easy guide to the suffixes, infixes, and prefixes of Na'Vi

Deamon5550 · December 31, 2009, 10:42:22 PM

Here are a couple more infixes that I have seen around.

<ìy> will happen in the future, future proximate.

<am> past tense

<iv> this has been seen a lot and is speculated to mean a wish. Can anyone clarify.

EDIT: thanks omängum fra'uti

omängum fra'uti · January 01, 2010, 03:26:32 AM

That's ìy not iy.

Tsyaltuan · January 01, 2010, 05:05:20 PM

I have a question about infixes. In the Na'vi English Dictionary I see things like recent past verbal infix in position 2. What does in position 2 mean?

omängum fra'uti · January 01, 2010, 05:39:46 PM

First position and second position refer to which syllable they go in.

First position goes into the penultimate syllable (Second to last) and second position goes into the ultimate (Last) syllable. They always go right before the syllable's vowel.

tspang tsam · January 01, 2010, 08:37:57 PM

i have a quick question,

when you say somthing like the meaning of ìri is the same as ri, does that mean that we can choose which suffix to use?

omängum fra'uti · January 01, 2010, 08:40:20 PM

That was so quick I didn't even see it.

tute nuereime · January 02, 2010, 12:34:03 AM

ok updates added but i need an example where you use the -iy- and -am- infixes. and i'm not going to add the -iv- infix until we get a definite description of what it does.

omängum fra'uti · January 02, 2010, 12:48:24 AM

Quote from: tspang tsam on January 01, 2010, 08:37:57 PM

i have a quick question,

when you say somthing like the meaning of ìri is the same as ri, does that mean that we can choose which suffix to use?

No, it depends on the word. If it ends in a consonant, you can't just slap -ri (Or -l or -t) on because it might not be a correct or pronounceable word.

tute nuereime · January 02, 2010, 12:54:27 AM

like if you needed to add the -l to Kelutrel (hometree) it would come out Kelutrell which i think would be wrong. same thing for Änsìt (in the vocab list it is a childs name but it probably means something) you cant have Änsìtti

Maweya tirea · January 02, 2010, 04:03:13 PM

Irayo, aysmukan! This was all very helpful!

txur txe'lante · January 03, 2010, 03:56:13 PM

I have two questions so when you have a word with an infix I am never sure if that is part of the word or if it is a word with the infix added if that makes sense like
Taron
Tareion
if I didnt know that the root was Taron I wouldnt know that the ei is an infix. how can you tell?
Secondly, there are mulitple words with the same meaning how do you know whats what? if I say something and you are only familiar with one of the words for that particular word how yould you understand me?

can someone help clarify?
Irayo

pxitukru · January 03, 2010, 04:02:00 PM

I have to agree with you. Sometimes its hard to tell what somebody meant when it comes to words with several meanings.

anyway
Irayo for the list of all the suffixes, infixes, and prefixes they were really confusing me!

damp · January 03, 2010, 04:42:12 PM

Quote from: neytiri55 on January 03, 2010, 03:56:13 PM
I have two questions so when you have a word with an infix I am never sure if that is part of the word or if it is a word with the infix added if that makes sense like
Taron
Tareion
if I didnt know that the root was Taron I wouldnt know that the ei is an infix. how can you tell?
Secondly, there are mulitple words with the same meaning how do you know whats what? if I say something and you are only familiar with one of the words for that particular word how yould you understand me?

can someone help clarify?
Irayo

Yeah, sometimes is difficult, but in more days learning na'vi you are gonna getting use to it, and you will know all infixes and prefixes and you will identify them. In the beggining I couldn't identify the infixes but with practice you will be able to do that

Tìlatem Zamungeyu · January 05, 2010, 06:27:39 AM

I was looking at the Na'vi Pocket guide and I am getting confused about how -ri supercedes -yä. The only example in there shows the -ri so I am unsure when to use -yä.

Oe-ri ontu teya l‹äng›u
I-TOP nose full be‹PEJ›

When does this happen and when doesn't it? If you could please provide some examples.

Tanax · January 05, 2010, 06:54:36 AM

Quote from: Tìlatem Zamungeyu on January 05, 2010, 06:27:39 AM

I was looking at the Na'vi Pocket guide and I am getting confused about how -ri supercedes -yä. The only example in there shows the -ri so I am unsure when to use -yä.

Oe-ri ontu teya l‹äng›u
I-TOP nose full be‹PEJ›

When does this happen and when doesn't it? If you could please provide some examples.

I'm wondering this too.
Why shouldn't it be: Oe-yä ontu teya l<äng>u - My(hence the -yä) nose is full

Taronyu · January 05, 2010, 07:30:56 AM

The -ri topical case marker can replace ANY other case marker (even non-existent ones, like intransitive subjects). What the dude is saying here is that his nose may be the subject, but the topic of the sentence is him. This is made clear by the context: "My nose is full of his alien smell" is said to mean "I don't like this guy." Topic isn't based so much on the syntactic function, but on the implicature: what topic does the speaker want the hearer to focus on.

I don't think an example is necessary, that should sum it up.

Tanax · January 05, 2010, 08:47:57 AM

Quote from: Taronyu on January 05, 2010, 07:30:56 AM
The -ri topical case marker can replace ANY other case marker (even non-existent ones, like intransitive subjects). What the dude is saying here is that his nose may be the subject, but the topic of the sentence is him. This is made clear by the context: "My nose is full of his alien smell" is said to mean "I don't like this guy." Topic isn't based so much on the syntactic function, but on the implicature: what topic does the speaker want the hearer to focus on.

I don't think an example is necessary, that should sum it up.

I understand what you're saying, but I just can't .. understand it xD hah.
If we were to take an example from the main post in this thread.

-l suffix. He made an example "I ride my ikran". Why should Oe be Oe-l in that sentence? Isn't I the topic aswell? Thus it should be Oe-ri?
Or is My the topic?

Oe-l makto oe-ri ikran ??

Taronyu · January 05, 2010, 09:15:15 AM

The topic is whatever you want it to be.

If I want to emphasize that I, myself, me, hunt yeriks,

Oe-ri taron yerik-it.

If I want to emphasize that I hunt yeriks, not other stuff

Oe-l taron yerik-ìri.

If I want to say that I hunt them with a spear, emphasizing spear:

Oe-l taron yerik-it hu tukru-ri.

But it's more than jsut emphasis, it's what you're going to be talking about for a bit, it's what you want the listener to pay attention to.

Tanax · January 05, 2010, 09:21:43 AM

Quote from: Taronyu on January 05, 2010, 09:15:15 AM
The topic is whatever you want it to be.

If I want to emphasize that I, myself, me, hunt yeriks,

Oe-ri taron yerik-it.

If I want to emphasize that I hunt yeriks, not other stuff

Oe-l taron yerik-ìri.

If I want to say that I hunt them with a spear, emphasizing spear:

Oe-l taron yerik-it hu tukru-ri.

But it's more than jsut emphasis, it's what you're going to be talking about for a bit, it's what you want the listener to pay attention to.

Txana irayo ma tsmukan.
I get it now, I think

Alìm Tsamsiyu · January 05, 2010, 05:24:21 PM

So, I've seen some speculation by a couple people with the <ol> infix being capable of the same functions as the <er> infix. Considering it is the opposite of the <er>, wouldn't it be capable of going inside of another infix?

Also, wouldn't this make its meaning more clear as well? Considering the perfective tense does NOT imply past, present, or future, why is it that it is commonly used to mean past tense? I'm thinking that this is just because of the way that perfective works in English.

So anyway, that's what I'm wondering about, so if someone can discuss that'd be great.