Author Archives: Pawl

Kaltxì, ma eylan— Fìpostì mektsengur teya si. This post fills a gap in our understanding of Na’vi syntax: counterfactual conditionals. The counterfactual structure is a bit complicated, so we’ll go slow, and if necessary, we’ll have further clarifications in subsequent … Continue reading →

Ma smuk, I thought you might like to hear about some of the Na’vi-related things I’ve been doing and am planning to do soon. First, there’s this very nice segment in the PBS web series “The Secret Life of Scientists … Continue reading →

Kaltxì, ma frapo. We haven’t had much new vocabulary in a while, so here are some aylì’u amip to fill a mektseng or two (see below) that I hope you’ll find useful. Some of these were requests from the Euro-Avatar … Continue reading →

Kaltxì ayngaru, ma eylan— We’re all familiar with the verb tsranten, which means ‘matter, be important,’ as in: [Mo’at:] Yola krr, txana krr, ke tsranten.Tìng nari ‘It doesn’t matter how long it takes.’ The negative phrase ke tsranten yields the … Continue reading →

Here are some useful expressions for improvement and its opposite. tsan’ul (vin., TSAN.’ul—inf. 2, 2) ‘improve, get better’ fe’ul (vin., FE.’ul—inf. 2, 2) ‘worsen, get worse’ These are compounds built on ’ul, ‘increase,’ along with the adjectives for good and … Continue reading →

Fì’uti nivìn, ma smuk: Tsamsiyu Not just an ikran in the skies of Earth, but one that’s called Tsamsiyu! Am’aluke ’erong Na’vi mì seng a eltur tìtxen si!

Ma eylan, Just a relatively short post before the month ends . . . slä nìsìlpey pum a nga’ aylì’fyavit lesar. flrr (adj.) ‘gentle, mild, tender’ This word can be used for both people and things. Keng tsamsiyu zene flrr … Continue reading →

This post introduces the important noun yì and its use in talking about different levels of things, including attainment in language. yì (n.) ‘shelf, ledge, level, step, rung’ The basic meaning of yì is that of a small, flat area … Continue reading →

Kaltxì nìmun, ma smuk. Sìlpey oe, ayngari nìwotx sngilvä’i zìsìt amip nìltsan nìtxan nì’aw. I hope 2013 has gotten off to a fine start for all of you. Here are a few new vocabulary items and some grammatical discussion as … Continue reading →

Here at last is the revised and finalized Renu Ayinanfyayä—the “Senses Paradigm,” the original version of which was submitted by the LEP Committee a long time ago. It’s an excellent framework for clarifying and summarizing the Na’vi expressions relating to … Continue reading →