Polar Na'vi: Totally Non-Canon Sister Language of Na'vi

Started by Irtaviš Ačankif, October 10, 2013, 12:30:12 PM

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Irtaviš Ačankif

So, I decided to make this sister language of Na'vi. But before we start, first a non-canon history of the Na'vic language family!

In this parallel universe, the Na'vi we hear in the films is actually the Standard Inter-tribal Na'vi (SIN), which is an extremely conservative auxlang based on Old Na'vi with pronunciation differences across different tribes. This dialect originated when the tribes first mastered usage of the natural planetary supercomputer, worshiped by the Omatikaya as Eywa. When ancient Na'vi stored information into Eywa, Eywa would abstract the information into a parsed syntax tree, which is then encoded in a stilted and extremely regularized form of Old Na'vi in reply to queries into the database. The aysahìk of the tribes then promulgated this "literary" language, which is very lacking in irregularities both in phonology and syntax, as the standard language for inter-tribal communication and of the upper classes. Some tribes, such as the Omatikaya, which have traditions of Eywa worship, have adopted SIN as their vernacular as well, although corruption does result over the centuries (the simplified -l and -t case endings, and flattened compound tenses in Omatikayan Na'vi for example, which see influence from Middle Omatikayan Na'vi, which is not based on SIN).

So let's start from the very beginning.

Old Na'vi

Polar Na'vi

Yay! Finally out of the useless stuff about history! :P
Polar Na'vi is a very innovative (i.e. not conservative) descendant of ON. It has all but discarded the infix system, has a very different phonology, and interesting grammar. It is very much not intelligible to SIN speakers, unlike ON, which is still preserved in a form in the highest registers of SIN.

PN (Polar Na'vi) is spoken by the polar tribes who live near the southern pole of Pandora.

Sound changes from ON

1. All the uvulars collapse into the velars, and ng turns into n(c. 1000 BC)
2. All the ejectives turn into aspirates (c. 600 BC)
3. æ and a merge, ê and e merge, ô and o merge (c. 0 BC)
4. f and v become w between vowels; f becomes h word-initally and v becomes f word-initially. Syllable-finally they are both dropped. (c. AD 500)
5. All aspirates become fricatives. The great palatalization of all consonants before /i/ and /j/ (c. AD 1000)
6. /i/ disappears after /s/ and /t/, generating the phonemes /ś/, /tś/, nasals spread and cover up adjacent consonants. Stops become allophonically voiced in between open vowels, and /l/ and /r/ merge into a single consonant which is pronounced /l/ in syllable initials, /r/ in between vowels, and /l/ in codas. (c. AD 1500)
7. /i/ disappears after /k/, generating the phoneme /tŝ/, all syllable-final stops turn into geminates/glottalstops, all other syllable-final consonants disappear or geminate into the next syllable. /w/ disappears. (c. AD 1900)
8. /e/ merges with /i/, /o/ disappears completely except when doing so violates phonotactics, where it turns into /u/. This makes /l/ and /r/ and /p t k/, /b d g/ separate phonemes. Long /o/ and /e/ reappears as diphthongs merge: aw => uu, ew => yoo, ay => ee, ey => ee. Short e and o in some technical loanwords from SIN, mostly related to Eywa-worship and forest-related biology terms. (c. AD 2100)

Grammar

Grammar is highly changed.

Verb conjugation

The verb conjugation changes drastically. This arose from a circumlocution with si: ancient PN speakers commonly said things like taron si, which became PN tarni < *taronni. In addition, the common usage of personal pronouns after verbs gave rise to conjugation for person: tarnii < *taronni we < taron si oe. Obviously, the sound changes do give rise to quite irregular verbs, with many verb classes.

First Conjugation
This corresponds to ON verbs that end in vowels.

Intransitive verbs (example: kaś, to go) (Transitives just get (i)l added to end)





Present tenseSingularDualTrialPlural
First personkaśikasmikaspikaśeei
1+2 inclusivekaśinkasminkaspinkaśeein
Second personkaśınakasminakaspinakaśeena
Third personkaspukasmipkaspipkaśeep

Past tenseSingularDualTrialPlural
First personkasamiikasamimkasamipkasamiy
1+2 inclusivekasamiinkasamiminkasamipinkasamiyin
Second personkasamiinakasamiminakasamipinakasamiyina
Third personkasamipkasamimipkasamipipkasameep

These are the only two inflection-based tenses of Polar Na'vi. Other tenses form by circumlocution...TO BE CONTINUED WITH OTHER CONJUGATIONS, NOUNS, AND SYNTAX!
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

Tewti! This is very creative, as you have not come up with one derivative conlang, but two!

The concept of a polar tribe has always intrigued me, as I come from good 'Rrtan Northern stock myself. I suspect that would still be tall, but have much heavier builds, to help them stay warm, and to do work in ice/snow. And like our Innuit folks her on 'Rrta, they would likely eat an almost totally carnivorous diet, something I can relate to! 'Eywa' would have to be very different for them as well.

Based on your rules, can you provide an alpahabet (with IPA or translaiterations) for PN?

I see you give a timetable built from 'BC' and 'AD'. Are you implying there was an event on Eywa 'Eveng, on or about 0 AD that altered Na'vi history? :)

Although I have my hands full with language learning, I certainly want to closely follow what you are working on here.

Karma + 1!

