Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo!
Our LEP (Lexical Expansion Project) team has been working overtime, and I have an impressive list of submissions, some from months ago, that I’m gradually going through. Most of the following new vocabulary items are either taken directly from their submissions or inspired by them.
First, some body parts:
tsyokxtil (n., TSYOKX.til) ‘wrist’ (usually pronounced tsyoktil)
Tsyokx, as you know, means ‘hand.’ Recall that til means ‘joint.’
zektil (n., ZEK.til) ‘knuckle’ (from zekwä ‘finger’+ til)
tstir (n.) ‘palm of a hand’
stang (n.) ‘torso’
sil (n.) ‘body stripe (non-facial)’
Compare pil, which refers specifically to facial stripes.
Pori frapil sì frasil lor lu nìtxan.
’He/She is very attractive.’
(Literally: ‘As for him/her, every facial and body stripe is very beautiful.’)
In Na’vi slang, this proverbial expression is often reduced to:
Frapil frasil!
‘Wow! Check him/her out! He/She is gorgeous!’
tski (n.) ‘jaw’
kxon (n.) ‘internal organ’
Lu tokxur tuteyä polpxaya kxon?
‘How many internal organs does a person’s body have?’
The next few words are not strictly body parts themselves but are related to them:
rumtsyokx (n., RUM.tsyokx) ‘fist’ (lit.: ball hand)
rìktsyokx (n., RÌK.tsyokx) ‘flat hand’ (lit.: leaf hand)
Ateyol Entut tolakuk fa rumtsyokx.
‘Ateyo punched Entu (i.e. struck him with his fist).’
Ateyol Entut tolakuk fa rìktsyokx.
‘Ateyo slapped Entu (i.e. struck him with his flat hand).’
heynyì (n., HEYN.yì) ‘lap’ (i.e., the flat surface created when sitting)
Za’u heyn sìn oey heynyì, ma ’evi.
‘Come sit on my lap, my child.’
A couple of grammatical terms:
rawnlì’u (n., RAWN.lì.’u) ‘pronoun’ (from rawn ‘substitute, replace’)
pamrìrlì’u (n., pam.RÌR.lì.’u) ‘onomatopoetic word’
An onomatopoetic word is one that imitates (rì’ìr si) the sound of its referent. Most if not all languages have such words. An English example is ratatat, ‘a rapid succession of knocking, tapping, or cracking sounds.’ A Na’vi example is kxangangang ‘boom.’
And some miscellaneous words:
tìtok (n., tì.TOK) ‘presence’
I really like this word! It’s obviously from tok ‘be at, occupy a space.’
Tìtokìl ngeyä ngop tìngäzìkit fraporu.
‘Your presence creates a difficulty for everyone.’
tìktok (n., tìk.TOK) ‘absence’
This is a development of tì + ke + tok. Since tìtok and tìktok are close in sound but opposite in meaning, you need to distinguish them carefully in speaking. If there’s any danger of confusion, you can say the original long form of the word, tìketok.
Tìktokit peyä fkol tsoleri.
‘His absence was noted.’
Tìtok slu tìktok fa pamtsyìp a’aw.
‘Presence becomes absence by means of one little sound.’
(A proverbial expression meaning: ‘Small things can make a big difference.’)
pamtsyìp (n., PAM.tsyìp) ‘small or slight sound’
tskxemauti (n., TSKXE.ma.u.ti) ‘nut’
From tsxke ‘stone’ + mauti ‘fruit’
yayl (n.) ‘nonsense, gibberish’
Yayl can refer either to something completely unintelligible or to something that’s foolish and makes no sense.
Faylì’u a poltxe nga lu yayl nì’aw.
‘What you said is nothing but nonsense.’
You can also use the bare word yayl as a rude put-down of what someone has just said or written:
Yayl!
‘Bullshit!’
leyayl (adj., le.YAYL) ‘nonsensical’
tìtxanro’a (n., tì.txan.RO.’a) ‘fame, glory’
This is a nice sentence to practice out loud for stress and rhythm:
Tsatu a new tìtxanro’at nì’aw / ke slayu eyktan atxantsan kawkrr.
‘The person who wants only fame will never become an excellent leader.’
zeklor (adj., zek.LOR) ‘pleasant to the touch’
Clearly from zekwä ‘finger’ + lor ‘beautiful.’
Sunu oer fìfnesrä taluna lu zeklor.
‘I like this kind of cloth because it feels good.’
Hayalovay, ma eylan!
Faylìuri lesar irayo nìtxan!
Is there a reason that the stress of «zeklor» contrasts with narLOR, mikLOR, onLOR and ftxìLOR?
Aha! So you noticed that! Well, the reason for the different stress is . . . Karyu Pawl’s inconsistency! 😂
Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve changed it to zekLOR.
Kosman, irayo ma Karyu!
Irayo nìmun ma Pawl! 😁 Wasn’t expecting another post this soon!
All these words look good! After transcribing them all into a dictionary, I can’t think of any clarifications to ask you about! AND we got a new swear word! 🤣
Txantsan! Glad the new words look good. As for yayl, I really love it. (Irayo, ma LEP!) Sometimes words just sound right, and this is one of them.
Yayl might be handy for our American folks in the next few months hrh
On behalf of the LEP, kea tìkin! Also, I heard of some discussion over the interjection of realization or discovery, equivalent to “ah” or “oh”. It got the equivalent of a thumbs up, but we weren’t sure whether or not e was canonized as that word. 🤔
Hmm. My memory could be failing me, but I don’t recall using e in that way. If I did, could you remind me when and where I did? In any event, it could be a candidate for that function. To be followed up . . .
It came up in an email exchange (with a numeyu who wished to remain anonymous) that is cited here (note that the emails may actually be significantly older than the forum post):
https://forum.learnnavi.org/language-updates/navi-equivalent-for-ah/
(I can ask the numeyu in question to send you a message with more details if this doesn’t jog your memory.)
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl ulte vospxìkin lefpom!
Pxaya faylì’u lesar irayo nìtxan! Txankrr ke tsole’a ayoel mipa aylì’ut letokx.
Seysonìltsan sì irayo ayhapxìtur tìkangkemviyä alu LEP!
The funny part is the word tìktok, which resembles the name of the social media Tiktok. And of course the interjection yayl, which is very straight to the point, just how we like it. hrh
Hayalovay!
Also frazil is spelled frasil in French, although the s is pronounced like a z. Just funny linguistic things.
I hadn’t made the connection to TikTok! Thanks for pointing it out. It’s ironic that TikTok, the social media facility, has been banned in some places, while the Na’vi word tìktok means ‘absence’! Pure coincidence and unintentional, but serendipitous! 😊
[Oeru txoa livu, ma Sarah. I think I inadvertently deleted your comment. Could you repost it? Irayo!]
Pxaya lì’u alor lesarsì nìtxan, nang! Nìpxi txasunu oer lì’u a lu tskxemauti! Syuve skxwrr’llfpi, kefyak?
Srane! Syuve sìkwrr’llfpi sì tutefpi nìteng!
Will there be more family terms?
Yes!
Kaltxì ma Pawl!
It’s great to see the progression of body terms based on what we already have! Excited for the upcoming family terms!