sengi = sängi?

[Na'rìghawnu]

Hello, everybody.

Most likely the question I have is debated already in another thread, but since I couldn't find it, I start a new one.

In one of the sentences, which are given after the interview with Dr. Frommer in "Times Online", there's a form I simply can't explain. It's in the sentence "Fìskxawngiri tsap'alute sengi oe" translated as "I apologize for this moron".

What is this "sengi" there? Or more specific: What is the <eng> infix?
The most simple explanation I can think of is: "It's a typo instead of sängi."
(Since "this moron" obviously caused some trouble, which urged the speaker to apology for him, it's no problem to think of negative feelings the speaker has, while doing so.)
But most likely it's not that easy, is it?

Fìskxawngiri tsap'alute *sengi [= sängi] oe.
Fì=skxawng-iri       tsap'alute   s<äng>i       oe.
PROX=moron-TOP  apology      make<PEJ>   1
I apologize for this moron.

What do you think about this problem?

[justNaviBrother]

In my opinion, it's realy looks like "negative" emotions. As an example: "Oeri ontu tepa"ya l<a"ng>u" 
Logical, s<eng>i may be the form of s<a"ng>i. But realy we are not sure 

[Taronyuakawng]

I'd say its just a typo.

Sängi looks correct.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

I believe someone asked Frommer about <eng> and he said that it doesn't exist which would seem to suggest that it is either a typo or irregular form of <äng>.

I'm not sure how the corpus is verified to prevent typos being entered but I presume there is something to stop something like that happening and so I reckon it's an irregular form of <äng> for si.

[wm.annis]

Are we entirely sure sengi isn't a verb all by itself?  In the ASG dictionary we have only tsap'alute apology.  No verb idiom is given, and while the si construction seems reasonable here, I wonder if it's really a typo.  A ä doesn't look much like a e, and our source for this quote (Times Online) got other diacritics right.

I can't bring myself to come down firmly on either side, si with infix typo vs. new verb sengi.

[justNaviBrother]

Yes, surely we have wait for new NaviPocketGuide where mr. Frommer may be give us the translation of sengi 

[Keylstxatsmen]

Kxeyeyri tsap'alute sengi oe [kxeyey = mistake, error]

From Dr. Frommer's email to Taronyu.

Seems like they might be a set phrase.  Anyway, it is sengi, and not a typo.

-Keyl

[Taronyuakawng]

If its not a typo.. what is the meaning of sengi again?

[Keylstxatsmen]

If its not a typo.. what is the meaning of sengi again?

It looks like a form of si to me, i.e. s<eng>i.  If <eng> is not an infix as it looks like Dr. Frommer has stated to someone, maybe like Kìyevame, s<äng>i has become s<eng>i in this often used phrase (or maybe äng was historically eng). Either way, I wouldn't use it anywhere else, as with <ev> that we know is not an infix by itself.

-Keyl

[suomichris]

Yeah, I'm tempted to think this is an <äng> as well...

[Will Txankamuse]

I personally hope it's a colloquialism formed from s<äng>i.  It seems to me that Na'vi needs a few more idiosyncrasies for it to seem more like a real evolved language rather than a constructed one.

Will

[Na'rìghawnu]

Thank you, guys.

I also think, that this "sengi" is either a product of the "language-evolution" of Na'vi (and originally was "sängi"), or that it is a relict of the "ancient form" of the pejorative infix, which could be <eng> instead of nowadays "<äng>".

I can't decide, which idea is more appealing to me ... On the one hand, it's surely a quite often used phrase and such phrases don't tend to remain in ancient forms; on the other hand, it's not a phrase like "See you tomorrow", but apologizing usually is a rather stiff situation, where maybe old forms of words are used to let the phrase appear more formal.