Na'vi language

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Na'vi
Project author Paul Frommer
Year of publication 2005-2009
speaker unknown
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

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ISO 639 -2

art (other constructed languages)

ISO 639-3

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The Na'vi language is a constructed , fictional language. It is spoken by the inhabitants of the moon Pandora in the movie Avatar: Departure for Pandora . It was developed for this film by linguist Paul Frommer . Na'vi should be pronounceable by the actors, but not resemble any human language.

Pronunciation and alphabet

The apostrophe (') is a voice paragraph ( glottic stroke ) as in German between the two e of the word "hasten" or like the pause between the a and the o of the word "aorta". The y is pronounced like j and the ì is a short [ɪ] like in the middle. The w is spoken like an English w, the v more like a German w like in water or a vase.

The z is spoken like a voiced s in rose, an s is pronounced voiceless as in food.

With tx , kx and px (so-called ejectives) the initial sound is pronounced with a lot of pressure, then there is a short pause and only then does the vowel begin with a crackling sound (the letter K, T or P is practically pronounced while simultaneously holding his breath). This means that the x itself only designates this ejective pronunciation, but has no sound value itself.

In some cases, the stress is indicated by an accent above the vowel (but this is not possible with ä and ì ).

Vowels

front central back
closed i [i] u [u]
or [ʊ]
ì [ɪ]
medium e [ɛ] o [o]
open ä [æ] a [a]

Besides the seven vowels there are four diphthongs aw [aw], ew [εw], ay [aj], ey [εj].

The vowels must also include the two double sounds rr [r̩] and ll [l̩], which are used instead of a vowel to form syllables.

In general, the u [u] is spoken as in gut or Stuhl . Only when the u occurs in a closed syllable can it be formed as [ʊ] as in and or diversion .

Consonants

labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Ejectives px [pʼ] tx [tʼ]   kx [kʼ]  
Plosives p [p] t [t]   k [k] ' [ʔ]
Affricates   ts (c) [t͡s]      
Fricatives f [f]
v [v] 		s [s]
z [z] 		    h [h]
Nasals m [m] n [n]   ng (g) [ŋ]  
Liquid w [w] r [ɾ]
l [l] 		y [j]  

Lenization

Prefixes for the various plural formations trigger lenization (also lenation, softening or lenition), which causes a change in some initial consonants.

In the following example the t changes to s: tokx (one body) → aysokx or sokx (many bodies)

For words that can be softened in this way, the plural ay can be omitted, but only if no ambiguity is caused, which can occur with adpositions that also trigger lenation, then these nouns are to be regarded as singular, unless the ambiguity is different is fixed.

originally softens
px p
tx t
kx k
p f
ts s
t s
k H
' -

In addition to the various plural forms of nouns, softening also occurs after certain prepositions such as mì (in).

Emphasis

Which syllable of a word is stressed cannot be foreseen in Na'vi and should therefore (if known) be represented in learning materials by underlining the stressed syllable. Sometimes an acute accent (´) is used on the stressed syllable, which can lead to confusion with the accent ( grave accent on the ì) and should therefore be avoided if possible.

Nouns

number

With the help of prefixes the number of things or living beings of the same kind is indicated:

  • me- for exactly two ( dual )
  • pxe- for exactly three ( Trial )
  • ay- indefinite number ( plural )

For more exact numbers, see Na'vi Numbers.

The singular has no such prefix.

Example:

  • nari (eye) → menari (two eyes), pxenari (three eyes), aynari (many eyes)
  • taronyu (hunter) → mesaronyu (two hunters), pxesaronyu (three hunters), aysaronyu (many hunters)

When using the prefixes ay- , me- and pxe- please note that the following initial consonant can change (see lenization ).

genus

There is no grammatical gender . The biological gender can be indicated by a suffix in the case of living beings.

  • Masculine: -an
  • Feminine: - e (This ending sometimes causes a change in the accent.)

