Stxeli Alor–A Beautiful Gift

Kaltxì, ma smuk.

As a little listening exercise, I’d like to tell you about a beautiful gift John and I received.

First, a couple of new words you’ll need:

krrka (adp-, KRR.ka) ‘during’

tìreyn (n., tì.REYN) ‘train’ (borrowed from English)

 

PF pic 1

 

JB pic

PF pic 2

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18 Responses to Stxeli Alor–A Beautiful Gift

  1. Tìtstewan says:

    Fìfmawn leiu txantsan nìtxan nang! Oe seiyi irayo ngar nìtxan! 😉
    Oer suneiu tsayrel ngeyä!

  2. Blue Elf says:

    Fìtskxekengìri fa mokri seiyi oe irayo, ma Pawl. Awngal kin fìfnelit sänumviyä nìtxan.
    Hufwa oel ke tslam fraylì’uti nìltsan, law lu oer säfpìl a nolew pivlltxe nga.
    Merel mengeyä lu kosman nìngay.

  3. Vawmataw says:

    Ma Karyu Pawl,

    Fìmerel lu lor nìtxan nang! Melì’uri amip irayo, fìlì’u alu krrka lu lesar.

    Ta Vawmataw

  4. SGM (Plumps) says:

    Fìmerel lor lu nìtxan nìngay. Fìmestxeli lu tsyeym angay. 🙂

    Tskxekengìri tìyusuneyä irayo ngaru nìtxan. Sìlpey oe tsnì ayoel kayanom pamrelit a mì haya postì … talun tìyawr nì’aw 😉
    Mllte oe tsmukanhu alu Blue Elf … ke tslam oel fralì’ut nìpxi, slä txina säfpìl lu law. Hapxìri a teri irayo ro sì’i’a sì kem a si menga merelhu (kur, kefyak?) lu ngäzìk nì’it fwa tslam. Tsalsungay, fwa tsun awnga livawk sì sliva’tsu tsaysìngopit lu kosman.

    • Pawl says:

      Ngar tìyawr, ma Plumps, tsalì’u lu kur. Ulte srane, mì haya postì tìng oel ayngaru pamrelit.

      And now a little puzzle. 🙂

      Both of these are correct Na’vi:

      1. Ayoel kayanom pamrelit a mì haya postì.
      2. Ayoel kayanom pamrelit mì haya postì.

      But they don’t mean the same thing. Tìketeng lu ‘upe?

      • SGM (Plumps) says:

        Irayo nìli 🙂

        Well, I would interpret them as:
        1. We’ll get a writing that is (contained) in the next post.
        2. We’ll get the writing in the next post.

        The adpositional phrase mì haya postì refers to the ‘writing’ in (1.) because of a; and to ‘receive’ in (2.)

      • Tirea Aean says:

        I’d say this:

        1. We will get the writing [that is contained] in the next post.
        2. We will get the writing [while we are] in the next post.

        TXANTSANA mestxeli nang! Oel mesa’ut (tsameut??) tsole’eia ro helku ngeyä 😀

        Pawnlltxea aylì’uri ngeyä oe ngaru seiyi irayo ma Pawl! Frakrr leiu lesar fwa stawm lì’fyati fìfya.

        Nice work, Alan!

  5. Pawl says:

    Ayngeyä aysäplltxeviri irayo, ma smuk. Mllte oe nìwotx: fìfnetskxekeng lesar lu nìtxan.

    Expect more–and hopefully, not just in my voice. 🙂

  6. `Eylan Ayfalulukanä says:

    Tsatxon lu txon fwa oe zasyerok frakrr! Tsareltseo wou!!

    On your translation exercise: After pondering it for some time, I came up with

    1. We will get some sort of written document or statement in the next post.
    2. We will see (some examples of) writing in the next post.

    I am probably not alone in saying that this sort of thing is a challenge to translate, especially for someone like myself with no formal language training. The difference in meaning is subtle enough that context would normally be part of understanding the exact meaning. But learning when to use (or not use) an a in a sentence like this has always been a challenge (and Prrton has helped me with this as well). And fully understanding the difference would probably help many others besides myself.

    In general though, exercises like this are very helpful, and go along well with the way I think and learn. Irayo nìtxan!

  7. Pawl says:

    Regarding my little “puzzle” above:

    Some good responses!

    Basically, it’s a question of what things hold together in the two sentences–a question of what linguists like to call phrase structure or constituent structure. Let’s analyze each sentence in turn.

    1. Ayoel kayanom pamrelit a mì haya postì.

    The a here shows that mì haya postì is closely linked to the preceding word, pamrelit. That is, pamrelit a mì haya postì is a phrase or constituent (in this case, a noun phrase). It might help to think of it in your mind as hyphenated: pamrelit-a-mì-haya-postì, the-text-in-the-next-post or the-text-that’s-in-the-next-post. So this phrase answers the question, “What will we receive?” Answer: “The text in the next post.” Notice that this leaves open the question of when or where we’re going to get it! It might be, for example, that I’m planning to send you the text that’s going to be in the next post ahead of time so you can take a look at it first. But I haven’t told you when or where you’ll receive it.

    Contrast that with the second sentence:

    2. Ayoel kayanom pamrelit mì haya postì.

    The important thing to recognize is that in this one, pamrelit mì haya postì is NOT a phrase! It’s two phrases sitting side-by-side–pamrelit and mì haya postì. So the interpretation here is that (a) we’ll receive the text, and (b) we’ll receive it in the next post.

    We have comparable examples in English–and probably in most if not all languages. Consider this sentence:

    3. I’ll send you the report she wrote on Friday.

    Can you see two different interpretations of that?

    We can bring out the differences using brackets to show constituent (phrase) structure:

    3a: I’ll send you [the report she wrote on Friday].
    That is, she wrote a report on Friday, and I’ll send it to you. (Maybe I’ll send it on Monday.)

    3b: I’ll send you [the report she wrote] [on Friday].
    That is, she wrote a report (I’m not specifying when she wrote it), and I’ll send it to you on Friday.

    Sìlpey oe, fìtìoeyktìng livu law . . . ulte ke lu law na ngoa. 😉

    • Tirea Aean says:

      Phenomenal explanation! It makes this crystal clear, I think. So I think I was right, but this explanation shines a bright light on the difference if there was any doubt of it being substantial.

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