Random sentences

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

This morning, I had the misfortune of being stuck in a long, often boring 'strategic planning meeting' for work (on a trrkive, no less!) So, the pen went to creating some Na`vi sentences. Some of these might be a bit idiomatic.

The first one is a quote from 'Max Headroom, the Movie':

trr maw trr, tìsusi trray lam na trram

Here's a famous quote, but I think I butchered this.

Frapo poan asiltsan za`u srung tìsusi olo' a krr set

I had to  make some animal substitutions in this (and it does not contain all Na`vi letters!)(I couldn't remeber or find out how one makes a phrase the argument of an adposition)

Vawma syaksyuk nìwin sperä io futa ngula nantang a tìhusahaw

An alternate ending for the above might be nantang herahaw

Your thoughts?

[Carborundum]

trr maw trr, tìsusi trray lam na trram

Given Na'vi's fondness of adverbs, I'd prefer such a one in trr maw trr's place. Possibly a nìfya'o a construction would suffice.
Just a stylistic preference of mine, I can't really see a problem with using trr maw trr, except maybe a slight idiomaticity.

In the following part you use tìtusi, which I must object to for several reasons.
First of all, si isn't really a verb so much as a grammatical... thingy. I highly doubt the correctness of using it by itself like this, even in a gerund. Edit: si-verbs can't be gerunds at all.
Secondly, you don't want a gerund here at all. "Making" in the English sentence is a verb, not a noun, so you want a verb in Na'vi too.
I suggest sleykeru, "causing to become".

Next problem is the nature of the words "yesterday" and "tomorrow". In the English sentence these are nouns, but we only have adverb forms in Na'vi.
I don't see an easy way to circumvent this problem. We could either get creative with tì-, which I really can't recommend, or we can use hama trr and haya trr, which is rather unwieldy.

Frapo poan asiltsan za`u srung tìsusi olo' a krr set

Right now you have a clause without a verb here, {{frapo poan asiltsan za`u srung tìsusi olo`} a krr set}. Easiest fix is to just throw a lu in there, to make it "the time is now".
The attributive clause also has a few issues. Right now it reads something like "everyone good he come helping clan". Not quite grammatical, in other words.

First problem is frapo, which isn't really doing anything as it is. I'd just remove poan completely.

Then you use a gerund again, which I assume is supposed to mean "aid". Problem is, si-verbs can't be made into gerunds, and even if they could the gerund of "help" is simply "helping".

I'd change it to frapori asìltsan ziva'u srung sivi olo'ur a krr lu set, meaning roughly "the time of everyone good to come and help the clan is now".

Vawma syaksyuk nìwin sperä io futa ngula nantang a tìhusahaw

This one is pretty good, except for the gerund at the end. As you (along with many others) seem to have some trouble with gerunds (they are pretty tricky), I'll try to explain how they work at the end of this post.
So, right now this sentence reads "the dark prolemuris is quickly jumping over the gray viperwolf which sleeping".
The first part is OK as it is, but if you want to make it "the quick brown prolemuris", that'd be kllvawma syaksyuk awin. I also don't think it's necessary to make spä imperfective, but that's more a matter of style than anything else.
I wouldn't put "gray sleeping viperwolf" in an attributive clause like that, although it isn't exactly wrong. What you want instead of the gerund is a participle, like so: nantang ahusahaw.
So, kllvawma syaksyuk awin spä io ngula nantang ahusahaw. Contains even fewer letters though

Gerunds
A gerund in English is a noun created by adding -ing at the end of a verb, such as "running", "jumping", "hunting", etc. Gerunds are verbs used in the place of nouns, for example "hunting is fun".
In Na'vi, gerunds are also nouns, created by the tì-<us> combination. They serve much the same purpose as English gerunds: tìtusaron 'o' lu.
One important difference between English and Na'vi gerunds is that the latter cannot take arguments. For example, in English we can say "hunting hexapede is fun". This is not allowed in Na'vi. Instead, we have to use a attributive clause thus: fwa taron yerikit 'o' lu.
Another thing to note is that there are no gerund forms of si-verbs. Instead, if the gerund of such a verb is needed, the simple uninflected form should be used.

One of the reasons many people have trouble with gerunds is that Na'vi has three types of words that all translate to <verb>-ing in English, one of which is the gerund. The other two are the active participle and the imperfective aspect. The difference is usage; gerunds are nouns, participles are adjectives and imperfective aspect verbs are verbs.
Tìtusaron=hunting (n.)
Tusaron=hunting (adj.)
Teraron=hunting (vtr.)

All of this and much more can be found in wm.annis' excellent Na'vi Reference Grammar. Seriously, it's awesome. A bit heavy on linguistic terminology, but if you ever wonder how exactly the antipassive voice works in Na'vi, or any other grammatical detail, it's all there.

[Lisa]

A gerund in English is a noun created by adding -ing at the end of a verb, such as "running", "jumping", "hunting", etc.  .......

Whoa!  I love this post.... it's been super helpful!   Ma Carborundum, thanks for taking the time to explain the gerund in detail, oeyä eltu akoak* really needs all the help it can get and your entire post had good information, clearly explained.    Irayo!   

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

trr maw trr, tìsusi trray lam na trram

Given Na'vi's fondness of adverbs, I'd prefer such a one in trr maw trr's place. Possibly a nìfya'o a construction would suffice.
Just a stylistic preference of mine, I can't really see a problem with using trr maw trr, except maybe a slight idiomaticity.

