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Mipa aylì’u sì aylì’fyavi nì’ul More new words and expressions

Posted on February 28, 2024 by Pawl

Kxì, ma frapo.

Zìsìtnuntrr Lefpom! Happy Leap Year Day!

A bit of explanation:

I realized there was a gap in the lexicon in the area of words relating to long and short. Here’s what we’ve had up
to now:

TIME SPACE, PHYSICAL EXTENSION

SHORT yol pup

LONG txan (?) ngim

The problem is with txan—as you know, a widely used adjective meaning ‘great’ or ‘much.’ It can mean ‘long’ for
time, when used specifically with the word krr. (Txankrr, by the way, is an adverb meaning ‘for a long time.’) For
example, we have the iconic Yola krr, txana krr, ke tsranten, ‘It doesn’t matter how long it takes’—literally, ‘Short
time, long time, doesn’t matter.’ But what about ‘a long speech’ or ‘a long song’? Txan doesn’t work for those.

Instead, we have nun:

nun (adj.; RN: nun) ‘long (of time)’

The paradigm is now:

TIME SPACE, PHYSICAL EXTENSION

SHORT yol pup

LONG nun, txan (with krr) ngim

Sunu oer Ralu, slä fìsäfrrfen peyä lu nun nìhawng.

‘I like Ralu, but this visit of his is too long.’

nunyol (n., NUN.yol) ‘length (of time)’

penunyol (pe.NUN.yol) / nunyolpe (NUN.yol.pe) (inter.) ‘what length, how long (of time)’

Nga harmahaw penunyol?

‘How long were you sleeping?’

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 For completeness:

pengimpup (pe.NGIM.pup) / ngimpuppe (NGIM.pup.pe) (inter.) ‘what length, how long (of physical
extension)’

zìsìtnun (n., zì.sìt.NUN) ‘leap year’

zìsìtnuntrr (n., zì.sìt.NUN.trr) ‘leap year day’

On to other things:

Here are some more new words I hope you’ll find useful, some of which stem from the contributions of the Lexical
Expansion Project. (Irayo nìtxan!) I have quite a few more of these suggestions, which I’ll get to for future posts.
Here I’ll also say something about a recent presentation I put together that I’ve now given a couple of times.

First, an idiomatic expression:

eltut heykahaw (EL.tut hey.KA.haw) ‘be boring’

Literally, this is ‘puts the brain to sleep,’ heykahaw being the causative of hahaw ‘sleep.’ Compare this with the
familiar expression eltur tìtxen si, ‘be interesting,’ which literally means ‘awakens the brain.’ (Question: Would
you classify eltut heykahaw as vin., vtr., or neither? )

Tsasäftxulì’ul peyä eltut heykolahaw nìtxan.

‘That speech of his was very boring.’

For someone to be bored, as opposed to something being boring, a separate word is used:

skeykx (adj.) ‘bored’

Oe ’efu skeykx ulte new tivätxaw ne kelku.

‘I’m bored and I want to go home.’

nga’prrnen (vin., nga’PRR.nen, inf. 1,1) ’be pregnant (for people)’

This word came up in the recent talk I gave (see below). It’s clearly a compound of nga’ ‘contain’ and
prrnen ‘infant.’

Zun ngal oey tsmuket tsive’a, zel am’aluke ivomum futa poe nga’prrnen.
‘If you saw my sister, you’d certainly know she was pregnant.’

To say someone is pregnant with offspring, just use nga’ in a normal transitive construction.

Pol pxeya prrnenit ngeia’.

‘I’m delighted to say she’s pregnant with triplets.’

Krra ngal oeti ngarma’, ’efu pefya?

‘How did you feel when you were pregnant with me?’

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 Since we distinguish between prrnen ‘infant, baby (person)’ and lini ‘young of an animal,) we likewise have
separate words for pregnant.

nga’lini (vin., nga’.LI.ni) ’be pregnant (for animals)’

tìnga’prrnen (n., tì.nga’.PRR.nen) ‘pregnancy (for people)’

tìnga’lini (n., tì.nga’.LI.ni) ‘pregnancy (for animals)’

kakmokri (adj., kak.MOK.ri) ‘mute’

Compare this with other kak– words like kakpam ‘deaf’ and kakrel ‘blind.’

tìkakmokri (n., tì.kak.MOK.ri) ‘muteness’

nìkakmokri (adv., nì.kak.MOK.ri) ‘mutely’

Kllkxolem fo nìkakmokri luke fwa ’awa lì’uti plltxe.

‘They stood there mutely without saying a word.’

säfpìlyewn (vin., sä.FPÌL.yewn, inf. 3,3) ‘communicate’

This is a compound of säfpìl ‘thought’ and yewn ‘express, convey.’ Communication is expressing and conveying
your thoughts to others.

tìsäfpìlyewn (n., tì.sä.FPÌL.yewn) ‘communication’ (colloquial pronunciation: tsäfpìlyewn)

Txo po lu kakmokri, fyape säfpìlyewn?

‘If he’s mute, how does he communicate?’

pamtseovi (n., PAM.tse.o.vi) ‘musical piece’

Awnga tìng mikyun aylì’uluke a pamtseovir ko!

‘Let’s listen to some music without words.’

pxawtok (vtr., PXAW.tok, inf. 2,2) ‘surround’

This word and its syntax are based on tok. Rather than occupying a place in something, however, here you’re
occupying a place around it—that is, surrounding it.

Pxawtolok snanantangìl yerikit.

‘The nantang pack surrounded the yerik.’

ehetx (n., e.HETX) ‘excuse’

ehetx si (vin., e.HETX si) ‘make an excuse, make excuses’

Furia nga ke tsan’ul, var nga ehetx sivi nì’aw.

‘Regarding your lack of improvement, you only keep making excuses.’

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 ken (adp.) ‘despite, in spite of’

Ken tìnawri peyä, ke flolä.

‘Despite her talent, she didn’t succeed.’

Ken fwa lu por ’awa nari nì’aw, lu Mati taronyu aswey.

‘In spite of having only one eye, Mati is the best hunter.’

räptulì’u (n., räp.tu.LÌ.’u; RN: räptùlì’u) ‘coarse or swear word’

räptulì’fya (n. räp.tu.LÌ’.fya; RN: räptùlì’fya) ‘coarse, vulgar language’

These compounds derived from räptum, the adjective meaning coarse or vulgar. Unlike N + lì’u compounds such
as kemlì’u, syonlì’u, and tilì’u, where the stress is on the first syllable, this ADJ + lì’u compound has stress on lì’.
That stress pattern has contributed to the m of räptum dropping over time.

nìräptum (adv., nì.räp.TUM) ‘coarsely, vulgarly’

Fyape yawne lu fkoru tute a frakrr voìk si fìtxan nìräptum?

‘How does one love a person who always behaves so coarsely?’

To refer to speaking vulgarly or using vulgar language, the expected plltxe nìräptum has evolved into a shorter
idiomatic form:

plltxe räptum (idiom) ‘to speak vulgarly, use vulgar language, swear’

katìng (vtr., KA.tìng, inf 2,2) ‘distribute’

Eykyul ayswizawti katolìng ayhapxìtur tsamponguä.

‘The leader distributed the arrows to the members of the war party.’

tìkatìng (n., tì.KA.tìng) ‘distribution’

tsyang (n.) ‘swarm’

You can speak of tsyang ayhì’angä, ‘a swarm of insects,’ but also metaphorically of tsyang suteyä, a swarm of
people. The difference between snahì’ang, a group or collection of insects, and tsyang ayhì’angä is that the latter
conveys a somewhat negative feeling, in that the insects are experienced as annoying and perhaps threatening.
Sna– is neutral and doesn’t have that connotation.

luan (vtr., LU.an, inf. 1,2; RN: luan) ‘owe’

Luan refers to having a moral obligation to give something to someone.

