Ma smuk,
I’ve now added sound files for all the examples in the previous post. After each example, you’ll see a little light gray arrow. Click on it and you’ll hear me pronounce the example at normal conversational speed.
A language should be heard and not just seen, so I hope these sound files will be useful to you. Although I may not be able to do this every time, I’ll try to add sound to the written examples whenever I can.
Ayngeyä tìftusia ’o’ livu nì’aw!
ta Pawl
Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo—and Happy October. Here are some new words and expressions from my backlog of submissions that I hope you’ll find useful.
zet (vtr.) ‘treat (emotionally), display an attitude towards’
Zet is always paired with pxel (not na) to express the idea of “treat A like or as B.”
Va’rul zänget ikranit sneyä pxel hapxìtu soaiä.Tìng mikyun
‘Va’ru treats his ikran like a member of the family (and I don’t approve).’
Peyralìl zet wura wutsot a’awnem pxel sngel.Tìng mikyun
‘Peyral won’t eat a cooked meal that isn’t still warm.’
(Literally: ‘Peyral treats a cool cooked meal like garbage.’)
Pol zeret oeti pxel tute a ke inan pot.Tìng mikyun
‘He’s treating me like I don’t know him.’
(Literally: ‘He’s treating me like a person who doesn’t read him.’)
Here inan ‘read, gain knowledge from sensory input’ is being used colloquially in the sense of ‘know what someone is about, know someone’s “deal.”’
To express the idea of “treat as though,” you still need to “compare apples to apples.” For example:
Pol zolet oeyä säfpìlit pxel pum a tìngäzìkit ngop.Tìng mikyun
‘He treated my idea as though it created a problem.’
(Literally: ‘He treated my idea as one—i.e., an idea—that creates a problem.’)
ha’ (vin.) ‘fit, suit, complement, inherently enhance’
This verb doesn’t have a simple English equivalent. The idea is that two entities (things, people, situations, . . . ) fit or suit each other—they “go together” well. Note that unlike in English, the syntax is not that of a transitive verb. Instead, ha’ can take either a plural (or dual or trial) subject with fìtsap ‘each other’ or the dative.
Tsenu sì Loak fìtsap ke ha’ kaw’it.Tìng mikyun
‘Tsenu and Loak are a terrible match for each other.’
(Their personalities don’t mesh, but neither one is “to blame.” The source of the mismatch is equally divided between Tsenu and Loak.)
Tsenu Loakur ke ha’.Tìng mikyun
‘Tsenu is a bad match for Loak.’
(Here the speaker is identifying Tsenu as the source of the mismatch. Loak is in the dative.)
Tsenur Loak ke hänga’.Tìng mikyun
‘Loak isn’t good for Tsenu.’
(Here the source of the problem is Loak. The speaker is more concerned for Tsenu and is unhappy that she and Loak remain in a relationship.)
Hufwa ngeyä tìhawlìri ke lu kea kxeyey, tsalsungay oeru ke ha’ nìtam.Tìng mikyun
‘Although there’s nothing wrong with your plan, it just doesn’t suit me.’
Ngay. Tsa’opin hek nì’it, slä sunu oer, ha ha’.Tìng mikyun
‘True. That color is bit odd, but I like it, so it’s a good fit for me.’ (I intend to wear that article of clothing anyway.)
syon (n.) ‘feature, trait, attribute, characteristic, point, aspect, facet, property’
Tsranten frato a syon tsamsiyuä lu tìtstew.Tìng mikyun
‘The most important characteristic of a warrior is bravery.’
Palulukanìri lu pxesyon a zene fko ziverok nìtut:Tìng mikyun
• Tsun kxamlä na’rìng rivikx nìfnu nìwotx.
• Lu tsawl sì txur.
• New fkot yivom.
‘Three things about the thanator must always be kept in mind:
• It can move silently through the forest.
• It’s big and strong.
• It wants to eat you.’
ran (n.) ‘intrinsic character or nature, essence, constitution’
This word has no exact English equivalent. Basically, it refers to the basic nature of something resulting from the totality of its properties, a result of all the syon of that thing. For people, ran is often best translated as ‘personality.’
Muntxaturi Sorewnti ke tsun oe mivll’an. Ran peyä oeru ke ha’.Tìng mikyun
‘I can’t accept Sorewn as my spouse. Her personality doesn’t suit me.’
Fra’uä ran ngäpop fa frasyon tseyä.Tìng mikyun
‘The ran of each thing arises from the totality of its attributes.’
Note: Here the reflexive form of ngop ‘create’—ngäpop, literally ‘creates itself’—is used for this sense of ‘arise.’ A closer translation would be ‘is created.’ For the grammar experts, this is an example of an “agentless passive” in English that becomes a reflexive in Na’vi. 🙂
Ran tìrusolä peyä lu fyole.Tìng mikyun
The ran of her singing is sublime.
fyole (adj., FYO.le) ‘sublime, beyond perfection’
Derivations:
loran (n., LO.ran) ‘elegance, grace’
This word is derived from lor + ran.
Yamì tsun fko tsive’a loranit renuä kilvanä slä klltesìn wäpan.Tìng mikyun
‘From the air you can see the grace of the river’s form but from the ground it’s hidden.’
fe’ran (n., FE’.ran) ‘flawed nature; something ill-conceived or inherently defective’
From fe’ + ran. This word can refer either to the property of being inherently flawed, or to something that has the property.
Fìtìhawlìri fe’ran law längu frapor.Tìng mikyun
‘Unfortunately the flawed nature of this plan is obvious to everyone.’
’Rrtamì a reyfya Sawtuteyä latsu fe’ran nìngay.Tìng mikyun
‘The Skypeople’s culture on earth must truly be flawed.’
(Literally, it must truly be a flawed thing.)
reyfya (n., REY.fya) ‘way of living, culture’
fe’ranvi (n., FE’.ran.vi) ‘blemish, deformity, stain, flawed feature’
Hufwa lu filur Va’ruä fnefe’ranvi, tsalsungay fpìl futa sayrìp lu nìtxan.Tìng mikyun
‘Although Va’ru’s facial stripes are rather uneven, I still think he’s very handsome.’
nìran (adv., nì.RAN) ‘basically, fundamentally, in essence’
Nìran lu Loak mi ’eveng slä tsun tivaron nìtengfya na fyeyntu.Tìng mikyun
‘Loak is still really just a boy but he can hunt the same as an adult.’
mo (n.) ‘space, hollow, enclosed open area’
Mo is more specific than tseng: it’s tseng plus the idea of enclosure. Like tseng, a mo can be tok-ed.
Tok oel lora tsamoti a mì na’rìng a krr, ’efu mawey sì nitram.Tìng mikyun
‘When I’m in that beautiful hollow in the forest, I feel calm and happy.’
Derivation:
snomo (n., SNO.mo) ‘private space that one can retreat to’
Mo can be used for ‘room’ in a house mì ’Rrta. One’s own room would be one’s snomo. More specifically:
mo letrrtrr ‘living room’
mo a yom ‘dining room’
(sno)mo a hahaw ‘bedroom’
Note: The last two expressions do not mean ‘room that eats’ and ‘room that sleeps,’ although theoretically they could! You can think of mo a yom as shorthand for mo a fko yom tsatseng and so on.
wum (adv.) ‘approximately, roughly’
Oeri solalew wum zìsìt °a14 a krr, folrrfen sponot alo a’awve.Tìng mikyun
‘When I was about 12 years old I visited an island for the first time.’
kesran (adj, ke.SRAN) ‘so-so, mediocre’
The derivation of this word is not entirely clear. It may have originally been kesrankekehe, literally, ‘not yes, not no,’ in reference to whether a certain action was performed well or not, and over time it became shortened to just kesran, its use expanding to include anything only mediocre in quality.
Peyä säftxulì’u lolängu kesran ulte kawtur slantire ke si.Tìng mikyun
‘Unfortunately his speech was only so-so and inspired no one.’
Derivation:
nìksran (adv., nìk.SRAN) ‘in a mediocre manner’
yewla (n., YEW.la) ‘disappointment, emotional let-down, failed expectation’
The syntax is: lu oeru yewla ‘I’m disappointed’ (literally: ‘I have disappointment’).
Oer lu txana yewla a ke tsun nga oehu kiväteng mesrray.100212_23_Oer
‘I’m very disappointed you can’t hang out with me the day after tomorrow.’
