A name: Naw'key or Nawkxey?

Started by DrowElfMorwen, February 05, 2014, 02:13:12 AM

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DrowElfMorwen

Hello,

I'm pretty new to the forum posting, though I have creeped here from time to time, and finally decided to ask a couple of questions. I'd like to write a possibly short-medium length fanfic for the Avatar universe, and I'm having trouble with some decisions. First, from what I have read on here, it seems the names of a lot of stuff in the ASG book are wrongly written. Perhaps it would be better to use english names throughout the book for various plants, animals, etc.? I was thinking it might be easier for a general audience.

Also, I want to name one of my characters but I am not sure about the name itself, or how to spell it. Naw'key or Nawkxey? But I have not seen any name examples with px, tx or kx. And from the very, very little I know of Na'vi, I'm under the impression Tsu'tey's name should be written as Tsutxey. Am I wrong?

Thank you for any help.

Mesireatu

Kaltxì!
Oel kame ngati! Ziva'u nìprrte'!! I'm a beginner myself. Sorry, no hard feelings, but I think you're wrong. The ' sign doesn't work like it does in English (and other languages). For example in English, correct is: IT IS, but it's shortened to IT'S. The ' means that is had been shorted. But in Na'vi, the ' is a 'glottal stop'. That means you shall do a short pause, like in Uh-oh.. The kx, px and tx are ejectives, which means you should  say the letter and breathe ut. Remember Mo'at? RUT-E! (Spelled RUTXE) There is no half pause/space there, try to say Rutxe and Rut'e and you will notice a differerence in the sound. Hope you understand what and how I mean. Eywa ngahu ulte Kìyevame
Varför minns jag alla dåliga vitsar, men glömmer alla infix i Na'vi?? ???
Why do I remember all bad jokes, but forget all the infixes in Na'vi?? :-[

Jag älskar dig, Sara L!!
Nga yawne lu oer, Sara L!!

DrowElfMorwen

I've listened to a video explaining the px, tx and kx sounds, so I think I know what you mean. Tsu'tey is not as hard as what Tsutxey would be, right? Okay, I know the difference now that I think about it. So, I guess I want Nawkxey to be his name, but I still do not think it is "proper" because I am not sure Na'vi use the hard glottal stops in names. Hmm. Anyone have canonical knowledge on the subject?

Also, no hard feelings taken! I am here to learn. :)

Blue Elf

Hello and welcome here.
From the grammar point of view both Naw'key and Nawkxey are correct. Second one is probably easier to pronounce.
As for names of plants and animals - in dictionary there's section for these names, which are correct. But they refer to Pandora's flora and fauna, so it will not work for Earth's ones. It will be safer to use English names for them, I think.
Oe lu skxawng skxakep. Slä oe nerume mi.
"Oe tasyätxaw ulte koren za'u oehu" (Limonádový Joe)


Mesireatu

Kaltxì! Mellon!
Elen sila lúmenn' omentielvo! Yes, it's Quenya.. Fine you understood me. So far, I haven't seen any person names with kx, px or tx. But look on the Canon side on LN Viki, maybe you see something there. Also look here on the LN Forum. I can also add that kx, px, tx and k, p, and t are SIX different letters in the Na'vi alphabet, not three.
Varför minns jag alla dåliga vitsar, men glömmer alla infix i Na'vi?? ???
Why do I remember all bad jokes, but forget all the infixes in Na'vi?? :-[

Jag älskar dig, Sara L!!
Nga yawne lu oer, Sara L!!

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

Quote from: DrowElfMorwen on February 05, 2014, 02:13:12 AM
Hello,

I'm pretty new to the forum posting, though I have creeped here from time to time, and finally decided to ask a couple of questions. I'd like to write a possibly short-medium length fanfic for the Avatar universe, and I'm having trouble with some decisions. First, from what I have read on here, it seems the names of a lot of stuff in the ASG book are wrongly written. Perhaps it would be better to use english names throughout the book for various plants, animals, etc.? I was thinking it might be easier for a general audience.

Also, I want to name one of my characters but I am not sure about the name itself, or how to spell it. Naw'key or Nawkxey? But I have not seen any name examples with px, tx or kx. And from the very, very little I know of Na'vi, I'm under the impression Tsu'tey's name should be written as Tsutxey. Am I wrong?

Thank you for any help.


To be honest, we do not know all that much about Naʼvi names. Il Sogno Viandante did a good job explaining the glottal stop, which is very much a letter in Naʼvi, as well as Klingon and many other languages. So in general, you are free to be creative.

Both Nawʼkey (syllabified Naw'.key) and Nawkxey (syllabified Nawkx.ey or more likely Naw.kxey) are phonotactically acceptable. Choose the one you like best. As far as Tsuʼyey, that is also phonotactically correct, and syllabifies as Tsuʼ.TEY . In general, p, t and k are given light sounds and not 'released' when occurring at the end of the word. In some ways, they are pronounced more like b, d and g. On the other hand, the ejective consonants px, tx and kx are pronounced considerably more forcefully, except not with a lot of breath. The ejective consonants are in many ways opposites of p, t and k.

