My Na'vi video

Kaiatéya · January 23, 2010, 01:42:24 PM

I made this to amuse my Facebook friends primarily, but I figured since I had it done anyway, I might as well post it on here and see what others thought. I've basically been going from Dr Frommer's speech samples, the Wikipedia linguistics pages, listening to Avatar on subsequent viewings after learning about the language, and what's on the Learn Na'vi site.

Na'vi lu!

No doubt it's all wrong

omängum fra'uti · January 23, 2010, 02:25:50 PM

Actually it's not bad, only big comment I have is about your k, t and ps. (Well, not p in this case because you didn't use any where it would be different, but I'd presume you'd do it the same way.)

Specifically, they are unaspirated and unreleased. I actually just finished posting in this other thread about exactly that.

Kaiatéya · January 23, 2010, 05:29:14 PM

Irayo! I will check it out.

kewnya txamew'itan · January 24, 2010, 01:45:11 PM

Pretty good, I've got to second Omängum on the stops but I was pretty impressed with your syllable initial ng, a lot of people have trouble with it.

One small language error though, kìyavame should be kìyevame (you also pronounced it like the first one), but that was probably just from reading from a typo.

Kaiatéya · January 25, 2010, 01:42:19 AM

Quote from: kawngä mungeyu on January 24, 2010, 01:45:11 PM
Pretty good, I've got to seconf Omängum on the stops but I was pretty impressed with your syllable initial ng, a lot of people have trouble with it.

Thanks

I actually think I put a little too much "y" into my initial "ng". It comes out like ngyahu.

The "ng" was really educational for me because it explains a lot of things in some European languages that I never did understand, like "filet mignon". I don't know what the IPA is for mignon but the sound seems very similar to me.

I checked out the page Omängum posted ... wow! I was doing that awfully wrong. Time to go listen to the Frommer samples so more ..

QuoteOne small language error though, kìyavame should be kìyevame (you also pronounced it like the first one), but that was probably just from reading from a typo.

Arggghh ... there's no excuse for me.

I could've sworn I saw it as kìyavame on Wikipedia, but the history of the page proves me wrong. I must've just typo'd it and then read my typo out loud. It looks wrong to me even reading it back, there.

kewnya txamew'itan · January 25, 2010, 03:54:29 PM

Quote from: Kaiatéya on January 25, 2010, 01:42:19 AM
Thanks I actually think I put a little too much "y" into my initial "ng". It comes out like ngyahu.

The "ng" was really educational for me because it explains a lot of things in some European languages that I never did understand, like "filet mignon". I don't know what the IPA is for mignon but the sound seems very similar to me.

I'm not hearing the y, the ng sounds pretty much perfect to me.

Mignon uses [ ɲ ] which is the same as the ny in canyon not [ ŋ ] which is the same as the ng in sing.

They're similar sounds but not that close.

Kaiatéya · February 06, 2010, 01:08:33 AM

And here it is.

Pronunciation test MkII: the revenge.

http://kayateia.net/blogaudio/20100205_navi_test_2.mp3

This was me pronouncing the conversation from this guide.

If it sounds funky, blame my stuffed up sinuses

That and the fact that I took each phrase separately until I was happy with the results. "Kaltxì, tsun oe ngahu..." I slowed down on 'cause it scares me ..

I think the pronunciation of each word is ok though (maybe that kaltxì is a bit under-ejected).

Ftiafpi · February 08, 2010, 07:00:12 PM

Quote from: Kaiatéya on February 06, 2010, 01:08:33 AM
And here it is. Pronunciation test MkII: the revenge.

http://kayateia.net/blogaudio/20100205_navi_test_2.mp3

This was me pronouncing the conversation from this guide.

If it sounds funky, blame my stuffed up sinuses That and the fact that I took each phrase separately until I was happy with the results. "Kaltxì, tsun oe ngahu..." I slowed down on 'cause it scares me .. I think the pronunciation of each word is ok though (maybe that kaltxì is a bit under-ejected).

Wow, doing great so far! Some things to work on though:

You're right, your edjective in the first "kaltxì" was a little muted, I know you can do them fine though from your first video.
"Tsmukan" seems to have lost it's 'ts' somewhere and had it replaced with a 't', better go find it

"Kame" you had really good but there seems to be a second 'e' on the end there. It should be pronounced "kaah-mmeh" (IPA: ka-mε)
Your first "srak" sounds great but your 2nd had an ever so slight little released 'k' sneak in there. The unreleased 'k' is say 'srak' including the released 'k', then, right when you go to say the 'k' in 'srak' instead stop your tongue right in the back of your mouth just when you're about to make the 'k' sound and hold the air in you throat (glottis). There, that's an unreleased 'k' sound, it's essentially the start of the 'k' sound without the ending.

