new interview

[roger]

Looks like a new interview is coming up in a few hours:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2010/2810226.htm

Hopefully it will be archived for those of us who miss it!

[Keylstxatsmen]

Looks like a new interview is coming up in a few hours:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2010/2810226.htm

Hopefully it will be archived for those of us who miss it!

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/ Top link.

No new words, but he talks about us!

-Keyl

[Erimeyz]

What an incredible accent the host has!  Just astonishing, and beautiful.  To my woefully pedestrian American ears, an "Australian" accent is this monolithic caricature of Crocodile Dundee and the voiceover announcer for Outback Steakhouse commercials.  Ms. Zijlstra, however, combines the distinctive (can I say "quirky" and not be hated?) Australian vowel sounds with the silky-smooth cadence and refined diction that I've come to expect from the best hosts on National Public Radio.  Delightful!

... okay, sorry.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled swooning over Dr. Frommer.

  - Eri

[Payoang]

I'm in love with the host's accent.

Also, smallish transcription of his plug for our site. LearnNavi plug starts around 6:20

Do you converse with anyone in it, or do you talk to yourself, or is there somebody else who you chat with in it?

Well, at this point, in terms of aural practice, I really don't have anyone. However, what's absolutely extraordinary, and what I find astonishing, is that I am getting people writing me emails in Na'vi. And this is something I never expected. You know, there is a certain amount of information that's out there, some which the studio put out themselves. And I've explained a few things in various formats to various journalists and so on.

So, given that—and also given a book that the studio published, which had a small version of the dictionary in it—there are people who have been working like crazy, trying to master the language, and it's been quite remarkable. Some of them are really good!

You sound surprised.

Well, I frankly never thought that there would be that much interest in the language. But there is now a website, which I had nothing to do with.. and the studio had nothing to do with, it was purely created by the fans: to help each other learn the language, which—last time I checked—had something around 58,000 (fifty-eight thousand) posts. And there are sub-forums on that website in, I think, 15 (fifteen) different languages. Really quite amazing.

Well, yes and no, because, it it isn't just weirdo people and professors of linguistics who like language. All of us have this incredible facility for languages... that's really the benchmark for—

Yes.

—being a human being. And so, and there are of course heaps of invented languages written for make-belief communities of beings, and some of them are in books like Tolkien's Quenya or Elvish. And in movies, you know, most famously the language used in Star Trek.

Klingon, of course.

[etcetc]

[wm.annis]

I love that the interviewer was so fastidious about getting the glottal stop in Na'vi correct.

[Ftiafpi]

WOW! This is great. I honestly would love to pick Frommer's brain about all this, he seems like such a wonderful guy. Thanks for the link.

I noticed he mentioned the 58,000 posts (where as we have 80,000 right now) which leads me to believe that he's been lurking around here somewhere. Most interesting...HI FROMMER!

EDIT: Wow, right at the very end I see what you mean. Her pronunciation of Na'vi and eywa ngahu were damn good for someone who's never learned any Na'vi before, props to her.

[Txur’Itan]

He is probably using a guest access, so that he can lurk anonymous.

The curiosity about what we are doing here must be entertaining for him just a little. =)

[Tsway'eion]

Outstanding! This is awesome.

[Kxanìa Na'rìng]

What a great interview.. Especially when hearing the Greeting in Na'vi from the man himself.

[Ayzìsìt Alenantang]

Damn... No verbs? At all?

How does it nake sense? I would like to hear it 

[Erimeyz]

Damn... No verbs? At all?

How does it nake sense? I would like to hear it 

Start here.  Have fun!

  - Eri

[Eight]

Anyone know anything about the BBC Radio program he mentions he was on with Marc Okrand?

Might still be on the iPlayer for all us UKians.

[roger]

Damn... No verbs? At all?

How does it nake sense? I would like to hear it 

Start here.  Have fun!

  - Eri

There are no lexical verbs, but it looks like it has what are effectively auxiliary verbs. The tense, transitivity, and person marking we expect of verbs are all found on these. The lexical "verbal" meaning is found in what look like maybe adjectives or participles. There are Australian languages which do s.t. similar, if not so extreme: all verbal inflection is on one of a handful of auxiliaries, and the lexical verbal content is uninflected. Maybe midway between Kelen and languages we're more familiar with. (There are claims that these languages have only, say, six verbs, but that seems to be s.t. of a simplification.)

[Swoka Swizaw]

Seriously, I'm glad that I am a weirdo, so this all, at least, makes SOME sense. 'Course, I live in California, too...

You know, being someone as sought after as Paul must be interesting, if not...tough. It would be fantastic if Faux would decide to release Na'vi (what really can't be theirs in the first place), so we might not have to seek karyu-Pawl so much. But, whatever is the case, Paul Frommer truly sounds like an awesome guy. Thank you, for your time, sir.