Local newspaper article

[Payoang]

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/

UC Santa Cruz student establishes resource for 'Avatar' language online
To the ranks of Elvish and Klingon, let us now add Na'vi. In the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien's created family of languages for his classic Middle Earth tales, and the famous mother tongue of the warriors of "Star Trek," there now exists another manufactured language of a fictional people, this one from James Cameron's monster hit movie "Avatar. Full Story

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14352230

UC Santa Cruz student establishes resource for 'Avatar' language online
By WALLACE BAINE
Posted: 02/07/2010 01:30:29 AM PST

To the ranks of Elvish and Klingon, let us now add Na'vi.

In the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien's created family of languages for his classic Middle Earth tales, and the famous mother tongue of the warriors of "Star Trek," there now exists another manufactured language of a fictional people, this one from James Cameron's monster hit movie "Avatar."

UC Santa Cruz film student Sebastian Wolff is bilingual, but Na'vi isn't one of his languages. Still, Wolff finds himself in the center of the growing online community built around the language of the statuesque, pale-blue natives of the planet Na'vi in "Avatar."

Wolff, 21, is the webmaster of LearnNavi.org, a site that acts as a jumping-off point in learning the language developed for the movie by linguist Paul Frommer of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

The German-born Wolff established the site within 24 hours of the film's mid-December release. Since then, he said, the site has attracted more than 750,000 unique visitors.

"Being bilingual, in German and English, I've always been a fan of languages," said Wolff, who says he's seen "Avatar" seven times. "And, immediately, I wondered what resources were out there on Na'vi. So we set up a guide to basic grammar rules, phonetics and vocabulary."

The film -- which recently passed "Titanic," also directed by Cameron, as the highest-grossing film of all time -- contains
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a limited amount of the Na'vi language, about 500 words. Wolff said he contacted Frommer, the language's creator, for more vocabulary.

"We got in touch with him for another 50 to 100 words and for phrases that might be useful, like I love you.'"

Not only has Frommer cooperated with the new venture, but 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, linked to Wolff's site from the film's official site. That caused problems, Wolff said.

"It crashed our site," he said.

LearnNavi.org contains several downloadable resources in PDF form, including a pocket guide, a glossary, an alphabet, dictionaries and a guide to linguistic terminology. Wolff has also set up an online store, where he sells T shirts and bumper stickers, emblazoned with Na'vi phrases such as "Kaltxi," which means "hello".

Wolff said a book of the Na'vi language may come down the line, but the language has to have time to grow and develop new vocabulary. He's hoping that the contributors to the forums of his site will help in that development.

The language was born from the fertile mind of James Cameron himself. He brought Frommer into the project in the early stages of "Avatar" to expand the handful of words Cameron had created into a working vocabulary. Frommer has said the language was inspired by African terms and the language of the Maori people of New Zealand.

For LearnNavi.org, Wolff has also collected donations from visitors to help offset the costs of the site. But, he said, he's yet to break even on his costs. On the merchandising front, he's treading carefully.

"We want to stay on good terms with 20th Century Fox," he said. "There is some question to who exactly has the rights to the Na'vi language itself."

For more information on the Na'vi language, go to www.learnnavi.org.

[Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn]

Awwww some people get all the luck.

And how dare they photoshop you to look like a human, they disgrace the Na'vi.

[Tìsyaw Nantangä]

Good job man. (y)

[Omatikaya'itan]

Congrats man. if there is a book coming out thats about the language i will be one of the firsts to buy it just let me know. congrats agian yet they should have put your pic as Na'vi

[Eaite Randjam]

I'm sure that this has been answered somewhere else, but just how much money does it take to run this site?

[Étienne]

Awesome

[Seze]

Great article, really bad comments though...

[Atoki Atanyä]

An article? Sweet!

And nice shirt.

[Étienne]

Great article, really bad comments though...

They are always bad.

[Tengfya swizaw]

Great article, really bad comments though...

They are always bad.

But amusing, nonetheless.
Kudos, seabass. Seeing as you've got a 3591-member strong site to back you up, don't worry about a few middle-aged, obese haters who wish for better days and aren't able to see the world in anything but cynicism.
I plan on maybe posting an extensive response on the site later, just because I enjoy that sort of thing. If they say I'm a nerd and have no life, they're absolutely right. After all, how much of a life can a 15-year old geek have other than skimming the intarwebs and learning fictional languages?  Other than school, of course.

[archaic]

Speaking as someone who is middle-aged, obese, a hater who wishes for better days and who's not able to see the world with anything but cynicism.
I'd just like to say "I'm happy to betray my own kind, and stand shoulder to shoulder with you ma Seabass tsmukan."

Pity about the photo I guess they made you pink and stripe free, to prevent us middle-aged, obese haters from recognizing you, like the white dot in front of the faces of crim's shown on tv.
The obviously earth back ground clearly dropped in behind to complete the overall effect.

[Unilfwewyu]

I added a bit of myself into one of the comments. It's the one that says it's posted by Mjllonir.

What I mentioned there was only the tip of the iceberg, I could have added so much more.