Nouns as adjectives

Started by `Eylan Ayfalulukanä, June 23, 2015, 04:00:31 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

I noticed something rather interesting in K. Pawl's blog post concerning the untimely death of James Horner.

http://naviteri.org/2015/06/na-ayskxe-mi-telan-sad-news/

He starts out with a Na'vi test that begins thus:

Txo tìkeftxonga'a fmawnit ke stilvawm ayngal... - If sad news not heard (by) all you...

This uses the new word Tìkeftxonga', which is given as a noun: (n., tì.ke.FTXO.nga') 'sad (not for people')

In the sentence above, this word is used with an enclitic -a-, as if it were an adjective: tìkeftxonga'a

Since I have not see this particular construction before, can you make a noun into an adjective this way? Will this work for most any noun? Or, should this -a- actually be nonbound (making this an adjective clause, which is commonly used)? Would alu work there as well?

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Tìtstewan

Probably a typo? Usually <word>-nga' words are adj. :-\

-| Na'vi Vocab + Audio | Na'viteri as one HTML file | FAQ | Useful Links for Beginners |-
-| Kem si fu kem rä'ä si, ke lu tìfmi. |-

Plumps

My guess as well.

All derivations of -nga' ~ "contain (noun)" become adjectives.

Tirea Aean

Quote from: Plumps on June 23, 2015, 04:05:33 PM
My guess as well.

All derivations of -nga' ~ "contain (noun)" become adjectives.


Right; we've known about this for a good while.

His definition gloss indeed should say "(adj., tì.ke.FTXO.nga') 'sad (not for people')"

Do we know the productivity of -nga'? I forget, and it's not on either of our dictionaries.

Tìtstewan

Quote from: http://naviteri.org/2011/05/weather-part-2-and-a-bit-more-2/Note that as an adjective former, -nga' is less common than le-. It is not freely productive which is to say you can't simply coin your own –nga' words at will:
-nga' is not productive.

-| Na'vi Vocab + Audio | Na'viteri as one HTML file | FAQ | Useful Links for Beginners |-
-| Kem si fu kem rä'ä si, ke lu tìfmi. |-

Tirea Aean

Quote from: Tìtstewan on June 23, 2015, 04:29:46 PM
Quote from: http://naviteri.org/2011/05/weather-part-2-and-a-bit-more-2/Note that as an adjective former, -nga' is less common than le-. It is not freely productive which is to say you can't simply coin your own –nga' words at will:
-nga' is not productive.

Cool thanks. :) I had a feeling, but wasn't entirely sure.

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

Ah, that takes the mystery out of this!

Irayo nìtxan

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]