NotW #°36: Lance R. Casey

[Lance R. Casey]

(Txo ngal nulnivew aylì'uot le'Navi, tìng nari nekll äo tìpawm atsìve.)

The new week has started, so I'm posting this even though there is as of yet no lock.


1. Who are you?

My given name is Karl, but to everyone but certain teachers and the tax people I have always been Kalle. For twenty-seven years and change I have walked this earth, living from the beginning (or even begetting) in the Republic of Jamtland in the middle of Sweden. So are my parents, and also until recently my one smaller brother, who is now studying elsewhere.

After finishing school and loitering for a while I embarked upon university physics, being a man of science at the core and a geek at heart, but dropped out when I did not quite find things as, well, stimulating as I had expected. Since then I've been working in the postal service, which for the most part has enabled me to get paid to exercise to some extent. This has not been a constant state of affairs, however -- see below.

As for linguistic ability, I master Swedish and English at an advanced level, but often find myself sorely lacking in oral practice of the latter -- a drawback of the predominantly written nature of the Cyber-Web. I have also taken French for six years back in the day, but very seldom get to practice it. I can usually read newspaper articles without too much hassle and I have been known to manage all-French conversations and business transactions with Frenchmen on occasion, but I often struggle with vocabulary. I also have a smattering of Russian on a "где гидроэлектростанция?" usefulness level, as well as bits and pieces of a handful of other languages and writing systems. Of non-Indo-European tongues, I am most familiar with the Sámi varieties.

I also dabble in conlangs, where Klingon is my forte -- I am not a Trekker for nothing. Add to that I have an interest in the Ardalambi, as perhaps I should, but in that case I have thus far delved more into structural matters rather than vocabulary as such, so I can't use them much other than with extensive lookups. Ulte set, lì'fya leNa'vi eltur oeyä tìtxen sereiyi kop.


2. Why are you here?

I was one of what seems to be rather few who did not know anything about Avatar and Na'vi beforehand -- no online spoilers, no ASG, no Paul Frommer. I only knew that James Cameron was making a sci-fi film with Sigourney Weaver in it -- which was more than enough to secure my subsequent watching of it -- and that it would somehow involve remote-controlled alien bodies; that was it. Then I saw a post on the KLI's mailing list and found this site, which was my first contact with the language. I was slightly intrigued, but did not look too closely at the time. Then I saw Avatar and heard it in action, and went back here and to the WP article that was -- and was struck by a sudden realization: "Aw crap, I'm gonna have to learn this too now, aren't I?" The rest is, as they say, history.

As for the language itself, I find it intriguing: it is vastly different from all others in my experience -- including Klingon -- and being able to use it in any greater capacity requires intellectual energy, which is much of what drew me to (or kept me with) Klingon as well. Infixes, tripartite syntax, tense proximity and suchlike on the one hand, and the (to many of us) strange sounds and sound patterns on the other contribute to a unique flavor which I find pleasing as well as fascinating.


3. Where do your alias and profile pic come from?

Wing Commander. Besides their being great games, I just liked the name, probably because of the initial -- it has a "James T. Kirk" vibe to it -- and it has stuck as an online identity of mine for over a decade, sometimes shortened to LRC. The picture is the Confederation insignia and carries no significance or statement other than being a simple enough icon relevant to the name itself.


4. Srake nga tsun nìNa'vi pivlltxe?

Srane, tsatsun oe pivlltxe nìNa'vi nìltsan. Tse, kxawm zivene oe pivlltxe san tsun oe aylì'uri leNa'vi pamrel sivi sìk taweyka ke plltxe nìNa'vi fa mokri pxìm kaw'it.

Fte tsive'a tìkenongit pamrelä oeyä, piak si fìlì'ur:

Spoiler

Oeru syaw fko Kale ulte oeri solalew pxevopeya zìsìt. Oe kelku si mì Yamtìlantì a mì kamtseng Sweryeyä. Lu oeru 'awa tsmukan, slä po kelku si set mì seng alahe fte ftivia. Sunu oer nìtxan tìftia kifkeyä ulte oe ftolia nì'it, slä set txintìnìri oeyä oe lu mungeyu upxareyä. Sunu oer aylì'fya ulte pumit a'a'aw omum. Aylì'fyaot angawnop omum kop ulte lì'fyat leKìlìngan fnan frato, slä set lì'fya leNa'vi eltur oeyä tìtxen sereiyi kop.