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Irtaviš Ačankif

#2
No, the AD/BC thing only provides a rough timescale. 2154 AD is obviously the "present day" in the Avatar universe :P

PN alphabet:

a i u ı p t k b d g x ĝ s ŝ ś ts y l r n m

Speaking of the polar Na'vi religion, they are essentially deists. They worship the creator of Pandora in rituals, but do not pray or in any way attempt to communicate with their deity. "Eywa" is used by them as a distributed computing device and is not worshipped at all, mostly due to the fact that Eywa's presence there is only "dumb terminals" so to speak, so the PN have never thought of Eywa as actually influencing large-scale natural processes, just a ginormous hard-drive.
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Taronyu Leleioae

Quote from: `Eylan Ayfalulukanä on October 10, 2013, 09:31:05 PM
The concept of a polar tribe has always intrigued me, as I come from good 'Rrtan Northern stock myself. I suspect that would still be tall, but have much heavier builds, to help them stay warm, and to do work in ice/snow. And like our Innuit folks her on 'Rrta, they would likely eat an almost totally carnivorous diet, something I can relate to! 'Eywa' would have to be very different for them as well.
I find such a possibility of a polar tribe to be intriguing/plausible as well... 

Irtaviš Ačankif

#4
Lol? Actually the only reason I put the tribe into the polar region is to have an excuse for making a divergent dialect :P

Yet it does seem like an interesting idea. I would suppose even ayfa'li (ha'li) would be too badly-adapted to the cold though. Perhaps some biology not present in AVATAR? AVATAR biology seems all to be nichely adapted towards rainforests.

The polar Na'vi would definitely have thick clothes, though, unlike the...err...underwear-only clothes of the Omatikaya. I'm thinking of making them somewhat technologically more superior than the forest Na'vi seen in AVATAR. They at least have very elaborate animal-drawn carts, and have highly advanced mathematics and 1800s-telegraph level communication due to "Eywa utilitarianism".

Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Tìtstewan

This is really awesome! I suspected that in a way. :)

Hmm, let's try:
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
'Ewana Na'vi ketenga Eywa fpìl oe.
"Young Na'vi different Eywa I think."

I failed strongly here, right?  ;D

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Irtaviš Ačankif

#6
Na'vi and ketenga are correct. Everything else is wrong :P

(Hint: wew => yoo, tse => tśi, ng => n; "ii" is a disposation particle and should be ignored)

(Side note: Why is it "kitinla" not "kitina"? This is because in Old Na'vi, adjectives were formed with the use of the helper "la", from "lu a". So, "ke tengl(u)a" => "ketenla" => "kitinla" in PN, while in OmN, "ke teng lu a" => "ketenga".)
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Tìtstewan

Well...
*think*
Quote from: Tìtstewan on October 11, 2013, 09:46:09 AM
This is really awesome! I suspected that in a way. :)

Hmm, let's try:
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
'Ewana Na'vi ketenga Eywa fpìl oe.
"Young Na'vi different Eywa I think."

I failed strongly here, right?  ;D
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
Wewa tseng a Na'vi ketenga reyfya [hipip?].
Cold place which Na'vi different cultures [there should be a verb].
???

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Irtaviš Ačankif

Hint: f => h in beginning of word :) (You are almost correct! Hipip is a verb here). Also, ä=>a
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Tìtstewan

Quote from: Tìtstewan on October 11, 2013, 01:15:00 PM
Well...
*think*
Quote from: Tìtstewan on October 11, 2013, 09:46:09 AM
This is really awesome! I suspected that in a way. :)

Hmm, let's try:
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
'Ewana Na'vi ketenga Eywa fpìl oe.
"Young Na'vi different Eywa I think."

I failed strongly here, right?  ;D
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
Wewa tseng a Na'vi ketenga reyfya [hipip?].
Cold place which Na'vi different cultures [there should be a verb].
???
Yootśina Na'i kitinla leehya' hipip ii.
Wewa tsengä Na'vi ketenga reyfya [fwi].
Cold Na'vi place different cultures [are sliping].
??? :-X
LOL if "hipip" is fwi. Somehow the -pip says me that verb should be intransitive?!

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Irtaviš Ačankif

Okay, here's the English translation:

Na'vi of the cold place have a different culture.

Hint: the "have" construction is idiomatically different from OmN (it uses a verb).
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Tìtstewan

#11
Meh, I've thought that there only can be lu but it doesn't fit with hipip...

Edit, no idea.. -.- :(

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-| Kem si fu kem rä'ä si, ke lu tìfmi. |-

Irtaviš Ačankif

Quote from: Tìtstewan on October 11, 2013, 02:08:39 PM
Meh, I've thought that there only can be lu but it doesn't fit with hipip...

Edit, no idea.. -.- :(
The answer:

Wewtsengä Na'vi ketenga reyfyat fyep.

In PN you "hold" something when something is yours ;)
Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.

Tìtstewan


-| Na'vi Vocab + Audio | Na'viteri as one HTML file | FAQ | Useful Links for Beginners |-
-| Kem si fu kem rä'ä si, ke lu tìfmi. |-

Tirea Aean


Irtaviš Ačankif

Previously Ithisa Kīranem, Uniltìrantokx te Skxawng.

Name from my Sakaš conlang, from Sakasul Ältäbisäl Acarankïp

"First name" is Ačankif, not Eltabiš! In Na'vi, Atsankip.