Bible in Na'vi

Started by Col Quaritch, March 15, 2010, 03:33:28 PM

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Olo'pizayu

I used Yawä, a phonetic translation of Yahweh, the generally accepted Romanization of YHWH, the literal Hebraic spelling of God's name.

I've gone through and translated the first ten verses of Genesis as best I could. I had to find work-arounds for some words. I also slightly altered my translation of Genesis 1:1.

1Taw sì kllte ayngolop fayawä mìsngä'ikrr.2Sì kllte lamu lukenìkifkey, sì luketirea; sì tivawm lamu fratseng. Sì Yawäyä Tirea ramikx mìpayä key.3Sì Yawä pamlltxe, Tung atanä sngä'ikrr: sì atan sngolä'i.4Sì Yawä tsame'a atan, tsafko lamu sìltsan: sì Yawä ramikx atan sì tivawm neto.5Sì Yawä tstxo si atan Trr, sì tivawm Poan tstxo si Txon. Sì txon'ong sì sngä'itrr lamu nì'awve trr.6Sì Yawä pamlltxe, Tung kipayä kllte tok, ulte tung payä neto payä lu ke'aw.7Sì Yawä ngolop kllte, ulte ngamop ekxtan mìkamiopayä sì äopayä: ulte fko lamy fìfya.8Sì Yawä tstxo si kllte Nìtawkllte. Sì txon'ong sì sngä'itrr lamu nìmuneve trr.9Sì Yawä pamlltxe, Tung payä äotaw rikx 'awsiteng, ulte tung ukxo kllte lu ngamop.10Sì Yawä tstxo si ukxo kllte 'Rrta; ulte payäPoan tstxo si Txampayä: sì Yawä tsame'a tsafko lamu sìltsan.

Genesis 1:1-10
I enjoy this language. It means I can curse at people in it and they don't know what I'm saying. Of course, they often figure it out purely from the tone of what I say, but that's another problem.

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Hi, just wanted to show up and say that I'm still around. My Na'vi skills got a bit... well, I think I've gotta relearn a whole lot of it.

@Olo'pizayu:
Great work. Didn't find the time to go through it in detail (well, as I said, I forgot most I knew, which wasn't much anyway). One thing maybe: I think I'd use ulte instead of sì in the beginning of sentences. But since I've been away for so long, I think maybe the rules have changed (or became more clear)...

I think there was already one who said he'd be working on Genesis, but seems no one has brought up any work in recent weeks except you, so each step is a step ahead. But it makes me wonder if it was not better to get the project on a wiki or something (was it me who opposed this earlier?). Then we'd have the overview what has already been done and what not.

I am still busy with Uni, I have oral exams in September on Aristotle and Heidegger. Tough stuff. But maybe, well, I guess I'd be able to two or three times a week, I could look over some sentences and give feedback (four eyes are better than two and translating is more fun with feedback). So what about if I join you, Olo'pizayu, like having a second look on your translations, and we work like closer together on Genesis to motivate one another?


That for now, Yawä ngahu, ma smukan!
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Okay, taking a break from Heidegger's "Being and Time", finding out whether I still have any understanding of Na'vi left...

I want to ask one thing: Could you put the gloss visible in the posting, ma Olo'pizayu? It would make proofreading a bit easier...

Before I start, I want to stress again that I've been out of Na'vi for months, so I'd appreciate it whenever you find me making a mistake. Tell me, please.

Verse 1:
As I understand it, <ay> does only put nouns to plural. As far as I know there is no plural in verbs, like English: I create, you create, they create... it also doesn't change whether there is one or more things created... so I think it would be just "ngolop".

I am also not sure how the passive turned out to be formed in Na'vi, so faYawä is certainly right, but I wonder: The bible doesn't say "Heavens and Erth were created by God", it says God created... so why not "Yawäl (ergative ending) ngolop tawit (or sawit/aysawit, if we want to take over the plural; don't forget accusative endings) sì klltet (accusative ending as well; I just saw there's now a 'Rta for "Earth", but I guess this refers to the planet Earth and might not be what we want to say here; what about using kifkey? Just making proposals in case you haven't seen yet...)"?

