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 perception.
inanfya (n., i.NAN.fya) ‘sense (means of perception)’
Inanfya (from inan ‘read, gain knowledge from sensory input’ + fya’o ‘path, way’) covers the five senses the Na’vi share with us: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Whether there are other inanfya unique to the Na’vi (for example, perception of magnetism) is a matter for further investigation. In what follows we’ll just deal with the five familiar senses.
The following table sums up the necessary vocabulary, some of which is already familiar and some of which will be new to you:
|
VTR |
VTR +control |
VIN +control |
N sensation |
N ability |
|
| sight | tse’a ‘see’ |
nìn ‘look at’ |
tìng nari ‘look’ |
’ur ‘sight, look, appearance’ |
tse’atswo ‘sight, vision’ |
| hearing | stawm ‘hear’ |
yune ‘listen to’ |
tìng mikyun ‘listen’ |
pam ‘sound’ |
stawmtswo ‘hearing’ |
| smell | hefi ‘smell’ |
syam ‘smell’ |
tìng ontu ‘smell’ |
fahew ‘smell’ |
hefitswo ‘sense of smell’ |
| taste | ewku ‘taste’ |
may’ ‘taste’ |
tìng ftxì ‘taste’ |
sur ‘taste, flavor’ |
ewktswo ‘sense of taste’ |
| touch | zìm ‘feel’ |
’ampi ‘touch’ |
tìng zekwä ‘feel’ |
zir ‘feel, texture’ |
zìmtswo ‘sense of touch’ |
First some details of the new vocabulary:
hefi (vtr., HE.fi—inf. 1,2) ‘smell (-control)’
ewku (vtr., EW.ku—inf. 1,2) ‘taste (-control)’
zìm (vtr.) ‘feel (-control)’
yune (vtr., YU.ne—inf. 1,2) ‘listen to (+control)’
syam (vtr.) ‘smell (+control)’
’ur (n.) ‘sight, look, appearance’
sur (n.) ‘taste, flavor’
zir (n.) ‘touch, feel, texture’
The “ability” nouns consist of the –control verbs with the addition of –tswo; an exception is ewktswo, where the unstressed u has dropped.
tse’atswo (n., tse.’A.tswo) ‘(sense of) sight, vision’
stawmtswo (n., STAWM.tswo) ‘(sense of) hearing’
hefitswo (n., HE.fi.tswo) ‘sense of smell’
ewktswo (n., EWK.tswo) ‘sense of taste’
zìmtswo (n., ZÌM.tswo) ‘sense of touch’
Now for some explanation of the table entries.
As you see, the expressions in the first three columns are verbs, and in the fourth and fifth nouns. Let’s look first at the verbs.
–control vs. +control
Many languages distinguish between perceptions that occur without your control (for example, “see” and “hear” in English) which we’re calling “—control” vs. perceptions that you initiate yourself (like “look” and “listen”) which we call +control. If you heard a bird singing, you had no choice in the matter: the external stimulus, in this case sound, came to your ears without your control and created an internal sensory experience. But if you listened to the bird, you made a deliberate choice to focus your attention on the stimulus. Unlike English, Na’vi makes this distinction in all the sensory modalities.
Examples of the VTRs—the transitive verbs:
sight
-control: Peut tse’a ngal?
. ‘What do you see’
+control: Poti nìn!
. ‘Look at him!’
hearing
-control: Fol oeyä tìpawmit ke stolängawm.
. ‘Unfortunately they didn’t hear my question.’
+control: Nga zene aylì’ut karyuä yivune, ma ’evi.
. ‘You must listen to your teacher, my son.’
smell
-control: Fnu, ma smuk, fnu! Oel hefi yerikit!
. ‘Quiet, everyone! I smell a hexapede!’
+control: Fìsyulangit syam. Fahew lor lu nìtxan, kefyak?
. ‘Smell this flower. Its fragrance is beautiful, isn’t it?
taste
-control: Fìnaerìri ngal ewku ’uot astxong srak?