Derivations:
leyewla (adj., le.YEW.la) ‘disappointing’
Kea kem leyewla rä’ä si, rutxe.Tìng mikyun
‘Please don’t let me down.’
nìyewla (adv., nì.YEW.la) ‘in a disappointing fashion; in a way failing to meet expectations’
Trramä ayuvanìri makto Akwey nìyewla ha snaytx.Tìng mikyun
‘Akwey rode disappointingly in yesterday’s games so he lost.’
yawnyewla (n., yawn.YEW.la) ‘broken heart; broken-heartedness’
Lu Tsenur yawnyewla a lam fwa Va’rul pot txìyìng.Tìng mikyun
‘Tsenu is broken hearted that Va’ru appears to be about to dump her.’
Yewla! (conv.) ‘Bummer! That’s a shame! What a shame!’
ve’o (n., VE.’o) ‘order (as opposed to disorder or chaos), organization’
Mawkrra Sawtuteyä txampxì holum, tätxaw Na’vine nì’i’a ve’o.Tìng mikyun
‘After most of the Sky People left, order finally returned to the People.’
Derivations:
vezo (vin., ve.ZO—inf. 2, 2) ‘be in order, be organized’
vezeyko (vtr., ve.zey.KO) ‘put in order, organize’
Ngari snomot krrpe vezeyko, ma ’itan?Tìng mikyun
‘When are you going to organize your room, son?’
vefya (n., VE.fya) ‘system, process, procedure, approach’
Neytiril Tsyeykur wamìntxu Omatikayaä vefyat tìtusaronä.Tìng mikyun
‘Neytiri showed Jake the Omatikaya’s approach to hunting.’
(Note the irregular genitive of Omatikaya: Omatikayaä.)
velke (adj., VEL.ke) ‘chaotic, messy, disorganized, in shambles’
This word derives from ve’o + luke, ‘without order.’ (Compare kxuke ‘safe,’ which comes from kxu + luke ‘without harm.’ The evolution was kxuluke > kxulke > kxuke. With velke, the l of luke didn’t drop.)
Eyk Kamun a fralo längu tsasätaron velke nìwotx. Taronyut yom smarìl!Tìng mikyun
‘Every time Kamun is in charge, the hunt is a mess. Everything goes wrong that can.’
venga’ (adj., VE.nga’) ‘organized, “on top of things” ’
Txo nivew fko säro’a sivi, zene nì’awve venga’ livu.Tìng mikyun
‘If you want to accomplish great things, you first have to be organized.’
Hayalovay, ma smuk!
Edit Oct. 3: Fixed säfpìl –> säfpìlit in zet example; corrected typos and spurious underlining.
Edit May 7, 2021: Removed erroneous “ofp” designation from venga’.
Teri lì’fya leNa’vi a tsanumultxa loleiu säflä! Last week’s Na’vi for Beginners class at the Avatar Meet-up in Seattle was, I think, a great success. I believe we had more than 40 students from the Avatar community in the class, which lasted about an hour and 45 minutes. Three members of the lì’fyaolo’–pxesmuk alu Prrton sì Txonä Rolyu sì ’Oma Tirea–co-taught with me. The Museum provided excellent facilities, we made good use of the beautiful supporting slides Prrton had created, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I know I did! It was great to reunite with old friends from the Community and meet new ones. And hopefully some learning went on as well. 😀
I was also impressed by the Meet-Up itself. From what I saw, the organization was top-notch and the supporting materials were totally professional. Plus the Clan Dinner was ftxìlor nìngay! Seykxel sì nitram to everyone who helped make the Meet-Up happen!
As a little listening exercise, I’ve recorded the introductory remarks in Na’vi with which I began the class. The idea was not for most people in the class to understand it–this was, after all a class for beginners–but just for everyone to get an idea of what Na’vi sounds like when spoken at more or less normal conversational speed. Prrton kindly served as consecutive interpreter after every few sentences.
Here’s the sound file: Class Introduction
And here’s the Na’vi text (as a Word file): Class Intro–Na’vi and free English translation: Class Intro–English.
My suggestion is to listen first to the Na’vi without any help to see how much you can get on your own. (I made use of some recently introduced vocabulary, so you might want to review the last blog post beforehand.) Then take a look at the text and translation to check how you did.
Nìvingkap, we now have a Na’vi toast:
Nitram nì’aw! ‘Happy only!’
Hayalovay!
ETA July 30–Here are the text files in RTF format for those who can read these more easily:
Here’s a grab bag of new expressions, many of which reflect the creativity of the Community. Txantsana aysämokìri seiyi irayo, nìfrakrr. Some of these will be useful for Sunday’s “Introduction to Na’vi” class in Seattle.
PRIDE
How do you say “I’m proud of you” in Na’vi? The structure revolves around the noun nrra. You say, essentially, “Concerning you, I have pride.”
nrra (n., NRR.a) ‘pride, feeling of pride’
Ngari l(ei)u oeru nrra nìtxan, ma ’ite.
‘I’m very proud of you, daughter.’
Tsu’teyri lu foru nrra a fìrewon yolora’.
‘They’re proud of Tsu’tey for having won this morning.’
Derivations:
lenrra (adj., le.NRR.a) ‘proud’
Sa’nok lenrra lrrtok soli krra prrnen alo a’awve poltxe.
‘The proud mother smiled when the baby spoke for the first time.’
Note that lenrra refers to the feeling of pride you have in others—it’s not used for one’s own sense of personal worth or dignity (as in, for example, ‘a proud warrior.’)
nìnrra (adv., nì.NRR.a) ‘proudly, with pride’
Sa’nok nìnrra lrrtok soli krra prrnen alo a’awve poltxe.
‘The mother smiled with pride when the baby spoke for the first time.’
snonrra (n., sno.NRR.a) ‘self-pride (negative connotation)’
lesnonrra (adj., le.sno.NRR.a) ‘full of self-pride’
Kea tsamsiyu lesnonrra ke tsun Na’vit iveyk.
‘No warrior full of self-pride can lead the People.’
Nrra has an interesting and somewhat unclear derivation. It’s related to the verb nrr ‘glow,’ perhaps as a shortening of nrr a tirea, ‘glowing spirit.’
nrr (vin.) ‘glow, be luminous’
Na’rìng sngä’i nivrr txonkrr syuratanfa.
‘The forest begins to glow at night with bioluminescence.’
Note that the “good feeling” –ei- form of this verb is neiyrr, not *neirr; since the pseudo-vowels ll and rr only occur in syllables that begin with consonants, a y has to be inserted.
Ngari key nereiyrr, ma ’eylan. Nìlaw po yawne lu ngar.
‘Your face is glowing, my friend (and I’m pleased to see it). It’s clear you love her.’
Derivation:
sänrr (n., sä.NRR) ‘glow, an instance of glowing’
Txepìl tìng lefpoma sänrrti.
‘The fire gives a pleasant glow.’
And speaking of fires:
ylltxep (n., YLL.txep) ‘communal fire or fire pit’
Nìtrrtrr yom Na’vil wutsot ’awsiteng pxaw ylltxep.
‘The Na’vi regularly eat dinner together around a communal fire.’
Contrast ylltxep with txeptseng:
txeptseng (n., TXEP.tseng) ‘place where a fire is burning or has burned’
Txeptseng is a general term lacking the cultural significance of ylltxep.
Tsatxeptsengmì längu ayutral akerusey nì’aw.
‘Sadly, there are only dead trees where the fire has been,’
ralnga’ (adj., RAL.nga’) ‘meaningful, instructive, something from which a lesson can be learned.’
Don’t confuse ralnga’ with txanwawe (stress on the third syllable: txan.wa.WE), which means ‘meaningful’ in a personal sense—something that’s personally or emotionally significant to you.
Kìreysìri lu tsapukä ayvur a teri ’Rrta txanwawe nìngay, slä oeri, hufwa eltur tìtxen si, lu ralnga’ nì’aw.
‘For Grace, the stories in that book relating to Earth are personally meaningful, but for me, although interesting, they’re simply instructive.’
PAIRS
The stand-alone word for ‘pair’ is munsna:
munsna (n., MUN.sna) ‘pair’
The derivation is transparent: mune + sna’o, a ‘two-set.’
Hawnvenìri lu oeru munsna amrr.
‘I have five pairs of shoes.’ (Literally: As for shoes, I have five pairs.)
But to indicate one pair of something, a special structure is usually used: munsna acts as a prefix before the noun in question:
munsnahawnven ‘a pair of shoes’
munsnatute ‘a pair of people; a duo’
Rutxe fìtskxekeng sivi munsnatutefa, ma frapo.
‘Please do this exercise in pairs, everyone.’
