Conjugation resources?

[Kyle Kepone]

Kaltxì! I'm just wondering: has anyone taken a foreign language class where they used a book similar to a dictionary, with conjugations rather than strictly definitions? Something like the 501 Verbs book that is available in German, French, Spanish, etc? If you know what I'm talking about, is it possible to do something like that nìNa'vi?

[omängum fra'uti]

Certainly it could be possible, but it might be a bit on the heavy side.  A single Na'vi verb can have close to 300 forms.  I can't say I'm familiar with those books, but there is no reason it couldn't be done.

Except for the fact that we don't actually HAVE 501 verbs yet, but besides that...

[Tsamsiyu92]

Is it needed? Na'vi conjugates werbs much easier that German. It's just infixes placed logically, no strong/weak system like in German.

[omängum fra'uti]

There are a few exceptions that trip people up...

As three examples...

Imperfective "feed": yomterìng
Perfective "speak": poltxe
Imperfective "visit": frrfen

But even then it is very formulaic.

In the first example it's a compound word and only the active verb (give) gets the infix.

In the second example it becomes "p-ol-llltxe" and the combined consonant sounds results in "polltxe".  SInce ll can not follow a vowel, it degrades to the normal consonant and becomes "ok".

In the third example it follows a similar beginning, "f-er-rrfen", except in this case it happens on the stressed syllable.  The stress prevents the weakening, resulting in the vowel getting dropped, leaving still "frrfen".

[Tsamsiyu92]

^Yeah, even the irrugelars are logical.

[Kyle Kepone]

Irayo! I was just asking because I remember that in my German class, the Barron's 501 Verbs book was really helpful towards learning the language. 

[Kì'eyawn]

I would recommend that, instead of making a list of all the conjugations of all the verbs, maybe keep a list of "odd" verbs.  I do this in my personal dictionary, taking note when the infix positions are odd, or when infixes behave oddly (like the three examples omängum fra'uti gave).  But other than that, the verbs are much simpler than in many other languages—at least, the few i've studied.

[Kätsyín te Zotxekay Tsyal’itan]

This is about the closest topic I could find for my question, so here i go.

In the movie, especially during the final battle scene, one hears the Na'vi shout maktoko. Now my question is, what does this mean.

The closest I can figure is its a conjugation of makto meaning rider and eko' meaning attack, but thats just my thoughts.

[Carborundum]

This is about the closest topic I could find for my question, so here i go.

In the movie, especially during the final battle scene, one hears the Na'vi shout maktoko. Now my question is, what does this mean.

The closest I can figure is its a conjugation of makto meaning rider and eko' meaning attack, but thats just my thoughts.

It's two words, makto and ko, where ko is a particle for "soliciting agreement". Makto ko means, more or less, "let's ride".

[kewnya txamew'itan]

This is about the closest topic I could find for my question, so here i go.

In the movie, especially during the final battle scene, one hears the Na'vi shout maktoko. Now my question is, what does this mean.

The closest I can figure is its a conjugation of makto meaning rider and eko' meaning attack, but thats just my thoughts.

Carborundum's explained ko well enough.

makto is ride(s) not rider, toruk makto is an irregular construction where the verb is being used as a noun (like the reverend (actually an adjective) being used as a noun when you drop the priest's name).

In addition to what Carborundum said, whilst ko is often a substitute for the English "let's", it can also be equivalent to "right?" "eh?" etc.

[Kätsyín te Zotxekay Tsyal’itan]

This is about the closest topic I could find for my question, so here i go.

In the movie, especially during the final battle scene, one hears the Na'vi shout maktoko. Now my question is, what does this mean.

The closest I can figure is its a conjugation of makto meaning rider and eko' meaning attack, but thats just my thoughts.

It's two words, makto and ko, where ko is a particle for "soliciting agreement". Makto ko means, more or less, "let's ride".

Ah ha, now i get it. I saw ko as an agreement particle but somehow, I never connected the dots. I just kind of zeroed in on it being a hybridization.

[Tsamsiyu92]

Maybe have a dictionary that has every verb with infix markings? and those irregular expections noted beside those verbs like plltxe and frrfen.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Infix positions are marked in the IPA in Taronyu's dictionary as a dot.

The irregulars follow a pattern though, it's all to do with stress (which is marked as a ' preceding the stressed syllable in the IPA), if the syllable with the infix is stressed then the infix ellides, if it is unstressed then the vowel that was already there elides (only with rr and ll of course) so there's not really a need.