. ‘Do you taste something strange in this drink?’
+control: Ke new oe mivay’ tsnganti a ’olem Rinil.
. ‘I don’t want to taste the meat that Rini cooked.’
touch
-control: Tengkrr hu palukantsyìp uvan seri zolìm oel mì sa’leng a ’uot
. a lu txa’ sì ekxtxu.
. ‘While playing with my cat I felt something hard and rough on his skin.’
+control: Oeti ’ampi rä’ä, ma skxawng!
. ‘Don’t touch me, you moron!’
(In the last example, note that rä’ä ‘don’t’ can come after the verb for special emphasis.)
A note on may’: Its original meaning, as you see in the table, is the control-form of ‘taste’—that is, ‘check out something by tasting.’ Its use expanded to include “checking out” almost anything, and not just by taste—as the dictionary says, ‘try, sample, evaluate, test-drive.’ So you can may’ a fruit, an article of clothing, a new way of holding your bow, etc.
As for the two +control forms in the second and third columns, the simple verbs in column 2 are used mostly with an explicit object, while the tìng forms are used mostly without an object. So the most common way to say ‘Look at that!’ is Nìn tsat! But if you just want to say ‘Look!’ it’s usually Tìng nari! But other possibilities exist. So, for example, to say ‘Look at him!’ the most common way is simply Poti nìn! But Poru tìng nari! is also possible.
The last two columns in the table are self-explanatory. The “nouns of sensation” are the sensations related to the verbs in the first two columns. So, for example, you stawm or yune a pam—that is, you hear or listen to a sound. And the words ending in -tswo are the abilities related to the senses. For example:
Tsakoakteri stawmtswo lu fe’. Pohu a tìpängkxo ngäzìk lu nìtxan.
‘That old woman’s hearing is poor. A conversation with her is very difficult.’
Middle Voice
When we say things in English like “This tastes good,” “That feels smooth,” “This fish smells awful,” “He looks like a warrior,” we’re using what’s been called “middle voice.” How do we say such things in Na’vi?
“Middle voice” constructions in Na’vi use the intransitive verb fkan, which has no simple equivalent in English and is difficult to translate by itself:
fkan (vin.) ‘resemble in a sensory modality, come to the senses as’
But some examples will make it clear how to use fkan:
Fìnaerìri sur fkan oeru kalin.
‘This drink tastes sweet to me.’
Literally: ‘As for this drink, the taste comes to me as sweet.’
Note that fkan behaves syntactically like lu and lam—that is, it’s intransitive. Also, both sur and oeru in the above example are optional. If you omit oeru, you’re making a general statement: not that the drink tastes sweet to you, but that it tastes sweet, period—that is, to everyone. If you omit sur, the sentence is grammatical but ambiguous, since you’re not specifying the sensory modality: the drink could taste sweet, but it could also smell sweet. It’s safe to omit the noun of sensation if the context makes it clear. Or in some cases you might want to be deliberately ambiguous.
Nikreri Riniyä ’ur fkan lor.
‘Rini’s hair looks beautiful.’
Nikreri Riniyä fkan lor.
‘Rini’s hair is pleasant to the senses.’
In the second example, we don’t know if Rini’s hair looks beautiful, feels beautiful, or smells beautiful.
For expressions like “looks like,” “feels like,” etc., we use fkan along with na or pxel. Example:
Raluri fahew fkan oeru na yerik.
‘Ralu smells like a hexapede to me.’
Raluri fkan na yerik.
‘Ralu smells (looks? sounds?) like a hexapede.’
Finally, here are a few sense adjectives, some of which are new, that you can use along with fkan:
As you know, we have the adjectives lor and vä’, which mean “pleasant/unpleasant to the senses,” respectively. (Note that we use lor for sensory impression rather than sìltsan.) These words can be used for any of the senses—that is, something can be pleasing in touch, taste, smell, what have you. In addition, for the sense of taste we have the specific words ftxìlor ‘good-tasting’ and ftxìvä’ ‘bad-tasting’. So for “This drink tastes good,” we can say either Fìnaerìri sur fkan lor or Fìnaerìri fkan ftxìlor.
