words for the Q list – your ideas welcome!

['eylan na'viyä]

(On a related note, I wonder if something is few in quantity do we still need the plural in Na'vi? I mean, how few can a few be if it's already more than three, thus in the plural?)

maybe Na'vi could have a "puacal" that depends on context. I think about it being used for nouns that come in a specific number like limbs, as part of names or as a hypernym for a concept that can come in different numbers eg: polygon, multipurpose, ruminant.(the examples are a bit rough and maybe not the best in language-context but i hope it covers the range of usage)

[kewnya txamew'itan]

That's interesting, I was reading up on grammatical number on wikipedia (I'm not really enough of a linguistic to get the sources) and it said that there are no known languages with a quadral, it mentions two that were thought to have one but it was actually a puacal form, is it something similar in Ainu or does the article need editing?

Those are actually the numeral "four" with classifier suffixes.

Ok, that explains it, irayo.

[wm.annis]

(On a related note, I wonder if something is few in quantity do we still need the plural in Na'vi? I mean, how few can a few be if it's already more than three, thus in the plural?)

"Few" is not an absolute concept, any more than "big" is.  Compared to a fly, a frog is big.  Compared to a human, the frog is not.  The same with "many" and "few" — these are meaningful in numerical terms only in relation to the situation at hand.

When one says pxay "many" with a noun, Frommer uses the plural, lu awngar aytele apxay a teri sa'u pivlltxe we have many matters to talk about.  So I'd guess the same would be true of hol.  But it's something we should probably ask him.

[Prrton]

That's interesting, I was reading up on grammatical number on wikipedia (I'm not really enough of a linguistic to get the sources) and it said that there are no known languages with a quadral, it mentions two that were thought to have one but it was actually a puacal form, is it something similar in Ainu or does the article need editing?

Those are actually the numeral "four" with classifier suffixes.

Awwww. Chotto tsumaranakute zannen desh'ta....

      Pìp

       

That does make sense though 'cause after I posted this I found parallels for 20 things and 20 people.

  hot (ホッ) - twenty (used in counting)
    hotne (ホッネ) - (to be) twenty ("ne" a verb of being)
        hotnen (ホッネン) - twenty persons
        hotnep (ホッネㇷ゚) - twenty things

It's pretty amazing that the classifiers are just an "n" (what's left over from a contraction of "niu" ("person")) and a "p" (what's left over from a contraction of "pe" ("thing")) though! 

[Prrton]

That's interesting, I was reading up on grammatical number on wikipedia (I'm not really enough of a linguistic to get the sources) and it said that there are no known languages with a quadral, it mentions two that were thought to have one but it was actually a puacal form, is it something similar in Ainu or does the article need editing?

Those are actually the numeral "four" with classifier suffixes.

Ooh right, I recall reading that in Japanese you have all these different "numbers" depending on what you want to count. Like three in "three sheets of paper" is different from, three in "three blades of grass," and "three nuggets of gold," etc. (These examples might be off,  I know nothing about Japanese.)

Depending on the kind of grass it might be either mai or hon/bon/pon. Nugget of gold would likely just be ko (the second easiest one after the über-generic tsu).

It's a little overwhelming. I get the feeling that most Japanese under the age of 20 have no idea how to count pairs of chopsticks.   

And look at the footnote in the Wikipedia article in the "overwhelming" line on how wa got applied to rabbits! So much for all that monastic piety! 

Ngaytxoa. I'm going to stop derailing this topic now.

['eylan na'viyä]

muzzle (n.) mouth of an animal. (in German you don`t use "Mund" for animals); makes only sense when the Na'vi have different words for animal bodyparts. suggesting it maybe as a second meaning for/ variant of piak or tstu

[tsrräfkxätu]

yap (n.) mouth of an animal. (in German you don`t use "Mund" for animals); makes only sense when the Na'vi have different words for animal bodyparts. suggesting it maybe as a second meaning for/ variant of piak or tstu

I think the word you're looking for is muzzle; I've never heard yap used in that sense (it's more like trap/face/kisser/piehole.) Then again, English is not so careful about making such differences, and a small dog can certainly yap. Anyway, I don't expect Na'vi to use separate words for overlaps of human and animal anatomy, not with all the planet-wide fraternity.