Fol ngeyä tsmukeru luan tskoti amip.

’They owe your sister a new bow.’

Oey voìkìri alewnga’ luan oel ngar tìoeyktìngit.

‘I owe you an explanation for my shameful behavior.’

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 Among a very helpful collection of items for clarification (irayo, ma Txonpay!), there’s a list of 37 flora and fauna
I need to post here along with stresses and derivations so they can be entered into our dictionaries. I was waiting
for them to appear on Pandorapedia so you’d be able to see the pictures and read the detailed descriptions. I’m
sure these will be available at some point. In the meantime, since these names have already been made public via
the video games, I’ll get to them in the next post.

One more thing: Some of you may have seen and heard the recent talk I gave to the lì’fyaolo’ on the topic of
language and thought, concentrating on the (in)famous Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. After that presentation, I revised
and expanded the talk a bit before I presented it to the University of Victoria (Canada) Underlings, UVic’s student-
run undergraduate linguistics club. (I love “Underlings”!) If you missed the original talk or wanted to refresh your
memory and also see a bit of new content, you can watch the revised presentation here (Google drive link) or here:

00:00 01:11:04

Hayalovay, ma eylan!

Posted in General | 26 Comments

Mipa zìsìt, aylì’u amip New year, new words

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì, ma frapo, ulte Mipa Zìsìt Lefpom!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2024 proves to be a happy and healthy one for us all.

We haven’t had any new vocabulary in a while, so here are some words I hope you’ll find interesting. Several of
them are based on, or have been inspired by, recent submissions from the newly reconstituted Language
Expansion Project. Irayo nìtxan to all the LEP members for your creative and insightful suggestions!

First some general vocabulary, in no particular order:

puwup (vin., PU.wup, inf, 12; RN: puwùp) ‘bounce’

Rum ’awlo poluwup ’rrko neto.

‘The ball bounced once and rolled away.’

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 Ngäzìk fwa fkol rumit aku’up peykuwup.
‘It’s hard to bounce a heavy ball.’ (That is, it’s difficult to make someone who is stubborn or inept do what you
want them to.)

pam si (vin.) ‘make a sound’

Fnu! Pam si rä’ä!

‘Be quiet! Don’t make a sound!’

Utral pam awok soli krra zup.

‘The tree made a loud sound when it fell.’

vakx (n.) ‘snake’

kafi (n., KA.fi) ‘sail’

kafi si (vin., KA.fi si) ‘to sail, move by means of a sail’

Kafi si can be used metaphorically as well as literally:

Rìk aukxo mì hufwetsyìp kafi sarmi.

‘The dry leaf was sailing in the breeze.’

kafiuran (n., KA.fi.u.ran) ‘sailboat’

tayng (n.) ‘thistle-like plant (generic term)’

As we’ll see later, a number of thistle-like plants on Pandora have tayng as part of their name.

telisi (n., te.li.SI) ‘whirlwind’

Note that the stress is on the last syllable.

amay (n., a.MAY) ‘brook’

katir (n., KA.tir) ‘rainbow’

tìspaw (n., tì.SPAW) ‘belief (abstract concept)’

Tsranten tìspaw, tsranten nì’ul tìfkeytongay.

‘Belief is important, but reality is more important.’

säspaw (n., sä.SPAW) ‘belief (particular instance)’

Tsasäspaw atsleng lu lehrrap.

‘That false belief is dangerous.’

ukyom (n., UK.yom; RN: ùkyom) ‘eclipse’

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 This word is a compound of uk ‘shadow’ and yom ‘eat,’ from the impression that during an eclipse, a shadow is
devouring a celestial object. Ukyom can be used metaphorically with si, similar to how “eclipse” can be used in
English:

ukyom si (vin., UK.yom si) ‘eclipse’

Pori tsakxeyey a’aw frakemur amuiä ukyom solängi.

‘Sadly, that one mistake eclipsed all of his good deeds.’

txakrrfpìl (vtr., txa.KRR.fpìl, inf. 33) ‘consider, ponder’

The derivation of this verb should be obvious: txa(n) + krr + fpìl: to think for a long time.

Oel sämokti ngeyä txakrrfpolìl.

‘I have considered your suggestion.’

haway (n., HA.way) ‘lullaby’

From hahaw ‘sleep’ + way ‘song.’

yewla si (vin., YEW.la si) ‘disappoint’

Note that yewla si doesn’t mean to be disappointing but rather to disappoint someone else:

Omum oel futa sänui peyä ngaru yewla soli nìtxan.

‘I know that his failure disappointed you greatly.’

kemum (coll., ke.MUM; RN: kemùm) ‘I don’t know’

Ke omum has two common contractions in colloquial Na’vi. We’ve already seen komum; kemum is its equivalent.
The two forms are interchangeable, just as English “it is not” contracts either to “it isn’t” or “it’s not” with no
difference in usage.

Finally, let me present the Na’vi names of some amazing fauna and flora that have come to light as we’re getting to
know Pandora better through the Avatar sequels and video games. Pictures of all the following creatures and
plants/planimals, along with detailed descriptions, can be found in Pandorapedia. (Look them up by their English
names.)

When the Na’vi name is constructed out of other meaningful elements, I’ll give the derivation briefly. If I don’t
mention the derivation, it means the word is a new root with no prior associated meanings.

FAUNA

flrrtsawl (n., FLRR.tsawl) ‘sailfin goliath’

The name of this “gentle giant” is a combination of flrr ‘gentle’ + tsawl ‘large.’

kinglor (n., KING.lor) ‘kinglor’

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 From kìng ‘thread’ + lor ‘beautiful.’ King may have been an earlier form of kìng.

nawkx (n.) ‘bone helm rhino’

reyptswìk (n., REYP.tswìk) ‘wolf tick’

This bloodsucker’s name comes from reypay ‘blood’ + tswìk ‘suck.’

slotsyal (n., SLO.tsyal) ‘stormglider’

Named for its exceptional wingspan, a combination of sloa ‘wide’ and tsyal ‘wing.’

tslikxyu latopin (n., TSLIKX.yu LA.to.pin) ‘chamelion crawler’

From tslikx ‘crawl’ + latem ‘change’ + ’opin ‘color.’

tslikxyu tsawlak (n., TSLIKX.yu TSAW.lak) ‘scarab crawler’

Named for its prominent large shell. From tslikx ‘crawl’ + tsawl ‘large’ + lak ‘shell.’

txampam (n., TXAM.pam) ‘soundblast colossus’

Named for the very loud sounds this animal produces. Txan + pam, with nasal assimilation.

txeptsyal (n., TXEP.tsyal’ ‘coronis’

Named for its flame-like wing pattern: a “firewing.”

vekreng (n., VEK.reng) ‘cloaked panther’

winzaw (n., WIN.zaw) ‘arrow deer’

Named for its arrow-like speed: win ‘fast’ + swizaw ‘arrow.’

yoten (n., YO.ten) ‘yoten’

zakru (n., ZAK.ru) ‘zakru’

FLORA

eanfwopx (n., E.an.fwopx) ‘mist bloom’

Literally, ‘blue dust cloud.’ From ean ‘blue’ + fwopx ‘dust in the air.’

hiupwopx (n., HI.up.wopx) ‘cloud spitter’

From hiup ‘spit’ + pìwopx ‘cloud.’ We can assume the English term was based on the original Na’vi.

ko’onspul (n., KO.’on.spul) ‘sunflower gigantus’

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 This is a circular plant that springs up to propel whatever treads on it. From ko’on ‘circular shape’ + spule ‘propel.’