Example:

  • tsmu kan (brother)
  • tsmu ke (sister)

The third person pronoun ( po ) can be used for "he, she, it". Only if it should be emphasized can the gender be given with an additional ending:

  • poan (er) from po and -an (male)
  • po e (she) from po and - e (female)

case

The subject is the author of an action, this is asked in German with “who?” (1st case, nominative). In Na'vi, however, a distinction is made depending on whether the verb expressing this action is used transitive (with object) or intransitive (without object).

  • The subject of an intransitive verb is not specially marked.
  • The subject of a transitive verb receives the ending -l or -ìl , the corresponding case is called ergative .
  • The ending -t (i) or -it is used for the accusative object (4th case) .

Examples: 

Oe-l nga-ti kameie.
Ich-Erg. du-Akk. sehen.
Ich sehe dich.

Ayoe ngar(u) srung sivi.
Wir (alle) du-Dat. Hilfe machen.
Wir alle helfen dir.

For more information on when a verb is transitive or intransitive, see Transitivity and Intransitivity .

  • Genitive (whose): -yä or -ä
  • Dative (whom): -r (u) or -ur
  • Topic marker, designating the actor as a kind of emphasis: -ri or -ìri

With the latter marker, the actual case marker is omitted and the word is usually placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Choosing the right affix when there are several options given (e.g. -l or -ìl for the subject) probably depends on whether a word ends in a vowel or a consonant, but no exact rules have yet been published.

pronoun

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns have the following forms:

pronoun Singular dual Trial Plural
I / we (excl.) oe moe pxoe ayoe
we all (incl.) - oeng pxoeng ayoeng, awnga
you / her nga menga pxenga aynga
he she po mefo pxefo ayfo, fo

The singular forms are oe (I), nga (du) and po (he / she) without any gender distinction.

The dual is also used here and combines as follows with the singular forms, moe (we two), oeng (me and you) and mefo (both of them), the trial behaves analogously.

We distinguish whether the addressee is included (inclusive, in the table: all of us), or whether he is not included (exclusive, in the table: I / we).

Solemn or polite forms

The following variations exist as formal forms of pronouns:

  • ohe (me)
  • ngenga (you)

possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns are formed from the personal pronouns and always end with -eyä .

  • oeyä (my)
  • ngeyä (your)
  • peyä (his / her)
  • ayoeyä (our excl.)
  • awngeyä (our incl.)
  • ayngeyä (your)
  • ayfeyä (her)

Interrogative and demonstrative pronouns

Interrogative Demonstrative (near) Demonstrative (removed) negative Everything Other Same
Thing pe u , ' u pe "What? which thing?" fì'u "this" tsa'u "that" ke'u "Nothing" woman "everything" teng'u "the same thing"
person pesu, tupe "who?" fìpo "this" tsatu "That" kawtu "no one" frapo "everyone" lapo "someone else"
Way pefya, fyape "how?" fìfya "so" tengfya "In the same way"
action pehem, kempe "how? what action? " fìkem "This (act) so" tsakem "Those (action) so"
time pehrr, krrpe "when?" set "now" tsakrr "then" kawkrr "never" frakrr "always" tengkrr "Meanwhile"
reason pelun, rag "Why?"
place peseng, tsengpe "Where?" fìtseng "here" tsatseng "there" kawtseng "nowhere" fratseng "all over"

Note: Decision-making questions end with a kind of spoken question mark srak that appears at the end of the question.

Adpositions

Preface words can in principle come before ( preposition ) or after ( postposition ) the reference word and are therefore called adpositions .

