Kaltxì, ma frapo! Sìlpey oe, ayngaru livu fpom nìwotx.
Here are about twenty new words and expressions that I hope you’ll find useful. The majority came directly from, or were inspired by, the recent submissions I received from the Lexical Expansion Project. Irayo, ma smuk! Seysonìltsan!
In no particular order:
kxäl (adj.) ‘apathetic, feeling of apathy’
Fìtìngäzìkìri ’efu po kxäl; pori tsa’u ke tsranten kaw’it.
‘She’s apathetic about this problem; it doesn’t matter to her at all.’
tìkxäl (n., tì.KXÄL) ‘apathy’
Tìkxäl lu peu? Lu tskxepay a mì te’lan sì kxitx a mì eltu.
‘What is apathy? It’s ice in the heart and a death in the brain.’
(This evocative example is from the LEP.)
nìkxäl (adv., nì.KXÄL) ‘apathetically’
lìlì (n., LÌ.lì) ‘breast’
hilu (n., HI.lu) ‘nipple’
wantseng (n., WAN.tseng) ‘hiding place (temporary)’
A wantseng is a temporary hiding place, where for example a prey animal might hide from a predator. It’s not used for a permanent refuge.
mu’nitkan (adj., MU’.nit.kan) ‘effective’
This word is derived from mu’ni ‘achieve’ and tìkan ‘goal, target.’ Something that’s effective reaches its target or achieves its goal.
Tsayerikìl mu’nitkana wantsengit rolun; ke tsun fko pot tsive’a kaw’it.
‘That hexapede has found an effective hiding place. He can’t be seen at all.’
(NOTE: Whether you refer to an animal as a “he/she” or an “it” depends on how you feel about it. In this example, however, using pot rather than tsat has a practical function: it avoids an ambiguity. If it were tsat, you wouldn’t know if it was the hexapede or the hiding place that couldn’t be seen!)
kemu’nitkan (adj., ke.MU’.nit.kan) ‘ineffective’
tìmu’nitkan (n., tì,MU’.nit.kan) ‘effectiveness’
nìmu’nitkan (adv., nì.MU’.nit.kan) ‘effectively’
(NOTE: “Effectively” means two different things in English: (1) ‘in such a way as to reach a target,’ and (2) actually rather than officially or explicitly, as in “His campaign is effectively over”—that is, it’s over for all practical purposes, even if its demise hasn’t yet been announced. Nìmu’nitkan only has the first meaning, not the second.)
txeylan (n., TXEY.lan) ‘best friend’
This word evolved from txe’lan ‘heart’ + ’eylan ‘friend.’ In Na’vi, your best friend is your “heart friend.”
napxì (adv., na.PXÌ) ‘partially, in part’
This adverb originally had the regular nì– prefix—i.e, *nìhapxì—but due to the stress pattern, where the first two syllables were unstressed, it evolved to its present irregular form.
Fìtìkangkemvi hasey lu napxì nì’aw.
‘This project is only partially complete.’
tsup (n.) ‘chasm, ravine’
This yields the proverbial expression:
Rä’ä zup nemfa tsup.
‘Don’t fall into the chasm.’ (That is, don’t fall into the trap that someone has laid for you.)
wätum (n., WÄ.tum) ‘antidote’
As you can tell, this comes from wä ‘against’ + txum ‘poison.’ (Recall that wä is one of those adpositions that trigger lenition.)
Peyä aylì’uri atxumnga’ wätumìl pesenget?
‘Where is the antidote for his poisonous words?’
mewn (vin.) ‘sigh’
Nga merewn pelun, ma paskalin?
‘Why are you sighing, sweetie?’
sämewn (n., sä.MEWN) ‘sigh, an instance of sighing’
Zola’u ftu käpxì numtsengviyä sämewn awok.
‘From the back of the classroom came a loud sigh.’
tì’ewan (n., tì.’E.wan) ‘youth (time of life)’
tìkoak (n., tì.KO.ak) ‘old age’
A proverbial expression:
Nìwin ’ìp tì’ewan, nìwin pähem tìkoak.
‘Youth vanishes quickly, old age arrives quickly.’
kxal (adj.) ‘strict, demanding proper behavior’
This word refers to someone who’s a strict disciplinarian or a “stickler for the rules.”
Another proverbial expression:
Ftumfa kxala karyuä kxa za’u sänume a ley.
‘From the mouth of a strict teacher comes valuable instruction.’
tìkxal (n., tì.KXAL) ‘strictness, discipline’
And yet another proverb:
Tìkxalìl tìkxälit zeyko.
‘Discipline cures apathy.’
Finally, some new uses of a couple of familiar words:
As you know, the terms for ‘ascend’ and ‘descend’ are fäkä and kllkä respectively. When accompanied by the adpositions sìn ‘onto’ and ftu ‘from,’ they’re also the terms for getting on or off a vehicle or conveyance. When used with an animal, they mean ‘mount’ or ‘dismount.’
fäkä sìn (v.) ‘get on, mount’
kllkä ftu (v.) ‘get off, dismount’
Po sìn pa’li fäkolä makto neto.