kxetsikran (n., kxe.TSIK.ran) ‘banshee’s tail’

Clearly from kxetse ‘tail’ + ikran ‘banshee.’

naritxim (n., NA.ri.txim) ‘eyethorn’

Literally, ‘eye thorn.’ Here too we can assume the English term was based on the original Na’vi.

paymaut (n., PAY.ma.ut) ‘fountain tree’

Literally, ‘liquid fruit’: pay ‘liquid’ + mauti ‘fruit.’

syep’an (n., SYEP.’an) ‘lift vine’A ‘trap vine.’ From syep ‘trap’ + ’ana ‘hanging vine.’

tarsyu (n., TAR.syu) ‘tarsyu’

From tare ‘connect’ + syulang ‘flower.’ As explained in Pandorapedia, “The Tarsyu is a giant, flowering plant with
stamens that enable Na’vi of the Sarentu clan to commune with the memories of ancestors within Eywa via their
neural link.”

tompatayng (n., TOM.pa.tayng) ‘rain thistle’

Clearly from tompa ‘rain’ + tayng ‘thistle-like plant.’ Another case of the English name being a translation of the
original Na’vi.

txepvispxam (n., TXEP.vi.spxam) ‘sparkle pod’

From txepvi ‘spark’ + spxam ‘fungus.’

yawrwll (n., YAWR.wll) ‘feather blade’

Literally, ‘feather plant.’ From yawr ‘feather’ +’ewll ‘plant.’

yìspul (n., YÌ.spul) ‘mermaid tail’

This is a flat leaf that springs up to propel whatever treads on it. From yì ‘small flat area’ + spule ‘propel.’

I think that’s enough for now!

All my best wishes for a healthy and happy new year. Ulte Eywa ayngahu nìwotx.

Hayalovay!

Edits 7 Jan.: wll ‘plant’ –> ’ewll ‘plant’; etymologies added for reyptswìk and tarsyu; txakrfpolìl –> txakrrfpolìl.

Posted in General | 35 Comments

’A’awa aylì’u sì aylì’fyavi amip. A few new words and expressions.

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 Posted on September 30, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì, ma eylan!

Sìlpey oe, ayngaru lu fpom nìwotx.

Once again, I need to apologize that other things have kept me away from Na’viteri for too long. But that doesn’t
mean I’ve been away from Na’vi! It’s been a pleasure to work on the Na’vi-language aspects of the new video game
debuting on December 7th, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

As you can probably predict, I myself am not an experienced gamer, but all indications are that FoP is going to be
really good. (Just so it’s clear, I have no stake in the game other than wanting the Na’vi in it to be accurate and
appropriate.) Among the fun things I’ve been doing is coming up with Na’vi names for dozens of new fauna and
flora! They’re going to amaze you.

I will get to the large backlog of questions some of you have asked both publicly and privately, but for right now,
let me give you some new vocabulary and expressions I hope you’ll find useful.

First, some words relating to those flora and fauna I mentioned:

pek (n.) ‘fin (of an aquatic animal)’

lak (n.) ‘shell, hard covering of a plant or animal’

Note: Lak is a more general word than sum, which refers specifically to seashells from the ocean.

zeng (n.) ‘crest on the head of a bird or animal’

yawr (n.) ‘feather’

Note: There’s been discussion of whether we’ve actually seen birds on Pandora. One such discussion is here,
where some participants have noted that there are lots of birds visible in Fya’o Payä.

txim (n.) ‘spike, thorn of a plant’

Don’t confuse txim with txìm! But there is a proverbial expression that exploits the similarity between the two
words:

na txim a txìmmì
‘like a thorn in the butt’—that is, something extremely annoying

wuwuk (n., WU.wuk; RN: wùwùk) ‘lizard; any of a variety of lizard-like creatures’

And now some miscellaneous words and expessions:

asip (n., A.sip) ‘tall thin mass or pile of something; tower’

Tuteol asipit aytäremä txolula mì na’rìng.

‘Someone built a tower of bones in the forest.’

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 fyufye (vin., FYU.fye, inf. 12; RN: fyùfye) ‘splash’

Ranu kilvanmì fyarmufye na tsawla payoang apìsaw.

‘Ranu was splashing in the river like a big clumsy fish.’

tslikx (vin.) ‘crawl’

This word makes an appearance in a well-known rhyming expression parents recite to their children as a lesson:

Tslikx, tìran, tul;

Ftu yì ne yì tsan’ul.

As you see, this literally says, ‘Crawl, walk, run; from level to level get better.’ The meaning is that when learning
something new, you have to proceed from step to step: baby steps first, then bigger ones. (Note: The stress on
tsan’ul is normally on the first syllable, but for the rhythm of this little poem, it shifts to the second: tsan.’UL.
Things like that happen in poetry.

kara (vin./vtr., ka.RA, inf. 12) ‘resist’

Note that the stress is on the second syllable.

Fol ngati spole’e a krr, nga lumpe ke kara?

‘When they captured you, why didn’t you resist?’

Aysälatemit a zamolunge Sawtutel nga fmi kivara. Längu keltsun.

‘You try to resist the changes brought by the Sky People. Sadly, that’s impossible.’

tìkara (n., tì.ka.RA) ‘resistance’

Tìkara lu ätxäle palukanur.

‘Resistance is futile.’

kawngkem (n., KAWNG.kem) ‘evil deed, crime’

Don’t confuse kawngkem with kangkem! But here too there’s an expression that exploits the similarity between
the two words:

Pori kangkem lu kawngkem.

‘For him, work is a crime.’

That’s just an idiomatic way of saying Po lu ngong nìngay, ‘He’s really lazy.’

layl (adj.) ‘innocent’

Tsakawngkemìri lu oe layl!
‘I am innocent of that crime!’

tìlayl (n., tì.LAYL) ‘innocence’

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 nìlayl (adv., nì.LAYL) ‘innocently’

tokat (adj., TO.kat) ‘guilty’

tìtokat (n., tì.TO.kat) ‘guilt’

nìtokat (adv., nì.TO.kat) ‘guiltily’

The two adverbs nìlayl and nìtokat serve to modify the word zawprrte’ ‘be enjoyable’ to show the psychological
state of the one receiving pleasure:

zawprrte’ nìtokat fkone ‘be pleasurable to one in a guilty way’

This is an expression for schadenfreude—taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune.

Entul fot ve’kì ulte sänui feyä zolawprrte’ nìtokat pone.

‘Entu hates them and their failure brought him pleasure.’

A much nicer expression is just the opposite:

zawprrte’ nìlayl fkone ‘be pleasurable to one in an innocent way’

This expresses the idea of taking pure pleasure in someone else’s good fortune or achievements without the
slightest hint of envy or jealousy.

Tìmuntxa mefeyä zolawprrte’ Marune nìlayl. Ke lu por kea fmokx kaw’it.

‘Their marriage brought Maru pleasure. She felt no jealousy at all.’

That’s it for now.

Vospxìvomun lefpom! Ulte Eywa ayngahu nìwotx, ma smuk.

Hayalovay!

Posted in General | 6 Comments

The complete u / ù list for Reef Na’vi

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo!

Here, at long last, is the complete list of Reef Na’vi words with u or ù. As we now know, Reef Na’vi (RN)
distinguishes u (as in English food) and ù (as in English good), while Forest Na’vi (FN) does not. So for every
word in FN that contains a u, we have to find out whether the corresponding word in RN has u or ù. This list
allows us to do that.

A few things to note:

To make the differences stand out clearly, I’ve used boldface for the words that have ù.

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 If the only u in a word is at the end, it’s not on this list, since final u’s are never (well, hardly ever!) ù. We may
eventually see an exception or two to this rule, but there aren’t any in the vocabulary we’ve had so far.

