They're - you're

giganticbrain · January 28, 2010, 06:41:25 PM

Hey, just wondering, are there different words in Na'vi for things like they're-their-there or your-you're.

omängum fra'uti · January 28, 2010, 06:45:09 PM

In what sense? There are certainly words/ways to express those, but they aren't homophones like in English.

They're: Fo lu
Their: Feyä
There: Tsatsenge

Your: Ngeyä
You're: Nga lu

wm.annis · January 28, 2010, 06:50:12 PM

Quote from: omängum fra'uti on January 28, 2010, 06:45:09 PMTheir: Foyä

Perhaps feyä (as in po > peyä)?

omängum fra'uti · January 28, 2010, 06:55:18 PM

Ah yes thanks for keeping me honest William. That's one of the things I tend to forget. (That and the subjunctive with modal verbs.)

Angtsìk Makto · January 28, 2010, 08:18:32 PM

Question... I've seen 'your' written as ngeyä sometimes, is this correct in some way also? I know the deferential form of 'you' is ngenga, so I wasn't sure if maybe ngeyä was a deferential form of 'your'.

omängum fra'uti · January 28, 2010, 10:11:49 PM

ARGH! Yes you're right, ngeyä is correct...

William, you're slipping, you only caught my mistake once!

Na'rìng · January 29, 2010, 11:39:36 AM

Quote from: Angtsìk Makto on January 28, 2010, 08:18:32 PM
Question... I've seen 'your' written as ngeyä sometimes, is this correct in some way also? I know the deferential form of 'you' is ngenga, so I wasn't sure if maybe ngeyä was a deferential form of 'your'.

From what I understand, ngenga is the honorific form of nga, with the same meaning (you). Ngeyä means, literally, you are recieving something (I'm giving you a book, for example). Correct me if I'm wrong!

I am giving you a spear.
Oe-l ng-eyä-ti tukru t-er-ìng
I-ERG you-GEN-ACC spear give(imperfective).

^^Did I do that right?^^

Plumps · January 29, 2010, 11:45:49 AM

Quote from: Na'rìng on January 29, 2010, 11:39:36 AM
From what I understand, ngenga is the honorific form of nga, with the same meaning (you). Ngeyä means, literally, you are recieving something (I'm giving you a book, for example). Correct me if I'm wrong!

I am giving you a spear.
Oe-l ng-eyä-ti tukru t-er-ìng
I-ERG you-GEN-ACC spear give(imperfective).

^^Did I do that right?^^

ngeyä is the possessive form of nga (you) ... you cannot combine Genitive (-yä/-ä) and Accusative (-t/-ti/-it) marker.
I am giving you a spear would be:
Oe-l nga-ru tukru-t(i) t-er-ìng.

Angtsìk Makto · January 29, 2010, 10:45:12 PM

So why is the genitive form of nga written as ngeyä instead of ngayä? As nga is 'you' and the genitive is -yä it seems as if it would be ngayä...

omängum fra'uti · January 29, 2010, 11:09:52 PM

All the personal pronouns are like that.

Po -> peyä
Oe -> oeyä

etc

Plumps · January 30, 2010, 03:34:21 AM

And concerning nga you could probably confuse it with a form of ngay? tìngayä "of the truth" - though I guess you would know it from context.

Up until now I think there aren't any 'homonyms'/'homophones' in Na'vi which strikes me as a bit odd - these are the features of a language (amongst others) that make it seem natural, I'd say...