Re: Trying to Figure This out:

[Tsanten the new]

ok well i have been reading na'vi in a nutshell, and i still dont the the way things fit together. mostly the phonix and what can and can't put together (spellings) if someone could help i would be greatful

'eywa gnahu frakrr

[omängum fra'uti]

(Split off from the other thread, as it was a fairly old thread and this is only tangentially related)

Is there something more specific you are having trouble with?

[Tsanten the new]

the creation of a scentence i have tried but the prefixes and stuff of what can and cant fit together

[Alyara Arati]

the creation of a scentence i have tried but the prefixes and stuff of what can and cant fit together

This sentence?  How far gave you gotten in NaiN?  Have you heard of lenition?

Kaltxì ma (ay)'eylans.  fi trr mune oe fpil oe tslam nì'it nì'ul ulte oe nìngay tìyawnfi lì'fyaolo'

Let me know if this is helpful so far...

[Tsanten the new]

what does linition do?

[Alyara Arati]

From Na'vi in a Nutshell:

1.2.1 Lenition
Lenition is the changing of one consonant into another for the ease of pronunciation. In Na'vi lenition occurs when you make the plural form of a noun or when you add certain adpositions to words(see section 7). The following consonants undergo lenition under these circumstances:

px, tx, kx → p, t, k respectively
p → f
t, ts → s
k → h
' → ø (vanishes)

So in your sentence, to make 'eylan plural, you add ay+, which then causes the ' to disappear, leaving:  ayeylan, meaning "friends".
When you have ay+ causing lenition, it is optional to drop the ay, which would leave you with eylan, which also means "friends".
I know this looks confusing, but you don't have to drop ay if you don't want to; that may seem a little clearer to you at first.

['Oma Tirea]

Lenition is a very simple sound process that in Na'vi, takes a popping sound (namely, px, tx, kx, p, t, ts, k, or ') and weakens it (to p, t, k, f, s, s, h, and nothing, respectively).

This happens after the me+, pxe+, ay+, and pe+ prefixes, and also after the seven adpositions fpi+, ìlä+, mì+, ro+, sre+, and wä+.  However these don't actually attach to the word, so in a case like mì sokx, sokx could be either singular or plural, but context says it should be singular, and that mì aysokx is plural.

zam+ and vol+, which have been used to form the Na'vi numbers, also cause lenition.

(Notice how all of the above prefixes use + instead of - to mark lenition)

/details

[Tsanten the new]

  i still dont fully understand, all it does is make it plural or nonplural and causes a softer/harder sound?

[Alyara Arati]

All ay+ does is make a thing plural.  If the first letter of the word you're making plural is kx, px, tx, k, p, ts, t, or ', then it makes the sound softer through lenition.  If not, then nothing special happens; you just add ay to the front of the word.  So, for example:

'eylan -> ayeylan or eylan
tsmukan -> aysmukan or smukan
ikran -> ayikran
nantang -> aynantang

[Tsanten the new]

awwwwwww ok, thank you that last post realy made things click.

[Tswusayona Tsamsiyu]

and it works the same way with dual (me+) and trial (pxe+) prefixes. but remember, only the plural (ay+) prefix can be removed when lenition happens. the dual and trial have to stay.