In keeping with the rules of RN pronunciation, I’ve omitted the tìftang if it occurs between vowels. So, for
example, on this list the word for ‘sentence’ is written lìukìng, not lì’ukìng, since that’s how it’s pronounced in RN.
Other pronunciation differences from FN, however, have not been indicated.

Finally, for those of you who know Fya’o Payä well, see if you agree with me about how the Reef people
pronounce the words for ‘sanctuary’ and ‘tulkun.’ I hear them as utùru and tùlkun respectively, but if you hear
them differently, please let me know!

Also, if you notice any errors or inconsistencies in this list, please let me know that as well.

For convenience, here are two docs you can download, one with the complete list you see below and the other with
only the words containing ù.

RN words with u or ù rev2

RN words with ù rev2

Hayalovay, ma eylan!

EDIT July 23, 2023 3:00 PM PDT: With the help of some sharp-eyed readers (irayo, ma eylan!), I’ve
corrected some errors and added some missing items. The list below along with the documents for downloading
incorporate the following changes from the original versions.

EDIT July 26: Our intrepid linguistic sleuths discovered two more needed corrections and one more missing
item. I’ve made these changes below and in the documents above (rev2). Irayo nìmun, ma smuk! Hopefully we
now have definitive versions of the RN u/ù list for all the vocabulary we’ve seen so far.

EDIT July 26 #2: ’Ä’! Poltxe oe ye’krr nìhawng. I spoke too soon. A couple more excellent comments indicated
there are further corrections and additions to be made. Oh well . . . I’ll get to those as soon as I can. Thanks for
your diligence, ma frapo!

CORRECTED ITEMS
feul
fìmuntrr
huru
kùng
mùngwrrI’ll
mùngwrrtxo
numùltxa
numùltxatu
peekxinùm
snùmìna
tìmùngwrr
tìtunu
tìtsyul

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 txansngum
txukxefu
uniltìrantokx
uniltìrantokxolo’
zup

ADDED ITEMS
ketsuktswa’
muwìntxu
ngimpùp
omùm
sunu
tìterkup
tsùktswa’
tsùkyom
txekxùmpay
ùltxatu

’avùn save

’ekxinùm tightness

’okvur history

’opinsùng color

’opinvultsyìp crayon

’ul increase

’ùmtsa medicine

’uo something

’upe what

’ùpxare message

’ùr appearance

’ur thing (dative)

am’aluke without a doubt

Amhul (name)

Anùk (name)

Anurai (clan name)

Aonung (name)

Artsùt (name)

aungia omen

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 äzanluke voluntarily

eltungawng brainworm

eolìuvi prefix

Europa Europe

Eytukan (name)

fayluta these words that

fe’lùp tacky

feul worsen

fewtusok opposite

Fekum drawback

fekumnga’ disadvantageous

fìmuntrr this weekend

fkarùt peel

flìnutx thickness

fnetxùm kind of poison

fngapsutxwll metal-following plant

ftue easy

ftumfa out of

ftuopa from behind

ftxulìu orate

ftxulìuyu orator

fuke or not

fula that

fura that

furia that

futa that

fwum float

fyawìntxuyu guide

fyìpmaut squid fruit tree

fyolùp exquisite

fyuatx anemonoid

hangvur joke

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 hiùp spit

hìrumwll puffer plant

hufwa although

hufwe wind

hufwetsyìp breeze

hùltstxem hinder

hùm leave

hum results

hupx miss

huru cooking pot

huta unexpected

ikùt large pestle

Kamun (name)

karyunay apprentice teacher

kavùk treachery

kawnomùm unknown

kawtu nobody

kämùnge take

Kekunan (clan name)

keltsùn impossible

Kelutral Hometree

kemlìuvi verb infix

kemuia dishonor

kemuianga’ dishonor

kerusey dead

ketsùkanom unavailable

ketsùklewn unbearable

ketsùktiam uncountable

ketsùktswa’ unforgettable

ketuwong alien

keykùr hang

keyeùng insanity

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 kllkulat dig up

koaktutral goblin thistle

komùm don’t know

koùm curved

kuùp heavy

kulat reveal

kum result

kuma that

kùnsìp gunship

kùng putrid

kùr hang

kurakx drive out

kùrfyan hamper

kùrfyavi hook

kurkùng asshole

kuru queue

kxuke safe

kxukx swallow

kxùm viscous

kxùmpay gel

kxùmpaysyar glue

kxutu enemy

laùm pretend

lanutral dandetiger

lekyeùng insane

lenomùm curious

lepxìmrun common

letùt constant

letsùnslu possible

letxiluke unhurried

lìukìng sentence

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 lìukìngvi phrase

lìupam pronunciation

lìupe what (word)

lìuvan pun

lìuvi affix

loakùr amulet

lonusye exhale

luke without

lukftang continual

lukpen naked

lumpe why

lun reason

lùpra style

mawup turtapede

mauti fruit

meoauniaea harmony

meuia honor

meuianga’ honorable

mikyun ear

mu’ni achieve

muiä proper

mulpxar roosterhead plant

mùn’i cut

mune two

munsna pair

muntrr weekend

muntxa mated

muntxatan husband

muntxate wife

mùnge bring

mùngsye inhale

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 mùngwrr except

mùngwrrtxo unless

muve second

muwìntxu introduce

nalutsa k.o. animal

nawmtorùktek totem

newomùm curious

nìul more

nìul’ul increasingly

nìawnomùm as is known

nìftue easily

nìktùngzup carefully

nìlun of course

nìmun again

nìpxul formidably

nìsngum worryingly

nìsùng furthermore

nìt’iluke forever

nìtkanluke accidentally

nìtùt always

nìtxiluke unhurriedly

nìtxukx deeply

nìTsyùngwen in Mandarin

nuä beyond

nui falter

nulkrr longer (time)

nulnew prefer

nume learn

numtseng school

numtsengvi classroom

numùltxa class

numùltxatu classmate

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 nutx thick

ngimpùp length

ngul grey

ngulpin grey

ngùngùng rub

nguway viperwolf cry

okùp milk

omùm know

palukan thanator

palulukan thanator

palukantsyìp cat

pamrelvul pen

pamuvan sound play

parùl miracle

parùlnga’ miraculous

parùltsyìp (term of affection)

pasùk berry

paysmùng water carrier

paysyul water lily

pänutìng promise

peùn decide

peekxinùm how tight?

pelun why

pinvul crayon

prrnesyul bud

Prrsmùng baby carrier

pùk book

pùktsyìp booklet

pukap six

pùm thing possessed

pung injure

pùp short

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 pupxì one-sixth

puve sixth

puvol 48

pxasùl fresh

pxawpxun armband

pxiut razor palm

pxìmùn’i divide

pxul imposing

pxun arm

pxuntil elbow

raùn surrender

ramunong well

raspu’ leggings

räptùm vulgar

relvul pen

renulke irregular

reypaytun red

ronguway howl

ronguwayyu howler

rum ball

rumaut cannonball fruit

rumut puffball tree

run find

rùrùr k.o. waterfall

rusey alive

rutxe please

satu’li heritage

säfeul worsening

säftxulìu oration

sämùnge transportation device

sänui failure

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 sänume instruction

sänumvi lesson

säomùm information

säsulìn hobby

sätsan’ul improvement

säwäsul competition

säwäsultsyìp contest

sempul father

skuka Sagittaria

Slukx horn

snanumùltxa course

snolùp personal style

snùmìna dim

sngukx grub plant

sngum worry

sngumtsim source of worry

sngunga’ troubling

sosùl pleasant smell

spule propel

spulmokri telephone

spulyaney canoe paddle

spuwin old

sru’ crush

srùng help

srùnga’ helpful

srùngtsyìp tip

stùm almost

stxenutìng offer

sulìn be busy

sum shell

sumsey drinking vessel

sunkesun like it or not

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 sunu be pleasing

sùng add

sur taste

susyang fragile

sutx track, follow

Swotulu (river name)

