Kaltxì, ma frapo.
Krrka lekye’unga faysrr, sìlpey oe, livu ayngaru fpom nìwotx.
It’s been a while since we’ve had any new vocabulary, so here are some lexical items along with a few idiomatic expressions that I hope you’ll find useful.
First, for the record, let me mention three terms you’ve seen already that belong in the dictionary:
nìtstew (adv., nì.TSTEW) ‘bravely, courageously’
txantxewm (adj., TXAN.txewm) ‘terrifying’
sätseri (n., sä.TSE.ri) ’observation, something noticed’
Ngeyä tsasätseriri a eltur tìtxen si irayo.
‘Thank you for that interesting observation of yours.’
Now for some new terms:
voìk (n., VO.ìk) ‘behavior, how one conducts oneself’
Nga sìlmi a tsakem ke lu voìk amuiä!
‘What you just did was not proper behavior!’
voìk si (vin., VO.ìk si) ’behave’
Neytiril Tsyeykur oeyktolìng teyngta fyape zene voìk sivi tsatìfkeytokmì.
’Neytiri explained to Jake how to behave in that situation.’
mu’ni (vtr., MU’.ni) ‘accomplish, achieve’
Although there is some overlap, the difference between mu’ni and hasey si ‘accomplish, bring to a conclusion’ is that hasey si can refer to finishing anything at all, significant or not, while mu’ni is used for achievements that are in some way significant.
Note: Don’t confuse mu’ni with mun’i ‘cut.’ The pronunciations of these two verbs are quite different, both in the position of the tìftang and the stress patterns.
Krrka tìrey ayol, pol molu’ni pxaya ayut a tsranten.
‘During her short life, she accomplished many important things.’
Hasey si fura yom!
‘Finish eating!’ (Do you see why fura is used here? 😊 )
tìmu’ni (n., tì.MU’.ni) ‘achievement, accomplishment’
leha’ (adj., le.HA’) ‘appropriate, suitable, fitting’
This word clearly comes from the verb ha’ ‘fit, suit.’ It differs from muiä ‘proper’ in that muiä has the connotation of honorable, moral, or fair; leha’ simply refers to something that fits or is appropriate to a particular individual or situation.
Fori tsafnetìkusar ke lu leha’.
‘That kind of teaching isn’t appropriate for them.’
swaran (adj., SWA.ran) ‘humble, modest, self-effacing’
Tsamsiyu asìltsan lu tstew släkop swaran.
‘A good warrior is courageous but also humble.’
tìswaran (n., tì.SWA.ran) ‘humility, humbleness’
yewn (vtr.) ‘express, convey (a thought or feeling)’
Oe new oey sì’efut yivewn poeru, slä ke tsängun.
‘I want to express my feelings to her, but, sadly, I can’t.’
tìyewn (n., tì.YEWN) ‘expression’
(Don’t confuse this word with lì’fyavi, which also means ‘expression’ but in the sense of ‘bit of language.’)
Note the idiom:
tìyewn tìyawnä ‘an expression of love.’ It’s a set phrase used when giving a gift to a loved one or making a gesture of affection like a kiss or caress.
leytslam (vtr., LEY.tslam, inf. 2, 2) ‘appreciate’
As you see, this word is a compound of ley ‘have value’ and tslam ‘understand.’ When you appreciate something, you understand or acknowledge its value.
Ngeyä faylì’ut atìtstunwinga’ oel leytslam, ma ’eylan.
‘I appreciate your kind words, friend.’
fpap (vtr.) ‘pound’
The difference between takuk and fpap is that while takuk means ‘strike,’ fpap implies striking heavily and repeatedly.
Krra sti nìtxan, pol fyanyot fpap fa mesyokx.
‘When he’s angry, he pounds the table with his hands.’
syar (vin.) ‘stick, stick to, adhere’
Rìk a’aw syarmar sìn kxemyo.
‘A leaf was sticking to the wall.’
Note that syar is intransitive. For the transitive sense of ‘stick’—that is, to stick something onto something else—simply insert the causative infix <eyk>:
Pol kxumpaysyarit solar syeykar rìkit sìn kxemyo.
‘She stuck the leaf onto the wall with glue.’
(More literally: ‘She used glue (and then) stuck the leaf onto the wall.’)
kxumpaysyar (n., KXUM.pay.syar) ‘glue’
(Recall that kxumpay means ‘viscous liquid.’)
And a word specific to a unique Pandoran experience:
’onglawn (n., ’ONG.lawn) ‘exhiliration of first bonding’
This word, a compound of ’ong ‘blossom’ and lawnol ‘great joy,’ refers to the euphoric feeling of first bonding with something, particularly an ikran, when the first flight seals the bond. (Fìsäfpìlìri akosman seiyi irayo, ma Ney!) It’s used with ’efu:
Kawkrr ke tswaya’ oel krrit a ’efu ’onglawnit.
