A few questions about vocab and sentence structure (test sentences)

Started by Tireatìranyu29, July 24, 2017, 01:58:49 PM

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Tireatìranyu29

Okay, so my fiancee and I are learning this language for fun and I decided to make little cards to stick around the house for use in remembering vocabulary and such. Thing is, Na'vi doesn't have a lot of words for things you find in a modern apartment lol. So I came up with a couple work around phrases and wanted to see if they are valid or if they need work. Suggestions are highly appreciated.

okay, so first I have kelku alew for the English word "ceiling". I take this to mean a "house cover/lid" or "cover/lid of house" from kelku- home, house and lew- lid, cover

second is kxemyo apiak for the English "window". From kxemyo- wall and piak- clear, open. So from this, I gloss the phrase, "clear wall" or "open wall". I don't know how well that works though.

Third (and I'm actually pretty proud of this one) is rawng yìmyu for the noun "lock", lit. "door binder". What do you think?

I also have some test sentences that I picked up from a conlang syntax test. I wanted to run these by some of you who are more experienced to offer your advice because I assume I butchered them.

- Tsawke nrr. The sun shines

- Tsawke nrr. The sun is shining (not n<er>rr as this breaks the stress system)

- Tsawke namrr. The sun shone (is mrr an illegal stucture?)

- Tsawke nayrr. The sun will shine. (how would this be pronounced. please give me the IPA, I am very familiar with it)

- Nrr Tsawke atxanatan. The bright sun shines

- Nrr tsawke nìtxanatan. The sun shines brightly.

and now the most complex one that I attempted and includes the noun cases.

- spamä palulukantsìpìl aprrnen sìnfyanyoti (sìnyoti). The kitten jumped onto the table. lit. "jumped the little thanator baby onto the table."

Anyway, how do you think I did. Am I on the right track? Any help is appreciated greatly. Irayo!  :)

Vawmataw

QuoteI have kelku alew for the English word "ceiling"
oh no! Lew is a noun and -a- is for adjectives only. You can say kelkuyä lew, or 'house's cover/lid'.

QuoteThird (and I'm actually pretty proud of this one) is rawng yìmyu for the noun "lock", lit. "door binder". What do you think?
In English such a construction would be possible, but in Na'vi you need to attach the genitive case (in this case to rawng; so it becomes rawngä). Although rawng doesn't translate directly to door, I don't think this is wrong.

Quote- Tsawke namrr. The sun shone (is mrr an illegal stucture?)
Perfect

Quote- Tsawke nayrr. The sun will shine. (how would this be pronounced. please give me the IPA, I am very familiar with it)
na-yrr

Quotespamä palulukantsìpìl aprrnen sìnfyanyoti (sìnyoti)
This part is a little bit more difficult. You can't treat prrnen as an adjective even though it would be much easier.
Also, it's important to know that -ìl and -ti work for transitive verbs only.
Now, if you put a space between sìn and fyanyo, your sentence is perfect.

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Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Plumps

Ma Tireatìranyu29, that's wonderful that you learn together with your fiancée. It's always easier and more fun to learn together.

Quote from: Vawmataw on July 24, 2017, 06:28:40 PM
QuoteI have kelku alew for the English word "ceiling"
oh no! Lew is a noun and -a- is for adjectives only. You can say kelkuyä lew, or 'house's cover/lid'.

kelkuä actually ;)
I guess one could also make use of the word utu, canopy :-\

Quote from: Vawmataw on July 24, 2017, 06:28:40 PM
Quote- Tsawke namrr. The sun shone (is mrr an illegal stucture?)
Perfect

Quote- Tsawke nayrr. The sun will shine. (how would this be pronounced. please give me the IPA, I am very familiar with it)
na-yrr

A thing about nrr ... it is more like a glow. We don't have a word for "(brightly) shine" yet but an idiom, tsawke lrrtok si, lit. "the sun smiles". Points for you, ma Tireatìranyu29, if you can put this sentence into your tenses ;)

Quotespamä palulukantsìpìl aprrnen sìnfyanyoti (sìnyoti).
The kitten jumped onto the table. lit. "jumped the little thanator baby onto the table."

You could use lini palukantsyìpä, "the kitten's young(ling)", or just palukantsyìpä prrnen (I used the short form instead of palulukantsyìp to indicate that it's a terran kitten but the other would also be fine).

What Vawmataw said is correct, spä is an intransitive verb, so you don't need the L and T endings.

That makes ...

spamä palukantsyìpä prrnen sìn fyanyo (sìn yo).

Zola'u nìprrte' fìtseng! Welcome aboard :)

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

This is a nice idea, and others have done it, as well.
In general, there is nothing wrong with coming up with creative terms to describe things. Some may like them, other may not. For instance, I use pa'li lefngap to describe a car. Or sa'o fte tsun sanhì tsive'a for 'telescope'. (Note the transitive verb tse'a is used intransitively here, so there is no case marker on sanhì. Also note the <iv> infix in tse'a which is required when you have a verb controlled by a modal verb such as tsun.) I think Its more important for someone like you, who understands linguistics, to get comfortable with the grammar and syntax than to be 'politically correct' in your terminology.

I try and use Na'vi wherever I can get away with it. I even used it to label cables on a big electric service that was temporarily disconnected. An error in reading it would have done millions of $$ in damage ;)

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Blue Elf

Nothing to add what Plumps already said...

Quote from: `Eylan Ayfalulukanä on July 25, 2017, 05:39:05 PM
This is a nice idea, and others have done it, as well.
In general, there is nothing wrong with coming up with creative terms to describe things. Some may like them, other may not. For instance, I use pa'li lefngap to describe a car. Or sa'o fte tsun sanhì tsive'a for 'telescope'. (Note the transitive verb tse'a is used intransitively here, so there is no case marker on sanhì. Also note the <iv> infix in tse'a which is required when you have a verb controlled by a modal verb such as tsun.)
Your translation of telescope is not fully correct. Fte enforces <iv> infix in the following verb (what is tsun) and tse'a is used as transitive verb - why do you think about intransitive usage? Correct version would be (also word order is changed, as modal constructions have some quite strict word order):

Sä'o fte (fko) tsivun tsive'a sanhìt - tool in order to (one) could see the stars. Stars are apparently object of the verb 'see'. Intransitive usage would be, when 'stars' are removed from the sentence:
Sä'o fte (fko) tsivun tsive'a - tool in order to (one) could see - what could means, that we speak about glasses, as one can't see anything without them
Oe lu skxawng skxakep. Slä oe nerume mi.
"Oe tasyätxaw ulte koren za'u oehu" (Limonádový Joe)