Zola’u nìprrte’, ma 3746°!  Welcome, 2022!

Kaltxì, ma eylan! It’s been a while. I hope you’re all safe, well, and ready for the most exciting year for the Avatar/Na’vi community in over a decade!

I have quite a bit to share with you. Right now, here are 20 new words I hope you’ll find useful, with more things to follow soon.

First, two different senses of ‘save’:

’avun (vtr., ’A.vun)  ‘save (time, food, etc.)’

Ngari txo fìkem sivi fìfya, krrti ’avun.
‘If you do it like this, you’ll save time.’

tarep (vtr., TA.rep) ‘save, rescue’

Mawkrra palulukan posìn spolä, ke tsängun fko pot tivarep.
‘Sadly, once the thanator had jumped on her, she could not be rescued.’

Tarep is stronger than zong, which we’ve previously glossed as ‘save, defend.’ Tarep implies rescue from a dangerous or distressing situation. If your life is being threatened, you can yell, “Tarep! Tarep!” which would be the equivalent of “Help! Help!”

tareptu (n., TA.rep.tu) ‘rescuee, someone who has been rescued or saved’

Maw tsafekem, new tareptu sneyä tarepyur irayo sivi.
‘After the accident, the rescuee wanted to thank his rescuer.’

sätarep (n., sä.TA.rep) ‘rescue, an incidence of rescuing’

A missing derivative of frrfen:

säfrrfen (n., sä.FRR.fen) ‘visit, an instance of visiting’

Furia nga zola’u irayo; ngey säfrrfen txasunu oer.
‘Thank you for coming; I enjoyed your visit very much.’

Some words for good and bad people:

tsantu (n., TSAN.tu) ‘good person, “good guy” ’

nawmtu (n., NAWM.tu) ‘noble person’

kawngtu (n., KAWNG.tu) ‘bad person, “bad guy” ’

Lala tsarelmì arusikx, yemstokx tsantul hawre’ti ateyr, kawngtul pumit alayon.
‘In that old movie, the good guy wears a white hat, the bad guy a black one.’

tìk (adv.) ‘immediately, without delay’

As an adverb, tìk is a concise synonym for pxiye’rìn.

Tsakem si tìk!
‘Do it immediately!’

(This is stronger than Tsakem si set—more of an order or command.)

Don’t confuse tìk with tsìk, a different adverb meaning ‘suddenly, without warning.’ It’s interesting to speculate on a possible etymological or evolutionary relationship between these two words, but until there’s evidence for that, it’s best to consider the resemblance a coincidence.

Unlike pxiye’rìn, tìk is also a conjunction indicating that a second action immediately follows a first:

Fìioang ke tsun slivele; nemfa pay zup tìk spakat.
’This animal cannot swim; if it falls into the water, it immediately drowns.’

spakat (vin., SPA.kat) ‘drown’

Note the syntax in the above example. When two actions immediately follow one another, with the second being a consequence of the first, this “clipped style” (root-V tìk root-V) is often used colloquially. It’s a bit like pointing to the “third rail” along a train track and saying, “You touch that, you die.” Just as you could say, “If you touch that, you’ll die,” you could say in Na’vi, Txo nemfa pay zivup, tìk spayakat, but that would be less colloquial.

Note also the idiom:

Tse’a tìk yawne
‘Love at first sight’

fwum (vin.) ‘float (on the surface of a liquid)’

Don’t confuse fwum, which typically indicates floating on the surface of water, with lìng, which refers to floating or hovering, usually in the air but possibly also under water, like a diver.

Merìk alor paysìn fwarmum.
‘Two beautiful leaves were floating on the water.’

wapx (vin.) ‘sink’

Ke omum teyngta fìuran aku’up fu fwayum fu wayapx.
‘I don’t know (or: It’s not known) whether this heavy boat will float or sink.’

tamìfa (adj., ta.MÌ.fa) ’internal’

tawrrpa (adj., ta.WRR.pa) ’external’

Fìtxelel fngo’ sälangit atawrrpa.
’This matter requires an external investigation.’

zam mì zam (adv.) ‘completely, one hundred percent’

Zam, literally meaning 64, is the functional equivalent of 100 in octal. So zam mì zam

Is equivalent to 100 in 100, that is, 100 percent. It’s often used in place of nìwotx. (And it sounds nice!)

Ngahu mllte oe zam mì zam.
‘I agree with you one hundred percent.’

tsantxäl (n., tsan.TXÄL) ‘invitation’

From sìltsan ‘good’ + ätxäle ‘request.’

