Trr Tsyìmawnun'iyä Lefpom! Happy Independence Day!

[Toliman]

Trr Tsyìmawnun'iyä Lefpom! Happy Independence Day!
https://naviteri.org/2023/07/trr-tsyimawnuniya-lefpom-happy-independence-day/
Posted on July 4, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì, ma frapo.

Sìlpey oe, ayngari nìwotx Vospxìkin sngilvä'i nìltsan.

And for those of you in the States, Happy Independence Day! I was thinking about how to say that in Na'vi.

Independence, in the sense it was originally used in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which opens with a statement about the necessity "for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another," is clearly about cutting ties. So that's the key idea, I think, that should be represented in Na'vi.

syìmawnun'i (n., syì.maw.nun.'I) 'cut tie, dissolved connection'

Note that the stress is on the final syllable. The somewhat convoluted derivation is from mun'i 'cut' and säyìm:

säyìm (n., sä.YÌM) 'tie, something used for binding'

You tie something—or someone!—up (the verb yìm) with a säyìm, a tool for binding, which could typically be a rope or chain. The word is often pronounced and spelled syìm.

So we have syìm + mawnun'i (the passive participle of mun'i)
–> syìmmawnun'i
–> syìmawnun'i, where the double m's have coalesced into one—thus, a tie or binding that has been cut. The word can be used in the context of a dissolved relationship:

   Oengari sätare syìmawnun'i slolängu.
   'As for the two of us, I'm sorry to say our relationship is dissolved.'

The speaker here is saying to the addressee that their former relationship has become a tie that is now severed.

A related word of wider use is:

tìsyìmawnun'i (n., tì.syì.maw.nun.'I') 'independence, freedom from a pre-existing relationship'

It's often pronounced and spelled tsyìmawnun'i.

To become independent, we use tsyìmawnun'i along with the verb mu'ni 'achieve.' (It's easy to confuse mun'i 'cut' with mu'ni 'achieve'! The two words differ not only in the placement of the tìftang but also in their stress: mun'I but MU'ni.)

   Zene fra'eveng tsyìmawnun'it a ta sa'sem nì'i'a mivu'ni.
   'Every child must eventually achieve independence from his or her parents.'

And this finally brings us to:

   Trr Tsyìmawnun'iyä Lefpom!
   'Happy Independence Day!



More soon . . .