Vocabulary

[Payoang]

Thankee, I'll be posting it later tonight. How shall I credit you?

[wisnij]

Also, who knows enough about computational linguistics to help set up a translation / search-engine? My database knowledge is at an intermediate level, but nowhere near good enough to set up a functional translation web-interface. (Which would, of course, be free. Silly iPhone apps.)

Well, at this point even humans are having a hard time with the translation part   But as far as search goes, if you were e.g. setting up a searchable dictionary sort of thing, I use this indexing engine for projects at work: http://www.sphinxsearch.com/

[Skxawng]

It would also be nice if 'lessons' could be divided. I'm no linguistic buff, but it seems to me like most languages begin with learning a set of similar verbs, nouns, and whatnot that can be linked together to form basic sentences, from which tenses, cases, suffixes, prefixes, infixes and other additions can be described.

for example, I'm focusing on learning the following words, for 'lesson 1':

Hello, Goodbye, I see you, Thank You, Yes, No

I
you inc.
you exc.
we inc.
we. exc
he
she
they
them

To Be
To Do, To make
To Go
To Hunt

plus a couple nouns and adjectives just to start simple stuff.  I'm hoping to take this stuff and compile it into a pdf which could be printed out like a worksheet or study sheet, and I'll post my results when finished.

[omängum fra'uti]

Online language lessons (Only ones I have recent experience with) seem to mostly be structured similarly.  Each lesson introduces some concept in syntax, along with some small amount of new vocabulary.  A Na'vi lesson plan might be something like this:

Lesson 1: Basic sentences
  Pronunciation
  Basic sentence parts
    Nouns
    Pronouns
    Verbs
Noun+verb vocabulary along with all pronouns

Note that the lesson starts with the bare basics.  A subject and an action.  Nothing complicating the words.  But the pronunciation section should have some amount of focus on the syllables since parts of the language depend on the syllable structure.  Also, I'd leave oel ngati kameie out of the first lesson for the following reasons: oel ngati kameie.  Three things which elevate the sentence above being a simple subject + action.

Lesson 2 then could focus on sentences with both a subject and an object, and perhaps tense inflections on verbs.  At this point if you really wanted to, you could squeeze in oel ngati kameie with emphasis that the root word there is really kame.

Lesson 3 then could introduce adjective, aspect and adposition.  Keep in mind that to native english speakers, aspect can be an easily misunderstood concept since English does not have anything directly and independently representing aspect.  Just simplifying it down to "hunted vs hunting" without much additional explanation can actually be misleading about what the aspect is.

And so on like that.  Each lesson introduces just a couple bite-sized grammar rules, building off previous lessons, and accompanied with new vocabulary.  Use examples with untaught structure very sparingly or you'll just encourage people to skip around through lessons and make themselves even more confused.

[Karyu Amawey]

Thankee, I'll be posting it later tonight. How shall I credit you?

Well my name is Joseph Sweeney and I'm a Linguistics student at the University of Florida.

I think that ought to cover all the credit  
Really there is no credit to be had, though.  I just really want to see this language take off and develop.

[Lora'txum]

Irayo, aytsmuk. Would that be the right way to pluralize (more than 3) siblings? I'm really just guessing, but I am trying! Curse my non-linguistics studying ways!

[wisnij]

Irayo, aytsmuk. Would that be the right way to pluralize (more than 3) siblings? I'm really just guessing, but I am trying! Curse my non-linguistics studying ways!

/ts/ is one of the consonants that undergoes lenition, specifically to /s/.  So ay + tsmuk -> aysmuk -> (optionally) smuk.  Dropping the "ay" prefix is optional in these cases, because the lenition tells us that it was there.  I imagine leaving it in even when it's optional might sound more formal, but that's just a guess.

[Lora'txum]

Irayo to you then. Which consonants go through lenition is definitely still throwing me for a loop. O.o Those and the infixes are probably my biggest hang-ups with the language.

