ì and its pronunciation

[Kiliyä]

Listening to Dr Frommer read/speak his message to the community got me thinking about the ì that we have... it sounds like a schwa (the a in alone, etc.)  What say you?

[Lurk]

I completely agree, even though I feel there's a 100% chance I'm wrong.

If you listen to Frommer, or Grace from the movie "Kaltxì" is almost "Kalteh.", but not quite.

[suomichris]

I completely agree, even though I feel there's a 100% chance I'm wrong.

Oh, come on, give yourself at least a 1% chance of being right!

Unfortunately, I don't think you are (sorry!).  To me, it sounds like it moves back and forth between [ɪ] (as in "bid") and [ɨ], which some English speakers sort of have as the /i/ in -ing.  This kind of central vowel shows up all over the Amazon basin, and Naʼvi definitely has that sort of sound to it...

[omängum fra'uti]

My theory is that it's the i in "bid", but it's just really f'n hard to pronounce that vowel after an ejective.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!

[kewnya txamew'itan]

I'm siding with the bidders.

This also matches Frommer's IPA usage (which isn't perfect) completely whereas what you're suggesting would be [ ʊ ] which wikipedia lists (and sounds to me most like, but not exactly the same) as a u.

[bagget00]

anyone here watch Lilo and Stitch? There is a part where jumba has just captured stitch and they are arguing about rescueing the girl. Jumba starts yelling about  " you expect me to let you go and then fly you to the girl?! And stitch's reply was almost an ihh sound. Thats how i have been saying the ì

[justNaviBrother]

The last variant of pronunciation was almost right. ì = ieh

[Ateyo te Kellett]

well. according to the na'vi dictionary on learnnavi.org and the one i downloaded, it is pronounced like an [ehh] sound. at least on the word kaltxì

[wm.annis]

well. according to the na'vi dictionary on learnnavi.org and the one i downloaded, it is pronounced like an [ehh] sound. at least on the word kaltxì

Then that is an error.

The sound for ì is unambiguously described in the Language Log guest blog post.  It is the "ih" sound in sit.  While this is a very common sound in English, it presents a little difficulty because there are constrains about where the sound can occur in English.  It doesn't usually come at the end of words, but in Na'vi it can occur where any other vowel can.

[Txur’Itan]

I am curious about certain letter groupings with ì and ng.

For instance I run into some trouble when attempting to transition ì into ng .

So far the easiest way for me to do it is to speak very slowly on the ì , but the is likely incorrect when speaking words like tsìng which adjusting between e ì and i is a struggle, since it can seem like I am adding syllables.

So for me I am trying for tsìng and tìng get:

tseng
tsing
teng
ting

And can't manage to nail the tsìng or tìng sound to save my life as a one syllable word.

Should I level the tongue and move it back or bring it up to glide into the ng sound?

Since ì and i are treated as allomorphs in some word cases how critical is the variation in actuality?

Should we use the Cherokee nasal ì and be done with it? 

[wm.annis]

And can't manage to nail the tsìng or tìng sound to save my life as a one syllable word.

These should rhyme with "thing" or "sing".  What regional dialect of English do you speak? 

[Txur’Itan]

And can't manage to nail the tsìng or tìng sound to save my life as a one syllable word.

These should rhyme with "thing" or "sing".  What regional dialect of English do you speak?  

Californian... =(
I would prefer to be Australian or Scouse...

Ok so using the Wikipedia IPA sounds in my accent I get sing to sound like s i ŋ:

So for the word tsìng I am sounding like more of the second pronunciation below:

ts	ì	ng
AS	.	.
ts	I	ŋ
OR	.	.
ts	i	ŋ

[Kì'eyawn]

Well, i can't answer to discussions of the various vowels of human languages--gonna play the "not a linguist" card here.

I will say that i've been doing my level best to pronounce ì like in pick, sing, etc.  But, like others have mentioned, after the ejectives i find it tends to shift one of two ways--so, for example, unless i'm really careful kaltxì tends to come out like *kaltxi or (à la Grace Augustine) *kaltxe'.  I also find it tends to shift to sound more like the vowels that come after it in a word, which i'm comfortable blaming on a year of studying Turkish and getting this idea in my head that languages are incomplete without vowel harmony...

[Atan'eveng]

Wouldn't it be something close to U in "under"?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Definitely not.

From what Frommer's told us, it should be the i in bid in all cases. That said, it's difficult for some people to say it so various other vowels might appear but I don't think anyone else has ever heard or said it as the u you describe.