Na'vi Language Likenesses

Started by SanguineEpitaph, January 22, 2010, 12:41:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

SanguineEpitaph

If you know more than one language, do you find that Na'vi has the same aspects of that language in some way? I thought this thread would be interesting so that we could focus on the diversity of human language.

Try not to include English. xD
Kuarŏ na nama tanayi cawŏŏt, kuo nim zaosmaŏt.
"Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell."

keye'ung makto

i did notice some similarities with aztec

Tìng Eywatikìte'e

Frommer has discussed this and is rather pleased that apparently every time he's talked to someone about Na'vi they've come up with a different language to compare it to. It's impossible for a language to be 100% unique, but it is still certainly alien. I'm curious to hear what sounds you all heard when listening to it.

Some of the grammar reminds me of Japanese.
Oeri lu Eywayä 'eveng


SanguineEpitaph

The use of -yä is similar to how it's used in Mandarin Chinese, but in Chinese the genitive is -de.

@ma keye'ung makto
What about it is like Aztec?
Kuarŏ na nama tanayi cawŏŏt, kuo nim zaosmaŏt.
"Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell."

keye'ung makto

sentance structure is similar as are some of the  sounds

Swok Txon

 The sounds are very aprburt, its not as flowing in some aspects like Spanish and French but its stops are very Aztec-ish.

It also seems very similar to Cantonese because you use your mouth and throat a bit more then english.

Sadrice

Quote from: SanguineEpitaph on January 22, 2010, 01:00:13 PM
What about it is like Aztec?
Pretty much nothing.  For one, there is no "Aztec Language".  There are the various dialects of Nahuatl, which were spoken by the Aztec people, but those bear little resemblance to Na'vi.  They share the consonants [p], [t], [k], [s], [m], [n], [j], [w], [l], and [ʔ], but all aside from [ʔ] are more or less ubiquitous among languages, and [ʔ] is hardly uncommon.  Nahuatl is probably most phonologically distinctive because of the [t͡ɬ], which Na'vi lacks, while Nahuatl has a conspicuous absence of ejective consonants.  Na'vi and Nahuatl both have 8 vowels, but only share 4, [a], [o], [i], and [u]. Na'vi lacks vowel length, which is important in most dialects of Nahuatl.

If by sentence structure you mean word order, I'd like to point out that in Na'vi, word order is more or less free form, to our knowledge (almost nothing about Na'vi syntax has been released to the public), and Nahuatl is non-configurational, but typically has VSO or VOS word order.  Na'vi is highly inflecting, based upon cases and conjugation, while Nahuatl completely lacks case and is agglutinative and highly polysynthetic.

In short, Na'vi and Nahuatl share a few sounds (though Na'vi and, say, English, share a lot more), but aside from that they have very little resemblance to one another.

Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

Quote from: keye'ung makto on January 22, 2010, 12:49:20 PM
i did notice some similarities with aztec
Me thinky someone try to play fake smart. Nice try though.  :D
Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

suomichris

Quote from: Sadrice on January 22, 2010, 07:17:40 PM
Quote from: SanguineEpitaph on January 22, 2010, 01:00:13 PM
What about it is like Aztec?
Pretty much nothing.  For one, there is no "Aztec Language".  There are the various dialects of Nahuatl, which were spoken by the Aztec people, but those bear little resemblance to Na'vi.  They share the consonants [p], [t], [k], [s], [m], [n], [j], [w], [l], and [ʔ], but all aside from [ʔ] are more or less ubiquitous among languages, and [ʔ] is hardly uncommon.  Nahuatl is probably most phonologically distinctive because of the [t͡ɬ], which Na'vi lacks, while Nahuatl has a conspicuous absence of ejective consonants.  Na'vi and Nahuatl both have 8 vowels, but only share 4, [a], [o], [i], and [u]. Na'vi lacks vowel length, which is important in most dialects of Nahuatl.

If by sentence structure you mean word order, I'd like to point out that in Na'vi, word order is more or less free form, to our knowledge (almost nothing about Na'vi syntax has been released to the public), and Nahuatl is non-configurational, but typically has VSO or VOS word order.  Na'vi is highly inflecting, based upon cases and conjugation, while Nahuatl completely lacks case and is agglutinative and highly polysynthetic.

In short, Na'vi and Nahuatl share a few sounds (though Na'vi and, say, English, share a lot more), but aside from that they have very little resemblance to one another.
Wow, thanks for saving me from having to write out all of that!  Xtiweli mejicanoh?

Tìng Eywatikìte'e

Please don't attack someone for mentioning something. There are much kinder ways of correcting people. They were just pointing out what they heard, there is no need to bash them for that.
Oeri lu Eywayä 'eveng


suomichris

Quote from: Tìng Eywatikìte'e on January 23, 2010, 03:02:46 AM
Please don't attack someone for mentioning something. There are much kinder ways of correcting people. They were just pointing out what they heard, there is no need to bash them for that.
Well, I agree with your general point, but I don't know we want to encourage people to go around repeating some words they heard and trying to sound smart, when it is very clear that they do not know what they are saying....

Tìng Eywatikìte'e

There is a difference from politely telling them that they were misinformed and blatantly calling them out on it. The question for this thread was what similarities you heard when you heard Na'vi and the member was simply answering.
Oeri lu Eywayä 'eveng


Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

*chants* fight, fight, fight, fight,...
Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

Tìng Eywatikìte'e

I try to avoid forum fights at all costs. We are all here to learn and this should feel like a safe environment where people can express their opinions with out feeling like they should be shot down for them.
Oeri lu Eywayä 'eveng


keye'ung makto

i was mearly trying to point out that when pronounced it sounds  like the language of the mexica not sure what it's called or how it's pronouned

Txur’Itan

There are grammatical similarities between Na'vi and Japanese (which evolved from ancient Chinese languages) and aural similarities to Polynesian as far as vowel pronunciations and vowel syllables.  The trilled r in the rr sound and the use of gender suffixes -e/-an reminds me of Spanish.

私は太った男だ。


SanguineEpitaph

Actually, this may be odd, but last year I was making up my own language and I got through the orthography and phonetics and whatnot...and here were some of the similarities that Na'vi had with my language:

- Vowels can be their own syllable.
- Vowels use infixes (though mine always occurred directly before the infinitive ending)
- Conjugate for tense (though mine had fewer tenses)
- The R has a palatal tap

So, to make a long story short, I just scrapped my language and decided to learn Na'vi, rather than both. :P xD

It was interesting though...
Kuarŏ na nama tanayi cawŏŏt, kuo nim zaosmaŏt.
"Out of what crypt they crawl, I cannot tell."

Mia

As many people already mentioned - Japanese. Some one also said mandarin and the -yä and -de, in japanese there's also -no, right?
Other then that, by the sound it sounds a bit like some of our east European languages... dunno how though  :P just thought they were similar at some point while listening to it....  :o