Genesis

[Olo'pizayu]

Since the single-thread Bible in Na'vi effort doesn't have (as far as I can see) any single, organized effort to get full books together, and since my current project is Genesis (unfortunately on hold for the last while by virtue of a personal problem in my family) I decided to create a thread specifically for translations of the book of Genesis. I'll post what I have from way back when in the original thread (back in June, I think...), which is the first ten verses. I have the first twenty-four verses of chapter 1 translated in an English gloss, but not directly into Na'vi. Note that this translation uses the English-to-Na'vi Dictionary v.10.11 by Taronyu, I understand that there has been a major update since then.

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

[Col Quaritch]

Can you post below what you translate in English , somting at this time I think we all should do for now.

[wm.annis]

Well, I can't comment on everything here, but I would suggest you spend a little time staring at Karyu Pawl's Na'vi to see how he phrases things.

My Hebrew is terrible, so I'll riff off the Septuagint

Taw sì kllte ayngolop fayawä mìsngä'ikrr.

About the Na'vi: verbs do not take plural marking, ayngolop is an impossible form.  The perfective ‹ol› is perfect here (and is reflected in the Greek, which has a perfective form, there called the "aorist").  Second, the adpositions do not attach to the word they go with when the come in front of the word, so fa Yawä or Yawäfa, but definitely not *fayawä.  Same for the next word.

 1.1. ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.
 mì sngä'ikrr ngolmop Yawäl tawit sì klltet.
 In beginning created God sky and earth.

I'm not sure I understand why you used this oblique construction with fa.

Sì kllte lamu lukenìkifkey, sì luketirea; sì tivawm lamu fratseng. Sì Yawäyä Tirea ramikx mìpayä key.

Here you should be using ulte and to join clauses.  Sì is for lists.  Again, don't use mì as a prefix — either it comes before as a separate word, or it is suffixed.

 1.2. ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσου καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος.
 Ulte kllteri, ke lu 'änsyem, ke tok sìhawlìl, ulte tìvawm lu io txukxa fay, ulte Yawäyä tirea rerikx faysìn
 And regarding-the-earth, not was complete, not inhabited (it) preparations, and darkness was above the deep waters, and God's spirit was-moving waters-upon.

Wou.  This is trickier.

I started off with the topic, because we're about to say several things about the earth.  So, I picked ke lu 'änsyem for ἀόρατος which means more like "unseen, unsightly", and my tortured idiom for ἀκατασκεύαστος is since the root for that word means "preparations, provisions, etc."  Again following Frommer's lead, I've left these two basically parallel phrases without overt connection, and then use ulte again to move on to the next stage.

I used just the aspect marking, rerikx, since the Greek verb is using the imperfective, too.

[Col Quaritch]

I think it's important not to try and twist navi to fit what we need, one of the reason I suggested in other post that we may just have to use English words till a legitamenit navi word comes along. I like what I see so far but I'm still bit confused on how navi puts it sentence together at times. Keep up the good work.

[Olo'pizayu]

Well, I can't comment on everything here, but I would suggest you spend a little time staring at Karyu Pawl's Na'vi to see how he phrases things.

My Hebrew is terrible, so I'll riff off the Septuagint

Taw sì kllte ayngolop fayawä mìsngä'ikrr.

About the Na'vi: verbs do not take plural marking, ayngolop is an impossible form.  The perfective ‹ol› is perfect here (and is reflected in the Greek, which has a perfective form, there called the "aorist").  Second, the adpositions do not attach to the word they go with when the come in front of the word, so fa Yawä or Yawäfa, but definitely not *fayawä.  Same for the next word.

 1.1. ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.
 mì sngä'ikrr ngolmop Yawä tawit sì klltet.
 In beginning created God sky and earth.

I'm not sure I understand why you used this oblique construction with fa.

Sì kllte lamu lukenìkifkey, sì luketirea; sì tivawm lamu fratseng. Sì Yawäyä Tirea ramikx mìpayä key.

Here you should be using ulte and to join clauses.  Sì is for lists.  Again, don't use mì as a prefix — either it comes before as a separate word, or it is suffixed.

 1.2. ἡ δὲ γῆ ἦν ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος καὶ σκότος ἐπάνω τῆς ἀβύσου καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος.
 Ulte kllteri, ke lu 'änsyem, ke tok sìhawlìl, ulte tìvawm lu io txukxa fay, ulte Yawäyä tirea rerikx faysìn
 And regarding-the-earth, not was complete, not inhabited (it) preparations, and darkness was above the deep waters, and God's spirit was-moving waters-upon.

