Here are some useful expressions for improvement and its opposite.
tsan’ul (vin., TSAN.’ul—inf. 2, 2) ‘improve, get better’
fe’ul (vin., FE.’ul—inf. 2, 2) ‘worsen, get worse’
These are compounds built on ’ul, ‘increase,’ along with the adjectives for good and bad. (Sìltsan here has shortened to tsan.) So “improve” increases the good, “worsen” increases the bad.
Notice that these verbs are intransitive—that is, something is improving or worsening. We’ll get to the transitive versions (to improve something or make something worse) in just a moment.
Examples:
Lì’fyari leNa’vi nga tsan’ereiul fratrr.Tìng mikyun
‘I’m delighted that your Na’vi is improving every day.’
Sawtuteri tìfkeytok ke tsan’olul kaw’it.Tìng mikyun
‘The situation with the Skypeople hasn’t improved one bit.’
Ke tsun oe tslivam teyngta tìrusol peyä lumpe fe’ul krra oe tìng mikyun.Tìng mikyun
‘I can’t understand why her singing gets worse when I listen.’
Derivations:
tìtsan’ul (n., tì.TSAN.’ul) ‘improvement (in the general or abstract sense)’
tìfe’ul (n., tì.FE.’ul) ‘worsening (in the general or abstract sense)’
Tskxekengluke ke lu kea tìtsan’ul.Tìng mikyun
‘Without practice there is no improvement.’
Tìtsan’ulìri lu ngaru aysämok srak?Tìng mikyun
‘Do you have any suggestions for improvement?’
sätsan’ul (n., sä.TSAN.’ul) ‘improvement (specific instance)’
säfe’ul (n., sä.FE.’ul) ‘worsening (specific instance)’
Set plltxe nga nìltsan nìngay. Fìsätsan’ulìri ngeyä lu oeru sko haryu nrra.Tìng mikyun
‘You speak really well now. As your teacher, I’m proud of your improvement.’
Peyä sängä’änìri lu säfe’ul leyewla nìtxan.Tìng mikyun
‘The worsening of his depression is very disappointing.’
The transitive versions of improve and worsen simply use the causative infix : tsan’eykul, fe’eykul. (Stress, of course, remains on the first syllable in each case.) To improve something is to cause it to get better, etc.
Rutxe fìtìoeyktìngit tsan’eykivul. Ke lu law kaw’it.Tìng mikyun
‘Please improve this explanation. It’s not at all clear.’
Ngeyä tsaylì’ul tìfkeytokit fe’eykolul nì’aw.Tìng mikyun
‘Those words of yours have only made the situation worse.’
Sìlpey oe, ayngari fra’u a mì sìrey vivar tsan’ivul frafya, ma eylan. 🙂
frafya (adv., FRA.fya) ‘in every way’
Ayfostìfa anafì’u tìrey var txan’ivul nìlaw 😉
Faylì’uri amip a lu lesara pum lesar irayo ngaru nìtxan!
Irayo, ma Plumps. Lu nga tstunwia tsmuk atstunwi. 🙂
Irayo ma Nawma Karyu Pawl.
Lì’fya leNa’vi lu lor talun nga tsa’ul fìlì’fya. 🙂
*tsan’ul
Ngeyä säplltxeviri seiyi oe irayo nìtxan, ma tsmuk. Furia slolu nga hapxìtu fìlì’fyaolo’ä ’efu oe nitram nìngay. 🙂
A question that doesn’t have anything to do with this post, but Na’vi in general: Would it be alright for any singular users of Na’vi to write Y as J? (In my native tongue, Y denotes a vowel sound and J denotes the phonetic J, so sometimes I’m momentarily confused by the Y:s in Na’vi.)
Kaltxì, ma Herwìna.
It takes a little “getting used to” when a language uses a letter in a way that’s different from the way our own language uses it. For example, English generally uses the letter j for what linguists call a “voiced affricate” (in IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, [dʒ])–the sound in “John” and “Jim.” But if I’m looking at French, I have to remember that j represents a different sound, [ʒ], like the middle consonant in the English word “measure.” And in Spanish, it represents [h]. And in German, it represents [j], which is the sound that English writes as y, as in “yes” and “young.” So that’s one letter representing 4 different sounds, depending on which language you’re talking about! That’s just a fact of life which we language learners have to accept.
So my suggestion is not to change the spelling of Na’vi words but to simply get used to the Na’vi spelling system. Eventually I bet it will seem natural to you. 🙂 Of course for your own private use, it’s fine to write out the pronunciation in parentheses in whatever way will make it easier for you to remember.
Etrìpa syayvi, ma tsmuk!