In the following part you use tìtusi, which I must object to for several reasons.
First of all, si isn't really a verb so much as a grammatical... thingy. I highly doubt the correctness of using it by itself like this, even in a gerund. Edit: si-verbs can't be gerunds at all.
Secondly, you don't want a gerund here at all. "Making" in the English sentence is a verb, not a noun, so you want a verb in Na'vi too.
I suggest sleykeru, "causing to become".

Next problem is the nature of the words "yesterday" and "tomorrow". In the English sentence these are nouns, but we only have adverb forms in Na'vi.
I don't see an easy way to circumvent this problem. We could either get creative with tì-, which I really can't recommend, or we can use hama trr and haya trr, which is rather unwieldy.

Iryao nìtxan nang
Thank you for the detailed analysis. I am now trying to do words right from my head, and as a result sometimes miss the part of speech the word is, in this case trram and trray.
I agree that slekyeru is a much better choice than an illegal gerund of si.
We will have to live with the somewhat awkward hama trr and haya trr.
Finally, the trr maw trr is intended to be a bit idiomatic, so that will stay the way it is. Thus, we have:

trr maw trr sleykeru haya trr lam na hama trr

Frapo poan asiltsan za`u srung tìsusi olo' a krr set

Right now you have a clause without a verb here, {{frapo poan asiltsan za`u srung tìsusi olo`} a krr set}. Easiest fix is to just throw a lu in there, to make it "the time is now".
The attributive clause also has a few issues. Right now it reads something like "everyone good he come helping clan". Not quite grammatical, in other words.

First problem is frapo, which isn't really doing anything as it is. I'd just remove poan completely.

Then you use a gerund again, which I assume is supposed to mean "aid". Problem is, si-verbs can't be made into gerunds, and even if they could the gerund of "help" is simply "helping".

I'd change it to frapori asìltsan ziva'u srung sivi olo'ur a krr lu set, meaning roughly "the time of everyone good to come and help the clan is now".

I thought that this quoter would probably have a lot of issues, and I am not 'disappointed'. I did struggle with the a krr set and it doesn't surprise me that this clause had a big problem.

Vawma syaksyuk nìwin sperä io futa ngula nantang a tìhusahaw

This one is pretty good, except for the gerund at the end. As you (along with many others) seem to have some trouble with gerunds (they are pretty tricky), I'll try to explain how they work at the end of this post.
So, right now this sentence reads "the dark prolemuris is quickly jumping over the gray viperwolf which sleeping".
The first part is OK as it is, but if you want to make it "the quick brown prolemuris", that'd be kllvawma syaksyuk awin. I also don't think it's necessary to make spä imperfective, but that's more a matter of style than anything else.
I wouldn't put "gray sleeping viperwolf" in an attributive clause like that, although it isn't exactly wrong. What you want instead of the gerund is a participle, like so: nantang ahusahaw.
So, kllvawma syaksyuk awin spä io ngula nantang ahusahaw. Contains even fewer letters though

I completely mossed the word for brown, having imagined that the word for 'dark' also would mean 'brown'. (This is why I had argued for a somewhat wider range of color words). And, I messed up in that nìwin is an adverb and not an adjective. I seem to make this kind of mistake a lot. Perhaps, it is because I am not trying to rely oin the dictionary.

I never even thought of using a participle for 'sleeping'. Participles are still somewhat mysterious to me, but surprisingly, I have done well in the past, in using them.
The idea here wasn't to use all Na`vi letters, but instead to translate the sentence well.

Gerunds

That is tremendously helpful! Karma +1

All of this and much more can be found in wm.annis' excellent Na'vi Reference Grammar. Seriously, it's awesome. A bit heavy on linguistic terminology, but if you ever wonder how exactly the antipassive voice works in Na'vi, or any other grammatical detail, it's all there.

I am quite familiar with that document, as I helped with some of the initial proofreading of it. It is a very useful resource, and my favorite because it is quite prescriptive. However, finding stuff like the above in there (And especially making the connection between three slightly different details like the above) can take a fair anount of diligent searching.

[kaltxi Angtsik]

This morning, I had the misfortune of being stuck in a long, often boring 'strategic planning meeting' for work (on a trrkive, no less!) So, the pen went to creating some Na`vi sentences.

HRH - that's great. I must confess that I always bring my Na'vi study materials to meetings at work...

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

This morning, I had the misfortune of being stuck in a long, often boring 'strategic planning meeting' for work (on a trrkive, no less!) So, the pen went to creating some Na`vi sentences.

HRH - that's great. I must confess that I always bring my Na'vi study materials to meetings at work...

Pretty soon, we will need Na`vi terms for words like 'leverage', 'synergy', 'paradigm', etc.

[kaltxi Angtsik]

This morning, I had the misfortune of being stuck in a long, often boring 'strategic planning meeting' for work (on a trrkive, no less!) So, the pen went to creating some Na`vi sentences.

HRH - that's great. I must confess that I always bring my Na'vi study materials to meetings at work...

Pretty soon, we will need Na`vi terms for words like 'leverage', 'synergy', 'paradigm', etc.

Ah yes - how to say "at the end of the day", "going forward" and "bottom line" in Na'vi, that is the question.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Pretty soon, we will need Na`vi terms for words like 'leverage', 'synergy', 'paradigm', etc.

Ah yes - how to say "at the end of the day", "going forward" and "bottom line" in Na'vi, that is the question.

I am surprised that the RDA didn't already do this.