The flora and fauna names in the ASG are generally correct, although they can be a bit strange. It is the item names in the main body of the book that are wrong!

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

DrowElfMorwen

Quote from: Il Sogno Viandante on February 05, 2014, 03:52:33 AM
Kaltxì! Mellon!
Elen sila lúmenn' omentielvo! Yes, it's Quenya.. Fine you understood me. So far, I haven't seen any person names with kx, px or tx. But look on the Canon side on LN Viki, maybe you see something there. Also look here on the LN Forum. I can also add that kx, px, tx and k, p, and t are SIX different letters in the Na'vi alphabet, not three.

Ah yes, I recognized Quenya. I am not learning the language, but I recognize it. Actually, I have tengwar letters taped to my keyboard for writing English in Tengwar LOL.

As for Na'vi, I understand that those letters are six different letters. What I do not understand is the purpose of the apostrophe mark in Tsu'tey's name. To me, it's common sense that if it was written as Tsutey it would be pronounced just the same.

`Eylan, are you saying that the ' mark in Tsu'tey's name means that stress should be placed on the last part of his name? If so, that's great to know for future reference.


Plumps

Welcome to the forums, ma DrowElf ;)

I'll chime in here to give yet another opinion :P

Quote from: DrowElfMorwen on February 05, 2014, 04:30:45 AM
As for Na'vi, I understand that those letters are six different letters. What I do not understand is the purpose of the apostrophe mark in Tsu'tey's name. To me, it's common sense that if it was written as Tsutey it would be pronounced just the same.
No, they are not ;)
As 'Eylan said, think of ' (apostrophe) as a consonant, anything from f to y (of the Na'vi alphabet). If you replace it with any other, let's say m, you would write Tsumtey and that is not the same as Tsutey, right? :D

As Il Sogno said, in Tsu'tey you just produce a sharp break after the u before you pronounce the t.
Listen to the audio of txe'lan (here) – it's similar in structure.


Quote from: DrowElfMorwen on February 05, 2014, 04:30:45 AM`Eylan, are you saying that the ' mark in Tsu'tey's name means that stress should be placed on the last part of his name? If so, that's great to know for future reference.
No, the apostrophe doesn't mark stress. In fact, stress is unpredictable in Na'vi and you just have to learn it ;)




DrowElfMorwen

Thank you for the link and the explanation. I don't study language and only know English, and a little Japanese, so the technicalities of language and reading pronunciations takes me a bit. :)

Mesireatu

There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers..
Generally, most people here on the LN Forum are happy to help newcomers.. Can also reccomend Tirea Aean (That's his name here) and his grammar school. Here you have a link: http://tirea.learnnavi.org/posts/index.html However, it doesn't help you to say the word/s, just how the grammar works. Also, 'Na'vi in a nutshell', even if it contains some errors.. Look on the main LN home page, click on 'Media', scroll down to 'Na'vi in a nutshell' and you can save it as an pdf-file. Very useful, both of them! P.S. Under 'Media', you also found dictionaries.
Varför minns jag alla dåliga vitsar, men glömmer alla infix i Na'vi?? ???
Why do I remember all bad jokes, but forget all the infixes in Na'vi?? :-[

Jag älskar dig, Sara L!!
Nga yawne lu oer, Sara L!!

Tìtstewan

Kaltxì ulte zola'u nìprrte'! :D
As for creating names, in the LEP Anon-board is a file attached with all possible Na'vi syllables.
http://forum.learnnavi.org/word-submissions/gtgtgt-start-here-ltltlt-2/
[Scroll down to the attached file.]
With theses sylables you can create phonologic correct Na'vi names. :)

-| Na'vi Vocab + Audio | Na'viteri as one HTML file | FAQ | Useful Links for Beginners |-
-| Kem si fu kem rä'ä si, ke lu tìfmi. |-

Kiyevame Ikran

Apostrophe are not used as normal apostrophe in English where you use to make a contraction (It's, Can't, etc), it's a glottal stop
Like for example: Tsu'tey
Tsu - (Closing and opening airways quickly) - Tey

Omängum Fra'uti in MightyVerse or Ftiafpi in Youtube is helpful too

Name? I prefer Nawkxey
Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random-Random

Mesireatu

# 11.
Please look on my post # 1. I wrote the same thing as you did.. ISV
Varför minns jag alla dåliga vitsar, men glömmer alla infix i Na'vi?? ???
Why do I remember all bad jokes, but forget all the infixes in Na'vi?? :-[

Jag älskar dig, Sara L!!
Nga yawne lu oer, Sara L!!