Might be a few more things in there but overall it was very nice (I suppose anything else will be stuffy noses, that's gotta kill ones ability to do a good Na'vi accent I bet).

Great job though, some things you've done really well:
Great "ngahu", you've got that hard 'ng' dipthong down great!
Great overall job on the long "it's a pleasure to be able to chat with you" sentence, your edjective on "pivänkxo" was great.
Excellent job on the first "srak" and the un-aspirated 'p' on "fpom".
Great job on "oeru txoa livu".

'Itan Atxur · February 08, 2010, 07:18:59 PM

This is actually pretty helpful.

Kaiatéya · February 08, 2010, 08:16:53 PM

Quote from: Ftiafpi on February 08, 2010, 07:00:12 PM
"Kame" you had really good but there seems to be a second 'e' on the end there. It should be pronounced "kaah-mmeh" (IPA: ka-mε)

It was supposed to be "kameie" actually, so maybe I just muddled it like "tsmukan"

Or do you mean the initial "kame" of "kameie"?

Thank you for all your comments! I will continue to practice. Ever since I found it in the wiki, I've been saying oeru txoa livu constantly.. hehe .. it just sounds cool to me. I just occasionally find a new phrase and say it a lot while doing other things.

In general I think that I'm ok with speaking single words or short phrases that only involve one "tricky" non-English concept, but when it starts turning into full sentences I have trouble keeping everything in mind at once. Just something that will take practice, no doubt.

Edit: I should also say, a friend commented that my sentences sound kinda "flat" .. not much in the way of inflection. I tend to do that with new foreign languages until I can listen to enough of it to get a feel for how natives would inflect it. We also know sadly little about where to put stresses on a lot of words, so that makes it tougher. I may start listening to some Frommer recordings and such to help with that part too. When the movie DVD is out, that will also help.

'Itan Atxur · February 08, 2010, 09:18:18 PM

Lol. And I thought I was the only one getting completely random phrases stuck in my head!

Ftiafpi · February 08, 2010, 09:49:08 PM

Quote from: Kaiatéya on February 08, 2010, 08:16:53 PM
Quote from: Ftiafpi on February 08, 2010, 07:00:12 PM
"Kame" you had really good but there seems to be a second 'e' on the end there. It should be pronounced "kaah-mmeh" (IPA: ka-mε)

It was supposed to be "kameie" actually, so maybe I just muddled it like "tsmukan" Or do you mean the initial "kame" of "kameie"?

Thank you for all your comments! I will continue to practice. Ever since I found it in the wiki, I've been saying oeru txoa livu constantly.. hehe .. it just sounds cool to me. I just occasionally find a new phrase and say it a lot while doing other things.

In general I think that I'm ok with speaking single words or short phrases that only involve one "tricky" non-English concept, but when it starts turning into full sentences I have trouble keeping everything in mind at once. Just something that will take practice, no doubt.

Edit: I should also say, a friend commented that my sentences sound kinda "flat" .. not much in the way of inflection. I tend to do that with new foreign languages until I can listen to enough of it to get a feel for how natives would inflect it. We also know sadly little about where to put stresses on a lot of words, so that makes it tougher. I may start listening to some Frommer recordings and such to help with that part too. When the movie DVD is out, that will also help.

Oh, okay, 'kameie' should have an 'ee' sound from the 'i' in there, also remember that each vowel is in a new syllable.

Anyway, you're doing great, keep it up.

Kaiatéya · February 08, 2010, 11:19:05 PM

Quote from: Itan Atxur on February 08, 2010, 09:18:18 PM
Lol. And I thought I was the only one getting completely random phrases stuck in my head!

Hah, no!

I'm trying to get where I know enough to have a basic conversation with someone. We have a meetup in Seattle this next Sunday so it would be handy

Quote from: Ftiafpi on February 08, 2010, 09:49:08 PM
Oh, okay, 'kameie' should have an 'ee' sound from the 'i' in there, also remember that each vowel is in a new syllable.

Anyway, you're doing great, keep it up.

Thanks!

I do usually get the 'ee' in there, so it must've just been that I slurred it. Anyway, we got it figured out, then

kah-meh-ee-eh

In that vein, try saying the name of this fun town in Hawai'i: Aiea

Hawaiian also has the "long string of pronounced vowels" thing. A lot of Hawaiian names can actually be (mostly) pronounced using Na'vi phonetics, like "Haleakala".