some basic sentences

[Ikranä mokri]

aysko swizaw na'rìng tirea

im trying to say my bow and arrow have the spirit of the forest
but my feeling is that i have got allot of the grammar wrong. please correct me

[kewnya txamew'itan]

OK here goes, only one sentence for now.

Oe-yä t<ol>spang tukru ay-'u txan

My spear has killed many things
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I also don't really get what the Topic, Genitive and Dative mean. That's why i have not put them in.

I hope this is correct, but its probably wrong somewhere.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

It's probably best to keep the oeyä and tukru together, otherwise someone might (foolishly) think that a spear killed many of your things.

Tspang should be in the past as well as perfective so it should be <a<l>m> not <ol>. And you've attached the infix in the wrong place. It should go before the vowel of the second to last syllable, as there is only one syllable, it attaches before the vowel of that sylalble, it should be tsp<a<l>m>ang

When the ay- prefix attaches to 'u the glottal stop dissapears so it should be ayu.

Other than that, just that txan is an adjective and needs an attributive marker.


So, I'd right it:

oeyä tukru tspalmang ayu atxan

[kxanì tsamsiyu]

Ah i see. Thanks for the explanation. Its gradually sinking in.

Nearly got it correct. Hopefully my next lots of sentences will be correct. But we will see when it comes to it.

[Java]

couple more i came up with, again feedback is appreciated 

Tsmukanä sì tsmukeyä r-am-ol
My brother and sister sang.

Oe-l tul mì na'rìng-it
I run in the forest.

[Ikran]

couple more i came up with, again feedback is appreciated 

Tsmukanä sì tsmukeyä r-am-ol
Suggestions:

My brother and sister sang.

Oe-yä tsmukan sì tsmuke r-am-ol (My brother and sister were/have been singing)
Oe-yä tsmukan sì tsmuke r-a-r-m-ol (My brother and sister were singing)
Oe-yä tsmukan sì tsmuke r-ol-ol (My brother and sister sang -completed action-)

Oe tul mì na'rìng-it
I run in the forest.

Oe tul mì na'rìng (no transitive verb, no need for -it)

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Ma Java, you've got your possessives the wrong way round, a genitive does not indicate that the noun is being possessed (not in a ghost-y way) but that the noun is doing the possession, Ikranä translations are correct.

In your second one, as Ikran says it is intransitive (it cannot take a direct object/directly affect something) and so oe and na'rìng should be left unmarked.

[Java]

thanks for the corrections guys, i'll keep at this till i get it.

[Ska'ayu Vrrtep]

Hello, I just joined up and am trying to compose some sentences. Hopefully I got most of this right. Please let me know if I made any mistakes.

I hunt Hexapede's.
Oe tareion ayerik.

Father gave me his spear for hunting.
Sempulil tìng tukruti Oeru si tìyaron.

I fly on my banshee swiftly, the wind blows my tail.
Oeri hu ikran tswayon anìwin, hufwe rikx oeyä kxetse.

I see a hexapede from high in the sky.
Oeri tse'a yerik ta'em.

I used a bow and arrow to kill the hexapede.
Oeri fa tsko swizaw tspang yerik.
(for some reason I think I got this one wrong)


I give the yerik to you.
Oel yerikit ngaru tìng

You eat the yerik.
Ngal yerikit yom.

I am a great hunter.
Oeri taronyu sìltsan.

Irayo!

[Ikran]

Suggestions:

I hunt Hexapede's.
Oel teraron yerikit.

I see a hexapede from high in the sky.
Oel tsere'a yerikit ta'em.

I used a bow and arrow to kill the hexapede.
Oel fa tsko sì swizaw tspolang yerikit.

You eat the yerik.
Ngal yerikit yerom.

I am a great hunter.
Oeri taronyu asìltsan. / Oe sìltsana taronyu leiu

[Taronyu]

I hunt Hexapede's.
Oe tareion ayerik.

You need ergative and accusative case here, as the verb is certainly transitive.

Oe-l tar<ei>on ay-yerik-it. Good job eliding the two y's there.

Father gave me his spear for hunting.
Sempulil tìng tukruti Oeru si tìyaron.

Gave is past tense, or perfective aspect. You need a work for 'his'. We don't know how to construct purpose clauses: my guess is to use the subjunctive, but I don't know.

Sempul-il t<ol>ìng oe-ru tukru-t t<iv>aron.

I fly on my banshee swiftly, the wind blows my tail.
Oeri hu ikran tswayon anìwin, hufwe rikx oeyä kxetse.

hu means with. Perhaps you should use fa, which means 'by means of'(also 'with'). tsw<ay>on is most likely the future tense of the verb, although it is given as that in the guide. Adverbs don't need the attributive a-. Use ulte to divide clauses: it means and. The second sentence should be in ergative and accusative case. An imperfective aspect might be best, for continual motion as in 'blows'.

