2011 Na'vi Writing Contest

[Toruk Makto]

Another year of existence of our forum dedicated to Na'vi language passes by, so let's celebrate this fact with a second

Na'vi Writing Contest

There are two categories only: (1) prose and (2) poetry. No differentiation will be made between beginners vs. advanced authors in the language.

Competitors choose only one category for their submission, either:

 (1) prose
      or
 (2) poetry

Please limit your word count to 200-250 words. (This announcement has about 400 words.)

The overall theme of this year's contest is:

  Teri fwa fmal fìlì'fyati ayawne
  "On keeping this beloved language alive"

Write about themes from this list:

• How important the language is to you
• Why
• What you see as the most important thing that needs to be done to keep it going and the speaker base together as an active community

Judging

Team of judges will consist of: Prrton, wm.annis, Ftiafpi, Xellos and Tirea Aean

Works will be evaluated based on the following axes (in order of importance):

(1) Prose:
1. Grammatical correctness
2. Cleverness of ideas about sustaining the language through the community
3. Style and panache

(2) Poetry:
1. Creative use of native phonology/oral & aural beauty
2. Emotional pull (the ability to be 'moving' (txanwawe) to the reader)
3. Grammatical correctness (in poetry, rules don't have to be followed strictly but shouldn't be broken unintentionally)

If you exceed the established word limit, points may be deducted in the judging process.


Submissions

Submissions are by email.

1.  The subject line should say what category you're entering, so one of "Prose" or "Poetry"

2.  Include your LN.org login ID and name in the email. If you want to collaborate with someone, please include the ID of everyone who contributes to your group submission.

3.  Email your submission to [email protected].

4.  All submissions must be received by the end of the day December 23rd GMT (until 23:59:59).


The Prize

As a prize, winning works will be published on Naviteri - blog of our nawma Karyu Pawl. Your work wil be published under name you specify in point 2 of submission. Expected date of publishing is December 29.

There will be a first and second place winner for each category. If we do not receive enough submissions, it is possible that on only a first place winner will be announced in one or both categories.

So: Pamrel si ko - etrìpa syayvi ayngaru nìwotx!


 Huge thanks and much karma to LearnNavi.org member Blue Elf for planning and spearheading the Writing Contest this year!  - Markì

[Plumps]

Sorry for intruding on this one ... but I thought since unfortunately I couldn't be a judge this year I wanted to contribute something else

So here's a little project I did. ayngaru prrte' livu.

          tìng mikyun fte tslivam

(part of my new blog entry – that's why it says 'awvea 'upxare mokriyä)

[Blue Elf]

Txantsan, ma Plumps I can't say I understand all, but seems you translated this news about contest into Na'vi Good job, I'll use it for my training, it is really useful

[Kamean]

Kosman

[Tsmuktengan]

Damn. I still have not thought about anything, and my major projects ends on the 18th at 23:42. I may request a few days more to get a sort of coherent text, I hope in Na'vi. I cannot do faster since I am ending one of the period's most monopolizing projects.

[Blue Elf]

Damn. I still have not thought about anything, and my major projects ends on the 18th at 23:42. I may request a few days more to get a sort of coherent text, I hope in Na'vi. I cannot do faster since I am ending one of the period's most monopolizing projects.

Bad news ... I believed in receiving similar number of submissions like last year, but I'm skeptical now.... More people don't know what to write about

[Tsmuktengan]

You should send an e-mail reminder or extend the period for one extra week eventually. Looks like it was quite short.

[Ikran Ahiyìk]

Damn. I still have not thought about anything, and my major projects ends on the 18th at 23:42. I may request a few days more to get a sort of coherent text, I hope in Na'vi. I cannot do faster since I am ending one of the period's most monopolizing projects.

Same as you here.

Actually 13 days isn't a short limit, but my projects occupied (vrr'ìn..) most of my time in this two weeks...
I still have to go school for 3 days, after that it will be fine.
Just hoping if the period can be lengthened.