Example:

Eywa hu nga or Eywa ngahu
Eywa With you Eywa you with
Eywa with you

The following adpositions are known, some of them causing lenation when placed in front of the associated noun or pronoun:

without leniency
äo under
eo in front of (spatial)
ok over
uo Behind
fa with the help of
ftu off (directional)
hu with (accompaniment)
ka across, across, crossing (something)
kip under, between, in the middle
fkip above between / in the middle (spatial)
kxamlä through (the middle of something)
loc close to / at
hatch without
maw after (temporally)
mìkam between (spatially)
mungwrr except, except
no towards, towards (spatial)
nemfa inside
pxaw (around something
sìn on, up (?) [meaning not yet determined]
ta of (various uses)
takip from / from (in) the middle
tafkip from / from above between / in the middle (spatial, directional)
teri about, regarding, regarding
vay until (in time)
causes leniency
fpi because of, in favor of, for the sake of ...
ìlä via, through, along, with the help (of)
mì in
ro at, at (spatial)
sre before (temporally)
wä against (as in: against something )

adjective

Adjectives are immutable, so they don't have plural forms. They are connected with an a between noun and adjective. The hyphen in the example is just for clarification:

ngim-a kilvan or kilvan a-ngim
long attr flow flow long attr
the long river = a long river

The syllable a is only inserted when used as an attribute, but not in a predicative function, i.e. not together with the verb lu (to be).

The a is optional for le adjectives after a noun.

trr lefpom or trr a-lefpom or lefpom-a trr
Day peaceful Day attr -peaceful peaceful- attr Day
peaceful day

Verbs

The verbs are changed according to the tense , but not according to the person. The times are past, near past, present (unmarked), future, and near future. There are two positions for these inserted syllables, on the one hand after the initial consonants of the penultimate syllable and on the other hand after the initial consonants of the last syllable.

aspect
Perfective oil
Imperfect aspect he
Times
Future tense ay
Near future tense ìy
Present (without marker)
Near Past in the
past at the
mode
Subjunctive iv


Examples:

The last example tìrmaron shows the combination of two infixes (here ìm and he ).

The following two syllables are in the verb before the time / aspect marker:

participle I us
Past participle awn
Reflexive ap

Examples of participles

  • rey live
    • r-us-ey alive
    • ke-rusey dead (not alive)
  • understand tslam
    • tsl-us-am understanding
    • txan-tslusam wise (understanding a lot)

Subjunctive

A kind of subjunctive or possibility form can be expressed with iv :

  • takuk beat
    • t-iv-akuk should / should / would hit
oeri tìngayìl txe'lanit tivakuk
oe-ri tìngay-ìl txe'lan-it t ‹iv› akuk
i- top Truth erg Heart battery meet ‹sjv›
The truth should / may my heart beat

In addition, the infix is ​​used in connection with modal verbs such as zene “must”, tsun “can”, new “would like” and fmi “try”.

Mood / affect:

The position after the initial consonant of the last syllable can be filled with the following affect insertions:

  • ei (happy), positive mood
  • äng (reluctantly), negative mood
  • tar-ei-on (likes to hunt)
  • tar-äng-on ( doesn't like to hunt)
Oil ngati came ‹ei› e.
ich- erg you- akk see ‹approb›
I like to see you.
Oil ngati came ‹äng› e.
ich- erg you- akk see ‹pej›
I hate to see you.

To be the verb"

There are two translations:

  • With nouns or adjectives: lu (similar to ser in Spanish ), expresses a quality (A is B).
  • As indicating a place or existence: tok (as in Spanish estar ), can best be "located" with or "there" translating, but has a denotation of "occupy a space" and is transitive, so that is exploiting Dende subject in ergative and the place , as an object, must be in the accusative.
Examples with lu
oe-ri doctor lu
i- top doctor be
I am a doctor.
txep som lu
Fire hot be
The fire is hot.

however

txep a-som or som-a txep
Fire attr -hot hot attr Fire
the hot fire
Examples with tok
oil na'rìng-it tok.
ich- erg Forest battery be
I am in the forest.
sempul-ìl kelku-t tok.
Father erg zu.Hause- akk be
The father is at home.

numbers

introduction

The Na'vi use a number system with eight as a base, because they only have four fingers on one hand, which is expressed in the number words . A distinction is made between cardinal and ordinal numbers. In the following section, octal numbers are given in the form of octal number 8 , all other numbers are to be understood as decimal unless otherwise stated.

