Kxì, ma frapo!
It’s too late for me to wish people Happy Easter or Happy Passover, but for those who celebrated, I hope you had a pleasant and meaningful holiday.
As you’ve probably gathered, I’ve been busy with time-consuming projects that have temporarily taken me away from Na’vi. Happily, though, they’re mostly complete, so I can turn once again to my major conlang love. 🙂
We haven’t had any new vocabulary in quite a while, so here’s a start: 32 words. Some of these are predictable “housekeeping” items—obvious derivatives of existing items that should be in the dictionary. But most are entirely new, largely stemming from a translation project someone asked me to do. (That’s the best way to discover the gaps in a conlang, I think: to realize while translating that we really do need a word for X!)
I should reiterate that I have a significant backlog of LEP submissions I need to get to. Although those suggestions don’t figure among the new words below, I haven’t forgotten about them. As always, LEP members, thanks for your patience!
In no particular order:
le’awnì’aw (adj., le.’AW.nì.’aw) ‘unique’
This is ‘unique’ in the sense of exclusivity: there’s no other item in the world like the one in question. Compare that with letsim, also glossed as ‘unique.’ Letsim, however, indicates ‘original, not derived from another source.’
Tsatìoeyktìng lu le’awnì’aw; kea pumit anafì’u ke stolawm oel kawkrr.
‘That explanation is unique; I’ve never before heard one like it.’
tì’awnì’aw (n., tì.’AW.nì.’aw) ‘uniqueness’
säkelpxìmrun (n., sä.kel.PXÌM.run) ‘a rarity’
As you would conclude from the sä- prefix, this word refers to a particular instance of being rare. It’s often pronounced colloquially as skelpxìmrun.
Nafì’ua mokri lu säkelpxìmrun.
‘Such a voice is a rarity.’
tìkelpxìmrun (n., tì.kel.PXÌM.run) ‘rarity, rareness’
The tì- prefix here indicates the state or quality of being rare.
Tìkelpxìmrunit nafì’ua mokriyä ke tsun fko wätive.
‘The rarity of such a voice can’t be disputed.’
lemungwrr (adj., le.mung.WRR) (RN: lemùngwrr) ‘exceptional’
sätäftxu (n., sä.tä.FTXU) ‘piece of weaving, a woven thing’
As you would predict, this is often pronounced colloquially as stäftxu.
wesek (adj., WE.sek) ‘subtle’
tìwesek (n., tì.WE.sek) ‘subtlety’
Ke lolu kea tìwesek mì säftxulì’u aräptum peyä.
‘There was no subtlety in his coarse speech.’
txanley (vin., TXAN.ley, inf. 2,2) ‘be invaluable’
Obviously from txan ‘great’ + ley ‘be of value.’
Ngeyä mowar txanley oer.
‘Your advice is invaluable to me.’
nuäslew (vtr., NU.ä.slew, inf. 3,3) ‘surpass, transcend’
This is a contraction of nuä ‘beyond’ + salew ‘go, proceed.’ Note that it’s transitive:
Ngeyä wayìl nuäslew pumit oeyä.
‘Your song surpasses mine.’
huslew (vtr., HU.slew, inf. 2,2) ‘accompany’
Another compound with salew.
Srake nivew nga huslivew oeti ftxozäne?
‘Would you like to accompany me to the celebration?’
tìhuslew (n., tì.HU.slew) ‘accompaniment’
huslewtu (n., HU.slew.tu) ‘accompanier, escort, companion’
reymtxew (n., REYM.txew) ‘coast, shore’
A compound of reym ‘dry land’ + txew ‘edge.’
lereymtxew (adj., le.REYM.txew) ‘coastal’
Fìtuté lu hapxìtu olo’ä lereymtxew.
‘This woman is a member of a coastal clan.’
mimu (vtr., MI.mu, inf. 1,2) ’develop’
Zene awnga mivimu tìhawlit a lätxayn kxutut.