‘She got on her direhorse and rode away.’
And just a couple more things before I sign off:
First, I have some comments to respond to from previous posts. I’ll get to them as soon as I can.
And second, it’s possible you’ve come across something on the Internet that says I’ve created another constructed language for a major non-Avatar-related film coming out towards the end of the year. That is not true. It’s just one more example of someone misreading something and then repeating it erroneously, at which point the misinformation spreads virally. (Sämewn atsawl.)
Hayalovay!
Txeylan is rapidly becoming my new favorite Na’vi word. ❤️ Irayo nìtxan ma Pawl!!
I like it too! I thought it was a very nice suggestion from the LEP.
Nìfrakrr faylì’uri amip irayo nìtxan! Nì’i’a nìNa’vi fko tsun pivlltxe san fäkä sìn!
By the way, is tsup an ù-word in reef dialect?
Also, wätum should have an ù in Reef, as txum is dùm there.
Correct.
Evidence that it is «tsup» rather than «tsùp»:
1. the proverb suggests that it’s supposed to rhyme with «zup»
2. the word «tsùpx» already exists and would be pronounced as «tsùp» in certain phonetic contexts (though this would not be too bad as it has a different part of speech).
Correct. The rhyme is the giveaway.
Correct, tsup is tseng and zup combination.
Nìprrte’, ma ‘eylan.
Tsup is not an ù-word in RN. See above.
Furia law si irayo! 😁
Oh, also, the homonym detector discovered two new things:
Kxal can be “strict” or “mouth (agentive)” (Kxala kxal kemit kxìm) 😂
Tupe and tsuppe sound the same when lenited (supe)
I thought of you and the homonym detector when thinking about kxal, ma Txonpay. I like your tongue-twister!
Irayo nìtxan! 😁
How about: Kxala kxal akxal kxäl kxaylsì lu a lomtut tup tutét tok.
I realized another one: wätumì (in an opponent) and wätummì (in an antidote)
About the example sentence for «tìkxäl»: would it be a more literal/accurate translation to say “a death in the brain” rather than just “death in the brain” seeing as it’s «kxitx» rather than «tìterkùp»?
Good point. I hadn’t noticed that. I’ll change “death” to “a death.”
I’m not sure about this: Is the original sentence “Peyä aylì’uri atxumnga’ wätum peseng?” missing tok? Should it be “Peyä aylì’uri atxumnga’ wätumìl (tok) pesengit?” instead?
Good observation. You’re quite right.
Irayo! The first example I thought of was in The Way of Water when recom Quaritch asks “peseng ngeyä sempul?” to Lo’ak. 😁 We all assumed it was a beginner’s mistake on recom Quaritch’s part.
Hmm. I’m wondering now. Thanks for reminding me about that “Way of Water” question. Your assumption about Quaritch’s Na’vi in A2 was actually correct: my assignment there was to come up with “early Na’vi,” where Quaritch was still making beginners’ mistakes, which would be expected. It’s possible I’ve unconsciously legitimized that structure in my mind. As I indicated, I was under the impression we’ve had other examples of the abbreviated colloquial structure. But if those don’t turn up, I’ll reverse my position and reinstitute the standard structure in the example. Thanks again to Txonsärangal for asking the question.
We only had examples of leaving out tok colloquially, cf. Annotated Dictionary under ‘tok.’ Maybe that’s what you were thinking of?
Otherwise, wonderful new words! Nice to see that the language is growing and growing 🙂
Irayo nìfrakrr, ma tsmuk. That helps a lot. I’ve now made the appropriate changes.
There’s also “tsmuke peseng?” (child’s speech) from Frontiers of Pandora.
Kea tìkin, ma Karyu Pawl.😊
During a lesson yesterday where we practiced the new words together, Záng actually came up with an interpretation where leaving out the case endings would work, namely “where is there an antidote?” (vs. “where is the antidote?”) – would that work theoretically? It would fit with the fact that X lu -> “there is X”, and we also have seen “peseng” being used in an adverbial way before of course.
I’m not entirely sure whether Lu + peseng is grammatically correct, but I feel that “Tsun fko rivun wätumit peseng?” is the more natural way to ask if an antidote exists. Of course, that’s just my personal take.
Lu ayngar wätum srak? would be another way to do this question where usage of lu comes up naturally.
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl ulte vospxìmrr lefpom.
Aylì’uri amip oe suteru a tsayut molok new pivlltxe san seysonìltsan sì irayo!
As I am translating the word hilu into French, I wonder if hilu applies to animals and people or only one of them.
Irayo ulte hayalovay!
Does lìlì mean one breast or both? Is that word countable?