Pxisre fwa oel tsole'a Uniltìrantokxit oel rolun Ìnternetä tsengit awngeyä ulte maw fwa stolawm lì'fyat leNa'vi tsaw oeyä eltur tìtxen si nì'ul. Tsakrr oe tolätxaw ulte slolu hapxìtu plltxetsengeyä. Lì'fya leNa'vi lu tìngop alor ulte tsaw lu fìtxan keteng a fì'u oeru wou. Fìlì'fya lu kewong nìngay tengfya lì'fya leKìlìngan lu kewong, ulte zene fko eltu sivi sì fpivìl nìno fte sat tslivam sì tsivun sivar. Ulte, tse... sunu oer tìfpusìl!

Tìk'ìnìri oeyä, oe tìreian mì ayram fìatxkxeyä ulte krro krro tìkangkem seiyi na vewngyu helkutsyìpä a fpi aysìranyu alahe. Txo fwirvew fkol meoauniaeat, tsayseng lu swey. Nìsung oe pamtseo seiyi fa le'Rrta i'en a tseyä tstxo lu piano; kxawm tsa'ut ke fnan nìtxan slä ke watsätx kop. Ulte nìawnomum sunu oer nìtxan ayvur lerel arusikx alu Sanhìkip a Tìsop sì lahea ayvur tsafnelä. Oe leiu «Sopyu»! (Nìrangal lirvu sawsìp pxiset...)

5. What's your favorite Na'vi word?

I don't know if I have one specifically. I think I am more into certain types of words and sounds, such as Eywa, ketuwong, meuia, oeru, tsaheylu or tsranten. I also like identifying and coming up with particularly strange or pleasing patterns, as per this.


6. In your opinion, what are the top three user-created contents on the LN website?

For me personally, because they are what I found most useful: the dictionary, the canon wiki, and the forum itself. (I could also beat my own aut a bit and mention my Babylon dictionary, since I use it all the time.)


7. Have you made any contributions to the LN community that you're particularly proud of?

I did work rather hard with the Lexical Expansion Project, with a rather palpable result. I also did the Outstanding Questions, which proved significant enough. Other than that I think I oftentimes tend to dwell in the background, but I try to offer assistance when and where I can.


°10. What is it that you liked/hated the most about Avatar?

I was mesmerized by the visuals, naturally, and the whole presentation of the world of Pandora/Eywa'eveng. The story is not new, but neither is the event of an invading force trampling aboriginals in order to exploit natural resources -- the case of the Sámi in my own country is a painfully close example -- and tì'efumì oeyä it is one that needs to be told again and again. The execution certainly was new, however, and I thought it was very effective in driving home the moral. Indigenous peoples' "connection with nature" as a theme is an oft-derided device in fiction, but in the case of the Na'vi this connection is physical, and its being in jeopardy therefore all the more immediate. Just take a moment to contemplate the true extent of the devastation of the Tree of Voices which holds the collective memories of their ancestors, and then tell me again this is a superficial movie.

That said, I do not count myself among the Avatari, like I count myself a Trekker.


°11. Has Avatar changed your life in any way?

Not really, save from acquaintances and experiences stemming from my time here. Meoauniaea rey'engsì were already integral parts of my being, or what I would strive to be, as was my utter contempt and dismay regarding the destruction of life and beauty from greed alone.


°12. If you could ask Frommer or Cameron three movie or language related questions, what would they be?

Well, we did all ask Frommer a whole bunch of questions recently, so with that in mind:

   Frommer: What does tsaleioae mean?
   Frommer: What intentional puns and words based on the names of friends are there in Na'vi?
   Cameron: Please get Frommer involved with #2 and #3 PDQ.


°13. What else do you do in your free time?

I move about in the wilderness most parts of the year, ranging from a few days to several months at a time. From time to time I take on the role of warden of one of the various tourist cottages strewn about the Swedish mountains, thereby getting to know a specific area more than when just going from A to B every day. Nowhere is meoauniaea closer. Further in this vein, I am currently on the editorial staff of the magazine of the Swedish Alpine Club.