‘We have to develop a plan to defeat the enemy.’
tìmimu (n., tì.MI.mu) ‘development’
fpusìl (adj., fpu.SÌL) ‘sapient’
This is just the –us– form—i.e., the present participle—of fpìl ‘think.’ So usually, it simply means ‘thinking.’ But since it’s also used in a somewhat specialized way to mean ‘sapient,’ as in swirä afpusìl, ‘sapient creature,’ it should be listed as such in the dictionary.
sätse’a (n., sä.tse.’A) ‘something seen, a sight)
As you know, we already have the word ’ur glossed as ‘sight, look, appearance.’ Although there is some overlap, the basic difference is that sätse’a refers to everything in your field of vision, while ’ur is narrower, referring to the appearance of a particular thing. So, for example, if you witnessed the destruction of Hometree, you might say, “Sätse’a afpxamo nìtxan nang!” ‘What a terrible sight!’ or ‘What a terrible thing to see!’ That is, everything in your field of vision is terrible.
reymsätsa (n., REYM.sä.tsa) ‘landscape’
Note that in this compound, sätse’a > sätsa.
txampaysätsa (n., TXAM.pay.sä.tsa) ‘seascape’
txurplltxe (vin. and vtr., TXUR.pll.txe, inf. 2,3) ‘declare’
To declare something is to say it strongly.
Used intransitively:
Po txurpoltxe san nga yawne lu oer!
‘He declared, “I love you!”’
Used transitively:
Ayngal krrpe txurpoltxe tsyìmawnun’it?
‘When did you declare (your) independence?’
sätxurplltxe (n., sä.TXUR.pll.txe) ‘declaration’
Often pronounced colloquially as stxurplltxe.
ru’u (vtr., RU.’u, inf. 1,2) ‘glance at’
A glance is a quick or hurried look.
Tsole’a oel futa ngal ru’u oeti.
‘I saw that you glanced at me.’
säru’u (n., sä.RU.’u) ‘a glance’
Colloquially: sru’u.
swayì (n., SWA.yì) ‘generation within a family’
This is an evolved compound that originated as soaia ‘family’ + yì ‘level.’
Swayì refers to generations in a family—for example, children, parents, and grandparents being three different generations. It cannot be used for societal generations like Gen X, Gen Z, etc. (Are those terms only used in America?)
Mì helku oeyä pxeswayì kelku si ’awsiteng.
‘Three generations live together in my home.’
parwun (vtr., PAR.wun, inf. 1,2) (RN: parwùn) ’inhabit’
Ayioangpel fìsponot parwun?
’What animals inhabit this island?’
(Question: As you know, interrogative pe can be either a prefix or a suffix: pehrr vs. krrpe. In the above example, why is pe better as a suffix? 🙂 )
parwuntu (n., PAR.wun.tu) ‘inhabitant (for people only)’
lätek (vtr., LÄ.tek, inf. 1,2) ’recognize’
Oeru txoa livu! Oel ngati ke lolätek mì sìvawm.
’Forgive me! I didn’t recognize you in the darkness.’
As in English, lätek can be used for identifying a person (“I recognize you”) or for acknowledging the significance of something (“I recognize the importance of your work”).
tìlätek (n., tì.LÄ.tek) ‘recognition’
tspu’ (vtr. and vin.) ‘extend, hold out’
When used transitively, tspu’ refers to holding something out, often to offer it to someone:
Pol tspolu’ oer utumautit tsakrr oel munge.
‘She held a banana fruit out to me and I took it.’
When used intransitively, tspu’ refers to occupying a certain place or stretching to a certain point:
Atxkxe ayoeyä tspu’ nuä ayram.
‘Our land extends beyond the mountains.’
And finally, I was asked to come up with a term for ecosystem. Here’s what I did:
ve’o ayruseyä (n.p., VE.’o ay.ru.SEY.ä) ‘ecosystem’
Ve’o means ‘order, organization’ and rusey can be a noun meaning ‘living thing.’ So an ecosystem is an organization of living things.
As always, please let me know if you catch any typos or other infelicities.
Sìlpey oe, faylì’u amip ayngaru lesar lìyevu!
Hayalovay, ma eylan!
ta P.
Toledaw nìprrte’ ma karyu ulte kosmana aylìuri lesar irayo!
Some things that stand out to me:
Given that in «txamPAY» the second syllable is stressed, is “seascape” supposed to be «txamPAYsätsa»?
«Ayoangìlpe» is very strange to me. Is it normal for the «i» from «ioang» to disappear after «ay-»? And I would have expected the case suffix to go after «-pe»: «ayioangpel». Is this another instance like «pukito» where the case suffix is allowed before the other suffix as a less common alternative form?
It looks like the second «’» is missing in the transcriptions of «le’awnì’aw» and «tì’awnì’aw».
