Na'vi script ideas

Dean · October 02, 2010, 11:06:36 AM

Now that we have an established alphabet, has anyone created, or is anyone thinking about creating, a writing system for Na'vi? I love con-scripts (check out omniglot.com) and plan on developing one myself.

'eylan na'viyä · October 02, 2010, 12:17:22 PM

Quote from: Dean on October 02, 2010, 11:06:36 AM
Now that we have an established alphabet, has anyone created, or is anyone thinking about creating, a writing system for Na'vi? I love con-scripts (check out omniglot.com) and plan on developing one myself.

there are actually 3 atm:
http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/pamrelfya-aeoio/
http://forum.learnnavi.org/linguistics/uniltirantokx-alfapit/
http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/mipa-pamrelfya-fpi-navia-lifya/

and a "writing" system that i have done which uses modifications of leaves to encode the language.
http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/pamrelfya-aeoio/msg312148/#msg312148

Dean · October 02, 2010, 01:35:22 PM

Oh cool. Thanks! Perhaps I'll post mine when I can figure out how to get it from my paper to my computer LOL

'Oma Tirea · October 02, 2010, 05:52:53 PM

Quote from: Dean on October 02, 2010, 11:06:36 AM
Now that we have an established alphabet, has anyone created, or is anyone thinking about creating, a writing system for Na'vi? I love con-scripts (check out omniglot.com) and plan on developing one myself.

I'd say go for it, but there will still likely be some people out there who don't believe in a Na'vi script. Even Prrton, whose script has currently had the most popularity, has described his script as "ceremonial and 'irrelevant'".

Personally, I think my script needs the most improvement ATM

Dean · October 03, 2010, 03:44:18 PM

I'd do it just for my own pleasure. I know how people feel about a Na'vi "script", but like it or not, Na'vi does have one-we use it here every day. One has been developed out of necessity so that we can communicate in written form here.

'Oma Tirea · October 03, 2010, 08:27:19 PM

Sran, I truly don't mind the romanization of Na'vi.

Dean · October 04, 2010, 09:12:13 AM

Without the romanization of Na'vi this forum wouldn't exist

I really wouldn't expect a new writing system for Na'vi to ever really be taken seriously. Using the alphabet that we are all already familiar with is just too practical. It is, however, something that is fun and brings pleasure to at least its creator if no one else. I'd be honored (and surprised) if just one person on here wanted to learn and use mine, but even if no one does, I'll still have fun just sharing it.

Prrton's does seem to be very practical and usable under pretty much any situation (carvable, writable, etc.) I have a con-script that I created when I was a young teenager and have used personally for many years now (it's been around 18 years now, WOW that makes me feel old LOL) that I'll modify for use with Na'vi; however, it uses a lot of curves and is very flowing, so it would not be something that would be practical for carving. I'm not trying to base it on something that the Na'vi would use though, I'm creating it to be something that I/we would use, as most of us write with a pen or pencil on paper and can handle curves and circles just fine

Seze · October 04, 2010, 12:08:13 PM

I split this out of the original thread it was in. The current projects sticky thread was not the place to be having this type of discussion. It needed its own thread.

Dean · October 04, 2010, 07:36:43 PM

It did stray a bit, didn't it. Thanks Seze!

Seze · October 04, 2010, 07:53:52 PM

Quote from: Dean on October 04, 2010, 07:36:43 PM
It did stray a bit, didn't it. Thanks Seze!

No problem...

Dean · October 05, 2010, 09:32:27 AM

I see Prrton's alphabet being used in one of the pics from the workshop. That's nice! I'd love to hear how it was received by the others and K. Pawl there. It must have been accepted to some extent.

Prrton · October 07, 2010, 06:53:42 PM

Quote from: Dean on October 05, 2010, 09:32:27 AM
I see Prrton's alphabet being used in one of the pics from the workshop. That's nice! I'd love to hear how it was received by the others and K. Pawl there. It must have been accepted to some extent.

Ma Dean,

We didn't really talk about it at all. There were actual important fish to fry.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing your script(s).

I'm pretty sure that any and everything that might have been written was done by Tirea Aean (aka Spirit Blue).

We didn't discuss any of it with K. Pawl, but one day perhaps a non-Roman writing system will be relevant in some way.

As you point out, it's totally fine for them to be personal and "for fun" for the time being.

'Oma Tirea · October 08, 2010, 12:34:47 AM

Quote from: Prrton on October 07, 2010, 06:53:42 PM
We didn't discuss any of it with K. Pawl, but one day perhaps a non-Roman writing system will be relevant in some way.

Spoiler

Dean · October 16, 2010, 10:38:04 AM

I have to admit that I've not learned much spoken Na'vi yet. I am more of a linguist at heart and have looked much more at the grammatical side of Na'vi and how it works than I have at actually speaking it.

I have noticed, though, in writing Na'vi with the Roman alphabet that there are instances that can be very confusing phonetically to the new learner. For instance, the letter combination 'ayä': How do you know if this should be 'ay' 'ä', or if it is 'a' 'yä'? Being that 'yä' is a fairly common suffix, it is (or any suffix that begins with a 'y' for that matter) always going to cause confusion if the word it is being attached to ends with an 'e' or 'a'. This of course could be eliminated with a writing system that represents diphthongs with a single symbol-just like karyu Pawl suggested in his post on naviteri.org with the Na'vi alphabet

Prrton · October 16, 2010, 12:28:23 PM

Quote from: Dean on October 16, 2010, 10:38:04 AM
I have to admit that I've not learned much spoken Na'vi yet. I am more of a linguist at heart and have looked much more at the grammatical side of Na'vi and how it works than I have at actually speaking it.

I have noticed, though, in writing Na'vi with the Roman alphabet that there are instances that can be very confusing phonetically to the new learner. For instance, the letter combination 'ayä': How do you know if this should be 'ay' 'ä', or if it is 'a' 'yä'? Being that 'yä' is a fairly common suffix, it is (or any suffix that begins with a 'y' for that matter) always going to cause confusion if the word it is being attached to ends with an 'e' or 'a'. This of course could be eliminated with a writing system that represents diphthongs with a single symbol-just like karyu Pawl suggested in his post on naviteri.org with the Na'vi alphabet

Funny you should mention that today. Just as of YESTERDAY the script that I came up with as a "system" and Kemaweyan is creating as an OpenType font (Eoio) became capable of rendering these distinctions contextually. It's still a work in progress, but you can see the variations clearly in oe (subject, I), oeyä (standard genitive "my"), and oey (familiar/casual register genitive "my"), and irayo:

Until yesterday the font was rendering i.ra.yo as i.ray.o.

There is a great deal of ambiguity as what goes on vocally at these diphthong+vowel boundaries (especially in fast speech), but it seems that -yä (as a discrete syllable) is indicated for the genitive in all scenarios for N-i-GEN, N-ì-GEN, N-e-Gen, N-ä-GEN and N-a-GEN. (Note that the noun soaia (family) is irregular in the genitive »»» soaiä.) N-o and N-u simply add -ä.

Dean · October 16, 2010, 01:01:25 PM

Awesome! I'm glad to see that this issue is seen and being addressed by the other con-scripts. I totally see the ambiguity with 'ay' and 'a-y', but there's definitely a noticeable difference with 'ey' and 'e-y'.