Vospxì Ayol, Postì Apup—Short Post for a Short Month

Ma eylan,

Just a relatively short post before the month ends . . . slä nìsìlpey pum a nga’ aylì’fyavit lesar. 🙂

flrr (adj.) ‘gentle, mild, tender’

This word can be used for both people and things.

Keng tsamsiyu zene flrr livu ayevenghu.Tìng mikyun
‘Even a warrior must be gentle with children.’

Flrra tompa zerup.Tìng mikyun
‘A gentle rain is falling.’

Derivations:

nìflrr (adv., nì.FLRR) ‘gently, tenderly’

Zene fko ’ivampi prrnenit nìflrr frakrr.Tìng mikyun
‘One must always touch a baby gently.’

tìflrr (n., tì.FLRR) ‘gentleness, tenderness’

Hufwa mefo leru muntxatu txankrr, mi lu munsnar hona tìflrr a na pum meyawnetuä amip nìwotx.Tìng mikyun
‘Although the two of them have been mates a long time, they still have all the adorable tenderness of new sweethearts.’

ngä’än (vin., ngä.’ÄN—inf. 1, 2) ‘suffer mentally or emotionally, be miserable’

Note that ngä’än refers to an emotional state of being; it may or may not be accompanied by physical pain.

Srane, skxir tìsraw si nìtxan, slä ke ngerä’än oe kaw’it.Tìng mikyun
‘Yes, the wound is very painful, but I’m not in the least suffering emotionally (i.e., my mental state is fine).’

Tìsraw letokx sì tìngusä’än pxìm täpare fìtsap.Tìng mikyun
‘Physical pain and mental suffering are often interrelated.’

Snafpìlfyari leNa’vi krra smarit fkol tspang, tsranten nìtxan fwa po ke ngä’än nìkelkin.Tìng mikyun
‘It’s important in Na’vi philosophy that the prey not suffer unnecessarily when it’s killed.’

kelkin (adj., kel.KIN) ‘unnecessary’

nìkelkin (adv., nì.kel.KIN) ‘unnecessarily’

Derivation:

sängä’än (n., sä.ngä.’ÄN) ‘bout of suffering; episode of depression’

Ngeyä tsasängä’äntsyìpìri set frawzo srak?Tìng mikyun
‘Have you recovered from being down for a while?’

THE SUFFIX –NAY

When –nay is added to a noun, it creates a new noun that is related to the original by being a step down in some relevant hierarchy—size, rank, accomplishment, etc. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Take a look at these examples (and note that when –nay is added to a noun ending in n, one of the n’s drops, as expected):

ikran ‘mountain banshee’
ikranay ‘forest banshee, lesser banshee’ (smaller cousin to the mountain banshee)

’eylan ‘friend’
’eylanay ‘acquaintance (with the potential of becoming a friend)’

eyktan ‘leader’
eyktanay ‘deputy, general, one step down in rank from leader’

tsulfätu ‘master’
tsulfätunay ‘near-master’

karyu ‘teacher’
karyunay ‘apprentice teacher’

This suffix is not productive, and the exact meaning of –nay nouns is not always predictable. So such words and their meanings must be learned individually.

Note also that unlike most other suffixes, -nay receives the main stress: ikraNAY, ’eylaNAY, eyktaNAY, tsulfätuNAY, karyuNAY.

THE “ADJi-a N a-ADJi” STRUCTURE

In English we sometimes hear things like, “She’s a beautiful, beautiful woman” as a way of saying “She’s an extremely beautiful woman.” Something similar occurs in Na’vi, where the structure is more common than in English:

Lu po lora tuté alor.Tìng mikyun
‘She’s an extremely beautiful woman.’

In speech, the second occurrence of the adjective is stressed more than the first: lora tuté ALOR.

In the above example, we’re using this double-adjective structure in a noun phrase: lora tuté alor, ‘an extremely beautiful woman.’ Can we also use it for sentences like, “That woman is extremely beautiful”? Yes, but it’s awkward:

Tsatuté lu lora pum alor.Tìng mikyun
‘That woman is an extremely beautiful one.’

That’s not a problem, however, since we already have a number of ways to intensify a predicate adjective: lor nìtxan, lor nìtxan nang, lor nì’aw, etc. So using the double-adjective structure for sentences like this last example isn’t necessary.