['eylan na'viyä]

yap (n.) mouth of an animal. (in German you don`t use "Mund" for animals); makes only sense when the Na'vi have different words for animal bodyparts. suggesting it maybe as a second meaning for/ variant of piak or tstu

I think the word you're looking for is muzzle; I've never heard yap used in that sense (it's more like trap/face/kisser/piehole.) Then again, English is not so careful about making such differences, and a small dog can certainly yap. Anyway, I don't expect Na'vi to use separate words for overlaps of human and animal anatomy, not with all the planet-wide fraternity.

it was just a matter of time until i pick up an improper word from the dictionary.  *bad dictionary, shame on you !* 

yes, i guess a general word be unlikely, but maybe a word for a specific physiology is still possible, eg like bill = mouth of a bird on earth

[Dreamlight]

In grammar, the 'paucal' number amounts to 'more than two but not many'.  The only language that I can think of that has it is Fijian.

[Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn]

I do believe that Hopi and Warlpiri do as well.

[Dreamlight]

I was sure there were others somewhere. 

[Tìhawnutu]

Kaltxì ayngaru nìwotx! I'm not sure this is a right place for this question, but...
simple geometrical shapes
It is obvious that such shapes as circle, line, triangle, sphere etc., as do the words to name them,
are presented in all Earth languages, so I'm sure they (I mean shapes) all exist on Pandora as well.
But this basic words, even the word "shape", that are also usable for everyday life, are unknown for us,
and that's sad. So, I hope it could be possible to ask Karyu Pawl about them.

[Lance R. Casey]

Kaltxì ayngaru nìwotx! I'm not sure this is a right place for this question, but...
simple geometrical shapes
It is obvious that such shapes as circle, line, triangle, sphere etc., as do the words to name them,
are presented in all Earth languages, so I'm sure they (I mean shapes) all exist on Pandora as well.
But this basic words, even the word "shape", that are also usable for everyday life, are unknown for us,
and that's sad. So, I hope it could be possible to ask Karyu Pawl about them.

This was in the first LEP round:

geometrical shapes (A)
   Ex 1. circle, square, triangle, sphere, box etc.; line, row
   Comments: which shapes do the Na'vi have no name for? or that the Na'vi have names for, but we don't?

[Ftiafpi]

hmmm, I don't recall, and couldn't find it, but did we ever ask for a word for "drunk"? I'm sure it could be useful...

[Lance R. Casey]

hmmm, I don't recall, and couldn't find it, but did we ever ask for a word for "drunk"? I'm sure it could be useful...

There was this:

be tipsy (B)
   Ex 1. not necessary because of alcohol, just the condition
   Comments: from poison?

[Ftiafpi]

Hmmm, seems like we could use a word specifically for being intoxicated srak?

[leroy329]

I've been looking at the forum for some time now, and have been in the skype chat lol but i havent seen the word pwned or really badly beaten lol id like to see that on the word list because my friends and i use that word alot.


thanks

~zach

ps my first post lmao   

[wm.annis]

This is as much a 20 questions matter as a vocabulary one:

mask (n).
  assuming the Na'vi are like Human tribal cultures, and have masks as part of their physical culture (say, for dances)
  by analogy, the masks that let puny sawtute breathe

[Prrton]

Hmmm, seems like we could use a word specifically for being intoxicated srak?

  Oeru lereiu tìprrte' lenäk

That should work for the time being, kefyak? 

[tsrräfkxätu]

Female (and male ) as adjectives.

Surprisingly, these have not been asked yet (as ADJ.) Now, it is entirely possible that they don't exist as separate words, only as endings, but then it'd be great to get confirmation that we can say things like ^?'eyle, ^?eykte, as well as to know how to specify the gender (in some rare cases it could be important) of -yu nouns? ^?Tsamsiyan/tsamsiye?

Or could it be that the only possible way would be to say "oeyä 'eylan a lu tute?"