Syaksyùk prolemuris

syeptute hyneman

syokùp weight

syulang flower

syura energy

syuratan bioluminescence

syusmùng tray

syuve food

syuvekel famine

Taunui (clan name)

takùk strike

Takuk (name)

talun(a) because

talun due to

tautral sky tree

tawsyuratan aurora

tawtute human

täftxuyu weaver

terkùp die

teylupil (insult)

tìiluke endless

tìul increase

tìfeul worsening

tìfnunga’ quiet

tìhawnuwll spartan

tìkxuke safety

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 tìlaùm pretence

tìmu’ni achievement

tìmuntxa mating

tìmùngwrr exception

tìnomùm curiosity

tìnui failure

tìomùm knowledge

tìpeùn decision

tìpxul imposingness

tìraùn surrender

tìsùng addition

tìterkùp death

tìtunu romance

tìtxantslusam wisdom

tìtxukxefu concern

tìtxùla construction

tìtxur strength

tìtxurnga’ powerful

tìtsan’ul improvement

tìtsùkanom availability

tìtstunwi kindness

tìtstunwinga’ kind

tìtsùnslu possibility

tìtsyul beginning

tìwäsul competition

torùk great leonopteryx

torùkspxam octoshroom

Tuk (name)

Tuke (name)

tùkru spear

Tuktirey (name)

tul run

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 tùlkun k.o. sea creature

tumpasùk celia fruit tree

tumpin red/orange

tun red/orange

tunu romantic

tunutu object of desire

tùng allow

tùngzup drop

tùp instead of

tupe who?

tùt (continuation)

tutampe who?

tutan man

tute person

tuté woman

tuteo someone

tutepe who?

tutsena stretcher

tuvom greatest of all

tuvon lean

txansngum desperation

txantur powerful

txasunu love greatly

txekxùmpay lava

txeptun orange

txewluke endless

txopunil nightmare

txukx deep

txukxefu care

txùla build

txùm poison

txùmnga’ poisonous

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 txùmpaywll scorpion thistle

txùmtsä’wll baja tickler

txung disturb

txur strong

txurtel rope

txurtu brawny person

txurtseng fortress

tsalsungay nevertheless

tsamkùk war drum

tsan’ul improve

tsankum benefit

tsankumnga’ advantageous

tsap’alute apology

tsawksyul sun lily

tsawlùltxa conference

tseltsùl whitewater rapids

tsmuk sibling

tsmukan brother

tsmuke sister

tsmuktu sibling

tsrul nest

tstunkem favor

tstunkemtsyìp little favor

tstunwi kind

tstxolìukìngvi noun phrase

tsuo ability

Tsu’tey (name)

tsùkanom available

tsùkmong reliable

tsùktswa’ forgettable

tsuksìm chin

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 tsùkx stab

tsùkyom edible

tsùlfä mastery

tsùlfätu expert

tsùlfätunay near-master

tsùn be able

tsun heel

tsùnslu be possible

tsùpx scratch

tsurak Skimwing

tsurokx rest

tsyul start

ue’ vomit

ùk shadow

ukxo dry

ulte and

ùltxa meeting

ùltxarun encounter

ùltxatu meeting participant

ùm loose

um’a surprisingly

unil dream

uniltaron Dreamhunt

uniltìrantokx avatar

uniltìrantokxolo’ Avatar community

uniltsa dream of

unyor sweetly aromatic

uo behind

uolìuvi suffix

uran boat

utral tree

utraltsyìp bush

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 Utraya Mokri Tree of Voices

utu forest canopy

utumauti banana fruit

utùru sanctuary

uvan game

värumut vein pod

vitrautral Tree of Souls

vomun ten

Vospxìmun February

Vospxìvomun October

vozampasùkut grinch tree

vul branch

vultsyìp stick

vun provide

vur story

vurway story poem

vurvi summary

wäsul compete

wìntxu show

wùm approximately

wur cool

wutso meal

yawntutsyìp darling

yayotsrul bird’s nest

yuey beautiful

yune listen to

yur wash

zamùnge bring

zeykùp let fall

zìmauyu newcomer

zùm object

zun if

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 zùng crouch

zup fall

zusawkrr future

Posted in General | 20 Comments

Trr Tsyìmawnun’iyä Lefpom! Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì, ma frapo.

Sìlpey oe, ayngari nìwotx Vospxìkin sngilvä’i nìltsan.

And for those of you in the States, Happy Independence Day! I was thinking about how to say that in Na’vi.

Independence, in the sense it was originally used in the 1776 Declaration of Independence, which opens with a
statement about the necessity “for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another,” is clearly about cutting ties. So that’s the key idea, I think, that should be represented in Na’vi.

syìmawnun’i (n., syì.maw.nun.’I) ‘cut tie, dissolved connection’

Note that the stress is on the final syllable. The somewhat convoluted derivation is from mun’i ‘cut’ and säyìm:

säyìm (n., sä.YÌM) ‘tie, something used for binding’

You tie something—or someone!—up (the verb yìm) with a säyìm, a tool for binding, which could typically be a
rope or chain. The word is often pronounced and spelled syìm.

So we have syìm + mawnun’i (the passive participle of mun’i)

–> syìmmawnun’i
–> syìmawnun’i, where the double m’s have coalesced into one—thus, a tie or binding that has been cut. The word
can be used in the context of a dissolved relationship:

Oengari sätare syìmawnun’i slolängu.

‘As for the two of us, I’m sorry to say our relationship is dissolved.’

The speaker here is saying to the addressee that their former relationship has become a tie that is now severed.

A related word of wider use is:

tìsyìmawnun’i (n., tì.syì.maw.nun.’I’) ‘independence, freedom from a pre-existing relationship’

It’s often pronounced and spelled tsyìmawnun’i.

To become independent, we use tsyìmawnun’i along with the verb mu’ni ‘achieve.’ (It’s easy to confuse mun’i ‘cut’
with mu’ni ‘achieve’! The two words differ not only in the placement of the tìftang but also in their stress: mun’I
but MU’ni.)

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 Zene fra’eveng tsyìmawnun’it a ta sa’sem nì’i’a mivu’ni.
‘Every child must eventually achieve independence from his or her parents.’

And this finally brings us to:

Trr Tsyìmawnun’iyä Lefpom!

‘Happy Independence Day!

More soon . . .

Edit 5 July: Typos corrected: tsyì’mawnun’i –> tsyìmawnun’i 3X. Irayo, ma Mesyokx Tìlatemä!

Posted in General | 14 Comments

Reef Na’vi part 2: Morphology, Syntax, Lexicon . . . and more

Posted on May 5, 2023 by Pawl

Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo!

Srane, oe tolätxeiaw. Some personal issues kept me away, but now that they’ve been resolved, I’m very happy to
be back.

So let’s see . . . where were we?

The last couple of posts dealt with the phonetics and phonology of Reef Na’vi. This one concerns the morphology,
syntax, and lexicon—and at this point there’s less to say about those aspects of the dialect. I talked about most of
this material in my January 2023 OmatiCon presentation, but I’ll repeat the information here, for the record. I’ll
also introduce a few new words and expressions relevant to both Forest and Reef Na’vi.

Reef Morphology

FN and RN have virtually identical morphology (that is, the rules for building words out of meaningful elements).
One difference—more of a tendency than an absolute requirement—is that for the patientive (objective) suffix,
which as you know can take three forms (-ti, -it, and -t), RN favors -ti. So, for example, the Na’vi for ‘I’m looking
for this man’ can take two forms:

A. Oel fwew fìtutanit.

B. Oel fwew fìtutanti.

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 In FN, A and B are both used, with A perhaps a bit more frequent. In RN, B is considerably more likely, although
A is understood and sometimes used.

