Pronunciation Mini-Guide

[tsrräfkxätu]

Hey all,

Here's a little guide to help nail those tricky Na'vi sounds. It's focused on English-speakers for now, but I'm happy to cover the rest of the sounds, if it is requested. The key to getting the pronunciation right is of course practice, and it's best if you first listen to the sounds a few times. This way my instructions will make more sense, and you can also measure how well you're doing. If you're really serious about it, I suggest you record your own sounds and listen to them -- sometimes there's a big difference between what you say and what you think you do.

(This post originally started as my contribution to Ftiafpi's sound bites, but I've since decided that a more general guide focusing on the typical mistakes that I hear or predict is probably more useful.)


Vowels

letter | IPA | instructions
a         [a]      Open your mouth real big, like you're a ferocious Thanator trying to bite a Na'vi in half, then say "ouch!" Then say "oooooo-uch" (like a lion's roar.) Then drop the "uch" part (where your mouth is closed). If that doesn't work for you, you can try saying a wide open "eye" [aj], then dropping the consonant [j].

o         [ o ]      This one comes naturally for some speakers (BE), but is more difficult for others. The important thing to remember is that this is not your normal English o, which is a diphthong, and sounds like "owe", nor is this the covered o which (for most North American speakers) sounds like "awe", i.e. the sound you have in "on". Probably the easiest way to get this right is by saying "owe" but without gliding into the w. Try to pronounce them separately, like "o-we" ("o-wah", you need to overdo it a little), and then drop the second part. There!

u         [ u ]      Make the monkey sound ("oo-ook"). Notice how your lips are rounded like you're sucking through a straw. Keep your lips and tongue like that, but this time blow the air out, as if blowing out  a candle.

e         [ɛ]      This one isn't too difficult at all, as most English speakers pronounce it in words like "ember" and "exit". What's tricky, however, is that English doesn't have a word that ends in that sound, the result of which is that most speakers (even the venerable Prrton) turn it into an [aɪ], [ i ], or [e] when it appears terminally. Just remember that it is [ɛ], always. If you have difficulties, just imagine that the word in question ends before the [ɛ], and then quickly add an English word which starts with one (e.g. atxkx-exit.)

Diphthongs

ay         [aɪ]      Another typical error is that people pronounce ay as [eɪ]. It's [aɪ] like "eye" or the letter I.

ey         [ɛɪ]      It's easy to associate this one with [eɪ] as in "May", but it is [ɛɪ]. See [ɛ] further up. The closest you can get to this in English is by saying "yet" backwards. Focus on how you pronounce it normally, and try to do it backwards (just don't write it down, because it will only confuse you.) Another, more convoluted method if you utter [ɛ] as in "exit", and "yet" in a rapid succession: this will give you "Eliot" without the l, and the [ɛɪ] sound.

aw         [aʊ]      This is real easy. If you can say a wide open "ouch" without the final "ch" then you can say this. Just be sure to start with a gaping mouth, as if at the dentist.

ew         [ɛʊ]      This sound isn't particularly difficult, but its spelling may lead to some confusion, because in English eu and ew stand for various things, none of which come close to the Na'vi pronunciation. Thus, there is no easy way to demonstrate this sound. Here's a somewhat artificial example: first utter [ɛ] (see above for tips), then immediately follow up with "word". If you do it right, you should end up saying "Edward" without the first d.

Pseudovowels

ll         [l]      This shouldn't be too hard, just remember that this is the l sound in "leap" not "cool", even if it is at the end of the word. Some speakers pronounce the two the same way, if you are one of them, just say "nnnnno", and feel how your tongue touches the part of the palate right behind the teeth. Now keep your tongue there - say "nnnnn" again if you have to - and then say l ("low") starting from the same position. The fact that this sound is syllabic only means that it doesn't need a vowel to receive stress. English has syllabic consonants too, just think of "kindle". At the end of that word you have a perfect syllabic [l] (and it isn't dark because of the [d] in front.)

