New pronunciation video, nìNa'vi nìwotx

Started by Kaiatéya, February 20, 2010, 06:02:11 PM

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Kaiatéya

nìNa'vi nìwotx!

Just me playing around with practicing pronunciation some more, this time with some (no doubt badly) composed sentences of my own.

Tìng Eywatikìte'e

Fantastic! We need more of these! I cannot learn correct pronunciation with out hearing it a million times (not talented enough to learn from text :( )

Please make more!
Oeri lu Eywayä 'eveng


Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

This was extremely wonderful, some of the best I've heard. Just one thing though, when you said "kxawm" you didn't really do an ejective, you had more of just a hard "k" sound. That's all I could find right now I'll take a closer look later.
Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
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Kaiatéya

Hehe .. thank you all for your comments! I will, as always continue practicing.

I know I flubbed the "irayo" near the end too, it came out more like ìrayo. Those things are not hard to do, but it seems like they're hard to do consistently without thinking about it :)

I'm trying to start moving more into learning more grammar and vocabulary, thus the sentences of my own in the mix. I might try to write a story or something next. Still working up to my music project...

Erimeyz

Awesome.  Thank you for doing this.

  - Eri

Erimeyz

Okay, here's what I got from a quick critical listening.  Some of these are close calls and subjective, so other Na'viistas may not hear them as the errors that I heard.  These are in chronological order, so you should be able to follow along.

Kaltxì - tx sounds breathy, not ejective

nìwotx - ì sounds like i

vìtxio - ì sounds like i

Nìawve - e sounds like ey

tìplltxe - ll sounds like English r - like purr instead of pull without the u (but you absolutely nailed the e!)

'Awve - beautiful initial '!

ultxari - the l got lost, sounded like "utxari"

oengeyä - ä sounds a little like uh (schwa)

l gets lost sometimes - remember that l is always "light", never "dark" - pronounce it with the tip of the tongue forward and the body of the tongue down, not raised.  That may help to ensure it gets clearly enunciated (maybe a deliberate choice by Frommer for that reason?).

Letxopu - ejection was a bit weak, but still distinctly present so that's okay, really.

rä'ä - glottal stop was pretty weak, came out as just a pause.

Ayoengìri - ì sounds like i

vrrtep - nailed the unreleased p! :)

ke - aspirated the k :(

ngal - not sure I hear ng here... I think it's actually pretty good, but it's hard to tell.

eltu - beautiful t!

As far as I can tell, "I apologize for my mistakes" is completely free of mistakes. :)

----

Okay, so I mentioned a few especially good pronunciations above, but only a few... because otherwise I would have been saying "wow, that was great" to pretty much every word.  You're really good at this.  Even with the handful of errors I picked out, I'd recommend this video unreservedly to anyone who wants to hear what Na'vi sounds like.  I especially like the contrast between your "normal" accent and your Na'vi accent; it's very helpful to hear that Na'vi has a distinct phonology that is different from Standard American English, but that anyone can learn the Na'vi phonology if they work at it.

... which you obviously have been doing. :)

Plus, I like your choice of phrases.  It shows some humor and some of your personality.  It's nice to have something that seems a little, well, personal, rather than formal.  Good stuff.

I think the next step is to add some intonation variety to your delivery.  I can tell you were being careful and deliberate in order to get the phonology correct; consequently, the whole speech comes across a little stiff and flat (with some exceptions, like "Srane nang! Irayo, ma Norm.")  But you're clearly at the point where you can use a conversational affect without losing correct pronunciation, so I'd love to see that in your next video.

Keep up the great work!

  - Eri

Kaiatéya

#7
Irayo for the critique, Eri :) I'll probably wait a little while so I'm not quite so "close" to it, and then check that stuff out.

The "flat" thing is kind of funny, because I've gotten that from multiple listeners, and I can hear it easily myself, but I haven't quite fixed it yet. It's just a matter of getting the basics down to where you don't have to think about them, and you can start building on that more. I'm always pushing myself .. I think if I slowed down and did it more "flat" then some of these other mistakes wouldn't have happened, but .. where's the fun in that? :) Hehe..

I'm glad I could make something useful! ;D

Edit: Forgot to mention, the beginning glottal stop -- that one plagued me for some time, a while back. But I had to learn it for Hawaiian too, which I studied a little. E.g. hula ʻauana, which is the hula done to western/European style music, ʻaʻa, which is a type of lava rock, and so on.

Kaltxì Palulukan!

2022 update: Working on the new astrology book. "How to read tarot" books are on Amazon, if you are into that sort of thing.
Okay, so the old podcast is here: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/radioavatar It was goofy fun that ended too soon, but we had creative people. I hope we can get a new gang together (interested? PM me, let's make some magic!)
(Very old, outdated) Na'vi FUN activity book is here: But what are you doing? Let me know! :)


Nìwotxkrr Tìyawn

Naruto Shippuden Episode 166: Confession
                                    Watch it, Love it, Live it

Lukxasì