What do apostrophes do?

[Kai Redfern]

Like in na'vi, it makes a slight pause kind of. Is this always true? Like it can separate syllables?

and why is it at the beginning of some words in the dictionary, like this...

'awm:[Pawm]PF n.camp

'ì'awn: [P·I."P·awn] P F   vin. remain, stay

'ora: ["Po.Ra] P F n. lake

but not others?
apxa:[a."p'a]PF adj.large

[Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì]

Like in na'vi, it makes a slight pause kind of. Is this always true? Like it can separate syllables?

Yeah, you're on the right track. The apostrophe is a glottal stop...I don't really know how to explain that without demonstrating which I can't do over the computer. At the beginning of a word it's like....an "attack" with the back of your throat without breathing out...if that makes any sense. When it's in the middle or end of a word, it's pretty much like you said, a slight pause. You just stop the airflow of your voice. I really hope those make sense to you. That's about all I can do without actually demonstrating what it sounds like.

I'll have to let someone else answer the other questions.

-Txonä Rolyu

[wm.annis]

The "glottal stop" is the catch in your through between the two syllables of "uh-oh."  We use them all the time in English, but because of how English works, most of us just hear the vowel that follows (unless we've learned a language where a glottal stop is a normal consonant).

After a pause, words that start with a vowel in English usually have a glottal stop hidden there. "About", if you say it aloud, should have the same catch as you hear in "uh-oh."  In Na'vi the glottal stop is just another consonant, and some words start with the glottal stop, and some words start with vowels where you'll never hear that glottal stop.

This is hard to hear at the beginning of a sentence, but in connected speech in Na'vi, you must always pronounce that glottal stop:

  utral apxa a big tree vs. utral 'ì'awn

['Oma Tirea]

A notable word here is tsap'alute, where the p' is not a true ejective.  If it were then the word would be spelled tsapxalute.

A notable contrast for the glottal stop: nga vs. nga'.  Glottal stops can be hardest to articulate at the end of a word.

[Tirea Aean]

Yeah. Its been an very common mistake to forget that there is one at the end of prrte'

Peraonally, I find it easy to say them at the middle and end of words. I found its harder to make them out when they start the word off such as 'eylan and its short plural, eylan.

[Kai Redfern]

The "glottal stop" is the catch in your through between the two syllables of "uh-oh."  We use them all the time in English, but because of how English works, most of us just hear the vowel that follows (unless we've learned a language where a glottal stop is a normal consonant).

After a pause, words that start with a vowel in English usually have a glottal stop hidden there. "About", if you say it aloud, should have the same catch as you hear in "uh-oh."  In Na'vi the glottal stop is just another consonant, and some words start with the glottal stop, and some words start with vowels where you'll never hear that glottal stop.

This is hard to hear at the beginning of a sentence, but in connected speech in Na'vi, you must always pronounce that glottal stop:

  utral apxa a big tree vs. utral 'ì'awn

So in the dictionary, if an apostrophe starts the word, anything you add onto it ( such as ay to make it plural) would go before the apostrophe?

[Txonä Unil Stä'nìyu Rolyusì]

The "glottal stop" is the catch in your through between the two syllables of "uh-oh."  We use them all the time in English, but because of how English works, most of us just hear the vowel that follows (unless we've learned a language where a glottal stop is a normal consonant).

After a pause, words that start with a vowel in English usually have a glottal stop hidden there. "About", if you say it aloud, should have the same catch as you hear in "uh-oh."  In Na'vi the glottal stop is just another consonant, and some words start with the glottal stop, and some words start with vowels where you'll never hear that glottal stop.

This is hard to hear at the beginning of a sentence, but in connected speech in Na'vi, you must always pronounce that glottal stop:

  utral apxa a big tree vs. utral 'ì'awn

So in the dictionary, if an apostrophe starts the word, anything you add onto it ( such as ay to make it plural) would go before the apostrophe?

No, on a word (noun) that starts with an apostrophe, the ay+ prefix causes something called lenition and what it does here is causes the apostrophe to disappear. So a word like 'eylan would become ayeylan.

-Txonä Rolyu

[omängum fra'uti]

Plural is a bad example because of lenition, but anything else that comes before (whether prefix or other word) would cause a pause.  For example...

'ewll is plant...  Type of plant would use the fne- prefix, creating fne'ewll, with a pause between the two "e"s.
If something is before (in front of) a plant, it would be eo 'ewll, with a pause between the "o" and second "e".

[Dreamlight]

Also, as the glottal stop is considered a consonant (as it is in any language that has it), infixes go in after it.  Thus "'Ivong Na'vi". 

[Kamean]

Also, as the glottal stop is considered a consonant (as it is in any language that has it), infixes go in after it.  Thus "'Ivong Na'vi". 

Glottal stop is a reduced consonant.

[Tirea Aean]

Still it is treated as any other consonant in na'vi.