The Na'vi Corpus

[wm.annis]

This is the canon of known good sentences in Na'vi, given out in interviews with Dr. Frommer.  I'd prefer to keep the thread focused on just these, and new posts if new interviews give us new data.  I assume (and hope) this post will be mostly useless once we get a much fuller grammar.

I have given only the phrase and the translation he gave for it, no further grammatical analysis, some of which must at this time remain speculative.  But I hope this can be a reference we can point to in our early work here.


From Science Magazine (subscription, I'm afraid; retrieved Dec 21 2009).  They asked for the word for "science." Frommer replied, tìftia kifkeyä, the study of the physical world.


Language Log post http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1977 (Dec 19 2009).

Oeri ta peyä fahew akewong ontu teya längu. My nose is full of his alien smell.

In the comments:
Tewti, ma Prrton!  Plltxe nga nìltsan! Wow, Prrton.  You speak well.


Vanity Fair interview (Dec 1 2009)

Kaltxì. Ngaru lu fpom srak? Hello, how are you?


Times Online interview (December 12 2009)

Tsun oe ngahu nìNa'vi pivängkxo a fì'u oeru prrte' lu It's a pleasure to be able to chat with you in Na'vi

Fìskxawngìri tsap'alute sengi oe I apologise for this moron

Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì These demons are forbidden here


UGO Movie Blog interview (Dec 14 2009)

Oel ngati kameie I see you.

[matthewmartin]

The na'vi canon also includes the na'vi language in the Ubisoft game. Paul Frommer had direct input into the text there. The game has been released, but so far no one has written down anything that is said in the game (AFAIK)

http://avatargame.us.ubi.com

[Eywayä mokri]

Fìskxawngìri tsap'alute sengi oe I apologise for this moron

I won't go too far this time cause I haven't enough time right now. But it seems that when you are talking from something, and you say this thing, the prefixe fì, originally written fì'u is melt with the noun that it's showing.

this moron --> fì-skxawngì-ri (don't understand the first ì before the -rì here anyway).

And then in the other example it seems that these is a variation of fì- to f-.

these demons --> f-ay-vrrtep

It seems that maybe you can't have two vowels following each others. And what I don't understand quite well is the fact that if you say these demons by putting f- and ay-vrrtep together, why then puttin also fitsenge that means these too...

[omängum fra'uti]

It seems that maybe you can't have two vowels following each others.

Oe rä'ä mllte I do not agree.

See what I did there?  However there does seem to be rules with certain combinations which we do not yet know.  For example when you have multiple infix, how does ìm + er become ìrm?

Also I'm not sure what you mean fì'u melts with the noun.  In fact, fì is a prefix, like pe or tsa.  In fì'u it actually appears that 'u is a root word meaning thing.  (See: ke'u nothing, tsa'u that thing, 'upe/peu what thing, etc)

To be honest, some of the vocabulary does not actually look like root words, but rather word+prefix combined to match an English word or concept as was needed.

For example "fra" seems to be a prefix meaning "all", as seen in fra'u (Everything) and frapo (Everyone).  And while po is listed separately as a proper noun, 'u is not listed at all despite many other appearances.

The plural of fì (this) is fay (these) hence fayvrrtep these demons.

I do not, however, have an explanation for the ìri suffix.

Moeti tslayam fay'uti We will understand these things eventually

[wm.annis]

Please, let's keep this thread focused on just the examples, so we have them all in one place.  Analysis can go in other threads

[Eywayä mokri]

Please, let's keep this thread focused on just the examples, so we have them all in one place.  Analysis can go in other threads

Fine, sorry Sir.

[wm.annis]

Corpus moved to the Wiki: http://wiki.learnnavi.org/Corpus

[omängum fra'uti]

Corpus moved to the Wiki: http://wiki.learnnavi.org/Corpus

That was fast.  About 5 minutes ago the wiki had literally nothing on it.  I put in a front page get distracted for a few minutes and that appears!

[wm.annis]

That was fast.  About 5 minutes ago the wiki had literally nothing on it.  I put in a front page get distracted for a few minutes and that appears!

Take a look at the second link in my signature.  I have a little practice with Mediawiki. 

[omängum fra'uti]

Well you're far faster than I am.  You had that phonetics page up faster than I could format the first two tables.

[Taronyu Ayunilyä Alahe]

This is very helpful. txan irayo tsmúktu!

[Motxokxen]

'u cannot be thing because (za'u = come)

[Taronyu]

'u cannot be thing because (za'u = come)

Doesn't mean that it can't be thing, just means that /'u/ isn't always thing in apparent compounds. You wouldn't say that /it/ couldn't be /it/ because of /pit/.

[Motxokxen]

'u cannot be thing because (za'u = come)

Doesn't mean that it can't be thing, just means that /'u/ isn't always thing in apparent compounds. You wouldn't say that /it/ couldn't be /it/ because of /pit/.

Touché tsmukanyä

[Payoang]

From a screenshot stolen from an interview image by the Daily Trojan:

Click for full view

Livu win si txur oe zene
Live  fast   and strong I must
I must be fast and strong

Ha n(i)'aw
so  only
So only

Pxan livu txo ni'aw oe ngari
worthy  by | if only I of-you
Only if I am worthy of you

Tsakrr nga Na'viru yomtiying
then you the People will-feed
Will you feed the People?


I'm guessing we can assume these are 100% true. Now, who wants to analyze it, and speculate on future conditional suffixes, or why srak was not used in the final quote?

[Deamon5550]

It ceartinally does give us some things to ponder...



Livu win si txur oe zene

First thing i noticed was the word win for "fast", now the word I have seen else where for fast is nìwin so I think it possible that the nì- could be the prefix making it an adverb.

Ha n(i)'aw
Nothing strange about that (other than possibly the "i" in brackets, but im probably just forgetting something)

Pxan livu txo ni'aw oe ngari
Theres the <iv> infix again.

Tsakrr nga Na'viru yomtiying
Theres a <iy> infix in yomtiying to make it "will feed", this is probably a variation of <ay>.

As for the lack of srak I have no clue.

[omängum fra'uti]

Sneaky!

Livu win sì txur oe zene
Live  fast   and strong I must
I must be fast and strong

Ha n(ì)'aw
so  only
So only

Pxan livu txo nì'aw oe ngari
worthy  by | if only I of-you
Only if I am worthy of you

Tsakrr nga Na'viru yomtìying
then you the People will-feed
Will you feed the People?

FTFY

The lack of srak isn't what worries me the most...

yomt<ìy>ing

That's a tense infix in the second position....  Unless you treat it as two words, despite the compound nature, at which point it becomes yom-t<ìy>ing, and the future tense infix is in the correct place for tìng.

[Motxokxen]

Livu win si txur oe zene
Live  fast   and strong I must
I must be fast and strong

Ha n(i)'aw
so  only
So only


Pxan livu txo ni'aw oe ngari
worthy  by | if only I of-you
Only if I am worthy of you

Tsakrr nga Na'viru yomtiying
then you the People will-feed
Will you feed the People?

how does livu mean "by" and "live" at the same time?
and its strange that he has the "iy" in that place for yomtìng instead of the usual "ay" for will<blank>

[omängum fra'uti]

<ìy> is future proximate - it's about to happen
<ay> is future general - it will happen in the future

I'm not sure why live is written there, because literally that is written out as "Be fast and string I must".  The second line "I must be fast and strong" is closer to what the Na'vi says than the literal translation.

[Motxokxen]

still does not explain the position.

perhaps by is not just by, but also "by (in the means of)"