙂

    Lì’uri alu san inan sìk, frapo pìlmey txankrr 🙂
    Irayo nìtxan!

  5. 'Eveng says:

    Wow very usefull!! But a na’vi don’t know how to read a book!! 🙂
    Irayo nitxan ma karyu iläfipo! Eywa ayngengahu! 🙂

  6. Kemaweyan says:

    Irayo nìtxan, ma Karyu! Ayfì’u lesar lu nìngay.

    Lu oer mesìpawmo. Pamrel soli nga san Vìmingkap oeti fula poe ke li poltxe san oe zasya’u. Rutxe ftxey fì’u lu eyawr fu sweylu fwa poltxe fko san ke li ke poltxe? Ulte srake tsunslu fwa plltxe fko san mi ke poltxe sìk? Ralìri tìketengpe lu mìkam fìmelì’fuyavi?

    Kop plltxe fkol lì’fyavit alu tìomummì a fì’uri newomum oe. Srake tsaw lu [tı.O.mu.mı] (luke mefam alu MeM ‘awsiteng)? Nìawnomum, lì’fyari leNa’vi mefamit ateng sar fkol ‘awsìteng a fì’u lu kxanì, kefyak?

  7. Kemaweyan says:

    Nìvingkap tswola’ oe.. Tsun tsive’a frapo set futa tsun fko ngivop aylì’ut fa -yu ta hemlì’u a hu hemlì’uvit. Natkenong zìma’uyu. Rutxe ftxey tsunslu tsaw fralì’uhu fu nì’aw pumhu a’a’aw?

    • Pawl says:

      Txantsana tìpawm, ma Kemaweyan. Tsun fko ngivop aylì’ut fa –yu ta frahemlì’u a luke hemlì’uvi, slä hemlì’uri a hu hemlì’uvi ke tsun tsakem sivi. Na zìma’uyu a tsaylì’u lu hol nì’aw.

      Since this important, let me repeat the message nì’Ìnglìsì:

      Kemaweyan is asking whether the agentive suffix –yu can be feely used with infixed verbs like zìma’u ‘has just come’ to yield agents who have just done something, are about to do something, etc., like zìma’uyu ‘one who has just come’ = ‘newcomer.’ The answer is no: The agentive suffix is productive—that is, can be used freely—to form agents from verb roots, but not from infixed verbs. Those forms are special and are listed in the dictionary; you just have to learn them.

  8. Tswusayona Tsamsiyu says:

    so much time I’ve been waiting for “by the way” and “read” and “for a long time”. and I like “oops” (gonna use it a lot 🙂 ). ma Karyu, irayo nìtxan nìfrakrr.
    tse, mipa faylura tolìng ngal, zene tìkangkem siveiyi nì’it set. (can topical faylì’uri a contract like that?)

  9. Kamean says:

    Ma Karyu!
    Ngeyä ‘upxare amip lu txantsan sì lesar nìngay ulte suneiu oer nìtxan sì nìwotx!
    Eywa ngahu livu frakrr sì fratseng! 🙂

    Tìsung.
    Srake tsun fkol sivar lì’ut alu tsmìm fpi tuteyä “track”? Natkengong:
    Rewongam tsame’a oel sawtuteyä tmìmit äo Utral Aymoktiyä.
    Fu zene ayngahu pivey lì’u amip?

  10. Sxkxawng says:

    Wou nìmun. Na’vi just now has 2 new words with [iŋ] — a now rare occurence in the language!

  11. Kamean says:

    Irayo nìtxan ma Pawl. 🙂

  12. Spugpow says:

    You probably know more about this than I do, but it seems to me like a society that relies heavily on tracking like that of the Na’vi would have many distinct words for different animal tracks–a word for thanator track, a word for hexapede track, etc.

    Is this vocabulary in fact characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies?

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