World map in na'vi

[Swok Txon]

OMG I SO WANT THIS!!!!


Eywa Naghu!

[Mako]

Holland: Otxandì
Austria: Ästärrayk
Belgium: Bìllti'a
Australia: Ösralixga
France: Frängtze
Brazil: Rrzìl

A little help: An x can't be after an i, only a p, t and k, and there isn't a z in Na'vi.

[Prrton]

Holland: Otxandì
Austria: Ästärrayk
Belgium: Bìllti'a
Australia: Ösralixga
France: Frängtze
Brazil: Rrzìl

A little help: An x can't be after an i, only a p, t and k, and there isn't a z in Na'vi.

Ösralixga >>> Aw.strr.ey.li.a?
Frängtze >>> Fransì or Fransu

There's a z-. It's even in Zìsìtyä snä'ikrr alefpom ngaru l-iv-ei-u! ("Happy New Year to You!"). It just can come at the end of a syllable. But, you can stick the short i [ ì ] after it if it comes at the end of a word.

Belize >>> Pelizì

[Mako]

Huh. The wikipedia article that Frommer said was reliable shows no z.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

looking over the previous posts with large numbers of names in there are several ones that don't seem right.

Austria: Ästärrayk
Australia: Ösralixga
France: Frängtze

In Austria, Austria is known as Ostereich (sorry for missing umlauts) which, as far as I know, should mean that the transliteration begins with an "o" not a "ä"

Australia's one is incredibly wonky (where'd the umlaut on the o come from). Having quickly brushed up on my ozzy accents I think it should probably be Os.ra.lia

Also, the France one has obviously come from the French word for French Francais not for France which is France and should be transliterated as Fron or Fros (unfortunately we can't have the ns as consonant clusters can only be before the vowel).



In the second big post I have issues with the following:

USA = Yu'E'Sey
Canada = Ka'na'txa or Kä'na'txa
México = Mehiko
Panamá = Pa'na'ma
Argentina = Arhenti'na
France = Frawnsì (or Frawnsu may be better ?)
Germany = Txoitxlan
Spain = E'spanya

USA's already been settled.

I don't so much have an issue with Canada, rather I wanted to say that I support the second transliteration.

The problem with Mexico's transliteration is that Na'vi has no h so we can't do me.hi.ko, instead I think that a glottal stop or possibly a k are reasonable substitutes and so we should have me'iko or me.ki.ko.

For the South American ones my pronounciation and hence transliterations are all based on Spanish Spanish so may not be correct.

With Panama I think it would probably be more accurate with ä not a.

With Argentina, again we have no h in Na'vi and the r in the first syllable doesn't make much sense with the h there. This might be better as Ar.en.ti.na by just dropping the r.

France I've already covered my issues with.

Germany's been done already.

For Spain I think äs are probably closer to the Spanish than as.



Anyway, here are some of my own for you to criticise (syllable breaks marked with ".")

• England: Ìng.län
• Wales: Kem.ri
• Scotland: Äl.a.pu (should be an uhh sound, not sure what the best approximation would be)
• Britain: Prrt.eyn or Prrt.en
• Denmark: Dän.mak
• South Africa: Sawf Äf.rì.ca
• Italy: It.äl.i.ä
• New Zealand: Nu Zey.län

That's probably all the countries that I know how the locals pronounce the name well enough to try to transliterate, I may post some City names from places in Britain later.



Edit: oe lu skxawng! I misread the phonetics page, there is an h after all, ayngengal si txoa oeti.

(how did I miss that, it's all over the place, hrrap, ohe!)

In that case, Me.hi.ko is fine, for Argentina, the r is unnecessary, the sound Ar carries in English is the same as a in Na'vi so I'd go with A.hen.ti.na.

[Numeie]

I missed this until I saw kawng mungeyu's post.

México = Mehiko

"Méjico" is considered derogatory by many Mexicans. I suggest Mek·si·ko.

Germany = Txoitxlan

Haven't you stressed two syllables? Is that allowed?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

I didn't know that about Mexico, thanks for warning me, I'm sure the Mexican Spanish assistant at my school says it that way but that's probably just because that's how we think of it when we think of it in Spanish (if that makes sense).

Irayo numeie.

[leli'ua tukru]

I missed this until I saw kawng mungeyu's post.

México = Mehiko

"Méjico" is considered derogatory by many Mexicans. I suggest Mek·si·ko.

I don't know about that... I'm Mexican, and I don't find it derogatory?  Anyway, the correct phonetic spelling for Mexico in Spanish would use an "h" sound rather than an "ks" sound.

Just puttin my two cents in.

[Prrton]

I missed this until I saw kawng mungeyu's post.

Germany = Txoitxlan

Haven't you stressed two syllables? Is that allowed?

Yes. Sorry. I seem to have Overaggressive Underlining Syndrome and a propensity to over-insert glottal stops as well. 

