Lesson 1 - "Is It Hard? What Does It Look Like?" - How To Start.

[Human No More]

Na'vi Vocabulary

LN has a few resources on pronunciation as well - Na'vi Phonetics and Phonology

 

[TireaAean]

Na'vi Phonetics and Phonology

The blue/red colors on that chart are wrong. Ts canot be syllable final nor can n, for example, start consonant clusters. The chart should be identical to

Language Log

<reported this to LearnNavi>

 

[Dreamfields]

Walas00, thank you very much for your detailled lessons and explanations. I have learnes several languages in my life (German,English, French, Spanish, Quechua, Gaelic, Maya, Sumerian) and am fascinated also by created language like the one of the Na'vi or the Elves languages in Lord of the Rings. I will be following your lessons.

 

[TireaAean]

Zola'u Nìprrte' | Welcome - Tirea Aean

Na'vi Grammar made simple. I recently did a post about the sounds that includes recordings

 

[Moco Loco]

Recordings are especially helpful to me since I'm really awful at speaking :shy: Looking at it, meanings and structure come back to me but I can't pronounce anything.

 

[TireaAean]

Recordings are especially helpful to me since I'm really awful at speaking :shy: Looking at it, meanings and structure come back to me but I can't pronounce anything.

I hope that helps then. if you can pronounce like those recordings, then you can pronounce anything. I suspect that r and rr are ruining your party. You are certainly not alone there.

 

[Moco Loco]

Definitely those, but I also find some vowel sounds hard to remember. It's true though, "rr" is the biggest mystery.

 

[Lahea Atxkxeftu]

Thank God I'm Polish, so rr is is easy for me... Good luck to you all, keep practicing, you will get it eventually

 

[Eana Unil]

Thank God I'm Polish, so rr is is easy for me... Good luck to you all, keep practicing, you will get it eventually

Lucky you ^^ Although I'm german (grew up in Northrein-Westphalia, where the trilled r is almost not used at all, unlike in Bavaria e.g.), the rr is almost impossible for me to pronounce, I still have to practice a lot until I'm able to say krr, trr, mrr, nrr, lrrtok and so on. Makes me sad. ;/ ^^

Had a lot of problems with the ejectives in the beginning as well, but now I'm fortunately able to pronounce them. At least something, eh.

 

[Susano'o]

 

[Wind12]

The language looks really involved and I know some of the common words like elyan, Kaltxi, aytsmuke, tsmukan, tsmuke, Irayo, but if I am ever able to really get serious about the language, this starting thread is very nice

One thing that I am curious about are Na'vi words for weather, there are some cool terms in the dictionary so I gathered those and tried ( very rudimentally I might add) to make some weather terms that were not in there, here is the list if anyone was interested or has any input on it

NA'VI WEATHER TERMS:




Hufweayrrap=windstorm


Mìnahufwe= tornado?


Tomperwì=sleet


Tompa=rain


Tskxepayatompa=freezing rain?


Rawmpxomayrrap or 'rrpxomayrrap= thunderstorm


Herwì=snow


Txanfwerwì=blizzard


Som=hot


Txasom=very hot


Wew=cold


txawew=very cold


Paynga'=humid/moist/damp


Txantompa=rainstorm, heavy rain


Piak=clear/sunny


Yapay=fog/mist/steam


Leyapay=foggy/misty


Tstu=cloudy


Mawlatstu=partly cloudy?


Txampxìatstu=mostly cloudy?


Txampxìapiak=mostly clear


Tskxaytsyìp=hail

 

[TireaAean]

Cool list!

I agree with all the ones that already exist. But unfortunately, you can't just make up your own like that. This language, for the sake of consistency, only has one creator. However, you can go over to the LearnNavi.org forums and suggest those words in the Lexical Expansion Project (LEP) Anonymous submissions. Members of LN can anonymously submit words to the Na'vi language creator, Paul Frommer, who then decides if the word makes it in or not and posts them on his blog, naviteri.org

Interesting things though. Some of these terms, rather than being just 1:1 word translations have their own story/idiom to them.

For "It's nice out", we have Taw lu piak "The sky is open."
For "The sun is shining" we have Tsawke Lrrtok si "The sun smiles".
For "It's raining" we have Zerup tompa "Rain is falling".

And so on. It's quite beautiful, really.

There is a cool post on Pawl's blog about the weather:

Yafkeykìri pängkxo frapo — Everyone talks about the weather | Na'viteri.org

 

[Wind12]

^Irayo that's is really cool, I will def check that stuff out

 

[Wind12]

loved that weather blog, still most of it was over my head very cool still though

 

[TireaAean]

Stuff like

(v. intr.: FKEY.tok, infixes 2, 2)

I can explani if you want. It's mostly there for the dictionary crew and for technical info on the word. Like type of word, how to pronounce, and where changes go when making other forms of that word.

 

[Wind12]

Yes , its awesome that it is that involved, but it is somewhat intimidating' ill probably have to start with the basic stuff and work my way up , Irayo for the offer

 

[TireaAean]

Yeah, I guess don't really worry about those parts right now.

Related to that post sort of, check this out:

Audio and Video Learning Materials for Na'vi 101!

In the handout is a little section about the weather.

 

[Wind12]

thank you for your help, I think I am going to take a break, and come back to it later this evening

 

[TireaAean]

okay cool.

No hurries, no worries I always say

 

[Wind12]

Well here are a few things that I tried today..

Oel tayakuk ngat

I will strike you

Oel tayakuk tsa'u

I will strike that thing.

ngal tsraye'i tskxet

You will throw that rock.

ngal tsrame'i tskxet

You threw that rock

Oel tayul alìmit tsatrr

I ran far today.

Tomorrow I start work again, so it may once again be a challenge for me to balance time asit takes a lot of energy to learn something new, but I will def. Try.