Na'viteri: a listening comprehension exercise

[Unil Akawng]

Kaltxì ayngar!

What follows is a text of the new listening comprehension exercise from Karyu Pawl's blog, transcribed to facilitate further analysis.

Spoiler

Kaltxì, ma oeyä eylan! Oe piveng ayngaru nì'it teri Txewì, alu Na'viyä 'eveng.

Txewì lu 'evengan a solalew zìsìt avomun. Mì sray apxa kelku si soaiahu. Soaia lu hì'i – nì'aw sempul, sa'nok, tsmukan alu Loak a solalew zìsìt amevopey, sì Txewì. Ke lu poru kea smuke.

New Txewìl futa fyeyntu slayu a krr, po nawma taronyu sì tsamsiyu layu na sempul. Tsun Txewì ko pivlltxe nì'it nì'Ìnglìsì a nolume mì numtseng toktor Kìreysä (?). Lolu toktor Kìreysì karyu asìltsan ulte poe tsolun nìNa'vi pivlltxe, hufwa lì'upam hek nì'it (?). Slä ayevi nìwotx tsolun tslivam.

Poeri uniltìrantokxit tarmok a krr, lam stum nìayfo, slä lu 'a'awa tìketeng – natkenong, tsyokxìri ke lu zekwä atsìng ki amrr.

Sunu Txewìru toktor Kìreysì. Lu poe tstunwi, ulte eviru peng eltur tìtxen si a ayvurit (?) teri 'Rrta, alu tsenge astxong nìngay. Krr a stolawm Txewì teri hem a poer lolen, 'olefu keftxo nìtxan.

Txewìyä sempulìri sngä'ikrr Sawtutet vere'kì. Plltxe san zola'u sawtute fìtseng fte awngati skiva'a sìk. Slä sa'nokìri fpìlfya lu keteng. Po plltxe san tì'efumì oeyä sutekip nìwotx, ftxey Na'vi ftxey Sawtute, lu sìltsan, lu kawng sìk.

Lam set fwa Sawtute akawng holum, pum asìltsan 'ì'awn, ulte Na'viru set lu nawma eyktan amip a larmu Tawtute. Hu Sawtute a tsam lu hasey. Sìlpey Txewì tsnì tsivun set fko pivlltxe san frawzo.

Here we've been been given a way to indicate a person's age: tute a solalew zìsìt aX = person of X years of age.

The exercise should also contain some new words, derived from the already known roots, but the only one I was able to spot - lì'upam(?) - can be attributed to my faulty understanding.

EDIT: Thought I might just as well squeeze in a few more pieces of amateurish analysis before our resident linguists arrive

Firstly, a noteworthy thing about Karyu Pawl's pronunciation is that the sequences of the identical consonants (or, at least, of "t"-s)  contract into one: i.e. nì'it teri is pronounced "nì'i teri" (other examples are ayvurit teri and uniltìrantokxit tarmok, where only a single "t" can be clearly heard).
Secondly, the "ftxey X, ftxey Y" construction is also new, AFAIK. Meaning "both X and Y", or, more literally, "[no matter] whether you select X or Y", it's remarkably similar to "хоть X, хоть Y" used in Russian. This appears to be old news.

[Tsamsiyu92]

Shouldn't it be tute a tsole'a zìzìt aX?

[Unil Akawng]

Hmm... No, based on what I hear in the audio file, at least. There is clearly an "s" in the beginning not a "ts", and I've heard no glottal stop there.

[Tsamsiyu92]

But I have proceeded/gone X years sounds quite odd to me.

Edit: sorry, Judging my posts below me, it seems correct...

[Carborundum]

Hmm... No, based on what I hear in the audio file, at least. There is clearly an "s" in the beginning not a "ts", and I've heard no glottal stop there.

Mllte. A person who has gone X years.
This gives further insight into the na'vi concept of time. It appears to be similar to our own; i.e. a line along which we travel.

[Unil Akawng]

A person who has gone X years.
This gives further insight into the na'vi concept of time.

That's what I was going to say Also, remember ft<awn>emkrr - "the past" is literally "the time [we have] passed by".

[wm.annis]

Secondly, the "ftxey X, ftxey Y" construction is also new, AFAIK. Meaning "both X and Y", or, more literally, "[no matter] whether you select X or Y", it's remarkably similar to "хоть X, хоть Y" used in Russian.

Actually we've seen this before, in his first blog post in the Na'vi section, sìlpey oe, awngeyä lì'fyaolo'ìri fìpìlok lìyevu pxan, ulte frapo—ftxey sngä'iyu ftxey tsulfätu—tsìyevun fìtsenge rivun 'uot lesar.

I see it more as the "whether... or..." construction, which better matches the verb meaning of this word, "choose."

