Here’s a grab bag of new expressions, many of which reflect the creativity of the Community. Txantsana aysämokìri seiyi irayo, nìfrakrr. Some of these will be useful for Sunday’s “Introduction to Na’vi” class in Seattle.
PRIDE
How do you say “I’m proud of you” in Na’vi? The structure revolves around the noun nrra. You say, essentially, “Concerning you, I have pride.”
nrra (n., NRR.a) ‘pride, feeling of pride’
Ngari l(ei)u oeru nrra nìtxan, ma ’ite.
‘I’m very proud of you, daughter.’
Tsu’teyri lu foru nrra a fìrewon yolora’.
‘They’re proud of Tsu’tey for having won this morning.’
Derivations:
lenrra (adj., le.NRR.a) ‘proud’
Sa’nok lenrra lrrtok soli krra prrnen alo a’awve poltxe.
‘The proud mother smiled when the baby spoke for the first time.’
Note that lenrra refers to the feeling of pride you have in others—it’s not used for one’s own sense of personal worth or dignity (as in, for example, ‘a proud warrior.’)
nìnrra (adv., nì.NRR.a) ‘proudly, with pride’
Sa’nok nìnrra lrrtok soli krra prrnen alo a’awve poltxe.
‘The mother smiled with pride when the baby spoke for the first time.’
snonrra (n., sno.NRR.a) ‘self-pride (negative connotation)’
lesnonrra (adj., le.sno.NRR.a) ‘full of self-pride’
Kea tsamsiyu lesnonrra ke tsun Na’vit iveyk.
‘No warrior full of self-pride can lead the People.’
Nrra has an interesting and somewhat unclear derivation. It’s related to the verb nrr ‘glow,’ perhaps as a shortening of nrr a tirea, ‘glowing spirit.’
nrr (vin.) ‘glow, be luminous’
Na’rìng sngä’i nivrr txonkrr syuratanfa.
‘The forest begins to glow at night with bioluminescence.’
Note that the “good feeling” –ei- form of this verb is neiyrr, not *neirr; since the pseudo-vowels ll and rr only occur in syllables that begin with consonants, a y has to be inserted.
Ngari key nereiyrr, ma ’eylan. Nìlaw po yawne lu ngar.
‘Your face is glowing, my friend (and I’m pleased to see it). It’s clear you love her.’
Derivation:
sänrr (n., sä.NRR) ‘glow, an instance of glowing’
Txepìl tìng lefpoma sänrrti.
‘The fire gives a pleasant glow.’
And speaking of fires:
ylltxep (n., YLL.txep) ‘communal fire or fire pit’
Nìtrrtrr yom Na’vil wutsot ’awsiteng pxaw ylltxep.
‘The Na’vi regularly eat dinner together around a communal fire.’
Contrast ylltxep with txeptseng:
txeptseng (n., TXEP.tseng) ‘place where a fire is burning or has burned’
Txeptseng is a general term lacking the cultural significance of ylltxep.
Tsatxeptsengmì längu ayutral akerusey nì’aw.
‘Sadly, there are only dead trees where the fire has been,’
ralnga’ (adj., RAL.nga’) ‘meaningful, instructive, something from which a lesson can be learned.’
Don’t confuse ralnga’ with txanwawe (stress on the third syllable: txan.wa.WE), which means ‘meaningful’ in a personal sense—something that’s personally or emotionally significant to you.
Kìreysìri lu tsapukä ayvur a teri ’Rrta txanwawe nìngay, slä oeri, hufwa eltur tìtxen si, lu ralnga’ nì’aw.
‘For Grace, the stories in that book relating to Earth are personally meaningful, but for me, although interesting, they’re simply instructive.’
PAIRS
The stand-alone word for ‘pair’ is munsna:
munsna (n., MUN.sna) ‘pair’
The derivation is transparent: mune + sna’o, a ‘two-set.’
Hawnvenìri lu oeru munsna amrr.
‘I have five pairs of shoes.’ (Literally: As for shoes, I have five pairs.)
But to indicate one pair of something, a special structure is usually used: munsna acts as a prefix before the noun in question:
munsnahawnven ‘a pair of shoes’
munsnatute ‘a pair of people; a duo’
Rutxe fìtskxekeng sivi munsnatutefa, ma frapo.
‘Please do this exercise in pairs, everyone.’
