Need people to check something I've made

[safetykid]

I started making a powerpoint that will hopefully become a valuable teaching tool for me and for others to come. I am asking for people to come check the first section of it before I go on and make more so I can see if it is in a good format and make sure it is all correct. I am also asking for help picking vocab words that should go after this section. When I look at the dictionary I find it hard to pick out the which ones would be most important for a beginner to learn, partially because I am still a beginner as well, and I'm doing this partially to help myself.

I am posting this in the Intermediate section because I do not want anyone to look at it and automatically assume it is correct, which people may do if it were in the project section or on the beginner board.


*the last part of section 1 is going to be a vocab list and some practice sentences I either make up or that I get from these boards or the worksheets posted here.

[omängum fra'uti]

Nice looking start.  But of course a few comments (What you were looking for, right?)

Slide 5: There's also the pxe prefix for three of something such as pxeskxe...  Though that's probably a bad example since lenition hasn't been introduced at that point*.  Pxeikran maybe, or pxeioang (Three animals).

* Actually it probably should be introduced either right before or right after this slide, considering slide 6 then contains some lenited words (ayfo).  Lenition is an important part of Na'vi, though for now it's probably best left in simplistic terms - explain what the sound changes are, and that it happens with the dual, trial and plural prefixes, and possibly that it happens in some other places.  No need to exhaustively list where it happens yet, or talk about the short plurals.  Leave that for later.  Give a few simple examples.

Slide 8: The genitive is -ä for words that end in a consonant, -yä for words that end in a vowel.  Personal pronouns that end in a vowel get the vowel CHANGED to e and -yä added (nga->ngeyä), and that end in a consonant just get -eyä.

Given the lesson so far, I'd say limit sample sentences to "My X", "His Y", "Their Z", etc...  Basically, genitive + object, or plural+object.  The reason is you haven't introduced any other grammar yet.  If you go throwing in "Oe tsole'a ngeyä ikran mì kelutral" it will mean pretty much nothing to someone who just has these lessons to go on.

For vocab, base it off what examples you give.  Give enough vocab to cover simple things, and the examples you give.  Since you are only talking about nouns, probably limit the vocab to nouns, and maybe interjections like "Yes", "No", "Hello" and such.  Throw in words for familiar things like tskxe, 'eylan, sa'nok, sempul, etc...  And maybe for some things from the movie, to tie it into their experience with Avatar.  (Ikra, taronyu, Na'vi, omatikaya, etc).

[safetykid]

I have what will hopefully be the final version of section one, with practice and vocab. Once again, I'm asking for someone more experienced to review it before I continue.

[Taronyu Ayunilyä Alahe]

great idea! but I was thinking you could polish it somehow... like when you're done, you should make it outstanding and make people (even the one who don't read the words) wow-ed.

[safetykid]

I'm planning on going through the entire pocket guide, and I plan on making it more presentable before I make the final copy. I'm surprised no one has already made one. I'm planning on starting the next section soon and will post it in a separate file when I'm done with it. Any suggestions on the order I should teach the topics will be greatly appreciated.

[Plumps]

Two things I wanted to mention from your pp-presentation

I would use another word than atan to show the plural - I wouldn't use a word where we don't know for sure whether it's a noun, verb or adjective...

I don't get *moe and *pxoe... What do they mean? "two/three I"? => "we two/three (not you)" darn, I should know these things

[Keylstxatsmen]

Two things I wanted to mention from your pp-presentation

I would use another word than atan to show the plural - I wouldn't use a word where we don't know for sure whether it's a noun, verb or adjective...

I don't get *moe and *pxoe... What do they mean? "two/three I"? => "we two/three (not you)" darn, I should know these things

oe, moe, pxoe, ayoe: I, we two, we three, we. All of these are excluding the person you are talking to.  These come straight from Dr. Frommer so no need for * (if you were using that to mean unattested or derived).

-Keyl

[Plumps]

Yes, I use * for forms I am unsure about...
Okay, thank you, ma Keyl! Those inclusive/exclusive forms always give me headaches

[Taronyu Ayunilyä Alahe]

I'm planning on going through the entire pocket guide, and I plan on making it more presentable before I make the final copy. I'm surprised no one has already made one. I'm planning on starting the next section soon and will post it in a separate file when I'm done with it. Any suggestions on the order I should teach the topics will be greatly appreciated.

usually different people learn in different orders. you might as well make a main page and link the lessons as different chapters or sth on the main page. but it's just a suggestion..

[Skyinou]

Aynga is you + PL (2nd person plural)

You shouldn't begin by "Na'vi is the language" as Na'vi are the people who speak the language. We make it short calling the language "Na'vi", but for an introduction it sounds bad, I think.

aynga-yä kelutrel => Your(PL) Hometree
Our is "ayoengeyä" (or exclusive "ayoeyä")

(and already said, mention the third way to say plural with "pxe", three of something)

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Points of note.

Even Frommer doesn't know the language in it's entirety, check out some of his emails, he doesn't have much of a clue how sä- is used for instance.

You've got a question mark in a box instead of an apostrophe on your slide about pronunciation but I'm not sure if that's just my powerpoint not rendering it properly for some bizarre reason. Also, this slide is missing "ll" and "rr".

You're plural page is missing pxe- and short plurals.

You're second slide of pronouns list the plural of nga as ayonga whereas it should be aynga.

Slide on possession doesn't mention -ä and gives the possessive form of nga wrongly.

[safetykid]

I should have clarified this. I posted an updated one in my reply (reply #2 in this thread.) it is in a .zip format because the file was >512kb. In it I fixed the plurals and a couple of the other items mentioned.
That's my mistake, sorry about that.