[Taronyu]

This is going to be fun. Haven't had the time to listen to it, yet - will do so in the car I think.

[wm.annis]

Ma Unil Akawng, you shouldn't write the adpositions attached to their nouns when the come before, so mì srey, mì numtseng, etc., not *mìsrey.

We've seen a final -ì added to non-Na'vi names ending in certain sounds, to enforce rules about Na'vi syllables.  So, toktor Kìreysì for Dr. Grace (an s cannot end a syllable in Na'vi).  If I recall correctly it was Prrton who put to Frommer the question about what to do with that final ì when a foreign word takes case endings.  Does the prop vowel stay put or does it vanish?  It looks like it vanishes.  I hear toktor Kìreysä.

I'm going to take lìupam (word-sound) as meaning "accent" in the sense of speaking with an accent.

For *na ayfo, I think it's nìayfo like them, as they do, which parallels nìayoeng like us, as we do.  The pronunciation matches what he told us about mì, sì and nì- before the plural prefix ay+, namely that the ì elides.

Finally, it looks like the "dummy noun" pum has been extend from the original use with the genitive he told us about.  You can evidently use it to avoid repeating a noun with a different adjective.  Grammatically and semantically, that's not a big stretch.

[Plumps]

Firstly, a noteworthy thing about Karyu Pawl's pronunciation is that the sequences of the identical consonants (or, at least, of "t"-s)  contract into one: i.e. nì'it teri is pronounced "nì'i teri" (other examples are ayvurit teri and uniltìrantokxit tarmok, where only a single "t" can be clearly heard).

First, tewti für your work – was thinking whether we should do the same as I did with the Trr 'Rrtayä message. Nice that somebody had the same idea

I think the phenomenon of these t's eliding into one has something to do with the unreleased t – the same would probably happen with p and k. t seems to be more frequent though. That's why it's standing out to our ears.

[Tsamsiyu92]

What's the point in that Na'viteri bot when the post it's about to tell us about is already posted about?

[Plumps]

'evengan I find very intersting, personally. Never had that example before, hadn't we?

Often I don't know when being allowed to attach -an or -e other than where we know for sure. Otherwise I go for tutan or tuté

[Tsamsiyu92]

'evengan I find very intersting, personally. Never had that example before, hadn't we?

Often I don't know when being allowed to attach -an or -e other than where we know for sure. Otherwise I go for tutan or tuté

Perhaps he wanted to emphazise that Txewì was a boy.

[Unil Akawng]

Ma Unil Akawng, you shouldn't write the adpositions attached to their nouns when the come before, so mì srey, mì numtseng, etc., not *mìsrey.

Sure, you are right! I've corrected these.

Does the prop vowel stay put or does it vanish?  It looks like it vanishes.  I hear toktor Kìreysä.

Actually, so do I, but when transcribing I've decided to trust the (currently known) rules, not my ears. Corrected.

For *na ayfo, I think it's nìayfo like them, as they do, which parallels nìayoeng like us, as we do.  The pronunciation matches what he told us about mì, sì and nì- before the plural prefix ay+, namely that the ì elides.

Ah, didn't know about this. It surely makes more sence than *na ayfo. Again, corrected.

[Kä'eng]

ulte Txewìru peng

I think this is "ulte eviru peng"; I definitely hear a v, not a w.

[Muzer]

nìkenong to me sounds like a lovely word for "for example". Nice! Having said that, it sounds to me more like "na kenong" - "like the example", which would make more sense.


Also, topical being used instead of the dative in "tsyokxìri ke lu zekwä atsìng ki amrr"? That's something I don't remember hearing about.

[Carborundum]

nìkenong to me sounds like a lovely word for "for example". Nice! Having said that, it sounds to me more like "na kenong" - "like the example", which would make more sense.


Also, topical being used instead of the dative in "tsyokxìri ke lu zekwä atsìng ki amrr"? That's something I don't remember hearing about.

I think that might be a case of inalienable possession; "the hand's fingers are not four but five".

[Muzer]

Ah, I never thought of it like that. That's quite a possibility. Or just "there are not 4 fingers of the hand, but 5" (lu with one argument, for lack of a better term, often translates as "there is")

[Prrton]

nìkenong to me sounds like a lovely word for "for example". Nice! Having said that, it sounds to me more like "na kenong" - "like the example", which would make more sense.

The word is «natkenong» and means "for example/as an example". It is derived from «na.t(ì).kenong».

[Prrton]

Ma Unil Akawng, you shouldn't write the adpositions attached to their nouns when the come before, so mì srey, mì numtseng, etc., not *mìsrey.
...

Just double-checking my understanding, but the phrase that occurs in the recording is «mì sray», kefyak?

Does «mì *srey» actually mean anything in Na'vi? Have I missed a documented lexical item «tsrey»?