Pronunciation: Munsna- words can be long, but in all cases the primary stress remains in the original place on the noun. For example, since hawnven is stressed on the final syllable, that’s where it stays in munsnahawnven: mun.sna.hawn.VEN. And munsnatute is mun.sna.TU.te
fyin (adj.) ‘simple’
ep’ang (adj., ep.’ANG) ‘complex’
Pronunciation: Make sure you don’t pronounce ep’ang as if it were epxang (e.PXANG). Both words are possible in Na’vi, but they do not sound the same. In ep’ang, the p is at the end of a syllable, so it’s unreleased; the second syllable begins with a tìftang, a glottal stop. By the way:
epxang (n., e.PXANG) ‘stone jar used to hold small toxic arachnid’
fyinep’ang (n., fyin.ep.’ANG) ‘degree of complexity’
pefyinep’ang/fyinep’angpe (Q., pe.fyin.ep.’ANG / fyin.ep.’ANG.pe) ‘how complex’
Ngal ke tslängam teyngta fìtìngäzìkìri pefyinep’ang.
‘Unfortunately you don’t understand how complex this problem is.’
sngä’itseng (n., SNGÄ.’i.tseng) ‘beginning, starting position, initial location’
Don’t confuse this with sngä’ikrr, which means a beginning in time.
Ro sngä’itseng tsalì’uä alu ’eylan lu tìftang.
‘At the beginning of the word ’eylan there’s a glottal stop.’
Two helpful 🙂 words derived from srung:
srungsiyu (n., SRUNG.si.yu) ‘assistant, helper’
srungtsyìp (n., SRUNG.tsyìp) ‘helpful hint, tip’
And a couple of words relating to Sawtute technology that I believe are already in use in the Community:
spulmokri (n., spul.MOK.ri) ‘telephone’
syeprel (n., syep.REL) ‘camera’
These words obviously developed after the Na’vi came into contact with the Sawtute. The derivations are clear: spule + mokri ‘propel voice,’ syep + rel ‘trap image.’
Syaw oer rutxe trray fa spulmokri.
‘Please phone me tomorrow.’
Finally, a trio of idiomatic expressions:
ka wotx ‘generally, for the most part’ (literally: across the totality)
Hufwa rolun oel ’a’awa kxeyeyti, fìtìkangkemvi lu txantsan ka wotx.
‘Although I found a few errors, this piece of work is generally excellent.’
Pefya nga fpìl? ‘What do you think?’
(Notice that in Na’vi you actually say, “How do you think?” This is the case in many earth languages, although not in English.)
Pefya nga fpìl? Oeng sweylu txo kivä fuke?
‘What do you think? Should we go or not?’
(Note that fuke can be used for general “or not” questions, as it is here. In such cases there’s no need for srake/srak.)
sre fwa sngap zize’ ‘as quickly as possible’ (literally: before the hellfire wasp stings)
So the Na’vi equivalent of ASAP is SFSZ. 🙂
That’s all for now. Hope I’ll see some of you in Seattle soon!
Hayalovay.
Today’s vocabulary includes additional terms for the natural environment along with a few new words for social interaction. Some are recent, others are from my backlog of submitted ideas. Thanks as always to the LEP contributors for the stimulating and creative suggestions. Ayngal fpe’ oer a aysäfpìl eltur tìtxen si frakrr ulte srung si nìtxan!
First, some compounds with ultxa ‘meeting’:
tsawlultxa (n., tsawl.ul.TXA) ‘large gathering, conference’
(Note that the stress on the final element of compounds with ultxa is a minority pattern.)
Tsatsawlultxari alu SETIkon a2ve, nolume oe nìtxan teri tìtsunslu tìreyä a hifkeymì alahe.
‘At the SETIcon II conference I learned a lot about the possibility of life on other worlds.’
tìtsunslu (n., tì.TSUN.slu) ‘possibility’
numultxa (n., nu.mul.TXA) ‘class (for instruction)’
This word derives from nume ‘learn’ + ultxa, i.e., a ‘learn-meeting.’
Mì Siätll a numultxari lì’fyayä leNa’vi, sìlpey oe slìyevu nga numultxatu!
‘I hope you’ll participate in the upcoming Na’vi class in Seattle!’
numultxatu (n., nu.mul.TXA.tu) ‘classmate, member of a class’
snanumultxa (n., sna.nu.mul.TXA) ‘course’
A course, of course, is a collection of classes. 🙂
‘depend on’
English ‘depend on’ has two different senses that are kept separate in Na’vi.
To express the idea that “X depends on Y” in the sense that you need to know Y to determine what X is, Na’vi uses the expression latem ìlä, literally ‘changes according to.’ These are words you already know.
Tìflä latem ìlä seynga ftxey fkol sänumet livek fuke.
‘Success depends on whether or not one follows instructions.’
tìflä (n., tì.FLÄ) ‘success (in general)’
säflä (n., sä.FLÄ) ‘success (an instance of succeeding)’
Recall that ìlä is ADP+, so it causes teynga to become seynga. By the way, ìlä can be used by itself to mean ‘according to’:
Ìlä Feyral, muntxa soli Ralu sì Newey nìwan mesrram.
‘According to Peyral, Ralu and Newey were secretly married the day before yesterday.’
mesrram (n., adv., me.srr.AM) ‘the day before yesterday, two days ago’
mesrray (n., adv., me.srr.AY) ‘the day after tomorrow, two days from now’
pxesrram (n., adv., pxe.srr.AM) ‘three days ago’
pxesrray (n., adv., pxe.srr.AY) ‘three days from now’
The other sense of ‘depend on’ is ‘rely on for one’s safety, sustenance, etc.’ That’s mong:
mong (vtr.) ‘depend on, rely on, trust for protection’
Mong prrnenìl futa sa’nul verewng nìtut.
‘The infant depends on her Mommy to look after her constantly.’
Tsun nga oet mivong.
‘You can rely on me.’
sru’ (vtr.) ‘crush, trample’
Weynflitit ’angtsìkìl srolu’ tspang.
‘Wainfleet was crushed and killed by a hammerhead.’
‘tight’ and ‘loose’
’ekxin (adj., ’e.KXIN) ‘tight’
um (adj.) ‘loose’
Fìraspu’ ’ekxin lu nìhawng. Ke tsun oe yivemstokx.
‘These leggings are too tight. I can’t wear them.’
’ekxinum (n., ’e.KXI.num) ‘tightness/looseness’
pekxinum / ’ekxinumpe (Q., pe.KXI.num / ’e.KXI.num.pe) ‘how tight/loose?’
Pekxinum comes, of course, from pe + ’ekxinum. Since pe causes lenition, the glottal stop drops, and the resulting ee simplies to e, since doubled vowels always simplify to single ones in Na’vi. No further lenition takes place—the kx ejective does not become k.
Ngal molay’ pxawpxunit Loakä a krr pekxinum?
‘When you tried on Loak’s armband, how tight was it?’
And now for the promised nature words:
zeswa (n., ZE.swa) ‘grass’
zeswavi (n., ZE.swa.vi) ‘blade of grass’
lezeswa (adj., le.ZE.swa) ‘grassy’
Palukanit tsole’a, yerik lopx hifwo kxamlä zeswa.
‘Spotting a thanator, the hexapede panicked and escaped through the grass.’
lopx (vin.) ‘panic’
hifwo (vin., HI.fwo – inf. 1,2) ‘flee, escape’
Some more weather terms:
yrrap (n., YRR.ap) ‘storm’
This word is derived from ya ‘air’ + hrrap ‘danger.’
Frapo ne mìfa! Lerok yrrap apxa!
‘Everybody inside! A big storm is approaching!’
’rrpxom (n., ’RR.pxom) ‘thunder’
rawm (n.) ‘lightning (general term)’
atanzaw (n., a.TAN.zaw) ‘forked lightning’ (derived from atan ‘light’ and swizaw ‘arrow’)
rawmpxom (n., RAWM.pxom) ‘thunder and lightning’
And finally, some words for pay azusup, ‘falling water.’
Na’vi doesn’t have a single word for ‘waterfall’; rather, it distinguishes five different kinds of falling and running water:
se’ayl (n., se.’AYL) ‘an individual tall, thin waterfall that pours down a sheer high cliff or off of a floating mountain’ (countable)
kxor (n.) ‘a wall or bank of powerful falls noted for its deafening roar and deadly force’ (countable, but only rarely)
syanan (n., SYA.nan) ‘a single drop or series of smaller falls occurring sequentially along a stream or series of pools’ (countable)
rurur (n., ru.RUR) ‘water that is aerated while flowing among the rocks of a very gradually sloping stream’ (non-countable)
tseltsul (n., TSEL.tsul) ‘whitewater rapids’ (countable, but only rarely)
I hope all the Americans in the lì’fyaolo’ had a Fourth of July that was ’o’ nì’aw!