And speaking of ayolo’ lereymdew, I would very much appreciate it if all words that have «ù» in lì’fya wione could be marked as such; otherwise the completeness of the great u/ù list with which you provided us is undone, and the rapidly growing subcommunity of Reef enthusiasts will feel left out 🙁
Ngeyä tìkangkemti adantsan ayoel leytsleiam nìfrakrr!
ta Zángtsuva
Looking at it again, a couple more things:
I believe «wiväte» should be «wätive»?
I find the use of «munge» in the example sentence «Pol tspolu’ oer utumautit tsakrr oel munge» a little unexpected considering that in the past we’ve seen it used as “take” in the sense of “bring” (so it would be like “she held a bananafruit out to me and I took it home with me”, which I think is not the intended meaning here?). So is «munge» ambiguously the normal word to use in this type of situation, or should it actually be something like «fyep» or «mll’an» or «niä» or «kxeltek» or perhaps some word that we haven’t seen before?
*wiväte –> wätive: zoslolu.
Munge by itself can indeed mean ‘take.’ Recall the line of the dying Eytukan in A1, as he gives his bow to Neytiri: “Ma ‘ite–oeyä tskoti ngal mivunge. Omatikayaru tìhawnu sivi.” ‘Daughter–take my bow. Protect the People.’ For ‘bring,’ it’s more usual to use zamunge.
Irayo furia vll tìkenongti alal! Tatlam zene oe ftivia berelti arusikx val nìul.
I was basing my understanding of «mùnge» on examples that name a destination such as «Tsun Txilte pamrelit ivinan; tafral pukot anutx munge fratseng.» “Txilte knows how to read; therefore she brings a thick book wherever she goes.” I thought that, like «(za-/kä-)srìn», «mùnge» was simply an unspecified «za-/kä-mùnge», but instead it seems that it doesn’t inherently involve this sense of travel at all (although it’s also not necessary to add the prefix in order to use it with this sense) 🙂
Also the transcription of «ru’u» seems to be missing the «’».
Zoslolu. Irayo.
Irayo, ma Zángtsuva!
Regarding txampay: As you know, words beginning with a prefixed txan- or txam- are not consistent in their stress patterns; some stress the initial txan/txam, some do not. In txampay, txam should be stressed. (Cf. From the Metkayina tribal chant: Dampay l(u) awnga, ‘We are the Sea,’ where Dampay is DAM.pay for sure.) I’m not sure why I originally went with *txam.PAY. Ha ma Plumps, please change txampay in the AD to [‘t’am.paj]. Irayo!
Regarding *Ayoangìlpe, yes, you’re right about the missing i. This is a bit confusing, even to Karyu Pawl. 🙂 We have two words, payoang and payioang, and they’re both correct! However, the first one means ‘fish’ (sg.) and the second means ‘what animals?’ That said, I want to discuss the ordering of ìl and pe in some detail. I’ll get to that later.
The other typos: zoslolu.
Suggestion re u/ù in Lì’fya Wionä noted!
Will do so in the next update.
And I’m looking forward to the -ìl/-pe discussion.
Kxì, kawkrr pamrel ke soli oe fìtsenge, ha kaltxì!
“Are those terms only used in America?”
As long as I know, no. They’re used at least also in Spain, where I live. Funny thing, someone asked me (well, just asked in Kelutral, in the spanish speakers thread) how landscape could be in a phrase and I dind’t have the propper word. Thanks for this.
Thanks for that information. And I’m glad reymtxew was useful!
Kaltxì ulte faylì’uri amip irayo ngaru nìtxan!
Happy belated Passover to you 🙂
Great new words.
I also noted *ayoangìlpe > ayioangpel, *wiväte > wätive and I have to add *mìsìvawm > mì sìvawm and RU.u > RU.’u
For the AD specifically, should fpusìl be its own entry in the dictionary or do you think it better as a sub-entry under fpìl? Given your explanation, it seems more like a ‘frozen’ form to me (like rusey), in that it can be used as a predicative adjective.
And finally, although I’m not that versed in Reef, I agree with Záng that the dialectal words should be noted. Otherwise, one would assume that all are u in Reef.
Lefpoma tìfwusew ayloiyä apxayopin 🙂
Irayo, ma ‘eylan! Glad you like the new words. I’ve corrected the typos you pointed out. (But see my reply to Záng regarding ìl with pe.)
For the AD, I agree that fpusìl is a frozen form like rusey. Best to give it its own entry.