Cardinalia

Initially only the following numbers were known, although it was not known whether the assigned value was decimal or octal: 'aw (1), mune (2), tsìng (4), vofu (16) and tsìvol (32).

On January 30, 2010, Frommer emailed further information on the construction of the numbers, which are explained in more detail below.

Further definitions were published on June 18, 2010. So there is now a numerical word for zero kew and numerical words for the digits eight 'eyt and nine nayn , loan words from English that are only to be used for decimal digit sequences such as telephone numbers and therefore have no actual numerical value.

list

Base numbers (1 · 8) + x - vo (l) - (2 8) + x - mevo (l) -
word octal German prefix Suffix*
kew 0 zero
'aw 1 one aw
mune 2 two me- mun
pxey 3 three pxe- pey
tsìng 4th four tsì- sìng
mrr 5 five mrr- mrr
pukap 6th six pu- fu
kinä 7th seven ki- down
word octal German
vol 10 eight
volaw 11 nine
from 12 ten
vopey 13 eleven
vosìng 14th twelve
vomrr 15th thirteen
vofu 16 fourteen
anyway 17th fifteen
word octal German
mevol 20th sixteen
mevolaw 21st seventeen
mevomun 22nd eighteen
mevopey 23 nineteen
mevosìng 24 twenty
mevomrr 25th twenty-one
mevofu 26th twenty-two
mevohin 27 twentythree
* already embarrassed

General construction

Two-digit octal numbers

The general construction of numerals for numbers between eight (10 8 ) and sixty-three (77 8 ), i.e. two-digit octal numbers, is carried out according to the following scheme:

A × eight + B

Where A is replaced by the prefixes and B is replaced by the suffixes that are entered in the list above. It should be noted that the "multiples of eight" cause lenation, the suffixes are already lenited in the list.

example

If you want to convert any number into this system, you have to split it up. For example, if one takes thirty-three (33) , the first thing to do is to find the greatest possible multiple of eight that is less than thirty-three, that is, divide 33 by eight and round off. The resulting four is then used in the A position .

The difference to thirty-three is one that occupies position B.

The value converted into the octal system then corresponds to AB 8 . In our example, 33 10 becomes 41 8 .

In order to represent the whole as a numerical word, one takes the corresponding prefixes and suffixes for the word for eight (vol) . The prefix for the four is tsì- and the suffix for one is -aw . The numeral as a whole is then tsìvolaw .

Multi-digit octal numbers

To represent even larger numbers, zam 64 (100 8 ) for the third octal digit , vozam 512 (8 x 64) (1,000 8 ) for the fourth digit and zazam 4096 (64 64) (10,000 8 ) for the fifth digit . Each of these positions can of course again receive the factors from two to seven.

Ordinalia

Ordinal numbers are formed from the cardinalia by adding a -ve . However, the numerals are shortened in the places marked with short .

word German
 
'awve first (r / s) 1.
muve second (r / s) 2. short
pxeyve third (r / s) 3.
tsìve fourth (r / s) 4th short
mrrve fifth (r / s) 5.
puve sixth (r / s) 6th short
kive seventh (r / s) 7th short
word German
volve eighth (r / s) 8th.
volawve ninth (r / s) 9.
vomuve tenth (r / s) 10. short
vopeyve eleventh (r / s) 11.
vosìve twelfth (r / s) 12. short
vomrrve thirteenth (r / s) 13.
vofuve fourteenth (r / s) 14th short
vohive fifteenth (r / s) 15th short

syntax

The word order is fairly free, that is, the parts of the sentence subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) can be in any order: SVO, SOV, OVS, OSV, VSO, VOS.

The position of nouns and additions (adjective, genitive attribute, relative clause) is also free, although there is an "a" between noun and adjective.

The negation is formed with ke , which comes before the corresponding word or part of a sentence. In verbs there is also the expression rä'ä , which corresponds to a prohibition in front of verbs (English do not ).

Decision-making questions end with srak , exclamations can be marked with nang .