And with that, I’ll leave you until the next time.
Edit 19 July: ’e.KXIN.um –> ’e.KXI.num
Kaltxì, ma eylan. ’Ok oeyä lu ayngar srak? 🙂 Furia txankrr fìtsengit ke tarmok, oeru txoa livu.
Since it’s still a couple of days until the Summer Solstice, we’ll can call this Spring Vocabulary, Part 3. Irayo, as always, to the hardworking and extremely patient LEP folks and all the rest of you who have contributed ideas.
ftxulì’u (vin., ftxu.LÌ.’u—inf. 1,1) ‘orate, give a speech’
The etymology of this word goes back to täftxu ‘weave’ + lì’u ‘word,’ the original thought being that to give a speech is to weave words together.
Mawkrra Tsyeyk ftxolulì’u, tslam frapol futa slu po Olo’eyktan amip.
‘After Jake spoke, everyone understood that he had become the new Clan Leader.’
Derivations:
ftxulì’uyu (n., ftxu.LÌ.’u.yu) ‘orator, (public) speaker’
säftxulì’u (n., sä.ftxu.LÌ.’u) ‘speech, oration’
Fnivu! Säftxulì’uri ke tsun oe stivawm.
‘Hush! I can’t hear the speech.’
tìftxulì’u (n., tì.ftxu.LÌ.’u) ‘speech-making, public speaking)
Oeri lu tìftxulì’u ngäzìk nìtxan. Wätx nì’aw.
‘Public speaking is very difficult for me. I’m hopelessly bad at it.’
slantire (n., slan.ti.RE) ‘inspiration’
Etymology: slan ‘support’ + tirea ‘spirit’
Derivation:
slantire si (vin.) ‘inspire’
Säftxulì’u Tsyeykä Na’viru slantire soli nìwotx.
‘Jake’s speech inspired all the People.’
kum (n.) ‘result’
Kem amuiä, kum afe’. (Proverb)
‘Proper action, bad result.’ (Said when something that should have turned out well didn’t. Can include the idea, “Well, my/our/your/his/her/their heart was in the right place.”)
The importance of kum lies in the derived conjunctions kuma/akum, which are used in result clauses:
kuma / akum (conj., KUM.a / a.KUM) ‘that (as a result)’
Lu poe sevin nìftxan (OR: fìtxan) kuma yawne slolu oer.
‘She was so beautiful that I fell in love with her.’
Note a couple of things there. First, nìftxan and fìtxan are used interchangeably as the equivalent of English ‘so’ in these sentences. Second, the difference between kuma and akum is that kuma precedes the result while akum follows it. So another form of the previous example sentence is:
Poe yawne slolu oer akum, nìftxan lu sevin.
‘She was so beautiful that I fell in love with her.’
Such a structure is rather marginal in English, although you sometimes hear it in poetry: “I fell in love with her, so beautiful was she.”
And notice one more thing: the word order in result clauses is somewhat constrained. The rule is that kuma/akum must be contiguous with niftxan/fìtxan.
Tsatsenge lehrrap lu fìtxan kuma tsane ke kä awnga kawkrr.
‘That place is so dangerous we never go there.’
Keep in mind that the short form tsane ‘there’ is used with verbs of motion: it’s the place to which one goes. The full form is tsatsengne.
A final note on kuma/akum: These words may be used independently of fìtxan/nìftxan:
Pxeforu oe srung soli, kuma oeru set pxefo srung seri.
‘I helped the three of them, so they’re now helping me.’
Used in this way, kuma/akum overlap somewhat with ha ‘so’.
fyel (vtr.) ‘seal, cement, make impervious’
This word signifies making something tight and secure, so that it is unlikely (or at least not intended) to be broken, whether it refers to a hole in a boat’s bottom, a food container to be stored, or a wound from a viperwolf tooth.
Txo fkol ke fyivel uranit paywä, zene fko slivele.
If one does not seal a boat against water, one must swim.
Fyel, however, is not used in the sense of bringing something to completion. For that, use hasey si ‘complete’:
Sätswayon a’awve tsaheylur hasey si; ke tsun nga pivey.
‘First flight seals the bond; you cannot wait.’
zey (adj.) ‘special, distinct’
Zey, keteng, and le’aw all indicate that one thing is different from another. Of the three, keteng ‘not the same’ is the most neutral; le’aw ‘only, sole’ is the strongest.
Kelutral lu fneutral azey.
‘Hometree is a special kind of tree.’
vll (vin., vtr.) ‘indicate, point at’
Vll eykyu nefä fte pongu fäkivä.
‘The leader signals the party to ascend by pointing upwards.’
eykyu (n., EYK.yu) ‘leader (typically of a small group)’
Both eykyu and eyktan mean leader; the difference is one of scope and responsibility. An eykyu is the often temporary leader of a small group, for example the person in charge of a hunting party; an eyktan is a higher and more permanent position, the representative leader of a sub-community within the clan. The Olo’eyktan, of course, leads the entire clan.
Getting back to vll, note that some of the inflected forms have special spellings. The <ol> form is vol (compare poltxe from plltxe), and the “positively oriented” <ei> form is veiyll. That’s because a syllable cannot begin with ll or rr.
Utralti a tsauo Loak wäparman pol vol fa kxetse.
‘She used her tail to point out the tree Loak was hiding behind.’
Vll can also be used metaphorically in the case of one thing, not necessarily animate, pointing to or indicating another:
Txopul peyä vll futa kawkrr ke slayu tsamsiyu.
‘His fear indicates he’ll never become a warrior.’
am’ake (adj., am.’A.ke) ‘sure, confident’
This word is related to am’a ‘doubt’ in roughly the same way that kxuke ‘safe’ is related to kxu ‘harm.’ It’s used with ’efu:
Tsaria pol awngati ke txayìng oe ’efu am’ake nìwotx.
‘I’m entirely confident that he won’t abandon us.’
Derivation:
nam’ake (adv., nam.’A.ke) ‘confidently’
Tukeru poltxe Akwey nam’ake, omum futa ke tsun poe stivo.
‘Akwey spoke to Tuke confidently, knowing that she couldn’t refuse.’
Don’t confuse nam’ake with am’aluke (am.’A.lu.ke), ‘without a doubt’—although both are adverbial expressions, they’re used in different ways. Nam’ake is a manner adverbial—that is, it qualifies how something is done. In the above example, it indicates the manner in which Akwey spoke to Tuke. Am’aluke, on the other hand, is a sentence adverbial—it represents the speaker’s feeling about what he or she is saying:
Am’aluke snayaytx Sawtute, yayora’ Na’vi.
‘Without a doubt the Sky People will lose and the People will win.’
And speaking of sentence adverbials, here’s a word I think you’ll find useful:
kezemplltxe (adv., ke.zem.pll.TXE) ‘of course, needless to say’
As you’ve probably guessed, it’s a contraction of ke zene pivlltxe ‘not necessary to say.’
New Va’ru tskot Eytukanä zasrivìn. Kezemplltxe paylltxe san kehe.
‘Va’ru wants to borrow Eytukan’s bow. Of course he’ll say no.’
tare (vtr., TA.re—inf. 1,2) ‘connect, relate to, have a relationship with’
Säplltxel karyuä ke tolaränge tìpawmit kaw’it.
‘The teacher’s statement in no way pertained to the question. Drat!’
(Question: Which syllable in tolaränge should be stressed? 🙂 )
Txilte Rinisì täpare fìtsap nìsoaia, slä tsalsungay ke nìolo’ takrra Rini muntxa slolu.
‘Txilte and Rini are related by blood, but nevertheless not by clan since the time Rini got married.’
nìsoaia (adv., nì.so.A.i.a) ‘(together) as members of a family’
nìolo’ (adv., nì.o.LO’) ‘(together) as members of a clan’
Derivation:
sätare (n., sä.TA.re) ‘connection, relationship’
Nìngay leiu oer sì sempulur sätare asìltsan.
‘Father and I really have a good relationship; it’s nice.’
Also note the following useful conversational expression:
Ke tare.
‘It’s irrelevant.’ OR ‘It doesn’t matter.’
sloa (adj., SLO.a) ‘wide’
snep (adj.) ‘narrow’
Tsautralìri tangek lu sloa nìtxan; ’evi ke tsun tsyivìl.
The trunk of that tree is very wide; the kid cannot climb it.
Derivation:
slosnep (n., slo.SNEP) ‘width’
peslosnep (q., pe.slo.SNEP) or slosneppe (slo.SNE.pe) ‘what width? how wide?’