rr         [r]      This is probably the worst one for most people. It sounds like a purr or an idling engine. If you can make those sounds with your tongue (and not in your throat) then you're probably very close to the [r]. Listen to the sample, and adjust if necessary.
If you speak an accent that has the flap (i.e. if you say "naughty" the way Neytiri says "nari") then you can try trilling that sound. To do that, first try to repeat it quickly by saying "Betty-ty-ty-ty-ty" (making sure that you don't switch to uttering [t]), so your tongue gets used to the movement. While doing that, just as your tongue touches the palate, blow on it hard so it flaps in the air. You don't actually move your tongue to create the trill -- the air form the lungs does that -- all you have to do is hold it in place.
If you pronounce naughty with a [t], then you're out of luck. A good starting point is the [t] sound as in "take" (or better yet, [l] in "lake", but only if you pronounce it touching the palate.) Form that position try to say "rake", and pay attention that the tip of your tongue almost (but not quite) touches the palate. You'll notice that uttering "rake" in from this position is nearly impossible. Now take a deep breath, and blow on your tongue while trying to say "rake". Eventually, it will come.
The syllabic [r] at the end of "saber" comes close to what you need to do here, only trilled.



Consonants

letter | IPA | instructions
'         [ʔ]      The infamous glottal stop is easier to produce than you may think. First of all, it exists in English. If you say "uh-oh", you already utter two of them: one before and one right after the first "u". If you pay attention, you'll feel a slight clicking deep down in your throat: that's the sound you're looking for. Basically, what you do is hold your breath for a fraction of a second before uttering the vowel sounds. One common mistake is that people think of it as some weird accent, that isn't really part of the word. Keep in mind that [ʔ] is a proper sound, like [n], and you have to pronounce it. When learning a word like Na'vi, don't think of it as a four-letter sequence with an apostrophe in the middle -- it's a five-letter word.
Another problematic situation is the word final/initial position. Most people can "fake" this sound by pausing for a short while in the middle of a word, but you can't do that if it's the word boundary. Listen to how you pronounce "uh-oh", and you'll notice that the first vowel has a little throat puff, as the pressure built up under the closed glottis is released into the next sound: this slight consonantal "grunt" comes at the beginning of 'eveng. When this sound comes at the end of a word it becomes unreleased just like the other stops (see below), so prrte' doesn't have a full [ʔ], rather it sounds as if the [e] before it were cut short. This happens because you continue with the word as if a full consonant sound followed (e.g. eveng), and even go on to make the occlusion in the throat, but don't release it (exhale) - at least not audibly.

kx, px, tx      [k'], [p'], [t']   The ejectives are also much simpler to make than it first seems. Here's how: hold your breath, then produce the sounds "k", "p", "t." Don't say "kay", "pee", and "tee", because it isn't going to work with vowels. Pretend that you're trying to utter "capita" without any vowels, and without exhaling. If you do it right, you'll hear three "clicking" sounds. So far so good. The next step is getting them right inside a word. The trick is that you should give them time to complete before letting any air out, or they will turn into standard pulmonic consonants. For example, when uttering atxkxe, you should go like: "atxkx-pause-e." [t'] and [k'] can be chained as neither of them uses air, but if you rush that terminal [ɛ] it will open into the [k'] and ruin it.

k, p, t      [k], [p], [t]   The two tricky issues that present themselves with these sounds are their unaspiratedness and unreleasedness. I wanted to cover them, but Erimeyz does a wonderful job of it on the wiki. Knock yourselves out.

r            [ɾ]      If you speak a North American dialect or Scottish or Irish English then you can do this. Otherwise, refer to [r] above for some tips on how to make this sound.

ng (g)      [ŋ]      This one is a standard English sound, and doesn't cause any trouble if it's word final. It's what you have at the end of "king." So skxawng is easy, but nga is a bit more challenging. There isn't really an easy way around this, pay attention to that sound at the end of "king" and try to get used to uttering that instead of a [g] (if you do an "ng" that already better, just don't stress the "n".) [ŋ] is much higher up in your vocal tract, the "click" is felt in the back of the soft palate instead of the throat as with the [g].

ts (c)      [ts]      I left an easy one for last. All you need to pay attention to with this one is that it's one sound, not two. You have this at the end of "cats" for example, just remember to keep it together and don't try to separate it into a [t-s].



That's pretty much it, I think. Your questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome. If you'd like some live help, PM me and we can arrange a Skype session.


update: the unreleased property is now mentioned in connection with word-final glottal stops

[Ftiafpi]

Ooh, a great guide, mind if I make a spoken version of this?

[Erimeyz]

Yay!  Great stuff. Added to the Pronunciation Guidance wiki page.