Pronunciation: Munsna- words can be long, but in all cases the primary stress remains in the original place on the noun. For example, since hawnven is stressed on the final syllable, that’s where it stays in munsnahawnven: mun.sna.hawn.VEN. And munsnatute is mun.sna.TU.te
fyin (adj.) ‘simple’
ep’ang (adj., ep.’ANG) ‘complex’
Pronunciation: Make sure you don’t pronounce ep’ang as if it were epxang (e.PXANG). Both words are possible in Na’vi, but they do not sound the same. In ep’ang, the p is at the end of a syllable, so it’s unreleased; the second syllable begins with a tìftang, a glottal stop. By the way:
epxang (n., e.PXANG) ‘stone jar used to hold small toxic arachnid’
fyinep’ang (n., fyin.ep.’ANG) ‘degree of complexity’
pefyinep’ang/fyinep’angpe (Q., pe.fyin.ep.’ANG / fyin.ep.’ANG.pe) ‘how complex’
Ngal ke tslängam teyngta fìtìngäzìkìri pefyinep’ang.
‘Unfortunately you don’t understand how complex this problem is.’
sngä’itseng (n., SNGÄ.’i.tseng) ‘beginning, starting position, initial location’
Don’t confuse this with sngä’ikrr, which means a beginning in time.
Ro sngä’itseng tsalì’uä alu ’eylan lu tìftang.
‘At the beginning of the word ’eylan there’s a glottal stop.’
Two helpful 🙂 words derived from srung:
srungsiyu (n., SRUNG.si.yu) ‘assistant, helper’
srungtsyìp (n., SRUNG.tsyìp) ‘helpful hint, tip’
And a couple of words relating to Sawtute technology that I believe are already in use in the Community:
spulmokri (n., spul.MOK.ri) ‘telephone’
syeprel (n., syep.REL) ‘camera’
These words obviously developed after the Na’vi came into contact with the Sawtute. The derivations are clear: spule + mokri ‘propel voice,’ syep + rel ‘trap image.’
Syaw oer rutxe trray fa spulmokri.
‘Please phone me tomorrow.’
Finally, a trio of idiomatic expressions:
ka wotx ‘generally, for the most part’ (literally: across the totality)
Hufwa rolun oel ’a’awa kxeyeyti, fìtìkangkemvi lu txantsan ka wotx.
‘Although I found a few errors, this piece of work is generally excellent.’
Pefya nga fpìl? ‘What do you think?’
(Notice that in Na’vi you actually say, “How do you think?” This is the case in many earth languages, although not in English.)
Pefya nga fpìl? Oeng sweylu txo kivä fuke?
‘What do you think? Should we go or not?’
(Note that fuke can be used for general “or not” questions, as it is here. In such cases there’s no need for srake/srak.)
sre fwa sngap zize’ ‘as quickly as possible’ (literally: before the hellfire wasp stings)
So the Na’vi equivalent of ASAP is SFSZ. 🙂
That’s all for now. Hope I’ll see some of you in Seattle soon!
Hayalovay.
Nìmun, for all of us who m‹äng›ust stay at home and can’t attend the Seattle Meeting, this is amazing stuff to pass the time 🙂
Aylì’uri amip irayo seiyi ngaru nìtxan!
Minor typo in the syllabification in nìnrra: it should be nì.NRR.a, kefyak?
Could we translate snonrra as ‘arrogance’? – ‘self-pride’ is a bit difficult to put into German 😉
I take it that nrr is an intransitive verb or even stative…?
munsna is intriguing… So, there’s a difference between mehawnven and munsnahawnven?
I absolutely love the SFSZ idiom 😀
I’m sorry you can’t make it, ma Plumps. Slä am’aluke ngeyä tireal tsatsenget tayeiok.
I loved m‹äng›ust! 😀
Thanks for catching the typo. I’ve fixed it.
Yes, snonrra can be translated as ‘arrogance.’ (What would be the best equivalent auf Deutsch?)
Your question made me realize I forget to indicate what kind of verb nrr is. It’s vin.
The difference between mehawnven and munsnahawnven is similar to that between ‘two shoes’ and ‘a pair of shoes.’ Munsna- can be used for things that naturally come in sets of two or that have been divided into sets of two. (An exception is body parts: it would be unusual to say munsnanari or munsnaseyri.)
I liked SFSZ too! And I should mention it’s the product of someone else’s creativity, not my own.
Ngeyä tìoeyktìngìri irayo.
Yes, snonrra can be translated as ‘arrogance.’ (What would be the best equivalent auf Deutsch?)
