Zola’u nìprrte’, ma 3746°! Welcome, 2022!

[Tìtstewan]

Zola'u nìprrte', ma 3746°! Welcome, 2022!


Kaltxì, ma eylan! It's been a while. I hope you're all safe, well, and ready for the most exciting year for the Avatar/Na'vi community in over a decade!

I have quite a bit to share with you. Right now, here are 20 new words I hope you'll find useful, with more things to follow soon.

First, two different senses of 'save':

'avun (vtr., 'A.vun)  'save (time, food, etc.)'

     Ngari txo fìkem sivi fìfya, krrti 'avun.
     'If you do it like this, you'll save time.'

tarep (vtr., TA.rep) 'save, rescue'

     Mawkrra palulukan posìn spolä, ke tsängun fko pot tivarep.
     'Sadly, once the thanator had jumped on her, she could not be rescued.'

Tarep is stronger than zong, which we've previously glossed as 'save, defend.' Tarep implies rescue from a dangerous or distressing situation. If your life is being threatened, you can yell, "Tarep! Tarep!" which would be the equivalent of "Help! Help!"

tareptu (n., TA.rep.tu) 'rescuee, someone who has been rescued or saved'

     Maw tsafekem, new tareptu sneyä tarepyur irayo sivi.
     'After the accident, the rescuee wanted to thank his rescuer.'

sätarep (n., sä.TA.rep) 'rescue, an incidence of rescuing'

A missing derivative of frrfen:

säfrrfen (n., sä.FRR.fen) 'visit, an instance of visiting'

     Furia nga zola'u irayo; ngey säfrrfen txasunu oer.
     'Thank you for coming; I enjoyed your visit very much.'

Some words for good and bad people:

tsantu (n., TSAN.tu) 'good person, "good guy" '

nawmtu (n., NAWM.tu) 'noble person'

kawngtu (n., KAWNG.tu) 'bad person, "bad guy" '

     Lala tsarelmì arusikx, yemstokx tsantul hawre'ti ateyr, kawngtul pumit alayon.
     'In that old movie, the good guy wears a white hat, the bad guy a black one.'

tìk (adv.) 'immediately, without delay'

As an adverb, tìk is a concise synonym for pxiye'rìn.

     Tsakem si tìk!
     'Do it immediately!'

(This is stronger than Tsakem si set—more of an order or command.)

Don't confuse tìk with tsìk, a different adverb meaning 'suddenly, without warning.' It's interesting to speculate on a possible etymological or evolutionary relationship between these two words, but until there's evidence for that, it's best to consider the resemblance a coincidence.

Unlike pxiye'rìn, tìk is also a conjunction indicating that a second action immediately follows a first:

     Fìioang ke tsun slivele; nemfa pay zup tìk spakat.
     'This animal cannot swim; if it falls into the water, it immediately drowns.'

spakat (vin., SPA.kat) 'drown'

Note the syntax in the above example. When two actions immediately follow one another, with the second being a consequence of the first, this "clipped style" (root-V tìk root-V) is often used colloquially. It's a bit like pointing to the "third rail" along a train track and saying, "You touch that, you die." Just as you could say, "If you touch that, you'll die," you could say in Na'vi, Txo nemfa pay zivup, tìk spayakat, but that would be less colloquial.

Note also the idiom:

     Tse'a tìk yawne
     'Love at first sight'

fwum (vin.) 'float (on the surface of a liquid)'

Don't confuse fwum, which typically indicates floating on the surface of water, with lìng, which refers to floating or hovering, usually in the air but possibly also under water, like a diver.

     Merìk alor paysìn fwarmum.
     'Two beautiful leaves were floating on the water.'

wapx (vin.) 'sink'

     Ke omum teyngta fìuran aku'up fu fwayum fu wayapx.
     'I don't know (or: It's not known) whether this heavy boat will float or sink.'

tamìfa (adj., ta.MÌ.fa) 'internal'

tawrrpa (adj., ta.WRR.pa) 'external'

     Fìtxelel fngo' sälangit atawrrpa.
     'This matter requires an external investigation.'

zam mì zam (adv.) 'completely, one hundred percent'

Zam, literally meaning 64, is the functional equivalent of 100 in octal. So zam mì zam

Is equivalent to 100 in 100, that is, 100 percent. It's often used in place of nìwotx. (And it sounds nice!)

     Ngahu mllte oe zam mì zam.
     'I agree with you one hundred percent.'

tsantxäl (n., tsan.TXÄL) 'invitation'

From sìltsan 'good' + ätxäle 'request.'

     Ngeyä fìtsantxälìri atìtstunwinga' irayo, slä ke tsängun oe ziva'u.
     'Thank you for this kind invitation, but unfortunately I cannot come.'

tsantxäl si (vin., tsan.TXÄL si) 'invite'

     Po tsantxäl soli oer tsnì ziva'u kelkune.
     'She invited me to come to her home.'

(The use of tsnì here is related to its use with ätxäle si.)

say (adj.) 'loyal'

     Leiu po ken'aw sayrìp släkop say.
     'He's not only handsome but also, I'm happy to say, loyal.'

(As far as we know, say and sayrìp are not related.)

tìsay (n., tì.SAY) 'loyalty'

     Tì'eylanìri tsranten frato tìsay.
     'What matters most in friendship is loyalty.'

nìsay (adv., nì.SAY) 'loyally'

MIPA ZÌSÌT LEFPOM, MA EYLAN!

[Toliman]

Txantsan, mipa postì ta karyu Pawl

[Vawmataw]

I would like to inform everyone (because it's important to keep track of everything) that Karyu Pawl has created an additional word in the comment section (under one of my comments if you want to look for it).

It's särangal, most likely a noun that means "wish".

[Toliman]

Good to know, thanks for posting!