Please check my pronounciation please

[Swok Txon]

Ok i am making little lists of vocabulary to learn each day and i just want to make sure i am pronouncing these words correctly.


(The phonetics i outline are to be pronounced in normal english not in the Na'vi way)


Kaltxi – (Kal - tuh - E)

Kiyevame – (Key - eh - varme - meh)

Skxawng – (skuh - awn - g) <---i hold the ng ending

Irayo – (E - ray - Oh)

Eywa naghu – (Eywa - na - ghu)

Oel ngait kameie – (O-L - Ngaiy - kam - A)

Trr – (Trr trilled)

Na'ring – (Na - Reeng)

Kelku – (Kel - Koo)

Tirey – ( Tee - Ray)

Rey – (Rey)

Txon – (Tuh - on)

Tompa – (Tom - Pah)

Taw – (Taw)

Tirea – (Tee - rey - A)

Tanhi – (Tahn - he)

Tswake – (Ts - walk - E)

Utral – (You - Trul)

Hufwe – (Hoof - wey)

Kifkey – (Kif - key)

Ngawng – (N - gaw - ng) <---- i hold the ng ending


Hope you can understand the phonetics i put there (which are not meant to be Na'vi phonetics but english phonetics)


Your help is appreciated

[Doolio]

okay, it is hard to explain this in written form and in english approximation, but i'll tru to pinpoint the most important stuff. it would be great if you would listen to frommer's clips, and analyze them.

irayo - ee-ry-o (not 'oh', in na'vi, a, ä, e, i, ì, o and u are monophthongs - only one sound is heard) so i will approximate the pronunciation for you:

a - like in 'father'
ä - 'cat'
e - 'net'
i - 'seek'
ì - 'sin'
o - 'caught' (with a brittish accent)
u - 'boom' or 'rule'

therefore, for example, oel should't be "o-l" as in "oh-el", but more of a "aw-eL" (not quite, but you know what i mean)

remember, not diphthongs (two or more sounds per vowel), monophthongs (only one sound, no transformation of sound)

it affects your others approximations, so just apply this to them too.

[Ftiafpi]

probably the best place to get pronunciation help is the skype chat.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

o - 'caught' (with a brittish accent)

That would be the same sound as in "or". The wikipedia ipa page gives caught as the example for New Zealand and Australian accents which has quite a different sound from a British accent. To me, having listened to one audio clip on the wikipedia page for that ipa smbol (the example from Swedish), the most obvious example for British English is row as with American English.

[Doolio]

yes, i agree, but i think the 'row' example would confuse some learners as they would think na'vi "o" could be diphthong (for example, if they don't sepparate o from w in this example).

[kewnya txamew'itan]

ok, if we're saying row is a bad example, what about the o from no?

[Doolio]

"o" in "no" is a diphthong, all na'vi vowels are monophthongs. it is similar, if not the same as "o" in spanish, french, italian...try 'bongiorno' in italian (with an italian accent, not english, with an english accent, the last 'o' is turned into a diphthong), there you have three of them:)
your example with 'or' was quite good actually. listen to frommer saying 'ngaru lu fpom srak', and notice the 'o' in 'fpom', for instance. the pronunciation of 'o' in na'vi doesn't change, no matter where it is in the word, or which letters surround it.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Having listened to a clip of Frommer saying ngaru lu fpom srak, I now think that it's more like the first o in bottom than the o in "or" or in no.

[Doolio]

i think that is because it is shorter than in "or", and not because it doesn't sound like it. concentrate on sound only. the 'bottom' would be okay, but there are many english dialects that pronounce 'bottom' differently. i mean, if you were john wayne, you would probably say 'o' in 'bottom' as 'a' in 'father':) but if we are talking about brittish pronunciation, than 'bottom' would be very good example.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

in or, the tongue is further back in the mouth so it isn't a perfect substitute. Thanks about the other accents, I find it very hard to remember that the vast majority of English speakers don't speak British English, for those accents or is probably best although perhaps with a note that the tongue should be a little further forward.