The possibilities I’ve chosen are „Arroganz“, „Hochmut“ (lit.: ‘high audacity’), and „Überheblichkeit“ (pretension)
The first of the Seven Deadly Sins, English: ‘Pride’ (very negative sense only), is given as „Hochmut“ (Greek: ὕβρις) in German by Wikipedia. It’s all quite confusing in English. 🙁
That’s true. Same as in English ‘pride/proud’ – „Stolz/stolz“ can be a positive or negative word.
Aylìuri sì aylì’fyavi amip irayo nìtxan nang ma Karyu!
Furia faylì’u sunu ngar, oeru prrte’ leiu, ma Kamean!
AMAZING.
simply amazing.
I remember using some of these. Srungsiyu, Pefya nga fpìl. 😀
Very interesting set of words indeed!
Glad you like the new words, ma Tirea!
Hooray – more words for the Na’vi word of the day twitter list 😀
Furia oe ke omum lì’fyati leÌnglìsì, oe li ke tsun tslivam ralit ngeyä ‘upxareyä, slä oe omun lì’fyat leNa’vi, ulte omun futa mipa aylì’u frakrr lu sìltsan. Aylì’uri, oe nìmun irayo seiyi ngaru!
Awngari nìwotx, nìteng oeti aylì’ul amip lrrtok seyki. Irayo seiyi ngaru nìtxan, ma Karyu.
Tstxolì’uri alu nrra, srake fko tsun sivar fìlì’uti nìfya’o a teng na “sngum” – “Lu foru nrra a Tsu’tey yolora’ fìrewon.“?
Oel ke tslolatsam nìwotx fìtìoeyktìngit a teri “lenrra“:
Note that lenrra refers to the feeling of pride you have in others—it’s not used for one’s own sense of personal worth or dignity (as in, for example, ‘a proud warrior.’)
– taluna “tsamsiyu lenrra” lu teng na “sa’nok lenrra”.
Tsun fko piveng san Ayoe tsun sivar lì’ut alu lenrra nì’aw fpi sute alahe, ke fpi ayoe sko flltxeyu fu pamrelsiyu sìk, kefyak?
Natkenong:
“Oe lu lenrra” = keyawr, “Lu oeru nrra” = eyawr
“Po lu lenrra” ulte “Lu poru nrra” = eyawr ?
As for all of us, the new words make me smile as well. Thank you very much, Teacher.
Regarding noun “nrra“, it is possible to use this word in the same way as “sngum” – “Lu foru nrra a Tsu’tey yolora’ fìrewon.“?
I not completely understood the explaining of “lenrra“:
Note that lenrra refers to the feeling of pride you have in others—it’s not used for one’s own sense of personal worth or dignity (as in, for example, ‘a proud warrior.’)
– because “tsamsiyu lenrra” is the same like “sa’nok lenrra”.
It is possible to say: “We can use lenrra only for other people, not for yourself (as speaker or writer)”, right?
For example:
“Oe lu lenrra” = wrong, “Lu oeru nrra” = correct
“Po lu lenrra” and “Lu poru nrra” = correct ?
What about for “nrr”? Is it NER or NRR?
Zene ayoe ivomum tì’eyngit… 🙂
The damn thing clipped out the -er- from my post…so as it was: “What about -er- for “nrr”?
Irayo, ma K. Pawl! A truly amazing list of noew words and idioms! And also for the wonderful lesson you gave at Avatarmeet!
I found epxang especially intriguing. A word with one of the most specific meanings of anything you have introduced so far. It sounds like something you leave on the desk of a tawtute. For some reason, I find the words strange or unusual meanings easier to remember than words with more common or general meanings.
nrr rolls off the tongue very nicely. A good practice word for learning to better roll r’s. And while on the subject of rr, I take it that this psedovowel should be voiced?
And finally, SFSZ. That is sure, mad brilliance! To whomver it was that came up with that phrade Irayo nìtxan!
Is there a way to express pride in one’s own self without having a negative connotation? Or do the Na’vi have a generally very humble society where expressing one’s pride in self is frowned upon? For example, if I’ve just successfully completed an enormous project and had to do it on my own, and I feel a certain feeling of pride and accomplishment in the excellent work I’ve just done. Is it Oeri lu oeru nrra, or something similar?
Ma Tirea,
Self-pride does have a negative connotation in Na’vi society, hence the terms snonrra, lesnonrra, etc. So it wouldn’t be considered proper to say, “I’m proud of myself.” However, you can be proud of something you’ve done (as distinct from being proud of yourself)! In other words, it’s fine to say, “Oeyä tìkangkemìri lu oeru nrra.”
Ah! That makes a lot of sense. Irayo!