[wisnij]

Irayo to you then. Which consonants go through lenition is definitely still throwing me for a loop. O.o Those and the infixes are probably my biggest hang-ups with the language.

For the most part, it's the "big three" as I think of it, the stops that show up in a lot of languages: p, t, k, and their ejective cousins px, tx, kx.  The glottal stop (written with an apostrophe) disappears entirely when there's lenition: 'eveng "child", (ay)eveng "children".

[EPILEFMAN]

http://www.learnnavi.org/docs/Learn-Navi-Pocket-Guide.pdf

do it the easier way guys!

[Eywayä mokri]

I am currently "thematising" the hole vocabulary, but it's not that easy and it's very long. I hope I'll be able to put it here tonight or tomorrow.

I think it will be then easier for everyone to look for the right words faster.

[Eywayä mokri]

Okay guys,

Am quite finished with categorizing the hole vocabulary. Am working on the visual aspect right now and I hope I'll be able to post something tonight.

[Eywayä mokri]

Good evening everyone,

I am done for today, and I hope this document will help some of the people here to find their words easier in the future.

Keep in mind that I am still working on it and feel free to give some comments and feedbacks. I'll work on the visual aspects tomorrow and I'll work on more categories to deal with in the future.

I really hope it helps.

Here is the link to the document:

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6t8Bhfq-QNhMWE4OTc4YTAtOTAxNy00YWY5LWE2NDMtNzZjOWNjNjZjMzJh&hl=en

[Seze]

Good evening everyone,

I am done for today, and I hope this document will help some of the people here to find their words easier in the future.

Keep in mind that I am still working on it and feel free to give some comments and feedbacks. I'll work on the visual aspects tomorrow and I'll work on more categories to deal with in the future.

I really hope it helps.

Here is the link to the document:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6t8Bhfq-QNhMWE4OTc4YTAtOTAxNy00YWY5LWE2NDMtNzZjOWNjNjZjMzJh&hl=en

Thank link doesn't work for me.  Google asked me to login, and once I did it said it wasn't available...

[Eywayä mokri]

Good evening everyone,

I am done for today, and I hope this document will help some of the people here to find their words easier in the future.

Keep in mind that I am still working on it and feel free to give some comments and feedbacks. I'll work on the visual aspects tomorrow and I'll work on more categories to deal with in the future.

I really hope it helps.

Here is the link to the document:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6t8Bhfq-QNhMWE4OTc4YTAtOTAxNy00YWY5LWE2NDMtNzZjOWNjNjZjMzJh&hl=en

Thank link doesn't work for me.  Google asked me to login, and once I did it said it wasn't available...

Ohhh damn, wait. I'll manage to put the right link.

edit: Try it now. I think I did'nt give the rights on the documents to read it.

[Tirealì'u]

Neat. After I've gone through everything alphabetically, I think I will try reviewing everything using these categories.

[Payoang]

This is great -- I feel like there is a growing need for a /downloads/ section on the website. I'll be posting the document in a bit.  Thank you Eywa mokriyä! Categories make it so much easier, and I was going to propose someone create that, after seeing it on the Avatar wiki.

[Eywayä mokri]

This is great -- I feel like there is a growing need for a /downloads/ section on the website. I'll be posting the document in a bit.  Thank you Eywa mokriyä! Categories make it so much easier, and I was going to propose someone create that, after seeing it on the Avatar wiki.

Glad that you like it. I'll post new versions or send new links to them each time am doing a new one.

[Karyu Amawey]

Finally! Easy to read, very organized compendium!  Okay, there shouldn't be anymore complications, so, again...Enjoy!

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BxURBDXVBWhHYTA5ZGMyNzUtNTFhYi00ODQ1LThhNDctMTgwYmZiZGM3ZDNl&hl=en

[Eywayä mokri]

Nice one!

Irayo ma Karyu Amaway