Kilvanìri tsatseng slosneppe?
‘How wide is the river there?’
hoet (adj., HO.et) ‘vast, broad, expansive’
’Rrtamì a tampay lu hoet.
‘The oceans on Earth are vast.’
Derivation:
nìhoet (adv., nì.HO.et) ‘widely, pervasively’
Run fkol teylut nìhoet.
‘You find teylu everywhere.’
so’ha (vtr., SO’.ha—inf. 1,2) ‘be enthusiastic about, show enthusiasm for, be excited about’
Note that in Na’vi, being enthusiastic is transitive.
Oel so’ha futa trray ngahu kä
‘I’m excited about going with you tomorrow.’
Tsenul so’ha teylut nìhawng nì’it, kefyak?
‘Don’t you think Tsenu is a bit too into teylu?’
Sawno’ha ioit kolaneiom oel uvanfa!
‘I got (won) the prized piece of jewelry in the game!’
This word can also be used on its own as an interjection:
A: Leiam fwa Txewì Rinisì muntxa slìyu.
B: So’ha!
A: ‘It looks like Txewì and Rini are about to get married.’
B: ‘That’s great!’
Derivations:
tìso’ha (n.) ‘enthusiasm; having a good attitude’
nìso’ha (adv.) ‘enthusiastically’
leso’ha (adj.) ‘enthusiastic, keen’ (only for persons)
* * *
On a personal note, John and I are leaving on Friday for SETIcon II, the annual SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) conference being held in Santa Clara, California. I’ve been honored to be asked to take part as a panelist and interviewee. Marc Okrand, who as you know is the creator of Klingon, will be there too, as well as several members of the Lì’fyaolo’. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the most creative minds in SETI—for example, Frank Drake of the famous Drake Equation. Am’aluke fìultxa ’o’ layu nìtxan.
And finally, I got a kick out of this cartoon in a recent issue of The New Yorker magazine and thought you’d like it too:
(If it makes no sense to you at all, take a look at this.)
Hayalovay!
Here’s a bit more progress towards dealing with my backlog of great suggestions from the Vocabulary Committee. (Fpìl oel futa pìylltxe pxaya tute san Nì’i’a! sìk. Tse . . . za’u fra’u ne tute lemweypey, kefyak? 😉 )
syeha (n., SYE.ha) ‘breath’
Derivation:
syeha si (vin.) ‘breathe’
Ma Ralu, srung si por! Nìwin! Syeha ke si!
‘Ralu, help her! Quick! She’s not breathing!’
(A note on pronunciation: Since si never carries stress, the stress pattern with negative si-constructions is KE si, not ke SI.)
sko (ADP+) ‘as, in the capacity of, in the role of’
A. Sko Sahìk ke tsun oe mìftxele tsngivawvìk.
‘As Tsahik, I cannot weep over this matter.’
Note: There’s another way to say the same thing, which is in fact more idiomatic than using sko:
B. Oe alu Tsahìk ke tsun mìftxele tsngivawvìk.
But sko has its advantages. Look what happens when you have a coordinate structure:
A´. Sko Sahìk ke tsun oe mìftxele tsngivawvìk; sko sa’nok tsun.
B´. Oe alu Tsahìk ke tsun mìftxele tsngivawvìk; oe alu sa’nok tsun.
‘As Tsahik, I cannot weep over this matter; as a mother, I can.’
As you see, the A-structure allows you to be somewhat more concise.
sna’o (n., SNA.’o) ‘set, group, pile, clump, stand’
Ayskxe a mì sasna’o ku’up lu nìtxan.
‘The rocks in that pile are very heavy.’
Note: Sna’o is nfp—not for people. For a group of people, use pongu.
What’s interesting about sna’o is that it has an abbreviated form, sna-, which functions as a noun prefix to indicate a group or collection. With living things other than people, sna- is productive—you can use it to indicate a group of any plant or animal: snanantang ‘a pack of viperwolves,’ snatalioang ‘a herd of sturmbeest,’ snautral ‘a stand of trees,’ etc. These words are not listed in the dictionary.
However, in all other cases sna– is not productive, and you’re not free to form your own words with this prefix. The meanings of such sna– words can be unpredictable, and so they have to be listed in the dictionary. For example:
snatxärem (n., sna.TXÄ.rem) ‘skeleton’ (lit.: ‘a set of bones’)
snafpìlfya (n., sna.FPÌL.fya) ‘philosophy’ (lit.: ‘a group of mindsets’)
snatanhì (n., sna.tan.HÌ) ‘constellation’ (lit.: ‘a clump of stars’)
One more thing to note about sna– words: they indicate naturally occurring groups or sets. For example, a snasyulang is a patch of flowers growing naturally on the ground or on a tree branch. Contrast that with a sästarsìm syulangä, a collection of flowers selected and put together intentionally by a person—that is, a bouquet.
sästarsìm (n., sä.STAR.sìm) ‘collection (put together intentionally by a person)’
tsu’o (n., TSU.’o) ‘ability’
Tìrusolìri ke lu poru kea tsu’o kaw’it.
‘As for singing, he has no ability whatsoever.’
Like sna’o, the most useful thing about tsu’o is its abbreviated form. In this case it’s –tswo, which is a suffix for verbs that changes the verb to a noun indicating the ability to perform the action of the verb. The great thing about –tswo is that it’s productive: you can add it to practically any verb. For example: tarontswo ‘ability to hunt,’ wemtswo ‘ability to fight,’ roltswo ‘ability to sing,’ etc.
Pori wemtswo fratsamsiyur rolo’a nìtxan.
‘His ability to fight greatly impressed all the warriors.’
It’s tempting to try to equate –tswo with English –able/-ible—after all, they’re both suffixes having to do with ability. But there’s a big difference. For example, inantswo means the ability to read; it is not equivalent to English ‘readable,’ which is the ability to be read. For that, recall that Na’vi prefixes tsuk– to form adjectives: tsukinana pamrel ‘readable writing.’
One little wrinkle: We indicated that –tswo is attached only to verbs. That’s true except in the case of si-constructions. With si-verbs, drop the si and attach –tswo to the non-verbal element: srungtswo ‘ability to help,’ pamreltswo ‘ability to write,’ tstutswo ‘ability to close.’
Kxari tstutswo tsranten krra* ke lu kea säfpìl lesar.
‘When one has no useful thoughts, the ability to close one’s mouth is important.’
*I’ve just become aware that krra is not in our official dictionary. It’s in my own database, but I guess I forgot to publicize it. Krra is the conjunction ‘when’:
krra (conj., KRR.a) ‘when, at the time that’
For example:
Oel tskoti ngaru tasyìng krra oeng ultxa si.
‘I’ll give you the bow when we meet.’
Don’t use tsakrr for this purpose. Tsakrr is an adverb, not a conjunction, meaning ‘then’ or ‘at that time.’ It’s often used with txo: txo . . . tsakrr, ‘if . . . then.’
The spelling convention krr a, as two words, is not incorrect, but krra is preferred. With the reverse clause order, however, a krr is the correct spelling. This mirrors the convention with a fì’u.
A note on stress: In keeping with the general rule, sna– and –tswo do not affect the stress of the word they’re attached to: tanHÌ, snatanHÌ; TAron, TArontswo.
Kìyevame vay vospxìay!
Kaltxì nìmun, ma smuk—
Here are some new words for the new season, along with a bit of grammar. Most of the new items come from the Vocabulary Committee, whom I continue to thank for their hard work and excellent suggestions. Irayo ayngaru nìfrakrr, ma eylan.
srer (vin.) ‘appear, materialize, come into view’
Note: Don’t confuse srer with lam, which means “appear” in the sense of “seem” only. Srer refers to something coming into view.
Txonam tengkrr tarmìran oe kxamlä na’rìng, sroler eo utral atsawl txewma vrrtep.
‘Last night as I was walking through the forest, a frightening demon appeared in front of a big tree.’
’ìp (vin.) ‘disappear, vanish, recede from view’
Kxamtrr lam fwa sanhì a mì saw ’olìp nìwotx slä tsakrr ke tsun fko sat tsive’a nì’aw.
At mid-day it seems that the stars in the sky have all vanished but they just can’t be seen then.
tsong (n.) ‘valley’
Awnga tsongne kivä fte stivarsìm teylut.
‘Let’s go to the valley to gather beetle larvae.’
Derivation:
tsongtsyìp (n., TSONG.tsyìp) ‘dimple’
Prrnen lrrtok si a krr, srer mesongtsyìp ahona.