Another major interest of mine is music. I started playing the piano at age 7, and took classes through school, but then it started to fade. In recent years I have returned to it in intervals, and lately I decided to acquire a modern digital piano to feed the rekindled flame. Best thing I ever did. Now I play pretty much daily, and my greatest pleasure is simply sitting down with no preparation or notation, and just seeing where my fingers take me. Transcribing pieces by ear is also rewarding, as is playing freely from simple arrangements. I also compose stuff of my own on occasion (although not nearly as often or extensively as I would wish), often with the aid of the computer and orchestral sounds.

And, being a proud self-proclaimed geek, I devour large amounts of science, science-fiction and fantasy, and can often best a given opponent when it comes to Star Trek trivia. (I have in fact been crowned the national champion in one official contest, earning me not one but two movies, since the Paramount people managed to send the wrong one twice; they thought I could keep the extra as compensation for the trouble...)


°14. Name your top three favorite Earth animals from most favorite to least. Why those? What's the animal you're most terrified of?

   1. Platypus. Seriously, there is no better animal.

   2. Reindeer. The natural inhabitants of the fjelds, they exhibit a hardy gracefulness in motions as well as spirit, and are the eternal companions of wanderers in the northern lands. Plus, they make fine meals.

   3. Dolphins. "Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reason." The second smartest species on the planet, these elegant creatures have their priorities right, and clearly know the value of play -- something too many of us forgot:

Robyn - Play
Honorable mention to ducks, for their intrinsic funniness. I don't think there is an animal which actually terrifies me, but I feel uneasy about snakes -- genetic memory, perhaps.


°15. Pirate, ninja, zombie, or robot?

Shiver me timbers! Be there a scallywag who dare swash at me buckle, I shall smartly send the scoundrel to Davy Jones's locker! Yarr, ahoy, avast etc.!

(They make for some positively terrific music as well...)

Hans Zimmer - Pirates of the Caribbean - Soundtrack (jump to 1:00)

Pirates of the Caribbean - "He's a pirate" (Hans Zimmer & Klaus Badelt)

°16. What three items would you take to a desert island and why?

   1. A library. I mean, a full library. With a search feature. (Mmm, books.)
   2. A ridiculously expensive (and durable) grand piano.
   3. A web client of some sort.


°17. If you could travel to anywhere in space and time (including fictional universes), where would you go and why?

Probably somewhere in the early Legendarium, like Beleriand. I'd also like to go back in our own time to observe, record and thereby either confirm or refute significant historical events and their later interpretation. For an excellent take on how the latter could come about, go read this book.


°20. If you were granted one single wish, what would it be?

Taking those about world peace, end to pollution and suchlike for granted, I would want to see warp drive or something similar invented within my lifetime, with a subsequent opportunity to go to the stars for real -- or to somehow transfer myself to a time (or place?) where such a reality exists.


°21. What is a question you'd ask yourself? How would you answer it?

   Q: Is this a question?
   A: If this is an answer.


°22. True or false?

   1. I know the first 1000 decimals of pi by heart.
   2. I received a request to aid a foreign politician in his personal campaign for parliament -- and complied.
   3. I have met Leonard Nimoy in person.


°23. What is the funniest, weirdest, or most embarrassing Na'vi or Avatar related thing that has happened to you?

The most surprising one was getting an e-mail from Paul Frommer suggesting that we meet! On the more mundane side of things, I fairly often found myself not releasing final stops in Sámi toponyms this summer...


°24. Bonus Questions

   1. Favorite drink?
   O'boy! I consume copious amounts of the stuff, daily. Can't live without it.

   2. What is Best in Life?
   

Spoiler

[Ekirä]

Congrats!! I'll go with True, False, True.

Love the answer to that last bonus question--beyond beautiful.

Live long and prosper, ma 'eylan!!

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Txantsan niwotx nang Let me be one of the first to congratulate you on being chosen NoTW!

I will agree with you about reindeer. A rack of reindeer ribs is one of the more memorable meals I have had. We can also raise them here in Nevada, USA as livestock. But no one has taken the hint, yet.

On your N/T questions, I will guess T/N/N Memorizing pi is challenging beyond about 20 places. I can do 65, but it has taken quite a while to get there.

BTW, Leonard Nimoy lives in this area, near a beautiful alpine lake called Lake Tahoe. I'm hoping someday that he will be talent or voice talent for one of our TV productions.