Txo.i.tslan is probably closer, but I'm pretty sure the German-speakers have figured this out already, and I doubt that I got it right in my initial list for LOTS of places. I was just throwing it out there so that people more qualified than I (native speakers from the relevant regions), could come up with solid recommendations. Thanks for carrying the torch! 

[Txonyä Maktoyu]

Kaltxì! Im from Wales, and we say 'Cymru' like 'kumri' in Na'vi. Maybe a suggestion? Its more an 'u' sound than an 'e'. In English it would be like 'coomree'

Eywa ngahu,
Daz x x

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Ma daz, sorry, it's a bit hard to tell from the clip on wikipedia, I'll bow to your superior knowledge in this matter.

[Txonyä Maktoyu]

Oh, thats ok Just helping Oe thought ngari had spoken to tute (people?) from Kumri Irayo!

Eywa ngahu,
Daz x x

[Thorinbur]

Ok Time for Poland to be added to that list as well. We finally get to the agreement on Polish subforum and here's what we decided:

Poland in Polish = Polska nìNa'vi = Polskxa

Could you please add us to the list?

[Ayzìsìt Alenantang]

Israel= Ìzrayel?

[Prrton]

Israel= Ìzrayel?

Based on the Hebrew (ישראל) or Arabic (إسرائيل) we'd get either Yi.sra'el or I.sra'il in Na'vi. Na'vi doesn't allow the sound ìz as a discrete syllable nor does it allow zra. One might *merge* the Hebrew and Arabic (both from the same language family) and get:

   I.sra'el

Since both feature a glottal stop before el ('el), and Na'vi was born to handle that , I'd vote that it stay in and more true to the original languages. Na'vi can render the Hebrew almost perfectly, but cannot deal with the long vowels of the Arabic.

[Kiliyä]

Australia could be something like:

Osralixga (O has umlaut, the two dots on top)

maby...
kiyevame!

I've spelt it Ostreylie, but realise now that the -s- is illegal.  More likely to be Osìtreylie.

And Cymru could easily be Kìmri.

Westen Osìtreylie      Western Australia
Sawf Osìtreylie         South Australia
Norfen Terìtori         Northern Territory
Kuinslän            Queensland
Nìu Sawf Weylsì         New South Wales
Osìtreylyen Käpìtll Terìtori   Australian Capital Territory
Viktorìe            Victoria
Tazìmeynìe         Tasmania

Perth      Perfì
Adelaide      Ätäleyt
Darwin      Txa'wìn
Brisbane      Prrsìbìn
Sydney      Sìtni
Canberra      Cämpìre
Melbourne      Melpen
Hobart      Hopxärtì

Most of these are done on sound alone, using ì for a schwa-like sound rather than the bit vowel (which in Frommer's message to the community is more schwa-like to my ears).

[Furrkxan]

I'm from Turkey. Turkey is Türkiye in my language and we pronounce it like Turrkiyä ( or Turrkiye ).

So Turkey is Turrkiyä ( Because this one looks cooller ) in Na'vi.

[Mithcoriel]

I was thinking about the name Switzerland could have in Na'vi...here are some ideas:

Sìtxelän

Swìtxelät

I would go with a mix of those two: Swìtxelän.
Although, if we wanna use the swiss words: "Schweiz, Schwyz, Suisse" then I guess it would be... Swaytx, Switx, Swis.

Oh, Ma Eywayä mokri, are you Swiss too? ^^

Switzerland = Helve.ti.ka (this is VERY easy to render in Na'vi and quite regal.)

Um...but no one really calls it Helvetia. Certainly not the natives. That's some kind of ancient name.


Anyway, you guys realize that these are just the Na'vi names for an ideal situation where the Na'vi get to learn the right words from all the people? What's a whole lot more likely, since it seems only the Americans are on Pandora, is that they'd end up learning the English names for all these countries.

[tawway]

looking over the previous posts with large numbers of names in there are several ones that don't seem right.

• England: Ìng.län
• Wales: Kem.ri
• Scotland: Äl.a.pu (should be an uhh sound, not sure what the best approximation would be)
• Britain: Prrt.eyn or Prrt.en
• Denmark: Dän.mak
• South Africa: Sawf Äf.rì.ca
• Italy: It.äl.i.ä
• New Zealand: Nu Zey.län

That's probably all the countries that I know how the locals pronounce the name well enough to try to transliterate, I may post some City names from places in Britain later.



Edit: oe lu skxawng! I misread the phonetics page, there is an h after all, ayngengal si txoa oeti.

(how did I miss that, it's all over the place, hrrap, ohe!)

In that case, Me.hi.ko is fine, for Argentina, the r is unnecessary, the sound Ar carries in English is the same as a in Na'vi so I'd go with A.hen.ti.na.

The Maori for NZ is aotearoa - "land of the long white cloud". If only we had all those words.

[Miguel APG]

how do you Say Mexico in Na'vi

irayo, eywa ngahu