Ngeyä fìtsantxälìri atìtstunwinga’ irayo, slä ke tsängun oe ziva’u.
‘Thank you for this kind invitation, but unfortunately I cannot come.’

tsantxäl si (vin., tsan.TXÄL si) ‘invite’

Po tsantxäl soli oer tsnì ziva’u kelkune.
‘She invited me to come to her home.’

(The use of tsnì here is related to its use with ätxäle si.)

say (adj.) ‘loyal’

Leiu po ken’aw sayrìp släkop say.
‘He’s not only handsome but also, I’m happy to say, loyal.’

(As far as we know, say and sayrìp are not related.)

tìsay (n., tì.SAY) ‘loyalty’

Tì’eylanìri tsranten frato tìsay.
‘What matters most in friendship is loyalty.’

nìsay (adv., nì.SAY) ‘loyally’

MIPA ZÌSÌT LEFPOM, MA EYLAN!

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28 Responses to Zola’u nìprrte’, ma 3746°!  Welcome, 2022!

  1. Vawmataw says:

    Mipa aylì’uri lesar irayo seiyi oe ngaru! Txasunu oer faylì’u.

    Nìmun, liyevu ngaru mipa zìsìt lefpom. 🙂

    Tìsung: Fpìl oel futa tsalì’ukìngìri mefamrelvi lu keyawr: Ngari txo fÌkem sivi fÌfya, krrti ’avun.

  2. Tirea Aean says:

    Wou! Txasunu oeru faylì’u nìwotx. Lesar layeiu nìtxan. Irayo nìtxan ma Pawl!

  3. Alyara Arati says:

    Mipa aylì’uri alor (kop lesar, kezemplltxe), irayo seiyi oe, ma karyu anawm, ulte mipa zìsìt lefpom ngaru sì ayyawnetur ngeyä!

  4. Neytiri says:

    Faylì’uri lesar irayo seiyi, ma Pawl. Nìpxi fula fkeytok lì’u alu tìsay oeti ‘eykefu nitram. Mipa zìsìt lefpom ngaru sì soaiaru ngey! Uniltìrantokxìri amuve fìzìsìt srefereieieiey nìprrte’!

    • Pawl says:

      Fula sunu ngar tsalì’u alu tìsay oeti ‘eykefu nitram nìteng, ma ‘eylan.

      “Uniltìrantokxìri amuve fìzìsìt srefereieieiey nìprrte’!” ME TOO!!! 😄

  5. Tekre says:

    Kxì ma Karyu!

    tsalì’uri amip, irayo nìtxan! Lesar si nìtxan a fì’ut oel omum. Sunu oeru frato lì’fyavi alu zam mì zam 😀

    I found your use of the -yu suffix in “Maw tsafekem, new tareptu sneyä tarepyur irayo sivi.” very interesting. I remember that the last time -yu vs. -tu was discussed you said that maybe -yu expresses more that someone does something habitually, so that a taronyu is someone who habitually hunts for example. You said back then that this is nothing official since you have to think about this more, and in this sentence the tarepyu seems to be someone who just in this specific situation is a tarepyu – does that mean that you found the idea you had about -yu being for habitually agents as not fitting in general?

    • Pawl says:

      Ma Tekre,

      Irayo nìtxan for reminding me about our discussion of -yu vs. -tu in the comments section of the April 30, 2021 post. I’m glad I was speculative back then about the idea that -yu might indicate someone who does an action habitually, because upon further reflection it doesn’t hold up. It might be true for taronyu, but the problem, I realized, is that Na’vi needs a general agentive morpheme, like -er in English, which is productive and does not necessarily indicate habitual activity. That function is served by -yu.

      For example, if you can hear someone talking but can’t see who it is, you could ask, Plltxeyu lu pesu? where plltxeyu is the equivalent of tute a plltxe. As in the example of the rescuer, we’re not saying that this person speaks habitually, only that he or she is speaking at this time in this situation. (Tìsung: To clarify, plltxeyu can be used to indicate someone who’s a habitual speaker, which is why the word is in the dictionary in that sense. But it can also more generally indicate someone simply speaking in a particular situation.)

      In the case of tareptu, -tu indicates someone who receives the action of the verb, just as with spe’etu and kiantu. That’s something you can’t do with -yu. It also means that unlike -yu, words with -tu are unpredictable and need to be included in the dictionary.

  6. Eana Unil says:

    Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl,
    mipa zìsìt lefpom ngar ayyawntursì ngey! Mipa aylì’uri irayo nìtxan.