Finally, some nice proverbial expressions from the LEP:

Fwa kan ke tam; zene swizawit livonu.Tìng mikyun
Literally: ‘To aim is not enough; one must release the arrow.’
Meaning: ‘Intent is not enough; it’s action that counts.’

Txìm a’aw ke tsun hiveyn mì tal mefa’liyä.Tìng mikyun
Literally: ‘One butt can’t sit on the backs of two direhorses.’
Meaning: ‘You can’t take both positions or sit on the fence; you need to decide.’

That’s it for now. Vospxìayvay!  😉

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23 Responses to Vospxì Ayol, Postì Apup—Short Post for a Short Month

  1. Palulukan Maktoyu Ta'Lengean says:

    Irayo ma karyu pawl.:)

  2. 'Eylan Ayfalulukanä says:

    Irayo nìtxan! There’s some really useful stuff there, especially the intriguing double adjective bit!

  3. SGM (Plumps) says:

    Latsu postì apup slä lu lesara pum lesar 🙂

    Lu mekeyeytsyìp nì’aw: nì.FLLR slivu nì.FLRR ulte tìfllr slivu tìflrr

    Mipa aylì’uri irayo seiyi ngaru nìtxan. 🙂

  4. Tìtstewan says:

    Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl
    Eltur tìtxen si ngeyä pilok lu!
    Irayo nìtxan!
    Oe pamrel si ‘awvea alo fitseng….

  5. Tirea Aean says:

    I thought that leader was eyktan, without initial glottal stop?

    Really cool stuff in here!

  6. Blue Elf says:

    Ayoel kanom lì’fyateri a lì’ut a eltur tìtxen si. Irayo!
    I noticed there’s no definition of tìngusä’än – we can guess it is “mental suffering” in general or abstract sense, kefyak?
    Also I’d like to know, whether is there any relation between eyktanay and eykyu or not? Eyktanay still looks to be more than eykyu, something like ‘backup’ leader or maybe future leader?

    • Pawl says:

      Nìprrte’, ma tsmuk.

      The reason there’s no definition of tìngusä’än is that the tì…us… form is productive: you’re free to create such forms from any verb, so they don’t need to receive special attention or be listed in the dictionary. You’re right–the definition would be “mental or emotional suffering” in the abstract sense.

      And I agree with you about eyktanay. It would be something like “backup leader” or “future leader”–one step down from eyktan.

  7. Markì says:

    Dictionary has been updated with all the cool new stuff. New version is 12.9.

  8. Talis says:

    Irayo ma nawma karyu!

    Well, it’s very hard to pronounce “flrr”, it always sounds like “flìrr” and except an short brake between the “l” and the “rr” there seems to be no way to cut this “ì”.
    Not sure anymore if “flìrr” can be a word, seems legit to me though, this could become a problem if you can’t notice the difference.

    Just something I realized while reading the sentences out loud and listening to your recordings.

    Eywa ngahu,
    Talis

    • Pawl says:

      Kaltxì, ma Talis. Ngeyä säplltxeviri irayo.

      Theoretically, flrr shouldn’t be that hard to pronounce: lrr isn’t particularly difficult, so you just add an f in front of that. I’ll listen again–maybe I wasn’t careful enough in the recordings. 😉

      • Talis says:

        well, maybe it’s just me…
        rolling the “r” in the front with the tong is way harder than in the back of the mouth… but if I try to speak “flrr” and also “lrr” both sound like there’s an “ì” in it. Never noticed it in lrr though… but same there… maybe I’m just paranoid 😉

        • 'Eylan Ayfalulukanä says:

          Ma Talis, do not feel alone on this rr pronunciation. I struggle with it, too, perhaps in different ways than you do. I cannot entirely get rid of the ì sound, either. But with repetition and use, it is improving. If you don’t have a friend to talk Na’vi to, talk to animals!

          • Talis says:

            It’s not like I have no one to talk to, but if I see a cat it’s always “Kaltxì ma palulukantsìp” 😀
            Well, I think my pronunciation is quit good, but this ì … I really think it’s the human body which can’t speak it without, it’s when you speak the “L” and take your tong from the palate to your teeth to roll the “R” and the air flows through your mouth while doing this, there will always be a short ì and because the ì is short itself, it sounds nearly like saying “lìr” hardly without any differences.

  9. Kamean says:

    Irayo seiyi ma Karyu!

    Lì’uvi ali nay eltur tìtxen si nitxan.)

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