Shooting—whether it’s the Na’vi with their tsko swizaw or the Sawtute with their hunsìp—plays a significant role in “Avatar.” Recently, Tsm. Plumps alu Stefan requested clarification on the Na’vi terminology for shooting, so let me share with you here what I told him:
We have two words that specifically mean ‘shoot,’ tem and toltem.
Tem (vin.) is the intransitive ‘shoot.’ It talks about the action itself, without mentioning the weapon used or the object to be shot.
Tem rä’ä!
‘Don’t shoot!’
It’s also the verb used to translate “shoot at”—that is, the act of discharging a weapon towards someone or something with the intention of killing or maiming. In this construction, “at” is translated as ne:
Oene fko terem!!!
“Someone is shooting at me!!!”
Toltem is vtr. Stress on the second syllable: tol.TEM. Infixes are 1, 2. The object is the person, animal, or thing shot and presumably injured or killed—that is, the target of the shooting.
Plltxe Ralu san oe new tivoltem yerikit.
‘Ralu says he wants to shoot a hexapede.’
Now note something interesting: In English we can say “shoot an animal” or “shoot an arrow.” These are both transitive constructions that take objects. But semantically they’re very different. “Animal” is the target; “arrow” is the weapon used. Na’vi distinguishes these. For the former we use toltem, for the latter we use tsweykayon ‘cause to fly, let fly.’ So ‘shoot an arrow’ is swizawti tsweykayon. (Since tsweykayon is a predictable infixed form, it’s not listed separately in the dictionary.)
Swizawti tsweykayon nefä ne taw, tsenga zup ke lu law.
‘I shot an arrow into the air, / It fell to earth, I know not where.’ (H.W. Longfellow)
Txo nga zene tivem, tsatìtusem livu muiä.
‘If you must shoot, let it be justified.’
Hayalovay!
Furia lonu fìsäomumit irayo ngaru nìtxan, ma Karyu.
Frakrr lu txantsan fwa kanom säomumit aylì’uä alal nì’ul. Krro krro ayoel ke omum teyngta sat pefya sar nìyawr. Set lu law.
Ulte ro’a oer fwa nga latsu tseotu aylì’uä nìteng. 🙂 Hapxìri wayä a plltxe seysonìltsan!
Tsaw leiu txantsan! 😀 Irayo nìtxan!
PS: Ma Pawl, this is your 100th blog entry. 😀
So how might one describe Robin Hood’s feat of shooting his own arrow WITH an arrow? Hrh 🙂
toltem swizawti fa swizaw? hrh
Shooting—whether it’s the Na’vi with their tsko swizaw or the Sawtute with their hunsip—plays a significant role in “Avatar.
I’m not the best at this language, but are these mistakes?:
tsenga zup
Should this be: tseng a zup ?
Txo nga zene tivem
Should this be: Txo nga zivene tivem ?
Sorry for my amazingly late reply, as I just now saw this! If you’re still around, here are the answers to your questions:
> tsenga zup
> Should this be: tseng a zup ?
tsenga (conj., TSE.nga) ‘where, place where’
was released in April 2013 (http://naviteri.org/2013/04/wheres-the-bathroom-and-other-useful-things/)
> Txo nga zene tivem
> Should this be: Txo nga zivene tivem ?
Interesting question. We have a mix of example sentences where the verbs in an if-then statement are use subjunctive, or don’t. I think it’s fine, given that other examples exist where the subjunctive is not used.