Tolätxaw nìprrte’! I just yesterday tried to say “landscape” and wished there were such a word. Faylì’uri asrunga’ txana irayo ngaru!
Nìprrte’, ma tsmuk. I’m glad you like the new words!
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl,
Fìstxeli a ngata lu sìltsan nìtxan nang! Pxaya lì’u lesar.
Melì’uri alu kelku si sì parwun, ral lu keteng srak? Pefya?
Ngeyä tìpawmìri a teri krrpe: fko tsun pivlltxe lì’ut alu payoangìl, slä plltxeyu alahe tsun tslivam ralit alahe.
Kxeyey awesek: Tìkelpxìmrunit nafì’ua mokriyä ketsun (> ke tsun) fko wiväte.
Eywa ngahu!
Irayo, ma Vawmataw.
Ngeyä tìpawm a teri melì’u alu kelku si sì parwun lu pum asìltsan. Furia ‘eyng oe nì’Ìnglìsì, oeru txoa livu. 🙂
The terms kelku si ‘live, dwell’ and parwun ‘inhabit’ differ both syntactically and semantically. Kelku si is intransitive (vin.) and is often used with hu or mì: Po kelku si soaiahu, ‘He lives with his family,” Fo kelku si mì sray apxa, ‘They live in a large village.’ Parwun is transitive (vtr.) Pxaya ioangìl na’rìngit parwun. ‘Many animals inhabit the forest.’ Semantically, kelku si is used for anyone living somewhere–most often people. Parwun most often refers to the natural environment of birds, animals, and plants.
Sìlpey oe, fìtìoeyktìng livu law!
Woeiu mipa lì’u fìtxan! Wow, so many new words!
Many gaps were filled on this day! The word for ‘recognize’ has been a very long time coming. So too ‘subtle’ and ‘sapient’. These concepts were a bit awkward to describe in Na’vi before.
One question, what’s the difference between a reymtxew and a paytxew? They would occur hand in hand, no?
Going by the translations, it seems like «paytxew» would be applicable to a lake or river whereas «reymtxew» would be only for the ocean, or something like that?
Now that you mention it, I wonder whether it’s intentional that we have «payTXEW» but «REYMtxew»…
pay.TXEW should be PAY.txew. Ma Plumps ayawne, rutxe tsat leykivatem mì AD.
Tsakem sasyi.
Glad you’ve found the new words useful!
[Original comment deleted since it was based on a misunderstanding. Irayo, ma Záng.]
“Land’s edge” and “water’s edge” certainly do go hand in hand! The difference is simply your perspective, which element you want to emphasize.
Ìì it seems like you’re referring to «reymsätsa» and «txampaysätsa» (“landscape” and “seascape”) whereas the question was about the difference between «reymtxew» which you translated as “coast, shore” and the old word «paytxew» which you translated as “shoreline, water’s edge”.
‘Ä’! Ngaru tìyawr. (Guess I was up too late last night.) I’ll change the comment.
Pxaya lì’u apxay nang!
Two things: The last letter in lemungwrr isn’t bolded and sä.RU’u should be sä.RU.’u
“But most [of these words] are entirely new, largely stemming from a translation project someone asked me to do.”
Oh, is there a chance we’ll be able to see that translation project? So’ha! 😁
“Question: As you know, interrogative pe can be either a prefix or a suffix: pehrr vs. krrpe. In the above example, why is pe better as a suffix?”
I’d tell you the answer, but my ilu ate it. 😂 By the way, oeyä ilu afpusìl and some others here are wondering if parwun, tspu’ and ru’u are ù-words in reef dialect. If it’s rùu, that would be the third “double Shibboleth” in Na’vi (the first two are ku’ùp and lì’upùk)
Kaltxì, ma Txonpay!
Typos: zoslolu.
Translation project: I would say that eventually, there’s a good chance you’ll see it. 🙂
I think your ilu had the right answer. HRH!
Irayo nìdan!
So many new words! It was also a perfect opportunity for me to get back into teaching after I think over a month of break, as it is tradition that with every new set of words I do a practice sessions where we try to internalize the new words with tons of exercises 😀
I see all the things I suspect are typos / possibly mistakes have already been pointed out by others, so I’ll just ask one question I was asked during the practice session yesterday (and of course couldn’t answer): Is mimu So only used figuratively, or can it also be used to develop something tangible?