    Regarding tìk as a conj., I have a question. Does tìk as a conj. replace the mechanism of sequential verbs (action X _and then_ action Y)? Or is there still use for sequential verbs, because they don’t imply such a “urgency” in a sense of very little time between the two actions as tìk does (if that makes sense, hrh). Like, the time between two actions with sequential verbs isn’t defined, but tìk does imply that urgency / very little time of “immediately”.
    Maybe you can clarify this, tì’eyngìri irayo seiyi nìli!

    • Vawmataw says:

      That’s an interesting question ma Eana. I don’t think (well I hope) the sequential verbs are invalidated.

      Maybe it’s a question of urgency as you said, or the sequential version allows some delay between the two actions. But maybe the sequential verbs are (retroactively) a short version without tìk. I just had some thoughts about it. 🙂

    • Pawl says:

      Ma Eana Unil, Ma Vawmataw,

      Txe’lan mawey, ma meylan! Sequential verbs have not gone away! Your analyses are correct: Sequential verbs as we’ve known them imply that one action follows another, but there’s not the sense of immediacy as there is with V-tìk-V. So, for example, Pol tsatxumit noläk terkup means “He drank the poison and died,” but we don’t know how long it was between the drinking and the dying; it might have been hours or days. However, Tsatxumit näk tìk terkup means “If you drink that poison, you’ll immediately keel over and die.” (Apologies for the grisly examples.)

  7. Pamìrìk says:

    kxì ma Pawl, ulte ngaru sì soaiar ngey liyevu mipa zìsìt lefpom. sunu oeru faylì’u nìtxan!

    I see many of these words relate to water, which has me very excited for this year’s premiere of Avatar 2, given what we know so far about the film. I’ll definitely make sure these words are in my vocabulary going into the theater! 😉

    I’m wondering if zam mì zam is sometimes colloquially shortened to “zamìzam” or such. It seems like an expression that would be often spoken quickly, with the Ms melting together.

    Love how “tìk” *sounds* like its meaning- a quick, sharp sound. These are some of my favorite kinds of words in the Na’vi language.

    • Pawl says:

      Ma Pamìrìk,

      I like the idea that zam mì zam would have a colloquial pronunciation—that seems like a natural development. But I think it’s a matter of stress rather than of how the two m’s would merge into one. Let me explain.

      The idea of contrastive long and short vowels in certain languages is fairly familiar. In classical Latin, for example, the word mala means ‘apples’ if the first a is long, and ‘evils’ if the first a is short. (I love that example!) But some languages contrast long and short consonants as well. In Italian, anno means ‘year’ while ano means ‘anus.’ It’s not just the spelling; the words are pronounced differently, with the nn held longer than the n. (Perhaps because long consonants are usually indicated by double letters in languages that use the Roman alphabet, the process of lengthening a consonant is called gemination. Think Gemini.)

      However, Na’vi has neither long vowels nor long consonants. So when two identical consonants come together—either internally (kinammì) or at word boundaries (zam mì), there’s no reason to think the two consonants are pronounced differently than a single one would be.

      Instead, I suspect the colloquial pronunciation of zam mì zam would be ZAM.mì.zam rather than the more formal ZAM.mì.ZAM, where the stress pattern is different. Does that feel right to you?

      Glad you like tìk!

      • Zángtsuva says:

        This principle doesn’t apply to vowels, does it, since we have examples like «fya’o-o» and «zekwä-äo» (which are supposed to be distinct from «fya’o» and «zekwäo»)? Also, is there a slight exception for ejectives since you said that «srätx txo» is pronounced with “one slightly prolonged tx”? Or in other words, which of the following are distinct?
        1) srätx txo
        2) srät txo
        3) srä txo
        4) srätx to
        5) srät to
        6) srä to

  8. Plumps (sgm) says:

    Ngaru sì Tsanur mipa zìsìt lefpom livu! Fpomtokx lawnolsì nìpxi.

    Mipa postìri irayo nìtxan. Sunu oer mipa sìsung aylì’uä.

  9. Wind12 says:

    Mipa aylì’uri, irayo nìtxan ma Karyu. Sìlpey tsnì ngaru livu Mipa zìsìt lefpom. Fìzìsìt lu zìsìt letsranten frato!!!

  10. Robert Hancock says:

    I wish you would use different diacritics for ì, it is very difficult to distinguish from i.
    My preference would be for ï.

  11. Francis joseph says:

    Kaltxi ma Eylan
    Irayo si Fmawn ma Kalutral ne Ewya Eveng!
    Zola’u neprrte ma New Zealand
    Lawnol a mi te’ lan ma Li’fya le Na’vi
    Irayo si Francis
    Ma Ewya ne li’fya le Na’vi

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