Also:
onlor (adj., on.LOR) ‘good-smelling’
onvä’ (adj., on.VÄ’) ‘bad-smelling’
Here are the primary “taste” adjectives:
kalin (adj., ka.LIN) ‘sweet’
syä’ä (adj., SYÄ.’ä) bitter
we’ay (adj., WE.’ay) ‘sour’
wip (adj.) ‘salty’
fwang (adj.) ‘savory, umami, rich’
Note that these words can be used to describe smells as well as tastes. But Na’vi also has primary “smell-words” along with “taste-words”:
nget (adj.) ‘smell of decaying wood and leaves; dank (non-animal decay)’
kxänäng (adj., KXÄ.näng) ‘smell of decaying animal/flesh; rotting, putrid’
sosul (adj., so.SUL) ‘pleasant smell of nearby running water, rain, moist vegetation’
unyor (adj., un.YOR) ‘sweetly aromatic (a flowery or aromatic woody sort of smell; may also refer to some spices used in Na’vi cooking)
atxar (a.TXAR) ‘smell of living animals, as found around a watering hole or animal nest’
As we enter the festive season, these new words and expressions should help you describe the tastes and smells of holiday meals. Syuveri ayftxozäyä ayngaru fkivan onlor ftxìlorsì nìwotx!
This is indeed rich beyond words!
Thank you so much for sharing!
A little follow up: so lam is not a sensory impression?
I was just wondering because we also have tìlam as appearance and I am a bit confused about their exact distinction from ‘ur and fkan…
Txantsana tìpawm, nìfrakrr. It deserves more than a casual response here, so let me get to that in the next post.
Did we ever get the answer to this?
I’m really glad you like the post, ma Plumps. But I need to give most of the credit to the LEP–and to discussions with other ayhapxìtu lì’fyaolo’ä–for the excellent framework and ideas that helped me put together the final analysis. Leiu awngeyä sulfätu txantslusam nìngay.
These words are exquisite, maPawl. I am curious about whether or not the Na’vi’s understanding of “syura” comes with a sense we could extrapolate beyond a vagary…
Thanks! And an excellent question about syura, one I’d like to ask The Man the next time I have his ear.
By the way, the pronunciation of tse’atswo says “tsA’atswo”.
Irayo! Fixed.
This is great!
This is so fabulous! Kosman fìtxan ma karyu! And it answers my question as to whether or not a thing, such as honey, can smell sweet. I will refrain from making the obvious pun and saying, “Sweet!” Or perhaps I won’t.
Oeru tìprrte’, ma tsmuk. And don’t ever refrain from making puns, obvious or not.
Great! How many new words to learn! (pak!
:D)
But I must ask one nitpicking question: how negation can go behind the verb ??
Oeti ’ampi rä’ä
It is first occurrence of such construction, AFAIK
You’re right. We haven’t seen a post-verbal negative before. This is something you can do only with rä’ä, not with ke. It generally implies strong emphasis, but it’s also found in poetry.
Very interesting. And it is logical. If you give an order and have to be quick, e.g. if you see someone who is actually one moment away from eating a poisonous plant, you would scream at him: Yom rä’ä!!! And you’ll get the attention of that person. In this moment the emphasis must be on the interdiction. Clever
Fpìlfya fìlì’fyayä sunu oer nì’ul’ul nìlkeftang…
Fìfmawnìri oe ngaru seiyi irayo, ma Karyu. Lam lesar nìngay
Irayo, ma Kemaweyan. Sìlpey oe, faysäomum lesar lìyevu ayngaru nìwotx.
Lì’fya leNa’vi slu kxayl nì’ul’ul krra ‘upxare amip srer fìpìlokmì.
For the sentence, “Raluri fkan na-yerik,” I was wondering if the translation “There’s just something about Ralu that reminds me of a hexapede,” could work. The “something” in that sentence denotes a quality indescribable by the speakers, not necessarily any one quality to have to be mentioned.
