Cheat Guide to Na'vi

Started by Batureang 🦈, September 22, 2018, 04:17:40 PM

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Batureang 🦈

I am going to start this document off by saying I am a *new learner of Na'vi.  I do not claim ownership to the original writing of any of this information.  I compiled this list, this cheat guide, from the information out of documents by those who have dedicated nearly a decade to learn this language.  Much if not all of this info will be copy&pasted from their hard work.  This is merely a compilation of the tools that I found most useful so I can have everything in one concise location.

I came up with this idea because I was reading the 48 page Na'vi as a Second Language guide and the info really clicked with me.  But I don't have the ability to scroll through all those pages quickly when I'm trying to read or compose sentences.  I am also a nerd (le*gasp wha!?) and I play D&D/Pathfinder and while I am very fluent in the rules, I was not always.  One thing I used to swear by are the GM shields that have all the basic rules easily explained on basically a folder of four pages as a quick reference guide.
(img isn't working...it's this thing: http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSCF2803.jpg)

So my goal with this document is not to create new information, but to essentially make a Na'vi quick reference guide that gets all this important info boiled down into just a few pages.


Still very much a work in progress but here is what I have so far: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eeXJ0AIMmCRoUuge1WHzd8LZ0H85DsDc0iJ6WSy-YcQ/edit?usp=sharing

Plumps

Looks like an intersting project.

Believe me, there is no better way to acquire the language as a newcomer than to write and/or complie your own documents and explain the grammar in your own words. It makes it stick in your head easier. If it can help others in the process, all the more important and better ;)


Btw, I love your profile pic ;D

Vawmataw

Yay for more cheat sheets! Syntheses are a great way to learn for some people.
Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Batureang 🦈

Quote from: Plumps on September 22, 2018, 05:42:59 PM
Looks like an intersting project.

Believe me, there is no better way to acquire the language as a newcomer than to write and/or complie your own documents and explain the grammar in your own words. It makes it stick in your head easier. If it can help others in the process, all the more important and better ;)


Btw, I love your profile pic ;D


My thoughts exactly!  When i was learning french in high school, we had a teacher that let us write out vocab 25 times each for extra credit.  The pain in the wrist was extreme but the learning was great.  I find compiling my own documents help me to make things click in my mind.  And if it helps even one other person then great!

tsyili

#4
Kaltxì ma 'eylan, ngal fì'ut tsole'a srak?

[click here]

Kop, nga plltxe san fìpamrel lu Ta Pamìrìkä sì Tirea Aeonä sìk mì ngeyä pamrel slä sweylu txo nga pivlltxe san fìpamrel lu Pamìrìkä sì Tirea Aeanä pamrel sìk. Lì'u alu ta slu from nì'Ìnglìsì, ulte tsun fko sivar tsalì'ut fte pivlltxe san fìpamrel lu oeyä pamrel sìk. Tireayä tstxo leru keyawr a fì'u lu kxeyey a fì'ut oel fpìl.

Tirea Aean

Nice!

A condensed minified compilation of Na'vi grammar. 

This was the exact original goal of my "TL;DR Guide to the Na'vi Language" which eventually was re-titled to Na'vi Language Quickstart Guide. I made a condensed version of this too which tsyili linked above. Another thing that comes to mind with Cheat Guides, is the Cheat Sheet by wm.annis, here: https://files.learnnavi.org/docs/navicheat.pdf  The only problem with that one is that it presumes the reader is familiar with a fair bit of linguistic terminology.

Aside from the things tsyili mentions about the names in the credits and such. (Thanks for the credit and selecting bits of my resources for this new compilation :D)

We could always use more stuff and it's a good thing to make resources, as the others said. :D It's just a little different if you  just paste stuff from other resources in a new doc.  If anything, this to me sort of feels like you are making your personal notebook and are making it publicly visible. I like that. :)

If it's okay, I had some suggestions on the fonts. Comic Sans is just.... not a good font for this sort of thing.  The footer font where the credit is, is AMATIC SC. Such a font is good for headings and titles, but not so great for something of that length. Some inconsistencies in font due to pasting from NaSL (which uses Montserrat font)

Another thing I noted was this:

Quote
The subject, or the noun doing the action comes first.
[...]
It is then followed by the verb, or action.
[...]
The direct object, or the noun directly affected by the action.
[...]

This was probably taken from my website Lesson 1 where I said in the Word Order section

Quote
The word order of English is very specific. In the simplest of sentences, it is always the same: The Subject comes first, then the Verb. If there is an Object, then it comes after the verb (SVO order).

This was talking about English. in Na'vi, SVO word order is not necessarily the case.

In the Adjectives section, it may be worth noting that when we have a "[noun] lu [adjective]" sort of situation, -a- is not used, and the adjective doesn't necessarily have to be next to the noun (lu can come between).

In the Lenition part, it says "when certain prefixes are added."  This is true, but what about all the lenition-causing adpositions, like mì+, ro+, wä+, etc.? These are not prefixes, but still cause lenition on the word after them if not used as a suffix e.g.: mì te'lan = txe'lanmì (in the heart)

Batureang 🦈

Oops, i will definitely fix those credit issues, thanks for bringing that up!

As for the fonts, everything will be formatted and fixed once im done, i was playing around with font ideas but had to leave for basically 16 hours of work in a 24 hour period and haven't been able to work on it again.

Batureang 🦈

Woo!  Halfway done!  I have gone through the infixes section of NaSL.  I am past the halfway of that document and am at my hopefully halfway point in my cheat sheet.