Translation for 'I thought of you'?

Started by Emi, July 22, 2018, 09:47:33 AM

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Emi

A friend of mine recently went to Pandora: The World of Avatar and said he thought of me whilst there, and wanted to share this on social media in Na'vi with my help but I don't know THAT much Na'vi yet hrh  ;D

With this context, how would one say 'I thought of you whilst there' or similar? I can break down sentences in my own time to learn how the sentence was put together for future reference ^-^

Vawmataw

This is a good question and I hope this will be in the records.

I think you can safely use ngateri fpolìl oe as I thought about you.
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Toliman

Hmm ... and what about Oel fpìl ngati
(but I am not sure :-\ )

Emi


Vawmataw

Quote from: Toliman on July 22, 2018, 10:07:47 AM
Hmm ... and what about Oel fpìl ngati
(but I am not sure :-\ )
I think you, that's weird.
Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Toliman

Quote from: Vawmataw on July 22, 2018, 10:18:30 AM
Quote from: Toliman on July 22, 2018, 10:07:47 AM
Hmm ... and what about Oel fpìl ngati
(but I am not sure :-\ )
I think you, that's weird.
Hmm ... seems that yes, I am still not sure.
In any case, your translation looks better.

Eana Unil

I'd use
ngateri fpìl oe - I think about you
ngateri fpolìl oe - I have thought about you

Alternative stacking of nga and teri:

teri nga fp(ol)ìl oe.

Of course there's flexible word order and the punch of the sentence lies withing the last word of it, so following combinations are also possible:

oe ngateri fp(ol)ìl (most neutral punch since the verb is last)
oe fp(ol)ìl teri nga (punch lies on YOU, whereas first 2 examples above emphasize I)

Mech

In some languages i know, the syntax goes "i think of/about you", but in others , the syntax is "I think you" or "i think to you"  :-\

If we don't have a specific example leNa'vi, we shouldn't go automatically with the English syntax

Toliman

Quote from: Mech on July 22, 2018, 01:47:16 PM
If we don't have a specific example leNa'vi, we shouldn't go automatically with the English syntax
Yeah, I agree with you.

Eana Unil

True, but in Na'vi we only have two possible ways established to do stuff like that.
One was already mentioned: teri. The other one would be the topical;

Ngari fpìl oe. As for you/concerning you, I think.

Could also be possible, but doesn't transport the same meaning or rather intention than the usage of teri here, so I'd stick to teri.

Vawmataw

Well the topical makes it look like there's something missing. This is why I didn't suggest it.

It's about you, I think, what else?
Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Toliman

Quote from: Eana Unil on July 22, 2018, 05:21:55 PM
One was already mentioned: teri. The other one would be the topical;
Ngari fpìl oe. As for you/concerning you, I think.
Quote from: Vawmataw on July 23, 2018, 07:32:52 PM
Well the topical makes it look like there's something missing. This is why I didn't suggest it.

Hmm ... topical, I would say that it's good way here.

So what don't work here? ???

Mech

In the meantime I would like to hear a word from a francophone: are the expressions "je pense de toi" and "je pense a toi" valid? Are they equivalent, or are there some expressional differences?

Vawmataw

Quote from: Mech on July 24, 2018, 07:46:19 AM
In the meantime I would like to hear a word from a francophone: are the expressions "je pense de toi" and "je pense a toi" valid? Are they equivalent, or are there some expressional differences?
afaik je pense à toi is valid but not je pense de toi, except if you say something like je pense quelque chose de quelqu'un (ex.: je pense du bien de toi; I think well of you).
Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Mech

I saw in the dictionary that fpìl is transitive, so what does that mean? That it's followed by futa? and/or that it can be syntaxed with agentive-objective pair?

oel fpìl ngat ??
oel fpìl futa nga lu lefpom  ??

Eana Unil

Oel fpìl ngat = I think you. You can think thoughts or ideas, but not people, so this would make no sense :)
Oel fpìl futa ngaru lu fpom looks doable tho. I think that wellbeing is to you.

Mech

Quote from: Eana Unil on July 25, 2018, 04:00:18 PM
You can think thoughts or ideas, but not people, so this would make no sense :)
In English yes, but i started this discussion because in some languages the syntax is different, and the verb "think" takes a direct object, even if it's a person or a thing, and does make sense. For now I can think of Greek and Turkish where the verb "think" takes the object is in direct accusative.

Odds are that Frommer modelled the syntax of fpìl after english, but unless we have an attested example, we can't rule out other possibilities.