We got through about half the post in our session and do a follow-up tomorrow night – I know you are very busy, but if you happen to have time to answer the questions that were asked below this post, I could include these answers tomorrow in the session! But of course, if not, that’s no problem, I’ll just tell people to keep an eye on the comments in the future (as I already did yesterday) 😀 Just asking because I know not everyone obsessively checks the comment section every day, so usually with these practice sessions I do a “news from the comment section” part at the beginning of session two.
Kaltxì, ma Tekre.
Mimu has a wide variety of uses, so yes, it can be used for developing something tangible. Absolutely.
I’m glad you’re back into teaching! Sorry these comment responses are late; hope they’re still useful to your students.
The replies are not late at all, time zones are on our side: The lesson will only happen in 10 hours 😀 Irayo nìtxan!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Ma eylan, kosmana aysäplltxeviri ayngeyä seiyi oe irayo! Thanks so much to all of you who found things to be corrected and asked excellent questions. (And, kezemplltxe, thanks for your good wishes!) I’ll try to respond to everyone by the end of today. For right now, just three things:
First, to Záng and Plumps and everyone else who pointed out that I haven’t been following through on indicating u vs. ù for RN, thanks. I’ll add those indications to the post where needed and try to be consistent about this going forward.
Second, thanks to everyone who noticed that *wiväte should be wätive. I would not have discovered that on my own! In my head, I had stored the word as WÄ.te, with 1,2 infixes as would be expected. “Wiväte” just sounded so right! 🙂
And thirdly, there’s an issue a couple of people brought up that’s rather major–one that requires some further thought and discussion. (I wonder if you know which one I’m referring to. 🙂 ) I may address that here in the comments, or I may devote a little post to it all by itself. We’ll see.
More soon . . .
Fìtìeyngìri irayo ngaru ma karyu! So’ha oel futa nga lì’fyati wione keian vivar vivewng nìfyao aleha’!
Speaking of unresolved u/ù words, we also have a few from the last couple vocabulary posts, so I hope they can be addressed at this point too:
Mangkuan/Mangkùan
fleyul/fleyùl
’ulte/’ùlte
‹uy›/‹ùy› (not a new word of course but we’ve been wondering about this too since it was not included in the master list)
(I assume that derived words like «wätùm» and «utùrtu» have the pronunciations expected based on their etymologies and that we still don’t have any exception to the tendency that ù does not occur at the end of a word.)
ta Zángtsuva
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl, thank you for great list of new useful words.
I have similar question about parwun as I had about mimu (already asked by Tekre – thank you for answering it).
Can parwun be used figuratively for example “Palulukanä tireal parwun poti”?
Kaltxì, ma Patmo.
Yes, I think using parwun in this way–as a figurative or poetic extension of its basic meaning–would come about naturally. Your example sentence could also be: “Palulukanä tirea kelku si pomì.” In this case, “live in” and “inhabit” both work.
With ayioang clarified, here’s the homomym report:
The detector found the expected fpusìl (think (active participle) and sapient), but also mimuyu (developer, develop (ceremonial)) and ru’uyu (glancer, glance (ceremonial))
Another possible nasal assimilation homomym: txonpe (which night) and txongpe (which Windtrader airship)
The conversation about payoang and payioang inspired me to think and it helped me find a homynym that the detector could not have found: ayoio (some ornaments) and ayyoio (over surfaces). It only works because ayioi is usually pronounced ay.O.i.
Happy Passover! I thought a lot about you while attending a Seder, and the Na’vi words you created for that meal.
Thanks for all the new words. They fill in a lot of gaps for ideas heretofore difficult to express!
Irayo, ma ‘eylan! Txankrr ke pängkxo. Ngaru lu fpom srak? Ulte ayfalukantsyìpur atsawl srak?
Lefpoma Vospxìtsìng ngaru, ulte tsaylì’uri amip irayo nìtxan! Tìkangkem seri oe a tìkangkemviri a teri ayswirä Eywa’evengä ’a’awa pum nìpxi txanley oer. 🙂
-ìlpe
I can imagine a case where it may be natural to use this: when someone has already used the noun with -ìl, so it’s fresh on the ear/tongue. Natkenong:
Ayioangìl fìsponot ’awnìm ka wotx.—Ayioangìlpe fìsponot parwun?
‘Animals generally avoid this island.—What animals inhabit this island?’
Oeru txoa livu! I did not refresh the page (which I’d had open since before the following post) before commenting. ’Ä’!
Kxì, ma frapo. Please see my Addendum at the end of the next post.