... ah.. yeah.. the topic is quite confusing, though.. from the first time I see the topic until now, I have no idea how the overall theme and the 3 themes to be related with each other..

[Ftiafpi]

Looks like we might get a small extension so that more competitors can join in.

[Tsmuktengan]

Yep. I will not be able to start my text in English (then translated in Na'vi, I hope) before two days.

[Toruk Makto]

The writing contest deadline has been extended to December 23rd!

Get your submissions in soon!

[Blue Elf]

Well, I hope it allows more people to write something, good news (probably first today )

[Tirea Aean]

Whenever I write Na'vi stuff like little tiny vurtsyìp or poem, (or even songs) I write them in Na'vi to begin with. the process is always more complicated to translate from English to Na'vi because the English usually winds up much more sophisticated than what we can say in Na'vi.

[Tsmuktengan]

Whenever I write Na'vi stuff like little tiny vurtsyìp or poem, (or even songs) I write them in Na'vi to begin with. the process is always more complicated to translate from English to Na'vi because the English usually winds up much more sophisticated than what we can say in Na'vi.

You do not really have the choice when you're a skawng in Na'vi. Actually writing in english in the way Yoda speaks could help a bit. 

[Tirea Aean]

true. I found it helps to try to speak english like a 7 year old child yoda. then translate.

but after a while, you get really deep and familiar with the language and don't have to do so much work to say what you want to say. because you get so used to naturally limiting your thoughts to words and phrase-types which actually exist in Na'vi

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

The other thing you can do is write what you want to say in or your native language, then use that as a framework to translate from, rather than doing a literal word-for-word translation. That is what I did, and I see that as a logical step towards being able to write things directly in Na'vi. My biggest challenge: I don't have time to do a lot of writing. My submission was sent in Sunday, but I had to shoehorn writing it into a couple of small timeslots. (I wish the extension had happened before then. Another proofread would have probably been a good thing!) And speaking of proofreading: I found that writing my submission, and then reading it a day later helped tremendously.

This learning method works with Morse code as well. When I first became an amateur radio operator, I used to write down every character I copied. But as time went on, I was able to start recognizing whole words, common abbreviations (a lot of text message shorthand in use was originally used for Morse code communication). Now, I can often copy simple conversations in my head, with no need to write down anything except the important information.

[Tirea Aean]

In any case, it remains that

Translate the meaning, not the words.

is a priceless piece of wisdom.

[Plumps]

In any case, it remains that

Translate the meaning, not the words.

is a priceless piece of wisdom.

Ngay nìngay

Which reminds me that we still need a way to convey 'to mean' in Na'vi...

[Tirea Aean]

In any case, it remains that

Translate the meaning, not the words.

is a priceless piece of wisdom.

Ngay nìngay

Which reminds me that we still need a way to convey 'to mean' in Na'vi...

fìlì'uä ral lu [[tìme'em sì tìrusey mì hifkey na nawma sa'nokä hapxì; 'uo a fpi rey'eyng Eywa'evengmì 'Rrtamì tsranten nìtxan awngaru nìwotx]]

remember that? \memory

word nìNa'vi slu peu?
word slu lì'u nìNa'vi.

and

15.  What does X mean?
Tsalì'uri alu X, ral lu 'upe?

This actually means, of course, 'What does the word X mean?' If it's not a word but a phrase you're after, substitute tsalì'fyaviri for tsalì'uri.

A shorter and highly colloquial version of 15 is acceptable in informal circumstances:

16.  What does X mean?
X-(ì)ri peral?

so I assume that "X means Y" would be

• Xìri ral lu Y
  
• Xä ral lu Y
  
  for "I mean to VERB" we have oe kan kem sivi, "I meant to verb" oe k[am|ol]an kem sivi
  
  hmm..

[Toruk Makto]

 It looks like the deadline extension was a good idea. Lots of entries starting to come in!

ta Markì