‘When the baby smiles, two adorable dimples appear.’
ro’a (vin., RO.’a — inf. 1,2) ‘be impressive, inspire awe or respect’
Toruk Makto polähem a fì’u rolo’a nìtxan Omatikayaru.
‘The arrival of Toruk Makto made a great impression on the Omatikaya.’
Derivations:
säro’a (n., sä.RO.’a) ‘feat, accomplishment, great deed’
säro’a si (vin.) ‘do great deeds’
Txantstew säro’a si, fnawe’tu ke si.
‘A hero does great deeds, a coward does not.’
txanro’a (vin., txan.RO.’a — inf. 2,3) ‘be famous’
Vay fwa zola’u TsyeykSuli, Toruk Makto alu pizayu Neytiriyä txanrarmo’a frato kip ayhapxìtu Omatikayaä.
‘Until Jake Sully arrived, Neytiri’s ancestor was the most famous Toruk Makto among the Omatikaya.’ [lit.: ‘the Toruk Makto that was Neytiri’s ancestor was the most famous . . .’]
velek (vin., VE.lek — inf. 1,2) ‘give up, surrender, concede defeat’
Tì’i’ari tsamä zene Sawtute vivelek talun* tìtxur Eywayä.
‘At the end of the war, the Sky People had to give up due to the power of Eywa.’
*Note: Here, talun is functioning as an adposition (ADP-) with the meaning of ‘because of, due to.’
spono (n., SPO.no) ‘island’
Ayoel rolun mipa sponot mì hilvan.
‘We found a new island in the river.’
txew (n.) ‘edge, brink, limit, border, end’
Ikran yawolo ftu txew ’awkxä.
‘The banshee took to the air from the edge of a cliff.’
Srake pol layok txewti na’rìngä?
‘Will he approach the edge of the forest?’
(Note the syntax here: lok ‘approach’ is transitive, so pol is agentive and txewti is patientive.)
Ke tsun awnga pivey nulkrr—txew lok.
‘We can’t wait any longer—time is almost up.’
(Note: Lok is used intransitively here, so it’s txew, not txewìl. You’ll find some further explanation below.)
Derivation:
txewnga’ (adj., TXEW.nga’) ‘having a limit, not without bounds, finite’
Tuteri tìtxur lu txewnga’.
‘There are limits to a person’s strength.’
litx (adj.) ‘sharp (as a blade)’
fwem (adj.) ‘dull, blunt (as a point)’
These words require some explanation. You’ve already seen the words pxi ‘sharp’ and tete ‘dull.’ What’s the difference between the old words and the new ones?
Unlike English, Na’vi distinguishes between “point sharp/point dull” (needles, thorns, stingers, knife points) and “blade sharp/blade dull” (knife edge, leaf edge, etc.) This little chart will make it clear:
Sharp Dull
Point pxi fwem
Blade litx tete
Eltu si! Tsatstal afwem lu litx nìtxan.
‘Pay attention! That blunt knife is very sharp.’
Fìtsgnanit ke tsun oe yivom. Koaktanä aysre’ längu fwem.
‘I can’t eat this meat. An old man’s teeth are dull.’
syura (n., syu.RA) ‘energy’
This word can mean both physical and spiritual energy. It’s the “life force of Eywa,” which pervades all of Pandora and its creatures.
Frasyurati fkol zasrolìn nì’aw ulte trro zene teykivätxaw.
‘All energy is only borrowed, and one day it will have to be given back.’
(That example sentence, like many of the others, is from the Vocabulary Committee; I think it’s wonderful.)
Derivation:
syuratan (n., syu.RA.tan) ‘bioluminescence’
Txonkrr lu syuratan na’rìngä Eywevengä lor nìtxan.
‘At night, the bioluminescence of the Pandoran forest is very beautiful.’
txonkrr (adv., TXON.krr) ‘at night’
yuey (adj., YU.ey) ‘beautiful (inner beauty)’
Both lor and yuey mean ‘beautiful.’ Lor refers to physical beauty that’s apparent to the eye; yuey refers to the “inner” beauty that stems from someone’s character, personality, spirituality, etc. Lor has wide applicability, but yuey is ofp (only for people).
Lu poe lor, lu yuey nìteng.
‘She’s beautiful on the outside and the inside.’
kxem (vin.) ‘be vertical’
txay (vin.) ‘be horizontal, lie flat’
These intransitive verbs can be used by themselves, for example:
Fìrumut lumpe ke kxem?
‘Why isn’t this puffball tree vertical?’
but they’re most important in their derived forms—for example:
nìkxem (adv.) ‘vertically’
nìtxay (adv.) ‘horizontally’
Some words you’re already familiar with come from these roots. For example, kllkxem ‘stand,’ which is fairly obvious. In the same way, we have:
klltxay (vin., kll.TXAY—inf. 2,2) ‘lie on the ground’ (and its transitive form klltxeykay ‘lay (something) on the ground’).
These verbs also combine with the word for ‘surface’:
yo (n.) ‘surface’
So we have the word txayo (from txay + yo) ‘flat surface,’ which as you know is also the word for ‘field’ or ‘plain.’ Also:
kxemyo (n., KXEM.yo) ‘wall, vertical surface’
fyep (vtr.) ‘hold in the hand, grasp, grip’
Ngäzìk lu fwa var tskoti fyivep tengkrr utralit tsyerìl.
‘It’s hard to keep holding a bow while climbing a tree.’
Fyep can be extended to general holding, not just in the hands:
Oel tstalit fyolep fa aysre’.
‘I held the knife in my teeth.’
And note these adverbs that can specify the type of holding being done:
nìk’ärìp (adv., nìk.’Ä.rìp) ‘steadily’ (lit.: ‘without letting it move’)
nìklonu (adv., nìk.lo.NU) ‘firmly, steadfastly, faithfully’ (lit.: ‘without releasing it’)
nìktungzup (adv., nìk.tung.ZUP) ‘carefully, firmly’ (lit.: ‘without letting it fall’)
nìsyep (adv., nì.SYEP) ‘tightly, in an iron grip’ (lit.: ‘like a trap’)
nìmeyp (adv., nì.MEYP) ‘weakly, loosely’
Derivation:
säfyep (n., sä.FYEP) ‘handle’
slan (vtr.) ‘support’
Slan is used for emotional, social, or personal support, but not physical support (as in “these pillars support the roof”).
Tìwäteri ngal oeti pelun ke slan kawkrr?
‘Why don’t you ever support me in an argument?’
Derivation:
tìslan (n., tì.SLAN) ‘support’
Ngeyä tìeyktanìri, tìslanìri sì tsranten frato a tì’eylanìri a ka ayzìsìt nìwotx, seiyi oe irayo nìtxan.
‘Thank you so much for your leadership, your support, and most importantly your friendship throughout the years.’
tìeyktan (n., tì.EYK.tan) ‘leadership’
Note: The above example sentence contains two (tìeyktan and tì’eylan) of the relatively rare cases where tì– has been added to a concrete noun to form the related abstract noun.
And a few more body parts:
’llngo (n., ’LL.ngo) ‘hip’
Note: In words that begin with ’ll or ’rr, there’s no lenition: the glottal stop never drops. So we have me’llngo ‘two hips,’ ay’llngo ‘hips,’ mì ’llngo ‘in the hip.’
zare’ (n., za.RE’) ‘forehead, brow’ (from zapxì + re’o)
flawm (n.) ‘cheek’
prrku (n., PRR.ku) ‘womb’ (from prrnen + kelku)
ngep (n.) ‘navel’
Finally:
A note on “ambitransitive verbs”
Don’t let the term scare you. You already know more about this than you think.
As we saw with the lok examples above, the same Na’vi verb can be transitive in one context and intransitive in another. The same thing happens in many other languages—for example, English. Take the verb eat. Sometimes it’s transitive, with an overt object: “I’m eating a cupcake.” Sometimes, it’s intransitive, where the object isn’t specified, and the focus is on the act of eating rather than on what’s being eaten: “Don’t bother me now—I’m eating.” Such verbs are sometimes referred to as “ambitransitive.” There are many other such verbs—understand, read, write, win, lose, hunt, etc.
But in English, many transitive verbs cannot be used intransitively. We can say He always rejects such offers but not *He always rejects.
Na’vi, however, is much freer than English in this regard. Most if not all transitive verbs can be used intransitively. So, for example, we have:
Oel yerom set teylut.
‘I’m eating beetle larvae now.’
Oe yerom set.
‘I’m eating now.’
and also:
Ngal pelun faystxenut frakrr tsyär?
‘Why do you always reject these offers?’
Nga pelun frakrr tsyär?
‘Why do you always reject everything (or: such things)?’
