Translating Proper Nouns/Typing with a Na'vi Accent

[TrayNavi]

I've seen a few times people taking words that are proper nouns and currently untranslatable words and typing it with accent marks and glottal stops, etc. to make them more "Na'vi."
Are there any real rules for this? so long as you keep to the Na'vi alphabet? I wouldn't think it would matter much, since Na'vi isn't a written language 
But, I've been wrong before.

[Muzer]

You don't just randomly add glottal stops and accents (at least, sensible translators don't) - it's all within a fixed pattern. Basically, the idea is to make it sound as close to the original as possible whilst still fitting in the strict Na'vi syllable structure rules (as detailed in the first chapter of Na'vi in a Nutshell)

[Niwantaw]

You don't just randomly add glottal stops and accents (at least, sensible translators don't) - it's all within a fixed pattern. Basically, the idea is to make it sound as close to the original as possible whilst still fitting in the strict Na'vi syllable structure rules (as detailed in the first chapter of Na'vi in a Nutshell)

example: Tsisprrkrr.

tsis-prr-krr (or at least that's how i say it)

cheeseburger

cheese-bur-ger.

[TrayNavi]

You don't just randomly add glottal stops and accents (at least, sensible translators don't) - it's all within a fixed pattern. Basically, the idea is to make it sound as close to the original as possible whilst still fitting in the strict Na'vi syllable structure rules (as detailed in the first chapter of Na'vi in a Nutshell)

example: Tsisprrkrr.

tsis-prr-krr (or at least that's how i say it)

cheeseburger

cheese-bur-ger.

tsis=cheese 

[Niwantaw]

say it.. It sounds similar to cheese...

[kewnya txamew'itan]

The other alternative is to try and find the etymological meaning of the proper noun (which isn't always easy to do, Venice for example is thought to have, through various stages to have come from a word for "blue/purple") and translate that followed by obfuscation, a process where syllables may merge or drop completely, this can often be done in several different ways leading to different translations and generally confusing people.

say it.. It sounds similar to cheese...

Also, ts is the closest consonant to ch we have, they're both affricates with a very similar place of articulation, ch is post-alveolar, ts is alveolar.

['Oma Tirea]

How about j, tho voiced variant of ch?  I can see 3 allophony options for that one: z, ts, or more rarely, s.

Examples:
Jakesully -> Zheksulli -> Zeksulli
Badge -> Pächì -> Pätsì

[omängum fra'uti]

Zh wouldn't be Na'vi phonetics.  Consonant clusters can only start with f, s or ts, and never contain h.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Zh wouldn't be Na'vi phonetics.  Consonant clusters can only start with f, s or ts, and never contain h.

The zh lapo is using is the soft j that the na'vi use to say "zhake sully" that said, it's not allowed in na'vi, a z is closer although I'd probably have gone to tseyk at the start.

[Muzer]

It's weird how they use an equally alien sound, to them, in preference to the alien "j"... maybe "zh" used to be legal and is still used in really old words? Lol, I doubt it somehow...

[kewnya txamew'itan]

It's weird how they use an equally alien sound, to them, in preference to the alien "j"... maybe "zh" used to be legal and is still used in really old words? Lol, I doubt it somehow...

To be fair, there are some foreign sounds I imitate without them being native, for example even before I lean Spanish I pronounced Spanish js whenever I saw them correctly, I can't say I did the same for the rest of it though.

[Plumps]

example: Tsisprrkrr.

tsis-prr-krr (or at least that's how i say it)

cheeseburger

cheese-bur-ger.

Only problem there is that -s cannot form the end of a Na'vi syllable...

[Niwantaw]

damn skype chat!!
(or whoever it was behind Tsisprrkrr)

[Plumps]

damn skype chat!!
(or whoever it was behind Tsisprrkrr)

On the other hand, I don't know if the syllabification of tsi-sprr-krr would be allowed – maybe it's not the word-for-word na'vification, so tsi is not corresponding with »cheese« but it would work with the phonotactics... Otherwise you would have to use tsisì sounds more like »cheesy« but looking at the latest loan word exampel of »giraffe« as tsyìräfì, I think that would work.

[Muzer]

I thought syllables with rr or ll as the vowel could only be consonant-vowel, nothing else (so not consonant-consonant-vowel, like sprr is)...

[kewnya txamew'itan]

I thought syllables with rr or ll as the vowel could only be consonant-vowel, nothing else (so not consonant-consonant-vowel, like sprr is)...

No, they just can't have a coda, so CCV is legal (assuming the first C is either s, ts, or f)

[omängum fra'uti]

No Muzer is right here, it's only allowed with a single consonant.

In CV syllables, the liquids l and r can replace the vowel.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Ok, seems I was wrong, I thought someone somewhere had said it was just open syllables. Anyway, irayo. But that means that tsisprrkrr is illegal, we'll have to fix it as tsisìprrkrr

[Plumps]

Kind of confusing – but yeah, I found it in the Language Log as well

Well, then it's a Cheesyburger