Säfpìl akosman, ma Temsko! I like your translation.
Kosman nìtxan nang ulte lesar nìtxan! Irayo seiyi ma Karyu!
Furia fìpostì ngar sunu oeru prrte’ lu nìngay, ma Kamean.
Ma karyu, kame ngat, ketsukpaw leiu. Tìng nari sì nìn oeti tengkrr srereiew oe pxaw ylltxep! Leiu aylì’u lesar nìtxan. Tìomumluke ngeyä, tolìng oer ngal stxelit akosman.
*Hehehe*, hefi oel atxara fahewit smarä a fko syaw mipa tìyom lì’fyayä kuma tsun oe nivume nì’ul’ul. Rutxe yomtìng ayoer nì’ul.
Nìfrakrr, txantsana sänumvi a eltur oeyä tìtxen si
Aylì’u mip sì lesar lu fwa franumeyuru zene sivunu
If this is wrong, just tell me (anyone)
I haven’t used my Na’vi for… more than year
Kosman nìwotx nang! This is a wonderful list of words, and presented very systematically as well. This kind of presentation makes these words a lot easier to learn. Bits of new grammar are always appreciated as well.
I’m glad that the ‘savory’ taste sense didn’t get overlooked. That taste was recognized only fairly recently. And considering the Na’vi taste for animal-based food (which this taste sensation is particularly sensitive to), it only makes sense that this sensation would be present.
I really, really like atxar. That was a brilliant addition, by whoever came up with it (it wasn’t me!). This word will be especially useful to me, as I experience lots of atxar as I work in the zoo. And some of those atxar smells are among my favorite smells!
Finally, there is sosul, for ‘water smell’. This is interesting, as not everyone can smell this smell. But if you have lived in the western US, away from cities, or places like much of Africa, it is a smell you quickly learn. THis smell is very hard to describe. But one question about this word: Would this apply to the pleasant ozone-like odor that often precedes or follows a thunderstorm? This is something a bit different than water-smell, but related to it.
Would sosul apply to the pleasant ozone-like odor that often precedes or follows a thunderstorm? This is something a bit different than water-smell, but related to it.
’En si oe tsnì tì’eyng slu SRANE, slä am’ake ke lu.
I always seem to read the updates long after they’re posted. This one makes me quite happy though. I feel like I need to read it a couple more times to completely understand the usage of the senses in the Na’vi way.
I could only imagine what the senses could bring to future translations. Quickly thinking of Shakespeare, I recall a part about “all the perfumes of Arabia” in Macbeth and I found “Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all.” in Hamlet.
‘ivong Na’vi!
Ta EMIBH
M.p. oel lemweypey perey ‘upxaret tìrolteri alu “Kelku mì Tayo”
Where would “kame” fit in this paradigm? Is there another “seeing” set of words as well?
If you look up at my posts to Karyu-man, I make the case that the people’s interactions with SYURA might have developed a sense that is reminiscent to our “sixth sense.” In conjunction with this thinking, SYURA is something “felt” by the Na’vi like they can “see” something in people which developed into the word KAME, that likely being RAN.
The point being that they have seven senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, “feeling” of energy, and “sight” (KAME) within people. Ofcourse, KAME might be a developed sense of the energy they see in another that they recognize from what’s inside of them. So, SYURA inside and RAN outside with KAME being the interpretation of that energy.
Kaltxì ma karyu Pawl, my name is rainy.
I’m a Taiwanese, did you ever heard that about Taiwan XD,
as a Chinese language user my English is not very well (but keep progressing)
I very love your Na’vi that you created for movie Avatar,
I learning Na’vi too! it’s great language that can describe my feeling delicate!
and I also like study in linguistics, it’s just awsome.
ok, I have a question want to asking you about this post:
How do I use the word “atxar”?
I couldn’t figure out its definition… I need the explain more deeply and clearly
could you tell me? ma karyu Pawl?