So when you see a Na’vi verb marked VTR, you can feel pretty confident that it can be used intransitively as well. Note that this does not work the other way around: intransitive verbs can’t be used transitively unless you add something to make them transitive. For example, tätxaw is the intransitive verb ‘return,’ as in “I’ll return at 3:00.” For the transitive sense of ‘return,’ as “Please return the book you borrowed,” you need to add the causative infix <eyk>: teykätxaw ‘cause to return’—that is, return in the transitive sense!
One little complication: Just because a transitive verb doesn’t have an object in its clause, you can’t always conclude that it’s being used intransitively. For example, to say ‘The teylu I’m eating is delicious,’ which is correct, A or B?
The answer is B. If you’re having trouble seeing this, think of it this way: The sentence “started out” as *Teylu a [oel yerom tsat] lu ftxìlor, that is, ‘The teylu that [I’m eating it] is delicious.’ In both Na’vi and English, you must delete the “it” in the bracketed clause (a “relative clause” for the grammarians in the audience). But even though the object has been deleted from that clause, the agentive marking remains.
On a personal note:
It’s been a while since I’ve given a public talk about Na’vi, but I have two such events coming up in April, both in California. The first is at California Polytechnic State University (aka Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the evening of April 5th:
http://theforumatpoly.com/upcoming-forums
The second talk is two weeks later at my alma mater USC, here in Los Angeles, on April 19th. That will be to USIL, the Undergraduate Students in Linguistics club. They haven’t told me the exact time or location yet, other than that it will be in the early evening. I’ll post the details when I have them.
If anyone is in the area and can make it to one of these events, please drop by. I can’t promise you’ll learn very much that you don’t know already (although I may say a few words about Barsoomian), but these talks are always fun, and of course I’d be delighted to say hello to you.
Hayalovay!
Edits 31 March: ka–>kxamlä; nìk.Ä.rìp–>nìk.’Ä.rìp; zapxi–>zapxì
Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo—
Tse, February wasn’t a very productive month for me Na’vi-wise, I’m afraid, but I wanted to get at least one post in before month’s end. So here’s a bit of grammar and a few new vocabulary items for Leap Day (hope it was a good one), just under the wire.
NOUN FORMATION: tì- vs. sä-
You’re already very familiar with both these prefixes, which create nouns, usually out of other parts of speech. Looking at some tì- words, for example:
tìhawnu ‘protection’ comes from hawnu ‘protect’ (V –> N)
tìkanu ‘intelligence’ comes from kanu ‘intelligent’ (ADJ –> N)
tì’eylan ‘friendship’ comes from ’eylan ‘friend’ (N –> N; this is less common)
Sä- creates nouns in much the same way:
sätsìsyì ‘a whisper’ comes from tsìsyì ‘whisper’ (V –> N)
säspxin ‘sickness, disease’ comes from spxin ‘sick’ (ADJ –> N)
So what’s the difference between these two noun formers?
First of all, it’s important to keep in mind that neither one is productive. That is, you’re not free to coin new tì- and sä- words at will; you need to find them in the dictionary and learn their meanings. However, there are some rough guidelines that will help you distinguish tì- and sä- words. I say “rough” because Na’vi is not completely consistent in this area: as in natural Earth languages that have evolved over time, exceptions to the general rules are not uncommon.
The meaning of a tì- noun is generally the abstract idea or concept embodied in the verb, adjective, or noun it’s based on. So tìhawnu is the idea of protecting, that is, protection; tìkanu is the concept of being intelligent, that is, intelligence; tìlor is beauty, from lor ‘beautiful.’
You can immediately think of some common exceptions to this rule: tìrol, from rol ‘sing,’ means song, not the idea of singing. (To talk about singing in general, use tì- along with the first-position infix –us-; this process is productive—i.e., you can do it with virtually any verb. Tìrusol lu oeru mowan. ‘Singing is enjoyable to me.’) Tìpähem means arrival in the sense of a particular arrival, not arrival in the abstract sense. That’s just how it is: these items need to be learned like all other vocabulary.
Although there are exceptions for sä- nouns as well, the usage here is more consistent. There are two basic uses of sä- (with some overlap):
A. To indicate an instrument:
A sä– noun can be the instrument or tool, or the means by which something is achieved.
Examples:
You nume ‘learn’ by means of sänume ‘teaching, instruction.’
You syep ‘trap’ by means of a säsyep ‘a trap.’
You wìntxu ‘show’ by means of a säwìntxu ‘a showing, an exhibition.’
B. To indicate a particular, concrete instance of a general action:
Examples:
A sätsyìl ‘a climb’ is a particular instance of the action of climbing, tsyìl, as in, Tsasästyìl lolu ngäzìk nìngay! ‘That was a really hard climb!’
A sämyam ‘hug, embrace’ is a particular instance of hugging or embracing, meyam. (The unstressed e has been lost here.)
When both tì- and sä- nouns exist for the same root, the difference can be especially clear. For example, we saw in an earlier post that from the adjective ’ipu ‘humorous, funny, amusing’ we derive the two nouns tì’ipu and sä’ipu. Tì’ipu is the abstract concept of being humorous, that is, humor in general; sä’ipu is a particular instance of being humorous—for example, a joke.
Finally, let me correct an error on my part. The verb mok ‘suggest’ yields two nouns, tìmok and sämok, both meaning ‘suggestion.’ The distinction, as you can predict, is that tìmok is the abstract idea of suggesting, while sämok is a concrete instance of suggesting, i.e. a suggestion.
Fìtxeleri tìmok ke tam; zene fko fngivo’.
‘In this matter, suggesting won’t cut it; you need to demand.’
Feyä aysämok lu fe’ nìwotx.
‘All of their suggestions are bad.’
At least once I used tìmok when it should be have been sämok. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out. Ngaytxoa, krro tìkxey si keng karyu. 😳
MORE AND LESS
You’re already familiar with nì’ul, the adverb meaning ‘more.’ It comes from the verb ’ul ‘increase.’ Its opposite is nän, ‘decrease,’ and there’s a parallel adverb as well.
’ul (vin.) ‘increase’
nän (vin.) ‘decrease’
nìnän (adv., nì.NÄN) ‘less’
Examples:
Rutxe wivem nìnän.
‘Please fight less.’
Ayhapxìtu ponguä txopu si nìnän takrra Va’rul pxekutut lätxayn.
‘The members of the group are less afraid since Va’ru defeated three of the enemy.’
We also have the following adverbs:
nì’ul’ul (adv., nì.’UL.’ul) ‘increasingly, more and more’
nìnänän (adv., nì.NÄ.nän.) ‘decreasingly, less and less’
Fralo a taron, oeyä ’itan txopu si nìnänän.
‘Each time he hunts, my son becomes less and less afraid.’
Frazìsìkrr pay kilvanä nän nì’ul’ul.
‘Every season the river dries up more and more.’
And we now have the way to say “the more . . . the more” and “the less . . . the less” (known to grammarians as “correlative comparisons”). It’s just ’ul . . . ’ul and nän . . . nän respectively. (In these cases, ’ul and nän have lost their status as verbs, just as the verb ftxey ‘choose’ is “deverbed” when it’s used to mean ‘whether.’)
Examples:
’Ul tskxekeng si, ’ul fnan.
‘The more you practice, the better you’ll get.’
’Ul tute, ’ul tìngäzìk.
‘The more people, the more problems.’
Nän ftia, nän lu skxom a emza’u.
‘The less you study, the less chance you have of passing.’
Nän yom kxamtrr, ’ul ’efu ohakx kaym.
‘The less you eat at noon, the hungrier you’ll feel in the evening.’
(A note on pronunciation: In a combination like ohakx kaym, it’s very difficult to maintain the pronunciation of the ejective because of the following k. So except in careful, slow speech, the ejective is pronounced as an ordinary k. In fact, the two k’s are not pronounced separately but rather as one “long” k, which you hold longer than a regular one.)
AND A COUPLE MORE VOCABULARY ITEMS
mek (adj.) ‘empty’
Ngeyä tsngal lumpe lu mek? Näk nì’ul ko!
‘Why is your cup empty? Drink up!’
Mek can also be used metaphorically for something “empty” in the sense of having no valuable content, in the same way we say “an empty idea” in English.
meka säfpìl ‘an empty/dumb idea’
meka säplltxevi ‘an insipid/thoughtless comment’
sämok amek ‘a useless suggestion’
leioae (n., le.i.o.A.e) ‘respect’
Luke leioae olo’ä ke tsun kea eyktan flivä.
