Ma eylan,
Relìl arusikx alu “Fya’o Payä” tok nì’i’a fìtsenget! “The Way of Water” is finally here!
More accurately, for those of us in the USA, it’s almost here. As I don’t have to tell you, our long-anticipated Avatar sequel debuts tonight at midnight. If you’re in Europe or other parts of the world, though, you may have already seen it. One way or another, I hope you find it a worthy successor to the first film.
John and I had the privilege of attending the star-studded U.S. premiere Monday night in Hollywood. What a memorable event! The only sad note was that James Cameron was absent, having tested positive for Covid. But everyone else was there.
Here’s our official premiere portrait. When they saw us, the photographers naturally abandoned Sam and Zoe and Sigourney and rushed over to take our picture. 😉
In honor of the premiere, here are some new words I hope you’ll find useful. And let me tease you by saying that you’ll hear one of them—I won’t say which—in a key scene. Also, I’ll have a major announcement at the end of this post, so make sure you don’t miss it.
val (adv.) ‘diligently, hard, with effort’
Makto val!
‘Ride hard!’
Po tìkangkem soli val nìtxan fte tsatsonur hasey sivi.
‘She worked very hard to complete the task.’
Note: To encourage someone to work hard, you could say, “Tìkangkem si val!” But a shorter and more colloquial expression is simply “Kangkem val!”
kangkem: (n., KANG.kem) ‘work, colloquial form of tìkangkem’
txotsafya (adv., TXO.tsa.fya) ‘if that’s the case, if that’s so’
Note that the stress is on the first syllable.
Ke sunu ngar teylu srak? Txotsafya, tìng oer pumit ngeyä!
‘You don’t like teylu? If that’s the case, give me yours!’
nìtrea (adv., nìt.RE.a) ‘in spirit’
Ke tsängun Tsyìm ziva’u ftxozäne, slä tok nìtrea.
‘Sadly, Jim couldn’t come to the celebration, but he was there in spirit.’
tìhangham (n, tì.HANG.ham) ‘laughter’
Txasunu oer fwa stawm ngeyä tìhanghamit.
‘I love to hear your laughter.’
lapx (vtr.) ‘regret’
Kemit a oe soli oel längapx.
‘I regret what I did.’
tìlapx (n., tì.LAPX) ‘regret’
Tsatìpe’unìri ke lu oeru kea tìlapx.
‘I have no regret(s) about that decision.’
uturu (n., u.TU.ru) ‘sanctuary, place of refuge’
Vuyin ohel uturut.
‘I respectfully request sanctuary.’
Nga ke tsun wäpivan; ngari ke lu kea uturu kawtseng.
‘You cannot hide; there is no sanctuary for you anywhere.’
txukxefu (vin., txu.KXE.fu, inf. 2, 3) ‘care, be concerned about, have deep feelings for’
This is clearly derived from txukx ‘deep’ + ’efu ‘feel.’ Recall that txukx not only indicates physical depth but can also refer to feelings, thoughts, and ideas, just as “deep” can in English.
The thing you care about is indicated either by the topical or with teri:
Ngari po ke txukxefu kaw’it.
‘He doesn’t care a bit about you.’
Furia teri lì’fya awngeyä nga txukxefu nìftxan, seiyi irayo.
‘Thank you for caring so much about our language.’
tìtxukxefu (n., tì.txu.KXE.fu) ‘care, concern’
tsun (n.) ‘heel’
This and the familiar word tsun ‘can’ are homonyms—words with the same spelling or pronunciation (in this case, both are the same) that mean different things. Since one is a noun and the other a verb, they fit into different slots in a sentence and shouldn’t cause confusion.
Oeri tengkrr terul mì na’rìng, tsunit askien tìsraw seykoli.
‘While I was running in the forest, I hurt my right heel.’
And finally,
lì’fyafnel (n., LÌ’.fya.fnel) ‘dialect, variety of a language’
I’m introducing this word at this time because . . .
Lu mì “Fya’o Payä” mipa lì’fyafnel lì’fyayä leNa’vi!!!
There’s a new variety of Na’vi in “The Way of Water”!!!
I haven’t been able to say anything up to now, but with the sequel upon us, I can finally reveal this to you. I’ll be describing the dialect in future posts, the first of which is coming soon. In the meantime, when you watch the film, see if you can determine when, where, and by whom this new dialect is spoken. There’s only a small bit of it, and you’ll have to listen closely. But even with the limited data, you may be able to detect something that’s different from the Na’vi you’re used to.
“Fya’o Payä” zìyevawprrte’ ayngane nìwotx!