Wou.  This is trickier.

I started off with the topic, because we're about to say several things about the earth.  So, I picked ke lu 'änsyem for ἀόρατος which means more like "unseen, unsightly", and my tortured idiom for ἀκατασκεύαστος is since the root for that word means "preparations, provisions, etc."  Again following Frommer's lead, I've left these two basically parallel phrases without overt connection, and then use ulte again to move on to the next stage.

I used just the aspect marking, rerikx, since the Greek verb is using the imperfective, too.

You're far better at this than I am, I have absolutely no grounding in linguistics and frankly don't understand half of what you say above, I'm just translating KJV into Na'vi as best I can using a printout of the v.10.11 Taronyu english-Na'vi dictionary. Regarding the use of fa, it was the closest equivalent phrase to the contextual meaning of the verse, so fa Yawä to translate literally as (by means of)-God.

Since I know less Hebrew than I do linguistic terminology, I'm just translating from KJV.

When I find my notebook I'll post up the next 14 verses I have translated, with notes in subscript on why I chose specific interpretations or word-combinations.

Colonel: thanks.

[wm.annis]

I'm just translating KJV into Na'vi as best I can using a printout of the v.10.11 Taronyu english-Na'vi dictionary.

Well, picking words out of the dictionary isn't really translating.  Languages aren't codes, with perfect matches possible between one language and another.  You really should spend a little more time with some beginning Na'vi stuff, hang out a bit in the beginners' forum, maybe offer a few sentences of your translations there for discussion, etc., before you take on such a massive and difficult task of translating a full text like this.  Gotta walk before you can run.

[Olo'pizayu]

Okay, it seems that the last spontaneous parental reorganization of my house resulted in my entire translation notes being thrown in the bin, this having happened last Thursday, with trash day on Friday. I'll be starting over, then.

¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
¹¹Ulte Yawä pll<alm>txe, Tung kllte ngop rìk'ewll, zeyk<us>o'ewll <le>tìng rina', sì syuve'ewll utral <le>tìng syuve'ewll <pxel>poan<ä> fnel, a mìfa tsat lu tsatä rina', sìnkllte: sì fìkem l<am>u fìfya.

I probably screwed this up horribly, having only a basic grasp of Na'vi language mechanics. but meh, at least I managed to get it together in less than an hour.

Most of the description subtexts above are for my own benefit, BTW.

wm.annis: Reference Moist von Lipwig from the book Making Money, by Terry Pratchett, for my counterargument re walking v. running. And while I know I've not got the optimal amount of experience with the language, I've never been good with learning-via-discussion. Book-learning is the only method that really works for me, and private study moreso than classroom study. Just working on this project has improved my understanding of the language to a large degree. This isn't to say that I'd reject help or that I'd be too stubborn to ask for it when I truly don't get something, but figuring it out for myself usually helps me remember it longer.

[wm.annis]

¹¹And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
¹¹Ulte Yawä pll<alm>txe, Tung kllte ngop rìk'ewll, zeyk<us>o'ewll <le>tìng rina', sì syuve'ewll utral <le>tìng syuve'ewll <pxel>poan<ä> fnel, a mìfa tsat lu tsatä rina', sìnkllte: sì fìkem l<am>u fìfya.

The past perfective of plltxe is p‹alm›lltxe.  The infixes go in front of the vowel of the syllable they are put into (remember, Frommer calls rr and ll "pseudovowels" — for infixing, they count as vowels).

For quotation, Na'vi has verbal quotation marks, san (quoted words) sìk, so Ulte Yawä palmlltxe san ... sìk.

The verb tung means "allow."  That's not exactly called for here.  "Let the earth..." is a construction of wish, so we should use the subjunctive infix ‹iv›.  Since the verb ngop is transitive, we have use the case endings to mark the subject and direct object.  Keeping your creation for "grass," Kllte-l ng‹iv›op rìk'ewll-it

Let me repeat: the adpositions are not prefixed when they come before their noun or pronoun: pxel poanä, sìn kllte.

[Olo'pizayu]

so then the translation would be

¹¹Ulte Yawä p<alm>lltxe san Klltel ng‹iv›op rìk'ewll, zeyk<us>o'ewll <le>ting rina', sä syuve'ewll utral <le>tìng syuve'ewll pxel poan<ä> fnel, a mìfa tsat lu tsatä rina', sìn kllte sìk: ulte fìkem l<am>u fìfya.

Also, would Klltel ngivop rik'ewllit translate as "earth <action> want to create the grass" or something similar?