The above adpositions can be placed before or after the noun. In front, some of them cause the lenization of the initial consonant, for example mì ("in"). When used after the noun, they combine to form one word, for example hu nga ("with you") to ngahu .

The suffix -ri / -ìri emphasizes the corresponding noun or pronoun. This is usually at the beginning of the sentence and has no further case markings, which means that the other case suffixes are then suppressed.

The order of the components of a noun phrase is: preposition number-word stem-gender marker-case indicator / postposition. The word stem is the unmarked basic form of a noun or pronoun. It can either have a preposition / postposition or a case marker, but not both at the same time.

There are no articles , that is, “der / die / das” and “ein / eine” are omitted from the translation. With emphasis, however, words like fi'u (dies) or 'aw (one) can be used.

Subordinate clauses can be introduced with the following conjunctions :

  • well (how)
  • to (as in comparisons, more / less than)
  • san (quote, emphasis)
  • sìk (quote, end of emphasis)
  • sì (and, connects two nouns)
  • u lte (and, connects 2 sentences)
  • fu (or)
  • slä (but)
  • futa (that)
  • fte (so that, so)
  • fteke (not with that)
  • txo (if, if)
  • a (relative pronoun)

A relative clause is an attributive clause in relation to a noun. In German, this type of sentence begins with an inflected relative pronoun (“der / die / das”). Example of a relative clause: tute a taron (“a person who hunts”). A relative clause can, however, be translated as a participle: "a hunted person".

Some idioms

German literally Na'vi
Hello - kal txì
Greetings to loved ones "I see you (gladly)." (Positive -ei-) o e l nga ti ka m (ei) e
Bye Bye "(We) will (soon) see (us)." (Subjunctive-Future -ìyev-) kìye va me
thank you - i ra yo
You're welcome - ru txe
sorry "I be forgiven / may be forgiveness." (Subjunctive -iv-) o e ru txo a li vu
Are you all right? "Do you feel well / do you feel well?" nga ru lu fpom srak?
Not bad - tsun ti vam
The goddess be with you "Eywa with you." Ey wa nga hu
I know - o el o mum
Roger that - (perfect -ol-) tslo lam
Happy Birthday! - Ftxozäri aylrrtok ngaru!
I love you. - Nga yawne lu oer!

Word formation

With the help of prefixes and suffixes, other parts of speech can be formed from words.

However, it cannot generally be predicted which meaning will result, which means that in principle each of the constructs must be lexically recorded.

Adjectives can be derived from the noun with le- :

hrrap le hrrap
danger dangerous


Abstracts can be formed from verbs and adjectives with tì- :

rey tì rey
Life Life
ngay tì ngay
true truth

The example of rol for "sing" shows that the meaning can be different from what is expected:

rol tì rol
to sing Song (not "singing" or "singing")

However, there are also examples of this prefix being applied to a noun:

'eylan tì 'eylan
friend Friendship


People associated with an action are denoted by -tu , which creates a kind of active agent , it is associated with all parts of speech except verbs:

pamtseo pamtseo do
music Musician
kxu kxu tu
Harm, calamity enemy

As you can see, the meaning can undergo a certain change, but a passive agent can also result, and it is also noticeable that a verb is modified here:

spe 'e spe 'e tu
to catch Prisoner


To form this agent from verbs, a -yu is appended:

ta ron ta ron yu
to hunt Hunter
kar kar yu
to teach Teacher


Adverbs are formed with nì- .

ftu e nì ftue
easy in a simple way, simple


Verbs can be derived from the noun with si ("to do, do"), all of which become intransitive:

kelku kelku si
Home, home live, live
nari nari si
eye watch out, be careful


literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frommer's communication regarding the u-sounds
  2. ↑ Frommers Blog: Thoughts on Ambiguity
  3. ^ Communication from Frommers: All adpositions
  4. ^ E-Mail from Frommers regarding numbers
  5. ↑ Collection of updates on numbers, times of day, etc.
  6. ^ Quote from Frommers on productivity of the prefixes