[Ftiafpi]

Txantsan! I'm glad to see you as NotW Lance. Huh, Kalle/Karl? Good to know.

Frommer: What does tsaleioae mean?

DAMN! That's a good one, I wish we had thought to ask him that at the Language Workshop.

Yay, a pirate and Beleriand. You sir, are awesome.

T/N/N for the True/False. I'd love to meet Leonard Nimoy, that would be brilliant. Plus, I'd actually have questions for him that didn't (directly) relate to Star Trek (such as his photography), which I'm sure he would find refreshing.

Eywa ngahu ma Lance.

[Maria TunVrrtep]

Congratulations, Lance/Kalle/Karl!

Being the Trekker that I am (and yes I know the difference between a Trekker and a Trekkie) I have met all but one of the original cast.  Guess who?  LOL NOT Leonard.  I met him in New York along with Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt.  I was actually on a cruise with Jimmy Doohan and George Takei.  It was so fun!!!  I did the Can-can on video with Doohan and sang with Takei.  It was amazing!  I also stepped on John De Lancie's foot several times and then took his son Keegan to the Ship's Doctor when he was stung by a bee.  (Ask me some time about all my interesting experiences on security for some of the stars when they went to conventions!)

Anyway, based on my experiences, I'm going to say that last T/F question is True.  The others ... well I'm just not sure.  So my guesses are ...
F/F/T.

Have a great week. 

ta TunVrrtep

[Txur’Itan]

seykxel sì nitram ma Lance R. Casey.

Interesting amount of cross fandom interest in Star Trek and Avatar.

No small connection with Uhura & Netiri being recently played by Zoe Yadira Zaldaña Nazario though.

°22. True or false?

   1. I know the first 1000 decimals of pi by heart.
   2. I received a request to aid a foreign politician in his personal campaign for parliament -- and complied.
   3. I have met Leonard Nimoy in person.

T/T/T

[Meynari Ke'nawm]

Congratulations on everything! It would be fun to win the NotW...

PS: Why is your man wearing a bra?

[Dreamlight]

False, false, true.

['Oma Tirea]

Seykxel sì nitram
Grattis
Congrats

...and guessing the exact opposite of this:

Congrats!! I'll go with True, False, True.

[Plumps]

Congratulations, ma Kale!
Your contributions to the LEP and Outstanding questions cannot be praised highly enough! As for you language abilities, I remember during the conference call that you were quite sure and fluent Don't worry about it – you should have dropped a few Klingon lines
And I agree, seeing your ability in the language, you post way too little nìNa'vi

I like your approach to the whole environmental thing ... I absolutely love the picture you posted last. Where was that taken?

[Ftiafpi]

Oh, yeah, what did you think of the new Star Trek movie?

[Lance R. Casey]

I absolutely love the picture you posted last. Where was that taken?

At an altitude of around 1300 meters on the west slope of Alip Vealevárri one and a half days' walk south of Abisko. It shows a westward view over the vale of Aliseatnu with a glimpse of Norway in the remote distance. It had been a rainy day with low clouds, and I had stopped early by the lake at the foot of the mountain. Towards the evening the clouds were lifting, and I went up as high on Alip Vealevárri as the cloud cover allowed to get a good hawk-eye view of the delta formed by Aliseatnu as it flows into Rávttásjávri, and just when I started the descent the sun broke through the clouds and came rushing at me in a fashion which this picture can never do justice. Having experienced such splendor I felt that it would not matter one jot if the next day were to be a really bad one, with nothing but rain and gloom. (Sure enough, the next day was one of nothing but rain and gloom...)

Oh, yeah, what did you think of the new Star Trek movie?

Not too highly, I'm afraid. I wrote this upon request shortly after seeing it, and stand by it. If anything, having had ample time to mull everything over, I would say that my opinion has become lower rather than higher.

[Plumps]

I absolutely love the picture you posted last. Where was that taken?

