’On sì Salewfya—Shapes and Directions

Kaltxì, ma eylan! Ayngari tengkrr ya wur sleru nì’ul, sìlpey oe, livu helku sang ulte te’lan lefpom.

Here’s some new vocabulary—mostly excellent contributions of the LEP, some recent and some not-so-recent—involving shapes, directions, and the physical properties of objects.

’on (n.) ‘shape, form’

Tsun fko ayonti fìwopxä nivìn fte yafkeykit sresive’a.Tìng mikyun
‘The shapes of clouds can be used to predict the weather.’
(Literally, ‘One can look at the shapes of clouds in order to predict the weather.’)

(Note: As you see here, srese’a, which has previously been glossed as ‘prophesize,’ can also mean ‘predict.’)

salewfya (n., sa.LEW.fya) ‘direction, course’

Sweylu set txo awnga kivä pesalewfya?Tìng mikyun
‘What direction should we go in now?’

The previous example is often shortened to a familiar two-word expression with wide use:

Set pesalewfya?Tìng mikyun
‘What do we do now?’

koum (adj., KO.um) ‘rounded, curved’

Fìtskxeri fa’o lu yey; ke lu koum.Tìng mikyun
‘This rock has straight sides; it’s not rounded.’

ko’on (n., KO.’on) ‘ring, oval, closed shape roughly circular’

Na’vi ìlä ho’on kllkxolem tengkrr rerol.Tìng mikyun
‘The People were standing in a circle, singing.’

(Note: kllkxolem, not kllkxerem! 🙂 ) A ko’on is not necessarily a mathematical circle. For that, use yo’ko, which derives from *yo’ko’on ‘a perfectly circular ring.’

yo’ko (n., YO’.ko) ‘circle’

renulke (adj, RE.nul.ke) ‘irregular, random’

Eo ayfo a fya’o lamu ayskxeta teya sì renulke.Tìng mikyun
‘The path ahead of them was full of rocks and irregular.’

vawt (adj.) ‘solid, not hollow’

Fìutralìri tangekä zir fkan vawt, hufwa ke rey.Tìng mikyun
‘The trunk of the tree feels solid, although it’s dead.’

momek (adj., MO.mek) ‘hollow, not solid’

Tsatangekìri pam fkan momek.Tìng mikyun
‘That (tree)trunk sounds hollow.’

yeyfya (n., YEY.fya) ‘straight line’

Woleyn Ìstawl yeyfyat mì hllte fte oeyktivìng fraporu tìhawlteri sneyä.Tìng mikyun
‘Ìstaw drew a line on the ground to explain his plan to everyone.’

yak (n.) ‘fork, branch, point of divergence)

Haya yakro ftivang. Salew rä’ä.Tìng mikyun
‘Stop at the next fork. Do not proceed further.’

yak si (vin.) ‘diverge, change direction, go astray’

Awnga zene vivar ìlä fìsalewfya. Zenke yak sivi.Tìng mikyun
‘We must continue in this direction. We must not go astray.’

And some important directional adverbs:

nìyeyfya (adv., nì.YEY.fya) ‘straight ahead, in a straight line’

nìftär (adv., nì.FTÄR) ‘to the left’

nìskien (adv., nì.SKI.en) ‘to the right’

Salew nìyeyfya. Ne ’oratsyìp polähem, yak si nìftär.Tìng mikyun
‘Proceed straight ahead. When you arrive at the pond, turn to the left.’

’oratsyìp (n., ’O.ra.tsyìp) ‘pond, pool’

Hayalovay, ma smuk!

Edit Oct. 1: Fiutralìri –> Fìutralìri    Irayo nìfrakrr, ma Plumps!

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11 Responses to ’On sì Salewfya—Shapes and Directions

  1. SGM (Plumps) says:

    Tewti nìtxan nang!
    Tsaylì’u amip leiu lesar nìtxan. Sari irayo si ngaru.

    ’awa kxeyeytsyìpit rolun:
    Fiutralìri tangekä … slivu Fìutralìri tangekä …, kefyak?