‘I’ll never forget the time I experienced ’onglawn.’
Lu ’onglawn tì’efu akosman frato mì hifkey.
‘’Onglawn is the most wonderful feeling in the world.’
Finally, some useful, if straightforward, expressions:
- ‘Would you mind if . . . ?’ Srake srätx (ngat) txo . . . _<iv>_ . . . ?
- ‘I don’t mind if . . . ’ Ke srätx (oet) txo . . .
- ‘Not at all!’ …… (a) Ke srätx kaw’it!
……(b) Kea säsrätx kaw’it!
…………………………………….(c) Kehe kaw’it!
The pronouns in parentheses may be omitted.
A: Srake srätx txo oel ngey fkxilet zasrivìn?
….‘Would you mind if I borrowed your necklace?’
B: Kehe kaw’it!
….‘Not at all!’
By the way, in the combination srätx txo, don’t try to pronounce the two ejectives separately! They merge into one slightly prolonged tx.
And with that, I’ll say kìyevame for now. Hang in there, everyone. Livu Eywa awngahu nìwotx!
ta Pawl
Wow, this is a huge list of new words! Several of them fill some pretty big language gaps. I’m especially fond of mu’ni and its derivations.
Irayo nìtxan ma Karyu!
I suppose it’s worth asking, do you see the same merge on ejective boundaries in other instances (rare as they may be) or is srätx txo an isolated instance?
Not an isolated instance at all! The overriding principle is that whenever a language throws something at you that’s laborious to pronounce, it’s guaranteed that over time, speakers will find ways to simplify it. Take the phrase “good dog” in English. If you say “good” by itself, you hear the d clearly. But if it’s followed by another d as it is here, the two d’s merge in normal speech. Similar things happen in Na’vi.
Glad you like the new words! I’m very interested in filling in the gaps, so I always appreciate suggestions about missing vocabulary.
Is it normal that the txo clause can follow the main clause, or is this a special order for expressions like srätx txo and sweylu txo?
Well, “if” followed by “then” is the more usual order, but it could be the other way around. In English, for example, we can say “If you want me to go, (then) I’ll go” OR “I’ll go if you want me to.” I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be the same in Na’vi: “Txo nivew ngal futa oe kivä, kasyä” OR “Oe kasyä txo ngal tsat nivew.” I think you’re right, however, that up to now, the only examples we’ve seen with the txo clause following the main clause have been with sweylu and now srätx. Good observation.
Irayo ma Karyu! This makes me wonder: if we can reverse the order with txo, can we also do that with zun and zel?
Sure! The order zun … zel will always be the most common, but the other way is possible too, just as we can say in English, “If I had seen you, I would have said hi” but also, “I would have said if I had seen you.”
tewti! zel yimvewn nìNa’vi oel aysäfpìlot nìfya’o alahe zun imvomum tsa’ut 😀
Tse, tsun oe pivlltxe paylì’ut? Set nga omeium! 😄
(Lì’ukìng akosman, nìvingkap. 👍 )
Very useful vocab, and so much of it! Tsari irayo nìtxan 🙂
Nìprrte’, ma tsmuk. 😊
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl!
Faylì’uri amip irayo seiyi ngaru! Lesar si nìtxan!
While we’re at it, can we have *kelha’ for ‘inappropriate’ or does it deserve more thought?
Furia sunu ngar fay’lìu, oe ‘efu nitram, ma Vawmataw.
Kelha’ seems perfectly, well, appropriate. 😊 I’ll try to remember to include it officially in the next post.
Mipa faylì’u leiu lesar nìwotx. Nìpxi sunu oer pam lì’uä alu fpap. 🙂
Furia sunu ngar faylì’u, oe ‘efu nitram, ma tsmuk.
Fìpostì a eltur tìtxen si! Sunu oer pxaya lì’u amip — fpap sì swaran nìpxi.
Nìvingkap, lì’ukìng alu Nga sìlmi a tsakem ke lu voìk amuiä lu tìtxula a eltur oeyä tìtxen si. Tsafya’o a melì’ut alu tsakem sì si fkol pxìmolun’i.
Makto zong!
Irayo, ma tsmuk. Ulte sran, melì’uri alu kem sì si, tsun fko krro krro fìkem sivi.
Ngari makto zong nìteng!
Kaltxì nìmun ma Karyu Pawl. Mipa aylì’uri sì aylìfyaviri Oe irayo seiyi. Sìlpey tsnì ngaru livu lefpoma ftxozä alu “tìng irayo”.
Irayo nìtxan, ma tsmuk!