Reef Syntax

Na’vi word order, as you know, is remarkably free, and many reorderings of the elements of a given sentence
remain grammatical. One exception, however, concerns the topical. Up to now, we’ve seen that a noun phrase in
the topical case must come at the beginning of its clause. The major syntactic difference between FN and RN is
that in RN, the topical is not restricted in this way. So consider these two translations of ‘Thanks for this beautiful
gift’:

A. Fìstxeliri alor irayo.

B. Irayo fistxeliri alor.

In FN, only A is possible. In RN, they’re both fine, even though in B, the topical comes at the end of the sentence.
The structure in this case is comment+topic rather than topic+comment.

Another syntactic difference is that in RN, lu is often omitted:

[REEF OLO’EYKTAN]
Fìtutan a rììrmì ftu na’rìng.
‘This man in the reflection is from the forest.’

The exact circumstances under which this omission is likely to occur remain to be investigated.

Reef Lexicon

Along with pronunciation, vocabulary differences between dialects are the ones most noticeable to speakers.
Looking at American vs. British English, for example, AE apartment = BE flat, AE elevator = BE lift, AE trunk (of
a car) = BE boot, and so on ad infinitum.

There are also cases where two different terms for the same thing appear in both dialects, but either the usage is
different, or one is strongly favored over the other. Take the word “brilliant,” for example, which is found in both
AE and BE. In AE, it can mean ‘bright’ or ‘radiant’ (“A brilliant spotlight lit up the actor on stage”) or it can mean
‘extremely clever or talented’ (“What a brilliant student your son is!”). In BE, however, “brilliant” can also be a
general term for anything very good or excellent (“I’m having a brilliant day”); it’s not used in that way in AE.

Since we know less about RN than about FN, we don’t yet have a lot of examples of such lexical differences. There
will be more to come. For now, however, the most notable difference we’ve seen is the word for ‘know.’ Both FN
and RN use the two terms omum and syawm (pronounced shawm in RN). However, omum is much more
common in FN, while syawm is the usual term in RN.

[REEF OLO’EYKTAN]
Kehe, faysuteri ke shawm ayoel keut.
‘No, we know nothing of these people.’

As you know, the other big area of lexical difference is in the u/ù distinction, which has been retained from the
parent language in RN but lost in FN. A comprehensive list of these distinctions is coming.

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 And now for some things pertaining to both dialects:

Back in the A1 script, Tsu’tey angrily said the following:

Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì. Fìpoti oel tspìyang fte tìkenong lìyevu aylaru!
‘These demons are forbidden here. I will kill this one as a lesson to the others!’

To date, I don’t believe we’ve had an explanation for aylaru ‘to the others.’

The paradigm for alahe ‘others, the others’ (animate or non-animate) is as follows:

Full Shorter
S aylahe ayla
A aylahel aylal
P aylahet(i) aylat(i)
G aylaheyä ayleyä
D aylaher(u) aylar(u)
T aylaheri aylari

lante (vin., LAN.te, inf. 1, 2) ’wander’

Fo ka na’rìng lerante tengkrr syuvet fwerew.

‘They’re wandering across the forest looking for food.’

ketartu (n., ke.TAR.tu) ‘outcast’

This word is based on tare ‘connect, have a relationship with.’ An outcast is a person or being that has been
disconnected from society and no longer has a relationship with others.

pxazang (n., PXA.zang) ‘akula’

The akula is the fierce shark-like creature found in the seas of Pandora. In terms of its name, there’s been some
confusion, because the word akula certainly sounds as if it’s Na’vi! In fact, however, it’s the Russian word for
‘shark,’ акула. That word has been borrowed into English as the name for the Pandoran creature, but of course
the Na’vi have their own term. Keep in mind that in RN, it’s pronounced bazang.

Finally, a useful idiom:

Ngari peu? ‘What’s wrong? What’s the matter?’

Lam fwa nga sti nìtxan. Ngari peu?

‘You seem very angry. What’s wrong?’

That’s it for now. Hayalovay!

Posted in General | 11 Comments

Clarifications and Announcements

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 Posted on January 13, 2023 by Pawl

Gì, ma eylan!

The previous post on Reef Na’vi phonetics and phonology elicited some really perceptive questions in the
comments section, so let me respond to those here. Then I’ll mention a few other things you might be interested
in.

FAQ about Reef Na’vi Phonetics and Phonology

Q: Do the phonetic rules of Reef Na’vi extend to the numeral prefix pxe-?
A: Yes! In RN, ‘three guests’ is befrrtu, ‘three rivers’ is behilvan, and ‘three fires’ is betep. (Do you see why it’s not
*bedep?)

Q: What happens to words like atxkxe or ekxtxu? Would they be changed into atxge and ekxdu, or would they
become adge and egdu?
A: It’s adge and egdu. This is an exception to the rule that the changes from ejectives to voiced stops only occur at
the onset of a syllable. In these cases, when ejectives are in contact, the change in the second ejective influences a
change in the first. It’s an example of what linguists call “regressive assimilation,” where a sound reaches
backwards, so to speak, to influence a preceding sound.

Q: If a noun ends in an ejective (e.g., ’awkx), what happens if we append a case ending? Is the ejective reanalyzed
to become the onset of the next syllable? So, is ’awkx + -ìl pronounced as ’aw-gìl or as ’awkx-ìl?
A: It’s ’awgìl. You’re right about the reanalysis.

Q: Is the glottal stop also lost between two words, e.g. oe ’ia, or does that rule only apply to glottal stops in a single
word?
A: Only within a single word. Initial glottal stops are generally retained.

Q: We know that in FN, if a word has a closed syllable containing u, it can be pronounced [ u ] or [ ʊ ] (and
apparently now, anywhere in between). But if u appears in an open syllable, like in tìfnu, it is always pronounced [
u ]. What is the situation for RN?
A: In RN, ù is perfectly possible in non-final open syllables. So for example, txula, the word for ‘build’ in FN, is
dùla in RN. [Edit 15 Jan.: Example changed. See comments.] (That’s a word that will be on our list of FN-RN
correspondences where RN has a ù.) In final open syllables, however, ù, although theoretically possible, is very
rare. I doubt we’ll be seeing examples of that. This situation is different from the i-ì contrast, where both vowels
are frequently found in final position.

Q: Would RN speakers insert an optional tìftang in sequences where FN has identical vowels together like spono-
o and zekwä-äo?
A: No. The tendency in RN is to smooth over the glottal stop, so they wouldn’t go in the opposite direction and
insert it.

Q: Would RN allow sequences of identical vowels to remain where FN cancels them, such as apxaa (apxa),
meeveng (meveng), seii (seiyi)?
A: Given that RN speakers are used to hearing sequences of identical vowels, as in rää, you’re right: forms like
apxaa, meeveng, and seii remain as they are in RN.

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 Really great questions!

And now, two announcements:

First, I’ll be giving a little online talk this Sunday, 15 January, as part of OmatiCon. It’ll be about the Reef Na’vi
dialect, with some additional exploration of dialects in general. There won’t be much new about RN phonetics and
phonology, but I’ll also be previewing the morphological and syntactic differences between FN and RN, which I
haven’t yet gotten to here on the blog.