At an altitude of around 1300 meters on the west slope of Alip Vealevárri one and a half days' walk south of Abisko. It shows a westward view over the vale of Aliseatnu with a glimpse of Norway in the remote distance. It had been a rainy day with low clouds, and I had stopped early by the lake at the foot of the mountain. Towards the evening the clouds were lifting, and I went up as high on Alip Vealevárri as the cloud cover allowed to get a good hawk-eye view of the delta formed by Aliseatnu as it flows into Rávttásjávri, and just when I started the descent the sun broke through the clouds and came rushing at me in a fashion which this picture can never do justice. Having experienced such splendor I felt that it would not matter one jot if the next day were to be a really bad one, with nothing but rain and gloom. (Sure enough, the next day was one of nothing but rain and gloom...)

Wow, simply amazing!
I know how you must have felt then and there... I remember a few moments when I was doing the trip through Ireland when I experienced moments like that when you stop thinking about yesterday or tomorrow but just enjoy the now...

Oh, yeah, what did you think of the new Star Trek movie?

Not too highly, I'm afraid. I wrote this upon request shortly after seeing it, and stand by it. If anything, having had ample time to mull everything over, I would say that my opinion has become lower rather than higher.

Oh, I'm right there with you, ma Kalle!
And your comment about the head-on lights Have you seen the »How it should have ended...« bit on YouTube? my thoughts exactly

[überdoodlet]

Never doubt. Never.

[Lance R. Casey]

And your comment about the head-on lights Have you seen the »How it should have ended...« bit on YouTube? my thoughts exactly

Perhaps it's a precursor to the Exploding Console Technology® vital to any starship.

[Human No More]

Congratulations ma tsmukan

[Kì'eyawn]

...Dolphins. "Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reason." The second smartest species on the planet...

I love you a little.  If ever we should meet, remind me that i must tell you my story about the Angry German Physicist.

As for the Ngay/Tsleng... Fpìl oel fìfya alu Ng/Ts/Ng.

Congratulations, ma tsmukan!  Live long and prosper, namárie, Eywa ngahu, etc.

[Prrton]

Ma Kale,

I love you a little too. Maybe more than a little. But, most of all I admire you for all of the attributes that I perceive as making you into you. Let me count the ways:

- Your intellect (if you don't have an eidetic memory, you could certainly fool me).
  This, by default, has to be an abbreviated list:
  - MASTERY of English
  - MASTERY of Klingon (NOT an easy thing to master)
  - MASTERY of Na'vi (I've been stunned from the first thing I ever saw you write)
  - MASTERY of Linguistics (K. Pawl says that he'd never know you don't already have the PhD.)
- Your musical ability.
- Your love of nature and your athleticism out and about in it (and the frequency of that)
- Your engagement here at LearnNavi.org (whenever you have connectivity)

I find all of this about simultaneously intimidating and more than a tad jealously-inducing. In the end it engenders in me a tremendous amount of respect.*

You, sir, are the quintessential renaissance man of the 21st* century. Thank you for sharing some of that with all of us.

- Ngay
- Tsleng (Probably «ngay», but those annoying rules of the game...)
- Ngay

Tich tor ang tesmur.*

Spoiler: Nìsung

Ngaru mestxeli ahì'i.

[Lance R. Casey]

If ever we should meet, remind me that i must tell you my story about the Angry German Physicist.

Is he by any chance related to Mr. Fonclbrisch?

Ma Kale,
[...]

Ma Prrton, ke pxan!

Tich tor ang tesmur.*

Or qaStaHvIS poH nI' bIyInjaj 'ej bIchepjaj!

Vulcan has never been formalized, so there exist a number of variants of various extent. A perhaps little-known fact is that both the words spoken to Spock at the Kolinahr ritual on Vulcan in TMP and the dialogue between Spock and Saavik in TWOK were dubbed over English lines, so the people who came up with the Vulcan lines had to fit them to the mouth movements of the actors -- and that the TWOK work was done by none other than Marc Okrand, creator of Klingon. The line in question from TMP is, more or less, "Dif-tor e smusma, Spokh".


Nìsung: aaaaawww

[Prrton]

"Dif-tor e smusma, Spokh".

I'll have to get the film from Netflix to hear it again. I did know that Okrand did the voiceover dialog, but certainly didn't remember that phonologically it sounds almost entirely pronounce-able Na'vi.  

Now that Vulcan is an endangered language in the "re-booted" reality, it seems to me that someone needs to make an heroic effort to get it completely documented... I wonder why it hasn't been done already... Hmm...