    Ha, set lu awngaru mesìtsunslu a peng teri fwa yak si:
    mìn ne skiempa/ftärpa

    yak si nìskien/nìftär

    Eltur tìtxen si ulte txantsan nìwotx 😀

  2. Tìtstewan says:

    Txantsana fmawn! Aylì’u amip!
    Irayo seiyi ngaru nìtxan!

  3. Blue Elf says:

    Nìngay awngal tel aylì’ut lesar. Lu sìltsan fwa lì’upuk tsawl slu nì’ul 🙂
    Ke new oe nitpick, slä…..
    As English title is in plural, shouldn’t be Na’vi one in plural too? On sì aysalewfya? As it’s no full sentence, I don’t think it is general statement where singular is used even when we speak about many things…

    And in first sentence is maybe missing -a- on sang, srak? In fact, this sentence seems little ambiguous and can be rewritten in two (shortened) ways:
    Ayngaru livu helku asang ulte te’lan lefpom. -> Have your homes warm and hearts peaceful.
    Ayngari helku livu sang ulte te’lan (livu) lefpom. -> Let your homes are warm and hearts are peaceful.
    Am I too mistaken? Probably yes 🙂

    • Tirea Aean says:

      As English title is in plural, shouldn’t be Na’vi one in plural too? On sì aysalewfya? As it’s no full sentence, I don’t think it is general statement where singular is used even when we speak about many things…

      I actually think he used singular for exactly that reason. You don’t need it to be a complete sentence to refer to the general sense of speaking about something. It’s really the same thing. Except you left out a verb. “Shapes and Directions” vs. “Shape and Direction” for a title would be equally fitting.

      And in first sentence is maybe missing -a- on sang, srak? In fact, this sentence seems little ambiguous and can be rewritten in two (shortened) ways:
      Ayngaru livu helku asang ulte te’lan lefpom. -> Have your homes warm and hearts peaceful.
      Ayngari helku livu sang ulte te’lan (livu) lefpom. -> Let your homes are warm and hearts are peaceful.
      Am I too mistaken? Probably yes

      I’d say it’s just fine as is. The frame of the sentence is:

      Ayngari livu helku sang ulte te’lan lefpom.

      As for you guys, may the homes be warm and hearts pleasant/peaceful.

      I don’t see a problem here. The second form you wrote is precisely what he meant and wrote. 🙂

  4. Ftiafpi says:

    Now we can get GPS directions in Na’vi! 😀

    • Tirea Aean says:

      Too bad Taronyu already did them like 3 years ago for Garmin. O_____O

      Also, Interesting about … in this sentence:

      Na’vi ìlä ho’on kllkxolem tengkrr rerol.
      ‘The People were standing in a circle, singing.’

      So maybe it’s because he said “The People stood in a circle (while) singing”

  5. `Eylan Ayfalulukanä says:

    The SatNa’vi voice is readily re-doable. I have the tool, and its freely downloadable from Garmin. Puvomun also did one.

  6. Ma Karyu Pawl,
    lu lì’u alu txe’lan tup te’lan ro fìpostìyä snä’itseng kefyak?

  7. Neytiri says:

    Kaltxì, ma Pawl. Sorry for this very late comment, but I’ve just noticed this:

    salewfya (n., sa.LEW.fya) ‘direction, course’

    Sweylu set txo awnga kivä pesalewfya?
    ‘What direction should we go in now?’

    Why isn’t it “Sweylu set txo awnga kivä pesalewfyaìlä”? I would expect one would go via a direction. Pesalewfya is being used as an adverb. Is this correct?

    Irayo ngaru. 🙂

    • Pawl says:

      Kaltxì, ma Neytiri.

      Ngaru tìyawr. In the example sentence you quoted, pesalewfya is being used as an adverb. There’s nothing wrong with pesalewfyaìlä here, but without the adposition the sentence is more colloquial. More familiar examples are Za’u fìtseng vs. Za’u fìtsengne. Here too, both sentences are correct, although the first is more colloquial.

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