The talk will be at the following times (I hope I’ve gotten this right!):

US Pacific Time: 11:00 am

US Central Time: 1:00 pm
US Eastern Time: 2:00 pm
UK Time: 7:00 pm
European Continental Time: 8:00 pm

Here’s a link you can use to join the Zoom meeting:

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85404913238?pwd=bEhzK1dseG9SUlVJWU9HQ2xJQzliZz09

Meeting ID: 854 0491 3238

Passcode: T994RJ

Secondly, if you’re not tired of articles about Na’vi where Pawl say things that have become all too familiar to you,
there’s a new one you might like to take a look at. It’s on Salon.com, an online magazine with quite a large
readership. I think the author did a very nice job, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. As you’ll see, the
genre is one where the interviewer transcribes what the interviewee said almost verbatim. It’s not polished prose,
but it does give you a sense that someone is speaking spontaneously rather than reading prepared text.

Hayalovay!

Posted in General | 49 Comments

Reef Na’vi part 1: Phonetics and Phonology

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Pawl

Kxì nìmun, ma frapo! Sìlpey oe, ayngari fìzìsìt alu °3747 sngilvä’i nìltsan.

It’s finally time for us to start talking in detail about RN, the Reef Na’vi dialect heard for the first time in TWOW.
(So far I’ve been referring to RN vs. FN, “Forest Na’vi,” but at times I’ll switch to the proper Na’vi names and
abbreviations for these dialects, Lì’fya Na’rìngä (LN) vs. Lì’fya Wionä (LW).)

This post will be about the LW sound system. Later we’ll talk about the differences in LW morphology, syntax, and
semantics as compared to LN.

First, however, let me mention a few things in general about dialects.

In common usage, “dialect” is often a pejorative term. (“I speak proper English” or French or Spanish or German

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 or Chinese . . . ; “You speak a dialect.”) That’s not how linguists use the word. For us, “dialect” simply means a
variety of a language. In that sense, we all speak a dialect. Dialects often correlate with geography. In the case of
English, we have, broadly speaking, American English, British English, Australian English, New Zealand English,
Indian English . . . all different “Englishes.” And of course there are dialects within dialects. Dialects can also be
based on ethnicity, on social class, on generation, even on occupation. Dialectology is a rich subfield of linguistics
in which you can take whole courses.

Are all dialects of a language equal? Yes and no. Yes, in that they’re all rule-governed systems of communication,
all equally valid, all worthy of study. No, in that although there may be no objective reasons for saying one dialect
is “better” than another, people’s attitudes about dialects can be judgmental. In some societies, a particular
dialect, referred to as standard, can have prestige and high status, and is generally considered correct, proper, and
desirable. Other dialects might be the opposite, with stigma and low status. It’s important to keep in mind that
such societal judgments have nothing to do with the intrinsic merits of the dialects themselves! They arise from
history, from social hierarchies, and from attitudes passed on from generation to generation.

Finally, how do different dialects develop in the first place? The most frequent way is based on the following
observations:

Living languages are constantly changing.

Language change is in general unpredictable.
When speakers of the same language divide into groups and locate in different places, with reduced
communication between the groups, their language continues to change, but not necessarily in parallel
ways.

In such a situation, we wind up with different dialects. If the differences become great enough so that there’s no
longer mutual comprehension, we say we now have two different languages rather than two dialects of the same
language.

What I’ve mentioned above is just the barest outline of a complicated subject, and there’s a lot more to say. But
cutting to the chase, how does all of this relate to the situation on Pandora?

What we now know is that there are different dialects of the Na’vi language there. We have a LOT more
information on one of these, LN, but we’re beginning to learn something about another dialect, LW. There’s no
reason to believe that one or the other of these is considered “standard,” but our focus will continue to be on LN,
simply because that’s the dialect we first met and the one we know the most about. Nevertheless, we’ll explore, to
the extent we can, what LW is like and how it differs from LN, keeping in mind that since these two dialects are
mutually comprehensible, the differences won’t be too great.

Thinking historically, a crucial assumption we’ll make is that LN and LW stem from the same parent language
spoken by both groups in the past (just how far in the past is as yet unknown); when the groups separated, their
languages began to separate as well. LN preserved certain things from the parent language and changed others;
the same is true for LW. But each language variety preserved and changed different things.

Whew! That was a lot of introduction! But I hope it helps you see the big picture before we dive into the details.
Alaksi srak? Here we go!

Phonetic/Phonological characteristics of Reef Na’vi

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 The combination sy is pronounced sh ( [ ʃ ] in IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet).

LN LW
syaw shaw ‘call’
tsìsyì tsìshì ‘whisper’

The combination tsy is pronounced like the ch in “church” (IPA [tʃ ] ):

Some of you guessed this already.

LN LW
tsyal chal ‘wing’
tsyeytsyìp cheychìp ‘tiny bite’

The glottal stop is lost between non-identical vowels. Between identical vowels, the loss is
optional.

LN LW
fra’u frau ‘everything’
Lo’ak Loak ‘Lo’ak’
rä’ä rää OR rä’ä ‘do not’

(Note that this can happen as well in colloquial LN, where, for example, Lo’ak and Mo’at are often pronounced
Loak and Moat respectively.)

In the case of two identical vowels, the missing tìftang does not cause the vowels to coalesce into one; we retain
them both in the spelling. So in LW it’s rää, rììr, and meem rather than rä, rìr, and mem. These are pronounced
not as one long vowel but as two vowels, which is made clear by intonation—or some might say, by tone. (Think of
saying “Aha!” in English but leaving out the h.)

And now it gets interesting!

At the beginning of a syllable (and therefore at the beginning of a word), the ejectives px, tx, and
kx are pronounced b, d, and g respectively.

LN LW
txon don ‘night’
holpxay holbay ‘number’
kxitx gitx ‘death’
skxawng skxawng ‘moron’ (no change)

Note that this sound change is a “surfacy” one. That is to say, a word like don is underlyingly txon, with the
ejective. Other phonological rules apply to this underlying form. In particular, lenition applies to it, which results
(at an intermediate stage!) in the familiar singular / short plural pair txon / ton. After that rule has applied, the
tx-to-d change takes place, so the pair in LW winds up being pronounced don (sg.) / ton (pl.).

U vs. Ù.

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 This requires some explanation.

As you know, LN has 7 vowels (not counting the pseudo-vowels), which appear on a standard vowel chart like this:

i ì u

e o

ä a

Notice something interesting? The chart is asymmetrical! In the upper left corner (these are the high
front vowels), there are two different vowels, i (often called tense) and ì (often called lax). As we all know, these
vowels sound different and can change the meaning of a word, as in mi ‘still’ vs. mì ‘in.’ English, of course, has the
same distinction: seat vs. sit, beach or beech vs. bitch, etc.

Unlike Na’vi, however . . . and now we have to change that to: unlike Forest Na’vi . . . English makes a similar
tense/lax distinction in the upper right, where we have the high back vowels. So suit (IPA [ u ] ) contrasts with
soot (IPA [ ʊ ] ), and the vowel sounds in good and food are not the same. (I sometimes wonder how anybody
learns the English spelling system!)

What we’re now discovering is that the parent language of both LN and LW had the tense/lax distinction for the
high back vowels. That is, it had two distinct vowel sounds,
[ u ] and [ ʊ ], which we can write as u and ù respectively. In LN, the distinction was lost: the two sounds merged,
and now there’s only one u, which can be pronounced [ u ] or [ ʊ ] or something in between. The important thing
is that you can’t distinguish words in LN by going from one of these vowels to the other. Linguists would say that
these vowels do not contrast; the difference between them (in LN!) is not distinctive.

LW, however, has retained the distinction from the parent language. So it has two high back vowels, u (tense) and
ù (lax), and the difference IS distinctive. For example, LW has the two words tsun ‘heel’ and tsùn ‘can,’ which are
NOT pronounced the same! Those two distinct words have merged in LN, so that tsun is ambiguous. Not so in
LW.