Oe-ri fa ikran tsw<er>on nìwin, ulte hufwe-l r<er>ikx oe-yä kextse-t.

I see a hexapede from high in the sky.
Oeri tse'a yerik ta'em.

Ergative case. The subject goes with -l when there is an object of the verb, which goes with -t. Why don't you use mì taw for "in sky?"

Oe-ri tse'a yerik-it ta'em mì taw.

I used a bow and arrow to kill the hexapede.
Oeri fa tsko swizaw tspang yerik.
(for some reason I think I got this one wrong)

Yeah. This is another ergative: You are using the bow to kill the hexapede. The yerik is the direct object, you are the subject. Luckily, the topic marker can replace the ergative. You need past tense, as well as and (used here, between two words, you use sì).

Oe-ri fa tsko sì swizaw tsp<am>ang yerik-it.

I give the yerik to you.
Oel yerikit ngaru tìng.

PERFECT!

You eat the yerik.
Ngal yerikit yom.

WOO!

I am a great hunter.
Oeri taronyu sìltsan.

Add a lu, and you're good.

[Java]

A few more sentences I came up with at school today:

Fi'u fitrr sìltsan lu.
This day is good.

Oe-l rey mì na'rìng-it.
I live in the forest.

Oe-l taron palulukan-it mì txon.
I hunt the thanator at night.

[Hawnuyu atxen]

Wow, wished to be this good...Although i think in the first sentence you don't need "fì'u" and in the second the "-l" and "-it".

[wm.annis]

Fi'u fitrr sìltsan lu.
This day is good.

Once you have fìtrr, you don't need fì'u.

Oe-l rey mì na'rìng-it.
I live in the forest.

The verb rey means "live" in the sense of "to be alive."  Here you want "dwell," which is a verb phrase, kelku si.  Both senses are intransitive, so you don't mark the subject.  Finally, you don't add a case marker to a word that has a preposition.  So: oe kelku si mì na'rìng.  (It's possible the phrasal verb kelku si will turn out to be transitive.)

Oe-l taron palulukan-it mì txon.
I hunt the thanator at night.

Good!  Just remember that mì causes lenition: mì ton.  It's possible the idea of "at night" will have some other idiom than this, but for now it'll do.

Edit: oy.  It's "kelku," not "keltu."

[Hawnuyu atxen]

And isn't it fìtrr a-sìltsan?

[wm.annis]

And isn't it fìtrr a-sìltsan?

That would be "this good day."

[Hawnuyu atxen]

Oh, okay i see, sorry!

[Java]

Irayo William.

[Ska'ayu Vrrtep]

I made more words to be corrected.
Oe-ri ay-lì'u-ti a-nì'ul s<ol>i fpi st<er>eftxaw.

I walked to the forest and I saw many animals.
Oe-ri tì<m>ran ne na'rìng-it ulte Oel ts<ol>e'a ay-ioang-it.

Our group flew to the mountains on mighty banshees.
Oeng-ri pongu tsw<ol>ayon ne Iknimaya-ti fa ay-Ikran a-fkeu.

She gave me his spear to hunt.
Poe-ri t<ol>ìng Oe-ru Poan-yä tukru-ti ne t<ay>aron.

Here is one im trying to understand.
I like eating plants.
Oe-l y<er><ei>om ay-kìong-it.

Does the <ei> in a single syllable with another affix attached go before or after or even at all?
eg: yom = eat; y<er>om = eating; y<er><ei>om = eating and liking it or y<ei><er>om?

Irayo!

[Ska'ayu Vrrtep]

One more question about infixes,
I dont understand the use of <iv> and <us>.
What is subjunctive mood and participle?

Irayo!

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Here's my post from the subjunctive aspect thread:

As far as we know, there are two main uses of the subjunctive in Na'vi.

The first is, as you described to indicate possibility, wishes or uncertainty (as in English, Spanish and I believe French and Latin).

The second, is the etymological meaning of the subjunctive in that it relates to verbs that join "under" another a verb in a way that in English would be an infinitive.

Good examples of this are the verbs new and tsun (to want and to be able), when combined with the verb taron (to hunt) it should take a subjunctive infix to indicate that it is an objective infinitive.

E.g.

oel new tivaron (I want to hunt)
oel tsun tivaron (I can/am able to hunt)
oel new pivawm (I want to ask)
oel tsun pivawm (I can/am able to ask)

I hope that helps


And about participles:

Participles make verbs behave a little bit like adjectives. For example the hunted yerik would be yerik t<us><am>aron (we're not sure whether it would need and attributive) because hunted is the past participle.

In English we also use the present participle when an imperfective would be better (I am hunting instead of t<er>aron) although there are some cases where this would be correct, for example the hunting man (effectively the man who is hunting) could be tusaron poan (again this might need an attributive).


I hope that helped. Eywa ngahu.