Email from Frommer re: Numbers (or: The full number chart!)

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[Nayumeie]

A few days ago, I sent Paul Frommer an e-mail asking about the Na'vi numbers (there were other questions, too, but that was the only one that got answered). His response:

Kaltxì ma oeyä 'eylan Nayumeie,
Ngeyä pxesìpawmìri ngaru seiyi oe irayo.
'Awa tìpawmìri 'iveyng oe set; aylari zusawkrr 'ayeyng.
[zusawkrr = future; in the future]

Numbers!
I have a nice complete chart, but it wouldn't be cool if I simply attached it, as I'm sure you understand. Let me convey the essence, however, in a different form.

The system, as you know, is octal:

'aw, mune, pxey, tsìng, mrr, pukap, kinä, vol
volaw, vomun, vopey, vosìng, vomrr, vofu, vohin, mevol
mevolaw, mevomun, . . ., pxevol
pxevolaw, pxevomun, . . ., tsìvol
mrrvol
puvol
kivol
zam ( = 64, or 100 octal)
vozam ( = 512, or 1000 octal)
zazam ( = 4096, or 10000 octal)

First line above: In disyllables, stress is on the 1st.
Second line above: In disyllables, stress is on the 2nd, except for mevol.
Third line: Stress on the final syllables, except for pxevol.
Etc.

That should be enough for you to figure out the rest.
Kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu,
Pawl

On a related note: Squeeeee!

EDIT: So here we have the full chart (as I see it):

	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
0		vol	mevol	pxevol	tsìvol	mrrvol	puvol	kivol
1	’aw	volaw	mevolaw	pxevolaw	tsìvolaw	mrrvolaw	puvolaw	kivolaw
2	mune	vomun	mevomun	pxevomun	tsìvomun	mrrvomun	puvomun	kivomun
3	pxey	vopey	mevopey	pxevopey	tsìvopey	mrrvopey	puvopey	kivopey
4	tsìng	vosìng	mevosìng	pxevosìng	tsìvosìng	mrrvosìng	puvosìng	kivosìng
5	mrr	vomrr	mevomrr	pxevomrr	tsìvomrr	mrrvomrr	puvomrr	kivomrr
6	pukap	vofu	mevofu	pxevofu	tsìvofu	mrrvofu	puvofu	kivofu
7	kinä	vohin	mevohin	pxevohin	tsìvohin	mrrvohin	puvohin	kivohin

	x1	combining	x8	x64	x512	x4096
1	’aw	-aw	vol	zam	vozam	zazam
2	mune	-mun	mevol	mezam	mevozam	mezazam
3	pxey	-pey	pxevol	pxezam	pxevozam	pxezazam
4	tsìng	-sìng	tsìvol	tsìzam	tsìvozam	tsìzazam
5	mrr	-mrr	mrrvol	mrrzam	mrrvozam	mrrzazam
6	pukap	-fu	puvol	puzam	puvozam	puzazam
7	kinä	-hin	kivol	kizam	kivozam	kizazam

I'm not 100% sure how the zam forms combine to add a number in the ones place. It's possible that you just make another word, but the vol forms don't. So is 66 zammun, zamun, or zam mune? I think I'd put my money on zamun, slä ke omum oe.

[Ftiafpi]

Double squeeeee! If I wasn't busy with friends I would totally pour over this until my menari bleed.

[Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn]

Triple Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I've been waiting for these for like ever and ever! Time to break out some extremely difficult math equations that not even einstein could figure out!

[pbhead]

erm... tsìvol squeeeee?

what part of speach are numbers... like... can we say "forth" by adding... nì?

[wm.annis]

what part of speach are numbers... like... can we say "forth" by adding... nì?

Our only examples of this are in the Dictionary from the ASG.  We have 'awve first and nì'awve first (i.e., firstly).  Words for "first" are strange in many, many languages, so I don't know if we can extend the use of -ve this way.

[Tsway'eion]

Awesome! this will be fun to practice, i get to learn my 1's 2's and 3's all over again. XD

[Nayumeie]

Words for "first" are strange in many, many languages, so I don't know if we can extend the use of -ve this way.

I don't know. Na'vi seems remarkably regular thus far. No irregular verbs, no funky pluralizations (cf. English man/men), etc.

[TorukMakto!]

Irayo!
Great info!!
I got to first finish Molecular configuration, representation and Lewis dot for 50 molecules and lap report , then I'll get my eltu into this!

[roger]

Note 'Awa tìpawmìri ; evidently numerals require the attributive 'a'. This fits with the film, where Norm says "I studied for five years"; the English is a bit unclear, but in the German dub I hear zìsìt-((o)) a-mrr ft‹ol›ia ohe. I don't know what that ((o)) is; perhaps an as-yet unknown adposition for "for, during".

Also zusawkrr "future", presumably "coming time". I take it that zusaw is a contraction of *z<us>a'u. Is <us> the active participle on intransitive verbs, and the passive participle on transitive verbs, maybe?

[Txaslan]

Hurrah! Numbers! Another gap in the vocabulary filled! 

[Erimeyz]

Nayumeie, that is awesome!  Squee indeed!

I've added your correspondence to the Canon page on the wiki: http://wiki.learnnavi.org/index.php?title=Canon#Numerals

Thanks for sharing it with us!

  - Eri

[Skxawng Makto]

Thanks for this! I've added an appendix to the dictionary.

[Skyinou]

Well, counting in 8 will be really.... fun
I think all Na'vi speaker will buy a new calculator 

['eylan na'viyä]

thats awesome!
for easy calculations you can use google: just enter the calculation into the searchform

you can write octal numbers by adding 0o in front of the digits
eg: 0o114+0o34
or usual base10 numbers
eg: 76+28
or mixed
eg: 0o114+28

the output numbersystem is given by the first number.
so you might want to add either "0o0 +" or "0 +" in front of your operation to transform it what you want

[Eight]

Holy crap... I just wee'd a little.

This is incredible.