Txänä

[Dreamlight]

The \ts\ in Na'vi is not a t and an s, it's a ts affricate, that is with t and s articulated simultaneously, as much a stop/plosive and a continuant can be simultaneous.  Think German or Italian Z.

[Muzer]

Exactly - as in "cats violet", or the correct pronunciation of "tsunami", or zwei, as I said.

[Tompa'Ivong]

just like the spanish Z, zapatos, za'u is very near to that Z

[Dreamlight]

The point is, they're not separate sounds.  They're one sound.  The t and the s are merged.  It's called an affricate.

[Muzer]

The point is, they're not separate sounds.  They're one sound.  The t and the s are merged.  It's called an affricate.

No, they're not. In "cats", "tsunami", and "zwei" they are all one sound.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

just like the spanish Z, zapatos, za'u is very near to that Z

Might want to clarify if that's Latin Spanish or even a specific Latin country's accent because I know that that would confuse a Castillian speaker because a Castillian z would be an English th. And I don't think anyone's been having trouble with their na'vi zs here.

[MIPP]

For some reason it sounds like dänä but there's no "d" but "r" sounds more like an english "d" than an English "r" (like nari).  and i tried listening to that part thinking ftang was what she said but I still heard "dänä". Rä'ä (do not) would be perfect if there were no n sound but even if the ' in rä'ä  was really quiet rä'ä na means "do not like/as" if the na were gone it would make sence. I'll have to watch it again and see if I just mistook ftang for something else but last time I did I didn't hear that
too bad there aren't na'vi subtitles then we'd know for sure 

Weres a babel fish when you need one

Take a look in this site: http://wiki.learnnavi.org/index.php/Na'vi_from_Avatar_Movie. Does it help?

To the creator of the topic... Does the site helps you to understand what have you listened?

['Oma Tirea]

Srane.  It was a while before I decided to go to that site.  Then I found out it was precisely what I was looking for

The point is, they're not separate sounds.  They're one sound.  The t and the s are merged.  It's called an affricate.

No, they're not. In "cats", "tsunami", and "zwei" they are all one sound.

To clarify: words like "cats" aren't normally affricated in English, with the exception of fast speech (listen to how Jake first pronounces "Tsu'tey" to see what I'm talking about), and tsunami begins with a {s}, not a {ʦ} (although it should begin with a {ʦ}).  However, it does occur in English in words like "pizza" {pi.ʦə}.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Srane.  It was a while before I decided to go to that site.  Then I found out it was precisely what I was looking for

The point is, they're not separate sounds.  They're one sound.  The t and the s are merged.  It's called an affricate.

No, they're not. In "cats", "tsunami", and "zwei" they are all one sound.

To clarify: words like "cats" aren't normally affricated in English, with the exception of fast speech (listen to how Jake first pronounces "Tsu'tey" to see what I'm talking about), and tsunami begins with a {s}, not a {ʦ} (although it should begin with a {ʦ}).  However, it does occur in English in words like "pizza" {pi.ʦə}.

This the problem with different accents (even more so with borrowings), it makes it extraordinarily difficult for people to know what examples they can give because they can't tell how the other person pronounces it (except possibly face to face), for example, I would normally pronounce cats with a {ʦ} and the same for tsunami but I am aware that many people don't (well, I was with tsunami, I don't generally pay enough attention to the pronunciation of "cats" to find out). The only way to really explain the sounds to people is to give them a ton of words that could have an affricate in them with an audio clip of the affricate so they can work out which are correct, that or explain how to make the sound which is difficult to teach, difficult to learn and unlikely to succeed.

[Muzer]

Pronouncing "ts" without a Fricative is hard, I didn't realise some people actually did it...

[Taronyu]

On topic.

Should I add "ftang nga" to the dictionary as a phrase meaning stop? Sounds reasonable to me.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Is it really needed? It seems like a simple case of an imperative which, given the note at the beginning saying that a knowledge of the grammar is assumed would be unnecessary. That's not to say you shouldn't do it, I'm just wondering if it's needed.

[Taronyu]

Is it really needed? It seems like a simple case of an imperative which, given the note at the beginning saying that a knowledge of the grammar is assumed would be unnecessary. That's not to say you shouldn't do it, I'm just wondering if it's needed.

No, I suppose not.

[omängum fra'uti]

It would probably be better added to the phrases and idioms thread, but even then it's probably best to wait until it is confirmed.