I hope this is still readable... :(

I would also put "in the beginning" -> mìsngä'ikrr at the beginning ;)

Verse 2:
As I said above, I think it has to start with "ulte", as this would be the "and" used between sentences, while "sì" is used to combine single words...
Why would you say (I translate backward to the best of my abilities): the ground was without worldly? I see the problem with the lack of vocabulary for "without form and void" (I think this is the term used in English bibles). But you have to understand what a nì makes to a word. It makes it an adverb, these are the words with -ly in the end in English. Like "beautifully". You can say "Neytiri sings beatifully" -> Neytiri reiol (laudative ;)) nìlor; In this case the beautifully describes the verb "to sing". But what you need here will have to describe a noun: The earth was without... So, in order to have something describing the noun, you need an adjective, not an adverb.
I like the way you solve the lack of vocabulary with the tirea, well done. Let me try something and tell me how you like it:

Ulte kifkey lamu lukekllte sì luketirea;

Then you'd have to use kifkey in verse 1 instead of kllte. I think this could be a pissibility, because later on God will create the ground (as in opposition to the waters and oceans), so if you now say there wasn't any this makes sense, plus, it resembles more or less what the bible says with "without form and void", at least to my understanding. But after all, this is just another idea, I'm just giving access to my thoughts...

sì tivawm lamu fratseng.

Great! Or does your bible really say place? speaks of "depth", but face is neat, clean, logical and thus perfect. I'd only change that sì to ulte, as it is a new sentence again ;)

sì Yawäyä Tirea ramikx mìpayä key.

mìpayä key is very literal. One could also use just mìpay, to avoid misinterpretation, but that is fine this way (actually, I think it's very poetic). Ah, the sì again... well, I think you get the picture on that one, I won't repeat it now, makes me talk too bad of a great translation.

I'm a bit curious about the ramikx, as my bible speaks of the spirit floating on the waters... another proposal: how about "Yawäyä Tirea lamu iokey payä"? "io-" meaning above... tell me what you think.

Verse 3:
Sì Yawä pamlltxe, Tung atanä sngä'ikrr: sì atan sngolä'i.

I'm not so sure about the allow beginning thing... what about God speaking of a wish (which has to come true immediately, because it's God speaking): Slivu atanit (acc ending); Ulte atanit slamu.

Like this? Again, just a thought. You see, I like to talk a lot :D feel free to tell me I'm talking a lot of nonsense, I just don't want you to get the feeling like I was making you or your efforts down. I know what it means to translate 10 verses...

Verse 4:
Sì Yawä tsame'a atan, tsafko lamu sìltsan: sì Yawä ramikx atan sì tivawm neto.

I'm not sure what tsafko shall mean... that-it? Why not: "Yawäl tsame'a atanit (transitive verb means ergative-accusative ending ;)) a lamu sìltsan"?
The final sentence I'd retranslate as:
and Yawä moved light and darkness away... whereto?
We have an adjective "ke'aw" meaning "divided" (derived from ke-> not and 'aw ->one). Adding a tì in the beginning makes it a noun: tìke'aw" -> Not-one-ness. The addind a "si" (like kelku si-> to live) would make it a verb, I guess. Not that some people don't like how I add multiple pre- and suffixes to words, but it's an easy way to make up new words. So I'd say:

ulte Yawä tìke'aw sami mìkam atan sì tìvawm...

Verse 5:
Sì Yawä tstxo si atan Trr, sì tivawm Poan tstxo si Txon. Sì txon'ong sì sngä'itrr lamu nì'awve trr.

There's a verb "syaw" for "to call/name", that'd maybe fit better then "tstxo si" (though that would be more poetical, I guess also more archaic sounding).

For sngä'itrr I'd use rewon (maybe this is a new word). And I'd use lamu two times:

Ulte lamu txon'ong ulte lamu rewon: 'awve trr. (I don't see why to make 'awve an adverb here)...



Okay, so far for now, more later. Gotta get back to Heidegger. I think I'll have a bit more time tomorrow. If you find the time, tell me what you think of it so far...
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Tirea Aean

If you guys need any help at all, I have a pretty good understanding of Na'vi. I have been going steady since mid january and have kept up with every update. I know all the stuff to be found in Nutshell, and just about all the non-ProperNoun words...just let me know.

Tìmuiäyä'itan

I think help is always welcome. If you could take a look at our translated verses, that would be great. Or if you look whether the proofreading we do for one another isn't making things worse...

Just take a look and write what you think. And irayo for the help.

By the way: Is the nutshell the place to look for grammar rules, or is there a broader and/or more actual source? Irayo for that as well.

Kiyevame.
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Tirea Aean

Quote from: Tìmuiäyä'itan on July 17, 2010, 11:46:57 AM
I think help is always welcome. If you could take a look at our translated verses, that would be great. Or if you look whether the proofreading we do for one another isn't making things worse...

Just take a look and write what you think. And irayo for the help.

