Help in translation

Started by Kyttin13, September 25, 2019, 09:37:40 PM

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Kyttin13


Toliman


Kyttin13


Toliman


Kyttin13

Another question (or questions)...
How do you say:
1)What do you want for Dinner?
2)Here's your dinner, cup, etc.
3)What do you want to drink?
4)Do you want...

I know that's allot... ???

Mech

No it's not a lot at al!

i am not one of the experts but I would like to try with my translatons. Others might provide better or more correct ones or even correct my possibe mistakes.

wutsoìri 'upet new ngal? (as for dinner, what do you want?)

fì'u lu ngeyä wutso, sey/tsngal sl. (this is your dinner, cup [sey is a "natural" cup, eg. a coconut shell, tsngal is a manufactured cup])
or
fìtsenge lu ngeyä.... (your ... is here)
But I guess you need a word like french voila or Italian ecce like "behold, here's, there you go". I am not sure there is such an expression in Na'vi

ngal new niväk 'upet? (you want to drink what?)

ngal new ... srak? (srak is a word that ends "do you" questions, and expects a yes or no for an answer)


Kyttin13

I'm familiar (sorta) with "wutso" and " 'upe" but unclear about the suffixes...???

Pamìrìk

Quote from: Kyttin13 on October 03, 2019, 07:46:10 AM
I'm familiar (sorta) with "wutso" and " 'upe" but unclear about the suffixes...???
In short, Na'vi has flexible word order. We don't determine how the nouns relate to each other by their position in the sentence like we do in English.
In English, "Jake sees Neytiri" and "Neytiri sees Jake" are completely different sentences, despite having the same words. The order makes it clear who is seeing and who is being seen. In Na'vi, this word order means nothing. "Jake sees Neytiri" and "Neytiri Jake sees" and all other permutations of that sentence are identical.

So to answer who is doing what, we use case endings, or suffixes.

When you have a sentence where something is <verbing> something else,

The subject, or "do-er" of a verb takes an L-ending, either -ìl or -l depending on if it ends in a consonant or vowel.
The direct object, or "thing affected by the verb" takes a T-ending, either -ti, -t, or -it.

tse'a Neytiriti Tsyeykìl
tse'a Tsyeykìl Neytirit
Tsyeykìl Neytirit tse'a
Neytiriti Tsyeykìl tse'a
Neytiriti tse'a Tsyeykìl
Tsyeykìl tse'a Neytirit

All 6 of these sentences have the exact same meaning. Because Neytiri always has the T ending and Tsyeyk has the L ending, it is clear who is seeing and who is being seen.

I'm not going to re-type a full grammar resource here, but this is a window into what these suffixes are doing. Word-for-word English to Na'vi translations will almost never be correct because the grammar requires the roles of most words to be made clear via case endings, adpositions, and the like.

Kyttin13

I'm sure I probably need a TON of help with congigation and cases...but,

Tsunslu oe yom krìspi (Crispie (borrowed word) as in Rice Crispies Treats) kalin rutxe srak??

May I eat Krispie-Treat/sweet please ?

Pamìrìk

Quote from: Kyttin13 on October 03, 2019, 11:27:26 AM
I'm sure I probably need a TON of help with congigation and cases...but,

Tsunslu oe yom krìspi (Crispie (borrowed word) as in Rice Crispies Treats) kalin rutxe srak??

May I eat Krispie-Treat/sweet please ?

As stated previously, word-for-word translations will almost never yield correct Na'vi.

srake tsun oe yivom tsyeyt akalin

Kyttin13

Can you help break it down for me?   :-\ ???

Pamìrìk

#11
srake
tsun
oe
y<iv>om
tsyey - t
a - kalin

Kyttin13

I got the words, and the base(?) words...(?) I was hoping you could help break down and explain the infixes (?) (The suffixes, prefixes, etc)?? Rutxe ulte irayo!

Pamìrìk

#13
I explained them in desc tags, which can be read by hovering over the words with your cursor. idk if this is a thing on mobile devices, though, so I will re-iterate in plain text in case this is the issue.

srake
Yes/no question statement

tsun
am able to, modal verb

oe
I, subject of intransitive verb, in this case tsun

y<iv>om
eat, with subjunctive infix, as required by use of a modal verb

tsyey - t
snack, as direct object of yom

a - kalin
sweet, describing noun to its left, in this case tsyey

If any of these things don't make sense, I highly recommend reading a grammar resource. I will recommend Na'vi as a Second Language, or Na'vi in a Nutshell.

Kyttin13

Irayo! Irayo! Irayo!! For reasons even *I* don't even understand, Na'vi as a Second Language is clarifying Everything for me!!! Everything being concepts I've been struggling with (struggling,  as in completely, hoelessly, baffled!) for Days (some things weeks!)! Irayo!
And no, it doesn't show up on mobile devices. (At least not mine.)

Tirea Aean

On mobile devices, you'd have to tap your finger on the blue dot-underline text and the description popup will come up in a gray text bubble

Glad to hear that you've been looking over Na'vi as a Second Language and it's making sense :D

Kyttin13

Irayo! I just tried the "mobile technique" (?) and it worked, irayo.

Kyttin13

Tangental question: The "Na'vi as a Second Language" YouTube Channel...does anyone know why he hasn't posted in a year?? I just discovered his channel, but I'm still curious... ???

Pamìrìk

I have been busy, and videos take a fair bit of time to put together.

Toliman

I hope that you will can make these videos again, it was very good work!