What If You "Know" Someone You Don't Like?

[Kekerusey]

Hi,

The standard emotive greeting is "Oel Ngati Kameie" agreed? Kam<ei>e essentially meaning "hooray" (it's a good thing).

But what if you did know that person but didn't like them? Is it permissible to say, "Oel Ngati Kamänge" i.e. Kam<äng>e i.e. I see you (ugh!)??

Keke

[Taronyu]

Totally permissible. Not a nice thing to say, though.

[P.A.'li makto]

Oel ngati ke kameie...?

[Taronyu]

Oel ngati ke kameie...?

This wouldn't really mean "I don't see you", as an insult. It means that you can't see the person whom you'd like to see - they might be behind a tree, or something. It is vague - and cf. Pawl's new pìlok post about that, but I'm fairly certain that the ke wouldn't rule out the «ei», but rather the whole sense of the verb.

Now, if you went up to someone, and said "Oel ngati ke kame" - that would be pretty insulting, yes.

[P.A.'li makto]

Why , for me it gives the feeling "I'm happy about not seeing you"!

[Taronyu]

Why , for me it gives the feeling "I'm happy about not seeing you"!

Huh! Interesting. I can see how that works. Hmm. I think it's too vague to use with any particularity, though. There are three different interpretations, as we've seen.

[Kekerusey]

Totally permissible. Not a nice thing to say, though.

I'd certainly like to say it to some people however, it's actually for the story thing I am writing

Irayo

Keke

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Given the way na'vi requires double negatives it seems to me that anything grammatically negative in a clause requires the verb to be negative and so, from this point of view I'd say that "oel ngati ke kameie" would mean "I don't see you and I'm happy about it".

I think either "oel ngati kamänge" or "oel ngati ke kame" would work though.