By the way: Is the nutshell the place to look for grammar rules, or is there a broader and/or more actual source? Irayo for that as well.

Kiyevame.

Nutshell is the compilation of grammar rules, written in a style where those without a linguistic ph.D. can understand. It is the most current. If you need anything explained, I'm sure its somewhere on the forum, or you can ask me if you dont feel like digging. ;D I'll see what I can do. we just got a load of new vocab from Frommer from his blog, http://naviteri.org. I LOVE that blog. no problem.

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Irayo for the answer. The thing why I asked about the nutshell is that I have read something about some bigger grammar document being resembled (I don't hold a linguistic PHD, nor any other, but I think I understand qiote some of this linguistic talk), but I don't know if it was published now...

I also knew about the blog, I first thought, concerning the vocabulary, that Taronyu's dicitonary would be as good, but it seems that Frommer gives a more in depth explaination of the vocab there than Taronyu can do in his dict.

I'm just trying to find my way back after a while of absence...

There is no real course-book as of yet, right? Like something paedagogically worked out with Lessons that introduce you step by step? Hmm, I guess this would also be a too early stage of the language...
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì

Quote from: Tirea Aean on July 17, 2010, 12:09:52 PM
Quote from: Tìmuiäyä'itan on July 17, 2010, 11:46:57 AM
I think help is always welcome. If you could take a look at our translated verses, that would be great. Or if you look whether the proofreading we do for one another isn't making things worse...

Just take a look and write what you think. And irayo for the help.

By the way: Is the nutshell the place to look for grammar rules, or is there a broader and/or more actual source? Irayo for that as well.

Kiyevame.

Nutshell is the compilation of grammar rules, written in a style where those without a linguistic ph.D. can understand. It is the most current. If you need anything explained, I'm sure its somewhere on the forum, or you can ask me if you dont feel like digging. ;D I'll see what I can do. we just got a load of new vocab from Frommer from his blog, http://naviteri.org. I LOVE that blog. no problem.

We also just got an epic language update to the blog! Cool stuff in there!

-Txonä Rolyu




AvatarMeet was fantastic. Thanks to all who attended :D

Avatar Nation Karyu :D

Na'vi Kintrrä #70° :D

Keyeyluke ke tsun livu kea tìnusume

Oeri Uniltìrantokxìl txe'lanit nì'aw takeiuk nì'ul txa' fralo

Fpìl na Na'vi. Plltxe na Na'vi. Tìran na Na'vi. Kame na Na'vi

Col Quaritch

Want to say I'm still on this, but here the sad news I have illness now that isn't a one shot thing and move on. This will be with me till the Lord takes me home. It will be ongoing struggle and will take me way from time to time but I am still here as your project leader if you still wish me in that role. I'm so blessed to see so many want to be a part of this reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 18:15 (NLT) Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge. And I am learning from each an every person who is part of this amazing project for God. 1 Cor 9:22 (NLT) When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. What ever it takes to do as Jesus commanded in Mark 16:15 (NLT) "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. So even one comes to the Lord from this then it was worth all the hard work that goes into it. Pray not just for me but each involved as evil one dose not want the word to reach anyone no matter in what form. Pray for his guidance and protection of each of the saints involved in this. As for me I wear the whole armor Ephesians 6:11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Till I can return again God bless each of you,
yours in Christ.

Colonel Quaritch


Eyamsiyu

Col Quaritch, we may be of blue skin, but we all know that our hearts are together on this project.  I speak for everyone when we say we would still love for you to be the leader in this project.  It takes a brave and strong heart to suggest what we are trying - no - GOING to do.  If God wills it, it will be done.


"... The only people that are going to have a chance to make a living playing music is the people who do exactly what they believe in ... they have to believe in this so much that they are ready to die for it." - Jojo Mayer

On indefinite leave.  Will be back periodically. Feel free to say Kaltxí: I'll get back when I can. :D

My facebook.  Please mention you are from LN if you ch

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Ma Col, I sent you a private message (actually I wrote more or less what Eyamslyu posted here)...

I want to give another approach to the beginning of Genesis (hope Olo'pizayu isn't annoyed with me yet :D)

Verse 6:
Sì Yawä pamlltxe, Tung kipayä kllte tok, ulte tung payä neto payä lu ke'aw.


Okay, again the ulte and the "allow" thing (see verse 3 above). Then I understand nothing, ngatxoa :(

What I understand is: allow among Water-SING-GEN ground occupy a space. Doesn't the ground only come up in verse 9 anyway? Leaving that aside, you use "allow" and make a subsentence (which might have to make use of the subjunctive infix <iv>, though I am not sure).

