How does one say "linguist"?

[matthewmartin]

I suppose it is made up of the following parts...

ftia
lì'fya
tìftia
tìftia kifkeyä
? lì'fya ftia

But I'm kind of at a loss for what would be an idiomatic compound word for one-who-studies-languages (I searched, but didn't have much luck finding the answer on the forums, it seems like a question that probably has already been answered.)

Matthew Martin

[Kemaweyan]

I guess lì'fyatu. We already have pamtseotu - "musician" (from pamtseo - "music" and -tu - a part from tute - "person")...

[Tirea Aean]

yeah, possibilities:

tute a kan'ìn aylì'fyati (person who specializes in languages)
lì'fyatu (lit. linguist, languageperson. [short and probably correct to say])

[Sireayä mokri]

Sran, lì'fyatu seems fine.

[Tswusayona Tsamsiyu]

or maybe lì'utu (although lì'fyatu is better).

[matthewmartin]

Thanks, I've put it to good use as my twitter handle: http://twitter.com/#!/lifyatu

[Kamean]

Lì'fyatu seems great.

[Tirea Aean]

Thanks, I've put it to good use as my twitter handle: http://twitter.com/#!/lifyatu

*follows*

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

Thanks, I've put it to good use as my twitter handle: http://twitter.com/#!/lifyatu

Really nice!

Although lì'fyatu is not official, it does sound very fine and I shall use it in the future.

[omängum fra'uti]

One possibility nobody mentioned...

Science (The study of the world) is tìftia kifkeyä....  So likely scientist would be ftiayu kifkeyä.
Linguistics (The study of language) then could be tìftia lí'fyaä, and linguist would be ftiayu lï'fyaä.

Lì'fyatu doesn't feel right for a couple reasons.  For one, -tu isn't as productive as -yu (As far as I remember anywa) but secondly, an artist creates art. A linguist doesn't create language, they study it.

[Kemaweyan]

A linguist doesn't create language

Pawl does

[omängum fra'uti]

A linguist doesn't create language

Pawl does

He created a language because he is a linguist, is true.  He is a linguist because he created a language is not.

[Kemaweyan]

But -tu not always means "person who creates it", for example spe'etu or frrtu. I think its meaning is not fixed unlike -yu which means "person who does it". And you're right, -tu is not productive, but we can propose a new word lì'fyatu with the meaning "linguist".

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

But -tu not always means "person who creates it", for example spe'etu or frrtu. I think its meaning is not fixed unlike -yu which means "person who does it".

I thought that both -yu and -tu designated someone or something "performing an action"!  

The suffix -tu attaches to a noun to mean the person does/makes the noun, similar to the way -yu works with verbs.

But from the examples you gave, it does seem like -tu can take a broader meaning, which might work in our case.

[Tswusayona Tsamsiyu]

the suffix -tu is a short for tute. so attaching it to a noun means "the person of the noun", and this can be taken to various meanings.

[Tirea Aean]

yeah...there's NiaN forya...

it's as Tswusayona says. -tu is short for tute. I think of it closer as -ist or -ian in Eng. more like a "___ specialist" than a "doer of ____"

spe'etu is just weird. that threw us ALL for a loop back when we first saw that. it's the person captureD not the person capturING. xD

[Tswusayona Tsamsiyu]

it is weird anyway because spe'e is a verb.
but yes, "person of capturing" can be interpreted as both capturer and captured.

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

it's as Tswusayona says. -tu is short for tute. I think of it closer as -ist or -ian in Eng. more like a "___ specialist" than a "doer of ____"

Ooh, tslam set! It makes perfect sense.

[omängum fra'uti]

I'm not sure -tu works so broadly though.  Both those examples of odd meanings are -tu on verbs.  But -tu on nouns is mostly just a person who creates the noun in some way, with a few odd, but still fairly sensical meanings.

But for lí'fya, there are lots of people associated with language besides linguists.  Moreover, the Na'vi would likely have a need to describe any number of those people ahead of someone who just studies the language.

And there's still the matter of the prior use of "tíftia kifkeyä" as the study of the physical world.

So I still say that "lí'fyatu" seems a bit wrong for "linguist".

[Tirea Aean]

well yeah, because saying "lì'fyatu" would be essentially making up a word, which none of us have the authority to do.

I would imagine that linguist may have a similar construction to scientist, however one even says THAT. (ftiayu kifkeyä?) ftiayu aylì'fyayä?