Chris' Corner

Started by Chris92, April 02, 2010, 10:26:25 AM

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Chris92

Ok then, after that snippy title you must be wondering what this is about?  Well, here's the back-story first.  I really want to learn the language still, but I find it hard to put aside time to sit down and study it.  I've got a ton of flashcards sitting next to me, most of them I know already, except this large stack with all the common words in it..that's step one.  What this thread is here for is me posting my questions and accomplishments regarding the language. 

Thusfar I know a bunch of words and how to place my infixes.  What I really need to do is troll the forum for a little while and start learning how to piece my sentences together.  If someone could give me a simple sentence and explain the parts that hold it together, it would be greatly appreciated by this n00b.

Tsufätu Ayioangä

And many other noobs I'm sure. *Sits patiently hoping she can mooch of this thread as well*

Lrrtoksì nìhawng

I'm not sure how simple you want it to be, but here is a sentence with a sprinkling of things:

Oe-l t<am>aron le-txopu-a palulukan-it slä palulukan-il t<arm>aron oe-ti.
I hunted the scary palulukan but the palulukan was hunting me.
I[ERG] hunt[PAST] scary palulukan[ACC] but palulukan[ERG] hunt[IMPF. PAST] me[ACC].

This is really two clauses joined together by slä (but).
Starting with the first clause, Oe-l t<am>aron le-txopu-a palulukan-it, the suffixes -l on oe, and -it on palulukan show who is hunting and who is being hunted. In this case oe is the hunter and palulukan is the prey, because oe is either very brave or very stupid. <am> in taron turns hunt into hunted (past tense verbal infix). Txopu (fear) is a noun but can become an adjective by adding the prefix le-. Then you add -a in the direction of the noun you want to describe as being scary. You could also say palulukan a-le-txopu.

Now on to the second clause, palulukan-il t<arm>aron oe-ti. The -il and -ti have switched places because now palulukan is the hunter and oe is the prey (much more likely scenario!) The <arm> infix turns hunt into was hunting (imperfective past). It is really a combination of <er> (hunting) and <am> (hunted). In plain english it means that all the while oe hunted the palulukan, the palulukan was actually hunting oe.

Also note that -l and -ti are used when they are attached to a word which ends in a vowel, and -il and -it are used when it ends in a consonant.

If this is more than what you wanted I can try something shorter. In the middle of explaining everything I realized maybe this was more complicated than I thought it would be. :P
Eywa hangham fa aysyulang.

NeotrekkerZ

Have you guys looked at Na'vi in a Nutshell?  There are tons of example sentences there.
Rìk oe lu hufwemì, nìn fya'ot a oe tswayon!