Why do you put water in Genitive?
Why do you use "tok" without putting ergative and accusative markers at the nouns?

I think I stop here and wait for you to review what I said so far, so we can then go on together with the rest, okay?

Kiyevame! Ulte Yawä ngahu!
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì

Quote from: Col Quaritch on July 18, 2010, 12:29:04 AM
Want to say I'm still on this, but here the sad news I have illness now that isn't a one shot thing and move on. This will be with me till the Lord takes me home. It will be ongoing struggle and will take me way from time to time but I am still here as your project leader if you still wish me in that role. I'm so blessed to see so many want to be a part of this reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 18:15 (NLT) Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge. And I am learning from each an every person who is part of this amazing project for God. 1 Cor 9:22 (NLT) When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. What ever it takes to do as Jesus commanded in Mark 16:15 (NLT) "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. So even one comes to the Lord from this then it was worth all the hard work that goes into it. Pray not just for me but each involved as evil one dose not want the word to reach anyone no matter in what form. Pray for his guidance and protection of each of the saints involved in this. As for me I wear the whole armor Ephesians 6:11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. Till I can return again God bless each of you,
yours in Christ.

Colonel Quaritch

Nga oeyä aysäfpilmì layu ma tsmukan. Kraytx ngahu. You will be in my thoughts brother. Christ be with you.

-Txonä Rolyu




AvatarMeet was fantastic. Thanks to all who attended :D

Avatar Nation Karyu :D

Na'vi Kintrrä #70° :D

Keyeyluke ke tsun livu kea tìnusume

Oeri Uniltìrantokxìl txe'lanit nì'aw takeiuk nì'ul txa' fralo

Fpìl na Na'vi. Plltxe na Na'vi. Tìran na Na'vi. Kame na Na'vi

Tirea Aean

okay...for sentences like "and God said, 'Let there be light'...." that would just be "ulte poltxe Yawey san atan livu sìk....."

<iv> makes a verb have the "let it be that <verb here> happens." or "may it be that <verb here> happens" kind of vibe...tung is literally the verb to allow. I think it would be better to just use <iv>...subjunctives are ALL OVER the bible. ;D

of course then again, I am a Baptist, using KJV... which the WORDING needs to be changed in order to translate the MEANING, which is most important here. ;D

Nìawnomum, I am founder and Eyktan of the NgayNume Project, a Weekly structured Na'vi class on Fridays. And also of the upcoming Tirea radio Project...so unfortunately, I dont have time to actually translate the verses, but it is possible to answer "is this right?" questions. dont hesitate.

God Bless

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Okay, so I had a right feeling about the <iv>... and thanks for reminding me of the san..sìk thing. Forgot that...

Kaltxì! I think KJV is not the worst place to start off. I mean, the Klingons also used the KJV, but made a word by word translation, made by machine... so doing real translation, we should be not too far from what they have come up to, as I think machine translations help nothing, they are most times so wrong that one wouldn't even understand...

Yawä Ngahu
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Tirea Aean

#234
Quote from: Tìmuiäyä'itan on July 19, 2010, 02:29:28 AM
Okay, so I had a right feeling about the <iv>... and thanks for reminding me of the san..sìk thing. Forgot that...

Kaltxì! I think KJV is not the worst place to start off. I mean, the Klingons also used the KJV, but made a word by word translation, made by machine... so doing real translation, we should be not too far from what they have come up to, as I think machine translations help nothing, they are most times so wrong that one wouldn't even understand...

Yawä Ngahu

agreed.

now how to translate a verse such as "and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise" without the words for would, should, could, strange structure for "do" (a verb that parallels do on its own doesnt exist) and strange clause building structures, That is a challenge.

I also believe now that as we get new words, most of which we needed in this project, we will have to constantly go back and redo everything...thoughts on that?

Tìmuiäyä'itan

Of course you cannot translate the words, you have to translate the meaning ;) Especially if your foundation is the KJV (or Luther original, which is poetically speaking a wonderful work, but people claim they wouldn't understand it anymore...).

In this case I think one could make broad use of <iv> constructions, to deal with the would/should stuff, I'm still not sure about the "to do" thing, but I think one would have to interpret it. Maybe use the verb for help, which would of course take from the meaning. Sometimes it helps lookiing in the Greek/Hebrew text, but I'm afraid this is only something good for me, as I know a bit of those languages. Sometimes it appears that the English translators already had the same problem and used different words... each translation is as well an interpretation which open new ways of seeing things and closes others. That's the problem when you deal with several languages...