  - Eri

[kewnya txamew'itan]

• ouch isn't spelt phonetically so you can't seperate the vowels like that as it's one dipthong (aw) so it might be tricky for some people. Father is probably a better example (although that won't work for people from Yorkshire)
• I like the monkey for u. 
• leap doesn't really use a syllabic l. Table is the best example
• You're also missing the dipthongs aw and ew.

Other than that, this all looks good. Keep up the good work, kìyevame.

[tsrräfkxätu]

I'm British as well

• ouch isn't spelt phonetically so you can't seperate the vowels like that as it's one dipthong (aw) so it might be tricky for some people. Father is probably a better example (although that won't work for people from Yorkshire)
• I like the monkey for u. 
• leap doesn't really use a syllabic l. Table is the best example
• You're also missing the dipthongs aw and ew.

Other than that, this all looks good. Keep up the good work, kìyevame.

Hey,

Thanks for the input!

I chose "ouch" because in some dialects of American English "father" is not [a] but [ɐ]. Ouch is less ambivalent in that respect, and the closure of the mouth (to form the w), should help segment the sounds. I'll come up with a better example for the next update.

"Table" is syllabic indeed, but it is also dark for the majority of speakers, so it's not a good example (as Na'vi [l] is always light.) I think "balloon" would be better, but even that's not perfect.

As for aw and ew, I didn't hear/expect any problems with those two, hence their omission. I'll include them if people think they are problematic.

Stay tuned for more!
blueme

[Erimeyz]

As for aw and ew, I didn't hear/expect any problems with those two, hence their omission. I'll include them if people think they are problematic.

ew is terribly under-described in the materials we have at hand for beginners.  Basically, other than listening to an IPA clip, a novice has no guidance on how to pronounce this.  Plain-language guidance would be very, very helpful, and greatly appreciated. (by me! but others too, I'm sure)

  - Eri

[kewnya txamew'itan]

ew is very tricky, I'd suggesting doing one for that.

aw isn't difficult but some people might somehow get confused by it, better safe than sorry.

As for ballon, that's also just a normal l. The ll is tricky to find examples of though (having typed that though, I though example but that might also be dark).

[tsrräfkxätu]

Allright, I'll add ew and aw when I get home.

[tsrräfkxätu]

Just a quick update to the OP. Fixed some typos, changed some examples, and added ew & aw.

[Erimeyz]

I like the "Edward without the D" thing.

  - Eri

[kewnya txamew'itan]

For some reason, the forum font doesn't seem to like the eta epsilon used in the IPA for e, it's changed it into the symbol for a nasalised e (and does the same whenever I try to post an eta epsilon atm).

[tsrräfkxätu]

This is eta, and it displays fine: Η η. For me at least.

If you mean epsilon (Ε & ε), that also shows right on my screen.

[Ftiafpi]

This is eta, and it displays fine: Η η. For me at least.

If you mean epsilon (Ε & ε), that also shows right on my screen.

The lower cases show up fine for me but not the upper cases, I see H and E.

[tsrräfkxätu]

Which is exactly what you should see.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

This is eta, and it displays fine: Η η. For me at least.

If you mean epsilon (Ε & ε), that also shows right on my screen.

I do indeed 

They seem to be displaying just fine again now though. Odd.

[tsrräfkxätu]

They seem to be displaying just fine again now though. Odd.

Firefox?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Chrome (3.0.195, stable release), no version update in between and I've never had that problem before.

[tsrräfkxätu]

Hey,

Apologies for the long hiatus. First I was too busy then I went on a vacation, and had no access to the net. I had a great time reconnecting with Gaia though.

Anyway, I updated the OP. I made some clarifications in the vowels section, and added the consonants. I think it's about done.

Cheers,
blueme

[Doolio]

cool:)

you may want to add a few things, for example, to point out that p, k, t are pretty unaspirated (in english, "t" is very aspirated, that's why a certain percent of native english speakers are confused with neytiri's "taron" and perceive it as "daron"). also, they are unreleased (when there is nothing that forces them to be released - for example, if a vowel goes next).

this has been somewhat neglected in the past (or we simply did not have that information), and i think that it is an important part of pronounciation, as it makes the spoken words more authentic and in tune.

[tsrräfkxätu]

Oh, right. I meant to do that, but slipped my mind. Thanks!