In summary, then, LW has an 8-vowel system:

i ì u ù

e o

ä a

By this point you’re probably jumping ahead with some alarm and anticipating what this means for our
dictionaries. I admit it’s a bit startling: every word in LN containing a u has to be checked to see whether that u is
u or ù in LW! It’s not quite as bad as it sounds, however, since u predominates over ù. Eventually we’ll have a list
of LN words where u changes to ù in LW. (Example: pum would be on the list, since LN pum corresponds to LW
pùm, but lun would not, since LN lun corresponds to LW lun.)

If you’re writing a story with reef characters, how should you transcribe their dialog? This is somewhat of a
judgment call, since it’s not necessary to indicate all the differences in pronunciation in the spelling. The same

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 written sentence can be pronounced in different ways by the forest and reef clans. For an English analogy, a
phrase like “dance on the water” is pronounced differently in British and American English: the vowel in “dance”
is different, the quality of the t in “water” is different, and the Brits do not pronounce the final r while the Yanks
do. Nevertheless, the written form is the same.

Here’s what I’d suggest as a guideline:

For LW spelling, include ù when appropriate. Change px, tx, and kx to b, d, g optionally; do so if you want to
emphasize the difference between LN and LW. But there’s no need to change sy to sh or tsy to ch: simply
retain the original spellings and pronounce the words in the appropriate way for each dialect.

As an example, here’s a line in Reef Na’vi from A2. It’s from the scene where Quaritch is demanding to know
Jake’s whereabouts, and the Reef Olo’eyktan is explaining what Quaritch needs to do to find him:

Pori do new fìtutanti rivun, zene ftu fayspono hivùm,

kivä nìdukx nemfa na’rìng.
‘He needs to leave these islands and go deep into the forest if he is to find this man.’

There are a few more sound changes to discuss—minor ones—but this is plenty for now, so I’ll stop here. One
more thing, though, before I go:

It’s easy to imagine that these sound differences are somehow appropriate to the different environments in which
the forest and reef clans live. For example, perhaps you might think that the loss of initial ejectives had something
to do with the water culture of the reef people . . . that the smoother sounds (b, d, g) are more in keeping with the
smoothness of water than the popping ejective sounds (px, tx, kx). Don’t fall into that trap. The sound changes
that take place in the history of a language have nothing to do with “appropriateness.” Although they typically
occur in a systematic and organized way (the ejective change, for example, affects all the ejectives, not just one or
two), just which changes occur is a matter of chance.

Siva ko, ma smuk!

Hayalovay!

ta P.

Posted in General | 20 Comments

Na’vi in The Atlantic!

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Pawl

Kaltxì nìmun, ma frapo!

One more thing before the year changes:

This article about constructed languages in Hollywood films just appeared online, and Na’vi is featured
prominently in it!

In case you’re not familiar with the magazine, The Atlantic is a sophisticated and well-thought-of publication,
founded in 1857. The author of the article interviewed me by phone for almost an hour and then ran the Na’vi

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 sections by me to check for accuracy. I’m very pleased with how it turned out!

Nìmun, MZL!

Posted in General | 7 Comments

Neytiriyä Waytelem Neytiri’s Songcord

Posted on December 30, 2022 by Pawl

Ma eylan ayawne,

I imagine that everyone reading this post has now seen “Uniltìrantokx: Fya’o Payä” at least once. From what I
can tell, the reaction of the lì’fyaolo’ has been overwhelmingly positive. Although the amount of Na’vi heard in
UFP is somewhat limited, there’s still a lot there for us to discuss. So in this final post of 2022, let’s begin.

The major innovation, needless to say, is the Reef Na’vi (RN) dialect that’s heard briefly in the film. From the
comments in the last post, I gathered that people wanted some time to discover as many aspects of the dialect as
they could on their own, which is why I haven’t said much (or anything?) about it yet. I’ll remedy that situation
after the first of the year. For now, though, let me just mention that those of you who identified a “sh” sound in RN
are correct! That sound, of course, doesn’t exist in the Forest Na’vi (FN) that we’re familiar with.

The correspondence is simply that sy in FN is pronounced “sh” in RN. So, for example, syaw ‘call’ sounds like
shaw, and syeha ‘breath’ sounds like sheha. This is a very common and natural sound change. It’s why English
words like “sugar” and “sure” are pronounced with the “sh” sound, and why in some dialects, “assume” is
pronounced “ashoom.” (Question: How would tsyal be pronounced in RN? )

It’s likely the word you heard with the sh sound in RN was syawm, pronounced “shawm.”

syawm (vtr.) ‘know’

Syawm exists in FN as a synonym for omum, but it’s rarely used. The situation in RN is the reverse: although the
reef people understand omum (keep in mind that the two dialects are mutually comprehensible!), they’re much
more likely to say syawm themselves.

There’s a lot more to say about RN, which we’ll get to soon. Right now, though, let me give you the official lyrics to
Neytiri’s Songcord, which has received glowing reviews. (Simon and Zoe did a beautiful job, didn’t they!) This is
going to come as something of an anticlimax, since a number of you (irayo, ma Tekre!) were able to transcribe 99
percent of it accurately. Seysonìltsan! The problem was in line 15 (see below), where there was a new vocabulary
item you couldn’t be expected to know:

huta (adj., HU.ta) ‘unexpected (usually for positive outcomes)’

This word is related semantically to the verb hek ‘be curious, odd, strange, unexpected’ but is generally for positive
outcomes, similar to how the adverb ti’a is used. So ‘an unexpected birth’ that you’re happy about would be
tì’ongokx ahuta.

A few words about the language style of this Waytelem. You’ll have noticed that Zoe pronounces some of the
words a bit differently from what we’re used to in spoken FN. There are several possible reasons for this. One is

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 that the language used may, in places, be more ancient than current FN. Another is that singers in many language
traditions will modify certain sounds—most often, vowels—to make them more “singable.” You’ll hear that in
some of Zoe’s vowels. You’ll also notice that the glottal stop is largely missing—that’s another change that makes
for smoother singing. Finally, the strongly trilled pseudovowel rr is pronounced more like ur.

Let me leave you with another question. Can you identify any syntactic differences in these song lyrics that
distinguish them from what you’d expect in ordinary spoken FN?

And with that . . .

MIPA ZÌSÌT LEFPOM, MA FRAPO!!!

ta Pawl

Neytiriyä Waytelem Neytiri’s Songcord

Verse 1:

1. Lie si oe Neteyamur, I experience Neteyam,

2. Nawma Sa’nokur mìfa oeyä. (And) Great Mother, within me.
3. Atanti ngal molunge, You brought light,
4. Mipa tìreyti, mipa ’itanti. New life, a new son.
5. Lawnol a mì te’lan. Joy within my heart.
6. Lawnol a mì te’lan. Joy within my heart.

Chorus:

7. Ngaru irayo seiyi ayoe We thank you

8. Tonìri tìreyä, For the nights of (our) life,
9. Ngaru irayo seiyi ayoe We thank you
10. Srrìri tìreyä, For the days of (our) life,
11. Ma Eywa, ma Eywa. Oh Eywa, oh Eywa.

Verse 2:

12. Zola’u nìprrte’, ma Kiri. Welcome, Kiri.

13. Ngati oel munge soaiane. I bring you to the family.
14. Lie si oe atanur, I experience the light,
15. Pähem parul, tì’ongokx ahuta. A miracle arrives, an unexpected birth.
16. Lawnol a mì te’lan. Joy within my heart.
17. Lawnol a mì te’lan. Joy within my heart.

Chorus repeats

Edit 30 Dec.: tireyä –> tìreyä (2X) Irayo, ma Vawmataw!

Posted in General | 28 Comments

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