TalkNavi.com up and running.

[shiaru]

I was about to try and translate "I can has ..." to Na'vi, when I realized two things...

1. We don't have a word for "have" at the moment.
2. It would be really hard to make something so short grammatically incorrect, or ordered wrong, which are both the attributes that make "I can has cheeseburger?" into lol-speak.

Interesting.  Do we want to Break Na'vi to allow LOL cats or 1337?

Eywa, ngahängu...

never no lolcats or 1337 on Na'vi, besides those are human concepts.

[Taronyu Ayunilyä Alahe]

so true it was crazier each day!! what's tewte btw?

There is no tewte.  There is, however, tewti, which occurs in the comments for Frommer's guest blog post on Language Log.  Frommer translates it "wow."

ohh right. thank you. irayo

[Tslamyu]

TalkNa'vi messed up again! yesterday, there were pages and pages of audio files. Now, only one little file remains!

[neosis666]

"again"? Please feel free to explain this.


I think if you check the news section there is a perfectly reasonable explination why they were removed. If we wish to expand this language we need to do it as legitimately as possible. As such I will not endorce illegal files, I have something in the works at the moment, but untill I get an official yes or no from Cameron / Fox, these files will not be on my site.

[MidnightLightning]

I was about to try and translate "I can has ..." to Na'vi, when I realized two things...

1. We don't have a word for "have" at the moment.
2. It would be really hard to make something so short grammatically incorrect, or ordered wrong, which are both the attributes that make "I can has cheeseburger?" into lol-speak.

It's been suggested that Dative (-ru) combined with "lu" as a verb can be considered possession, so might "Oeru lu cheeseburger srak?" be the correct way to ask "Can I have a cheeseburger?" (since "I have a cheeseburger" is "Oeru lu cheeseburger", and "srak" changes it into a yes/no question?), or more literally, "I am in the possession of a cheeseburger, yes?" Or does "lu" have to be put in a different tense (future tense? "I will be in the possession of a cheeseburger in the near future, yes?") for that to be grammatically correct?

[omängum fra'uti]

No that's grammatically correct.

And too late, I figured that out a few days ago and have already bastardized Na'vi grammar.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

That would mean "do I have a cheeseburger?"

I can has cheeseburger would probably be:

oeru tsun lu tsisprrkrrl srak? (I tried to transliterate cheesburger as tsis.prr.krr)

As the phrase generally refers to wanting to receive a cheeseburger soon (albeit unfortunately not now as that would be impossible) but without taking the normal future form or subjunctive mood or any other mood I shall call it the lolcat mood.

Now it just needs an infix. Personally I like the idea of it using the perfective infix just because of the spelling even though that makes no sense.

So my interpretation would be:

oeru tsun lolu tsisprrkrrl srak?



Edit: ninjad. omängum fra'utiyä translation is correct although the grammar is too correct, I suggest oeru tsayun lereiu tsispurkrrri srak? Obviously the topic of the phrase is the cheeseburger and should be indicated as such.

[omängum fra'uti]

I was about to point out you just suggested I put what I did with different infixes.

I was actually aiming for conflicting tenses with <ay> and <ìm> but the builder didn't allow ì, so I had to settle.  It's not perfect grammar, but I did want the cheeseburger to be the focus..  And while making it the topic would have been grammatically wrong, that is sort of the goal.

[Suteyä Hawnuyu]

I was about to try and translate "I can has ..." to Na'vi, when I realized two things...

1. We don't have a word for "have" at the moment.
2. It would be really hard to make something so short grammatically incorrect, or ordered wrong, which are both the attributes that make "I can has cheeseburger?" into lol-speak.

Well, you could make "Oe" possessive.

So, it would be "Oeyä tsun..."
It's just not the same effect, though.