I thought I could pronounce "Skxawng"… then I found out i was wrong.

Started by 'Onatxan te Skxawng Tìrey'itan, March 24, 2012, 04:34:33 PM

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'Onatxan te Skxawng Tìrey'itan

I thought I understood the concept behind the pronunciation of px/tx/kx. I used them... basically I guess how you use '—putting a quick pause in my speeching (or breathing. not entirely sure what I was pausing, but I think you know what I mean I did).
Last night I was watching Avatar for the first time since i started learning Na'vi. Then I realized that there was no pause in "Skxawng".
So now I'm confused. I apologize if I'm repeating a commonly asked question, but... i'm a newb and, (more importantly) I'm lazy! ;) And didn't have the patience to search through the forums to find the answer.
So how exactly do you pronounce the "-x" letters? Because from what I've seen/heard from videos/the movie, it doesn't sound any different from p/t/k. So weird...
Nga txo ke flä nìsngä'i, rä'ä kivä Eywa'evengne! ;)

Alyara Arati

I, too, was confused when I first started by the pronunciation in the film.  The sad truth is that the actors didn't always pronounce every word correctly, and if it was a good take, they didn't always stop to redo it. :-X

Px, kx, tx are called ejective consonants because, true to their name, they should "pop" out of your mouth, and then there's kind of half a pause after them.  Don't worry if you don't get it perfect at first, just try your best. :D

There is a whole thread dedicated to them here, and many auditory examples of how they should sound are available around the forum, as well as there.
Learn how to see.  Realize that everything connects to everything else.
~ Leonardo da Vinci

'Onatxan te Skxawng Tìrey'itan

Nga txo ke flä nìsngä'i, rä'ä kivä Eywa'evengne! ;)

Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì

What was helpful to me when I started learning was to think of the x in the ejectives as a glottal stop ' and just pronounce the t k or x harder then usual.

-Txonä Rolyu




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