‘Without the respect of the clan, no leader can succeed.’
leioae si (vin.) ‘to respect’ (with the dative)
Ngaru leioae si oe frato, ma ’eylan.
‘I respect you the most of all, friend.’
Note also:
leioae amek ‘feigned respect’
Hayalovay!
Ma smuk,
Before anything else, irayo nìtxan for all your encouraging comments. I truly appreciate them. And needless to say, I’m very pleased the Community is finding these posts helpful. I don’t always reply, but I do read all the comments, which are often really helpful in pointing out things that need clarification (sì oeyä keyey kop 🙂 ). Apropos of that, some grammatical issues have come up that I want to address; I’ll get to those as soon as I can. In the meantime, here are some new words that some of you have been waiting for. Thanks as always to the LEP contributors for their excellent suggestions and examples.
kanom (vtr., KA.nom—inf. 1,2) ‘acquire, get’
Oeyä tsmukanìl mipa tskoti kìmaneiom.
‘My brother just got a new bow, I’m happy to say.’
säkanom (n., sä.KA.nom) ‘something acquired, an acquisition, a possession’
Tì’efumì oeyä, ngeyä fìsäkanom lu lehrrap ulte tsun ngati tìsraw seykivi.
‘In my opinion, this acquisition of yours is dangerous and can hurt you.’
käsrìn (vtr., kä.SRÌN—inf. 2, 2) ‘lend’
zasrìn (vtr., za.SRÌN—inf. 2, 2) ‘borrow’
These two verbs are derived from a root verb srìn ‘temporarily transfer from one to another’ that’s rarely used without prefixes. The thing being transferred “goes out” (kä) from the giver or lender and “comes to” (za’u) the receiver or borrower.
Sneyä masatit pol käsrolìn oer.
‘He lent me his breastplate.’
Srake tsun oe zasrivìn ngeyä tsngalit?
‘Can I borrow your cup?’
säsrìn (n., sä.SRÌN) ‘lent or borrowed thing’
Oeta a tsasäsrìnìl tok pesengit?
‘Where’s the thing (you) borrowed from me?’
Note: To express sharing rather than borrowing or lending, use the adverb nì’eng ‘equally’ with the verb that’s appropriate for the situation:
Fol tsnganit pxìmolun’i nì’eng.
‘They shared the meat.’ OR ‘They divided up the meat equally.’
pxìmun’i (vtr., pxì.mun.’I—inf. 2,3) ‘divide, cut into parts’
(Derived from hapxì ‘part’ + mun’i ‘cut.’)
Note: The range of pxìmun’i extends to situations where no actual cutting is involved:
Nìtrrtrr pxìmun’i samsiyul ayswizawit kutuä alawnätxayn snokip nì’eng.
‘Warriors typically share the arrows of their defeated enemies among themselves.’
lätxayn (vtr., lä.TXAYN—inf. 1,2) ‘defeat in battle, conquer’
sälätxayn (n., sä.lä.TXAYN) ‘defeat: an instance of defeat’
Tsasälätxayn Na’viru srung soli nì’aw fte slivu txur nì’ul.
‘That defeat only helped the People become stronger.’
Tsun awnga kelku sivi nì’eng Sawtutehu mì atxkxe awngeyä.
‘We can share our land with the Skypeople.’
If the sharing is with the entire olo’, however, a different adverb is used:
yll (adj.) ‘communal’
nìyll (adv., nì.YLL) ‘communally, in a communal manner’
Fol tsnganit pxìmolun’i nìyll.
‘They shared the meat with the entire clan.’
Fìteyluri ke narmew Va’ru yivom nìyll.
‘Va’ru didn’t want to share this teylu with the Omatikaya.’
hona (adj., HO.na) ‘endearing, adorable, cute’
Ayhemìri ’ewana tsanantangur ahì’i tìng nari. Lu hona, kefyak?
‘Look at what that little young viperwolf is doing. Isn’t that adorable?’
Note: In normal conversation don’t use kalin ‘sweet’ in the sense of cute or adorable; it only refers to the sensation of taste. Use hona instead. A ‘sweet little cat’ is hona palukantsyìp ahì’i. (Palukantsyìp is the normal shortening of palulukantsyìp in conversation.)
nìhona (adv., nì.HO.na) ‘endearingly, sweetly’
Po ätxäle soli nìhona fìtxan, ke tsun oe stivo.
‘She asked so sweetly that I couldn’t refuse.’
tìhona (n., tì.HO.na) ‘cuteness, adorableness’
Peyä ’itanìri lu hona nìtxan a fì’u law lu frapor. Slä tìhona nì’aw ke tam.
‘It’s clear to everyone that his son is very cute. But cuteness alone isn’t enough.’
fäkä (vin., fä.KÄ—inf. 2,2) ‘go up, ascend’
kllkä (vin., kll.KÄ—inf. 2,2) ‘go down, descend’ [already in the lexicon]
fäza’u (vin., fä.ZA.’u—inf. 2,3) ‘come up, ascend’
kllza’u (vin., kll.ZA.’u—inf. 2,3) ‘come down, descend’
The use of these four directional verbs is straightforward. For example:
Fäziva’u ne tsenge a oel tok!
‘Come up to where I am!’
One of the uses of fäza’u and kllkä you may not be aware of, however, is for astronomical bodies rising and setting. For example:
Fäza’u tsawke krrpe?
‘When will the sun come up?’
Another—and very common—way to express rising and setting is to use two intransitive verbs you’re already familiar with, fpxäkìm ‘enter’ and hum ‘exit, leave, depart.’ The full forms of these expressions explicitly mention entering into the sky and exiting from the sky:
Tsawke fpxeräkìm nemfa taw.
‘The sun is rising.’
Tsaysanhì hayum ye’rìn tawftu.
‘Those stars will soon set.’
But most of the time the adpositional phrases (nemfa taw, tawftu) may be omitted:
Tsawke fpxeräkìm.
Tsaysanhì hayum ye’rìn.
sämok (n., sä.MOK) ‘suggestion’
Ngeyä sämokìri akosman seiyi oe irayo.
‘Thanks for that excellent suggestion (of yours).’
mal (adj.) ‘trustworthy, trust-inspiring’
Fìtìkangkemviri letsranten ke new oe hu Ralu tìkangkem sivi. Po ke längu mal.
‘I don’t want to work with Ralu on this important project. He’s not trustworthy, unfortunately.’
To say “I trust you,” you simply say, “You are trustworthy/trust-inspiring to me”—that is, Nga mal lu oer. The usage is parallel to Nga yawne lu oer.
Nga MAL larmu oer!!!
‘I TRUSTED you!!!’
(It’s also possible Neytiri said larmängu, but I suspect she went with the shorter form. Under the circumstances it was obvious enough that she wasn’t happy.)
Lu tsatsamsiyu le’awa hapxìtu tsamponguä a mal lu moer.
‘That warrior is the only member of the war party that we both trust.’
nìmal (adv., nì.MAL) ‘trustingly, without hesitation’
Rini tsapohu holum nìmal nìwotx.
‘Rini left with that guy without thinking twice about it.’
tìmal (n., tì.MAL) ‘trustworthiness’
Lekin lu tìtxur, lu tìtstew. Slä letsranten frato lu tìmal.
‘Strength and courage are necessary. But most important of all is trustworthiness.’
kllyem (vtr., kll.YEM—inf. 2,2) ‘bury’
Trram tolerkängup sa’nok ayawne. Poti kllyolem ayoel äo utralo alor a rofa kilvan.
‘My dear mother died yesterday. We buried her under a beautiful tree beside the river.’
tsyìl (vtr.) ‘climb, scale’
This verb is used for climbing that involves pulling your whole body up, not climbing stairs.
Tsyìl Iknimayat ulte tsaheyl si ikranhu a fì’u lu tìfmetok a zene frataronyu a’ewan emziva’u.
‘Scaling Iknimaya and bonding with a banshee is a test that every young hunter must pass.’
nìtsyìl (adv., nì.TSYÌL) ‘by climbing’
sätsyìl (n., sä.TSYÌL) ‘climbing event, a climb’
Kintrramä sätsyìl lu lehrrap slä ’o’ nìtxan.
‘Last week’s climb was dangerous but very exciting.’
Finally, some concrete nouns that don’t need example sentences:
rìn (n.) ‘wood’
flawkx (n.) ‘leather’
’ana (n., ’A.na) ‘hanging vine’
tsngawpay (n., TSNGAW.pay) ‘tears’
tsngawpayvi (n., TSNGAW.pay.vi) ‘teardrop’
Hayalovay!
Edit 23 Jan.: ayoe –> ayoel in “We buried her” example. Irayo, ma Lance.