Of course we need to redo all again and again the more word we get. I thought back then, when we started to go first through the text we work on now, do them as good as we can, and come back in a few years to recheck them. Of course we cannot guerantee our translations being correct by next week. But if we do not want to sit on one or two verses to keep them correct and having no time to do other stuff, we have to move on. Having a version (and be it the most archaic example of the language from back early this year) done, reviewing the text we would have something to build upon, which would make things much easier for the second and third walkthrough.

I am a bit of insecure how to approach things from here, because I am too busy these days to get myself working on another psalm or something, and there seems to be not too many people these days who have the time to it...

A problem I would see once this thing gets moving again is the plethora of confessions people might have, so there is the possibility of debating on several bible verses, their meaning and their translation. Col Quaritch was so wise to set forth the bible version we build on (I don't remember which, he said KJV was good as well and I use Greek/Hebrew anyways).

That's about my thoughts on that. If you have an idea how to improve things, do tell. I already thought of letting this project sleep for a while and see to get some teaching material for the language (being bad at it myself), because in the beginning we had many very motivated people who didn't think themselves to be proficient enough to contribute, so this would support the whole thing.

I also like your idea with the teamspeak classes, so sad that I was too late and didn't see when they started, plus my internet is at times really slow, so I don't know if I'd even be able to follow...

Yawä ngahu
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Col Quaritch

Can you believe this all started way back March 15th 2010?? 16 pages and 236 post and read 2479 times. I have seen much improvment from everyone on what we should do as far as learning the language and appling it to the Word. I know theres alot in those pages to I will refresh a few minds on a few topics, first and formost God's holy name Yahweh is extreamly Holy. And its one of those names I feel we should be carful on how we translate my view at one time was to do a twist of eywa but after much research and prayer and talking to my brothers of the Jewish faith this dose not work. Names remain as written in the translation you choose, Now as we learn that alphabet they have and the proper letters can be applied we will cross that bridge. Thanks to the good Dr we know that for the new testament the apostle Pauls name can be spelt Pawl and be correct for Navi. As to the bible you choose to use, its what you feel most comfortable with. I know there are many that feel the KJV isnt the greatest espically inlight of better manuscripts that have been found for translations but you cant not deny the beauty of the language in it. The truth of the meaning still there. I use The New Century Man-ual great study bible put together just for men and men realated issues. I also have avible a great bible that offer all versions for side by side comparsion for the pc called Glo look it up amazing what it offers beside just bibles. All are consider good acceptable transaltions but the  The New World Translation. Whats most important is we get the meaning across, I dont beleive God wants us to just sit here and do a litteral word for word translation I dont feel that would do the Word justice nore would it translate well to Navi.
As your project leader I'm here to see this project to the end no matter how long that takes. If there is an issue you feel that needs to be hammered out but feel it shouldnt be in open forum by all means pm or email me. Its important we get all on the same road for this and understand this is not our project and master piece but mearly his workers, this is Gods word. And as I and others have said if so much as one person comes to God becuase of the Bible in Navi then our efforts will not have been in vain.

Your fellow servent in Christ Jesus
Colonel Quaritch


Tìmuiäyä'itan

Our efforts are not in vain, even if no one comes to God because of this bible, we will still have a good way to practise our Na'vi ;) Though of course, if this helps a person to know God, what could be better?

There's a certain reason why I make this post, I ran across this site. There you can read several bibles, and compare how they have been translated, but that's not all. They also offer an interliner bible, with clickable Hebrew and Greek words, you get into a dictionary that gives you the translations of that certain word on each occurence in the selected bible (as I unerstand it).
There are also other dictionaries and a lot of more stuff.

So I think this might be a good aid for people, if they are unsure how to express some sentence, we cannot say because of the lack of vocabulary or such. Hope this helps some of you :D

Plus, what I want to note: I am thinking of if and how one could get this project to some medium that fits better. I first thought the forum would be fine but I doubt now. Would a wiki be working? Does anyone know if the learnnavi wiki is open to projects like this? Anybody an idea on how to set things up so it will all be in order and neat?

Yawä ngahu
srungìri ftära tsyokxìl ngeyä
ke ivomum futa pesuru
lu srung skiena tsyokxta ngeyä
ulte Jesus a nerìn ayfo pamlltxe
san sutehu lu keltsun
slä Yawähu frakem tsunslu sìk.

Col Quaritch



Tirea Aean

agreed. good find. also, agreed on the wiki thing. I can ask about it...of course no single person owns the wiki, and it is edited by several people...so as for getting a section/page on there, I dont know who to ask.