Krr a’o’!  An exciting time!

Kaltxì, ma eylan ayawne!

Fìkrr ’o’ lu nìtxan nang! What an exciting time this is! Uniltìrantokx: Fya’o Payä is just around the corner, and the official trailer has everyone electrified. Also, in just a few days, members of our community, include yours truly, will be arriving in Cambridge, Massachusetts to participate in the research study on constructed languages being conducted at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Nìfkeytongay, I’m writing the draft of this post on the plane to Boston! 🙂 )

Speaking of which . . .

If you can’t make it to the conlang conference in person on Friday, 11 November, it’s still possible for you to attend . . . online, via Zoom! But you need to register. Here’s the official information, including the registration link. Once you’ve officially registered, you’ll receive a Zoom link that will allow you to attend virtually.

The McGovern Institute presents:

November 11, 2:00 – 5:30 pm EST in Singleton Auditorium (46-3002)

Followed by a reception with food and drink in 3rd floor atrium

Registration link (for both in person and virtual attendees): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brains-on-conlang-tickets-427467255067

Contact: saimamm@mit.edu

A network of regions in the left hemisphere of our brain responds robustly when we read or listen to language, but not when we solve arithmetic or logic problems, listen to music, or observe others’ facial expressions or gestures. But what precise features of language drive this network remains debated. One way to tackle this question is to test the “limits” of the language network by examining how it responds to artificially created languages—conlangs. Like natural languages, conlangs can express any idea. However, although these languages are typically modeled on natural languages, they have not undergone thousands of years of evolution and have not been optimized by communicative pressures and learning constraints. So, does listening to Esperanto, Klingon, or Dothraki activate the brain network that processes natural languages?

To explore this question, McGovern Investigator Ev Fedorenko with her graduate student Saima Malik-Moraleda will scan the brains of proficient speakers of five conlangs (Esperanto, Klingon, Dothraki, High Valyrian, and Na’vi) while they listen to sentences spoken in the language of interest. Four conlang creators — Marc Okrand (Klingon), David Peterson and Jessie Sams (Dothraki and High Valyrian), and Paul Frommer (Na’vi) — will discuss the process of language creation. Linguists Damián Blasi and Arika Okrent will talk about their research relevant to conlangs, linguistic creativity, and linguistic diversity. And Fedorenko and Malik-Moraleda will present some preliminary findings from their research. There will also be language games organized by Duolingo.

And a personal request:

I’m very much looking forward to meeting some of you “in the flesh” whom I’ve only known so far via posts and emails, and often only with your Na’vi name. If you’re planning to be there in person, could you do me favor? Send me an email with (1) your Na’vi name, (2) your full ’Rrta name, and (3) (optionally) a photo of your handsome/beautiful face so I can recognize you immediately. My email address is my last name at marshall.usc.edu. Irayo!

And now for a few new words and expressions:

sätsawn (n., sä.TSAWN) ‘harvest (particular instance)’

Fìzìsìtä sätsawn txantsan leiu.
‘I’m pleased to say that this year’s harvest was excellent.’

(By the way, if you’re wondering: Yes, there is agriculture on Pandora! 😉 )

’eylyong (n., ’EYL.yong) ‘pet’

You can probably guess the derivation: ’eylan ‘friend’ + ioang ‘animal.’

Tìkan fìpayoangä ke lu fwa tsun fko pot yivom; lu oeyä ’eylyong.
‘This fish is not meant to be eaten; it’s my pet.’

(Since it’s a pet, it would be more natural here to say pot rather than tsat. A pet is usually more like a person than a thing.)

tsefta (n., TSE.fta) ‘vengeance, revenge’

Omum oel futa ngal pot ve’kì, slä tsefta ke lu tì’eyng amuiä.
‘I know you hate him, but vengeance is not a proper response.

tsefta si (vin., TSE.fta si) ‘take revenge’

Tutanur a eyktanayti tspolang oeyä sempul tsefta sayi.
‘My father will take revenge on the man who killed the deputy.’

tseftanga’ (adj., TSE.fta.nga’) ‘vengeful’

This word can be used for both people and things: tute atseftanga’ ‘vengeful person,’ aylì’u atseftanga’ ‘vengeful words.’

layro (adj., LAY.ro) ‘free (from oppression)’

tìlayro (n., tì.LAY.ro) ‘freedom’

These words refer to not being under anyone’s control, able to act as you like without oppression.

Aysutel nìwotx new tìlayrot.
‘All people want freedom.’

And finally, two adverbs that express different kinds of surprise:

ti’a (adv., TI.’a) ‘surprisingly (for unexpectedly positive outcomes)’

um’a (adv., UM.’a) ‘surprisingly (for unexpectedly negative outcomes)’

These words are more specific than nìloho ‘surprisingly,’ which is neutral as to outcome.

Ramu ke lu txur nìtxan, slä uvanit yolora’, ti’a.
‘Ramu isn’t very strong, but surprisingly, he won the game.’

Pol tìkangkemit tsyolul nìso’ha, slä tsa’ur hasey ke soli, um’a.
He began the work enthusiastically, but surprisingly, he didn’t finish it.

That’s it for now. Hayalovay!

Edit 21 Nov.: spolang –> tspolang
Edit 29 Dec.: amuia–> amuiä, ke hasey soli –> hasey ke soli  Irayo, ma Zángtsuva!
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11 Responses to Krr a’o’!  An exciting time!

  1. Tirea Aean says:

    Tewti!

    Can’t wait for the study and to catch your talk at MIT! Should be very interesting. Looking forward to seeing the results of that as well :0

    Also, I’m really loving these new words! Some of these I have been anticipating for quite some time and I’m very excited to see them!

  2. Vawmataw says:

    Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl!

    Faylì’uri amip irayo! Kezemplltxe lesar sayi nìtxan.
    Ziyevawprrte’ kop ayngane fìtsawlultxa. 🙂

    Hayalovay!

  3. Neytiri says:

    Tewti! Ma Karyu, faylì’uri amip lam fwa ngal oey ronsemit tsolun stivawm! Txankrr narmew oel aysa’ut. Irayo seiyi ngaru.

    Kop, oel humit tsatìftiä srefereiey nìprrte’! 🙂

  4. elongater says:

    Hello,

    Just a small typo in the example:
    Tutanur a eyktanayti spolang oeyä sempul tsefta sayi.

    Probably, there should be tspolang.

    Regards,

  5. Zángtsuva says:

    A couple more apparent mistakes:
    Is «amuia» intended to be «amuiä»?
    And shouldn’t it be «hasey ke soli» rather than «ke hasey soli»?

  6. Ftiafpi says:

    Nice! Tsmuk Tirea Aean and I were discussing how we had been looking for a word for “free” and “freedom” for a while now. Kosman!

    Really excited for Avatar: Way of Water! Hoping for lots of new Na’vi to learn. 🙂

    • Pawl says:

      Glad you like the new words, ma Ftiafpi! As for A2, although I can’t say anything about its contents until after December 16th, I would say it’s possible there will be some new things in it that will interest the lì’fyaolo’. 😊

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