Na'vi specific to the movie

[kroen]

Is there a resource that teaches only the vocabulary of Na'vi spoken in Avatar? I for one don't have time to learn a 1500+ word language, and I just want to make my Avatar experience more powerful by watching it without english subtitles to the Na'vi parts. I'm sure I won't be the only one who would use that resource. So can anyone make it? or maybe it already exists? if so I'd like a link. Thanks in advance.

p.s. How many different Na'vi words do you estimate are in the movie?

[Eana Unil]

http://wiki.learnnavi.org/index.php/Na%27vi_from_Avatar_Movie

You're welcome to count the words/make a list of them by yourself 

[kroen]

Memorising phrases is a poor way to learn. Too bad, I'm sure a file teaching only the words that appear in Avatar would have gotten quite a few downloads.

[Plumps]

But that is like collecting all the English words that appear in the movie as well... Learning them doesn't bring you closer (as a non-native speaker) to understanding what is being said, tì'efumì oeyä

You need a certain amount of grammar with it. Learning the phrases by heart is at least one way to recognise a few words and get the meaning.

Although be warned that some of the spoken parts are not what we would call 'standard' Na'vi ... it's understandable. The actors had other things to worry about

[kroen]

Since when does grammar have anything to do with vocabulary size? You can theoretically study the full grammer of a foreign language with knowing only a miniscule amount of words. What I meant by a guide that teaches the vocabulary in the movie that it will obviously teach grammar as well as pronunciation of course.

[Plumps]

Ah, hìtxoa, then I misunderstood you.

As far as I know there is no vocabulary that concentrates exclusively on the movie. But as Eana said, from the site with the movie lines you can easily make a vocabulary count.

[Seze Mune]

To my mind, learning only the dialogue in the movie is a problem, if you want to understand the Na'vi words.

In the first place, I understand some of the words, accents and phraseology are wrong.  These were actors, after all, and not linguists.

In the second place, you might think that by translating word for word from a movie-specific vocabulary, you might understand the Na'vi language.  I do not think that is the case, but you are free to disagree.

In the third place, if there were a vocabulary list specific only to the movie, then people would misunderstand the case endings when they saw them elsewhere.  For example, if "Oel ngati kameie" was translated as "I see you", there is the potential for people to misunderstand that 'oel' is always the word for 'I', that 'ngati' is the only word for 'you', and that 'kameie' means 'see', when in reality it means to perceive something not necessarily visible to the eye, with the added connotation of enjoying the perception.

Fourth, the Na'vi language enjoys - for the most part - a free word order.  So I could say 'Ngati yawne lu oer' which translates as 'I love you', but parsing it strictly for vocabulary it would say 'You (patientive case) beloved are to me'.

I mention these only to give you an idea of how misleading it might be to use a vocabulary-specific list in order to translate phrases in the movie.

What I would suggest instead, is asking for the written version of phrases which interest you, and then asking for a written translation which explains the wording.  Plumps is excellent at that, if I do say so myself.