Kaltxì!

[Dreamlight]

At least it's Na'vi, with its five cases (nominative, ergative, genitive, dative, accusative), or six if you include topical constructions as a case.  You could be learning Hungarian, with at least 17 cases, or Spanish with its numerous verb forms, or German, in which adjectives are declined according to not only the case and number (of the relevant noun) but also whether you're using the definite or indefinite article.

In short:  Na'vi should be easy compared to these other languages. 

[bommel]

Personally I find learning Na'vi much more easier than learning French (back then in school ^^) and yes, German is sometimes difficult even for me as a native speaker o0

[Muzer]

or German, in which adjectives are declined according to not only the case and number (of the relevant noun) but also whether you're using the definite or indefinite article.

You see, I would be fine with that, if I only I could remember which gender every noun is! (I can remember almost none, even after 5 years learning it at school)

[bommel]

or German, in which adjectives are declined according to not only the case and number (of the relevant noun) but also whether you're using the definite or indefinite article.

You see, I would be fine with that, if I only I could remember which gender every noun is! (I can remember almost none, even after 5 years learning it at school)

That was my problem with French. 3 years at school and all I can remeber is "Je ne comprends pas" (i. e. "I don't understand")

[Dreamlight]

@brommel:  Ah, a native speaker.  I should have checked. 

@Muzer:  Yeah, the German language can be a bit daunting but it's still a great language to learn, I think.  The language of Einstein, Goethe, Rilke, Kafka, and the list goes on.

[Muzer]

Lol - that's quite useful

I did French but never liked it - too many exceptions I think. I've always heard French is a language for more creative people, and German is for more logical people - and I agree with that, being a very logical and non-creative person myself . I do like German a lot, don't get me wrong, I just wish I was better at remembering vocab, especially genders!


(And I've just noticed that in Na'vi there seems to be an equivalent to both the bog-standard English and German goodbye - English goodbye being a corruption of middle English god be with ye (which is almost identical to eywa ngahu), and German aufwiedersehen which translates as "when we see again" - which reminds me of k<ìyev>ame, may [we] see [each other] soon (the words in square brackets being implied).)

[bommel]

@brommel:  Ah, a native speaker.  I should have checked. 

Yay! "I can speak German perfectly! I don't need any subtitles!"

Du auch?

[Dreamlight]

Actually, I learned German in college, and when I have opportunity to practice it I find myself rusty at first, but it starts to come back to me after a few minutes.

In other words, I can turn off (or ignore) subtitles after the first few minutes. 

[bommel]

Ah, that was way too geeky. The quote was from a relatively popular video about Battlefield 2 where a player said this with the word "English" instead of "German" and I tried to make a joke of it but obviously I failed xD

So you're no native speaker, I guess ^^

[Dreamlight]

Well, English is my first language, yes. 

[Niwantaw]

Ich habe kiene unbekommet flug objekt

*runs away before anyone can be mean about his appalling German*

[bommel]

Ich habe kiene unbekommet flug objekt

*runs away before anyone can be mean about his appalling German*

I know my English is probably far away from beeing perfect but your German really seems to be bad
But nevermind, we're here to speak Na'vi although my Na'vi sounds like your German

BTW what was this thread about? Not that some mods will punish us for talking s*** o.0

[Dreamlight]

It was originally Sapient Navi's introduction thread.  We seem to have hijacked it.

[Sapient Navi]

Is " Rider of last shadow " "Toruk makto" I try to say it(Tah-ruk-mock-tow), after seeing the spelling I'm thinking I'm not right. Maybe (Toe-ruk-mock-tow) this language is going to take me years if I can ever figure it out.


I'm sad now. I just read that theres only going to be 3 parts to the avatar series. If the next ones would be anywhere near as good as the first one he should keep going.

[omängum fra'uti]

http://www.tyger.org/~tiger/navi/w318/torukmakto.mp3

(The a in makto is SLIGHTLY wrong, but close enough I don't think anyone would mishear it, it would just be Na'vi with a slight American accent.)

[Muzer]

Is " Rider of last shadow " "Toruk makto" I try to say it(Tah-ruk-mock-tow), after seeing the spelling I'm thinking I'm not right. Maybe (Toe-ruk-mock-tow) this language is going to take me years if I can ever figure it out.

The second one is pretty much right, depending on your accent really - I would spell "ruk" as "rook", but then it would be pronounced even less close because "rook" is actually a word that isn't pronounced how it's spelt . Maybe "ruke" would be better... the "toe" and "tow" are close approximations - I can't think of any word in English with exactly the right "o" sound - though again, it depends on your accent.

I'm sad now. I just read that theres only going to be 3 parts to the avatar series. If the next ones would be anywhere near as good as the first one he should keep going.

Well, 3 does seem to be the magic number with film series - to quote two series that most people love but I personally don't (), the Star Wars original trilogy was, well, a trilogy (most people seem to hate the prequels), and Lord of the Rings was a trilogy. Any more than 3 and they often get stale or confusing

[bommel]

Is " Rider of last shadow " "Toruk makto" I try to say it(Tah-ruk-mock-tow), after seeing the spelling I'm thinking I'm not right. Maybe (Toe-ruk-mock-tow) this language is going to take me years if I can ever figure it out.

The second one is pretty much right, depending on your accent really - I would spell "ruk" as "rook", but then it would be pronounced even less close because "rook" is actually a word that isn't pronounced how it's spelt . Maybe "ruke" would be better... the "toe" and "tow" are close approximations - I can't think of any word in English with exactly the right "o" sound - though again, it depends on your accent.

I'm sad now. I just read that theres only going to be 3 parts to the avatar series. If the next ones would be anywhere near as good as the first one he should keep going.

Well, 3 does seem to be the magic number with film series - to quote two series that most people love but I personally don't (), the Star Wars original trilogy was, well, a trilogy (most people seem to hate the prequels), and Lord of the Rings was a trilogy. Any more than 3 and they often get stale or confusing

I've heard in one video the "o" sounds like the o in "on".

Often the quality of successors aren't that good as the original movie. But I don't think JC will let it go down! He'll make a good job!

[omängum fra'uti]

It is most definitely not like the "o" in "on".  There were a few people whose enthusiasm was, sadly, far surpassing their knowledge, and so there are a few sources that teach horribly incorrect Na'vi.

Also, trying to describe phonetics using examples from a language, while convenient, is rather flawed since different dialects pronounce the words differently.  Hence why I just linked to a sample of the words spoken rather than trying to describe the sound.

http://www.tyger.org/~tiger/navi/w318/torukmakto.mp3

[bommel]

It is most definitely not like the "o" in "on".  There were a few people whose enthusiasm was, sadly, far surpassing their knowledge, and so there are a few sources that teach horribly incorrect Na'vi.

Also, trying to describe phonetics using examples from a language, while convenient, is rather flawed since different dialects pronounce the words differently.  Hence why I just linked to a sample of the words spoken rather than trying to describe the sound.

http://www.tyger.org/~tiger/navi/w318/torukmakto.mp3

Nevermind. I tried to stick to wikipedia IPA samples. Are they a good reference?

[omängum fra'uti]

Theoretically they should be.  Vowels, even under the same IPA symbol, can still end up with regional variances in the pronunciation.  The sample I posted above I tried to get as close as I could to Frommer's pronunciation for Na'vi, which I consider as the baseline for comparison since it's his language.