Written language

[Tsteu'itan]

I know it's been discussed before whether or not it would be a Na'vi-speaking community, and that people have thought it would be a nice thing to have eventually, and I was wondering about a written language.

True, we have the Romanized Na'vi that Mr. Frommer gave us, but maybe eventually, the community could come up with it's own written alphabet.  Something that's always fascinated me is languages - which I suppose would be obvious since I am on a Na'vi-language board and all - and as far back as grade school, I would often try and create my own written alphabet to write in.  Once High School came around and I was able to get the Hobbit, I taught myself how to write in the runic letters that Tolkien included in the book.  A decade later, I'm still writing and reading it fluently - even if it is just a replacement cipher for the Roman Alphabet - just because I love being able to read and write in something so different.  I've started writing my novel in nothing but Runic.  It makes it so no one else can read it over my shoulder until I'm ready for them to see it, and it helps me get into the tribal-Celtic feel of the setting.  I was dreaming just the other day of a Na'vi alphabet much like the Runic, and how I would love to learn how to write in Na'vi, and not just in a Romanized spelling of such.

Granted, that would be something that you would have to leave up to the creators of the franchise for it to be official, but the community wouldn't have to keep it's alphabet to something created by someone else.  You could create your own, with symbols that were special for the community itself, whether it be the shapes or designs that fit the writing tools you decided to use once you were there.  Cuniform was written with triangular notches because that was the shape of the tools used to make the marks.  Runic was angular and sharp because it was carved into stone, and it's easier to make straight lines in stone then it is to make the rounded, curved letters we use in the Roman Alphabet.  Yet when I write it, I find that a lot of my Runic letters end up having a more flowing, curving nature to them, simply because of the ease of making those lines when using pen and paper.

Being able to write and read in the clan's alphabet would make everyone feel closer and give you a better sense of kinship.  If you tried to do things like Mahendi or Indigo body ornamentation, you could use the letters and designs that became special to the community for the patterns to be painted on the skin, too.

[Txonari]

I like this idea. It's important to have a written language. Although, we probably wouldn't want it to be something too complicated.

The way I see it, we have several options about how to go about this:
- Have symbols for each word -- I wouldn't recommend this as it would be very complicated over time
- Have symbols for each sound -- A lot less complicated
- Have symbols for each english letter -- This is the one where we basically take english and rewrite the alphabet... too easy?

And I'm sure there's other ways we could go about it, but those are the only ones I can think of right now... my brain's not functioning right... too tired.

[Key'ìl Nekxetse]

As far as I can tell, all the information we have at the moment points to the Na'vi having a spoken only language. This means that there may well never be any official written language. But there is nothing to stop the tribe using a specifically created alphabet, although organising who creates it and managing the addition of new words might be difficult.
Simply re-creating the Roman alphabet would be quick but there wouldn't be much point apart from adapting it to different tools, a new alphabet would be interesting though. It might add a lot of extra information for people to learn, which could cause the risk of the tribe becoming difficult for new people to become part of.
Again, interesting idea.

[Tsteu'itan]

Yeah, I'd read that the Na'vi don't have a written language, so there wouldn't be an "official" language to use.  But that doesn't mean you couldn't make up your own. 

English-replacement alphabets are fun, and would be simple for those who have trouble with the full language.  If you wanted, perhaps you could use the english-replacement as a stepping point for the full language.  Sort of how Elvish is taught at Oxford (I believe?) as a freshman course so that people taking other languages that are similar to it will be better when it comes to the real thing?

The word-replacement alphabets can be extremely complex over time, true.  It's one of the reasons Chinese and other Asian languages are so difficult to a lot of people.

I'll admit, I'm probably just a little partial to the idea, since it's already an interest of mine and something I'd hoped existed.    I just always loved trying to read the words that you saw in the purely-fabricated alphabets from Star Wars and Tolkien's works.  hahaha  Either way, it could be fun, and could be something that could come into play later in the tribe.

[guest2859]

I've seen Klingon once, it has the best idea. Just replace the letter's, It's like the Bionicle language, it's all English, but the letters are just changed into fancy symbols

[Txonari]

Well, if we do a written language where we just replace the letters, we should at least form new symbols for the px, kx and tx to make each only one symbol for each. (Just to make things easier)

[guest2859]

Yes, maybe we shall make up the idea to use and see if Frommer allows it. (After all, we could be sued if we do it ourselves and release it)

[Kerame Pxel Nume]

When I first read about Na'vi I was immediately thinking about an "alphabet" for it. Technically I'm really fond of the latin alphabet, because of it's vast flexibility, which allows it to transcribe other languages - like Na'vi.

Spoiler

Back in school (wow, that's over a decade back, I'm feeling old), whenever I was bored in class instead of doodles I did really abstract things, among them also scriptures. First I just mapped every symbol of the latin alphabet to a own one, later it went into more complex stuff. I think Na'vi would be extremely interesting to design a writing system for. For example every Infix could have it's own symbol, but Infix symbols can be combined into a single symbol, reflecting this certain meaning of the infix-sequence. Especially for oftenly occuring sequences this would make sense. Also lenition could be reflected in the way a leniting prefix symbol combined with the lenited symbol - so that the combination is very distinct.

[Key'ìl Nekxetse]

It would be more interesting and possibly more useful for the alphabet to be more than just the Latin alphabet, but it would take some time and effort to achieve. I like the idea of symbols for infixes and ejectives, what about a system that makes the stress more obvious?

Spoiler

This is a little piece of information about one of the languages I created a little while ago, this might provide some inspiration or interest to someone.

[guest2859]

Yes, I like that idea. I'm starting to get a blank image of my idea of it, but it'll take time.

[Eywayä lì'u]

didn't taronyu make up some kind of written form that could be easily scribed? or is that just me?

[Key'ìl Nekxetse]

Several people have made systems of writing for Na'vi. I think there's stuff in General Projects.

[Teyl Maktoyu Ayfìwopxä]

Stuff have been invented and Eoio has been the most succesfull so far.

[Eywayä lì'u]

Eoio? what's that?

[Le'eylan]

Eoio? what's that?

http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/pamrelfya-aeoio/

[Eywayä lì'u]

Eoio? what's that?

http://forum.learnnavi.org/projects/pamrelfya-aeoio/

oh that! That's the one I was thinking of!