May Na'viteri Update

Kaltxì ma frapo!  In the first post in this series, we will report on the most recent developments in the Na'vi language courtesy of Naviteri.org, the blog of Na'vi language creator Paul Frommer, aka Karyu Pawl.  As we are all hunkered down waiting out the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, Karyu Pawl has been hard at work answering questions and creating new words for the community to enjoy! 

Just this month, we received the following words via Naviteri:

äzan (n. ä.ZAN) 'force, compulsion'
äzan si (vin.) 'force, compel'
äzanluke (adv., ä.ZAN.lu.ke) 'voluntarily, without force or compulsion'
äzantu (n., ä.ZAN.tu) ‘domineering person; one who is bossy, authoritarian, or dictatorial’
nìsok (adv., nì.SOK) ‘recently’
​kemuia (n., ke.MU.i.a) ‘dishonor’
kemuia si (vin.) ‘dishonor’
tìfnawe’ (n., tì.fna.WE’)  ‘cowardice’
kemuianga’ (adj., ke.MU.i.a.nga’) ‘dishonorable’
tìkankxan (n., tì.kan.KXAN) ‘barrier to one’s goals, source of frustration’
tìkankxanga’ (adj., tì.kan.KXA.nga’) ‘frustrating’
lekxan (adj., le.KXAN) ‘blocked, obstructed; frustrated’
ftanglen (vtr., ftang.LEN, inf. 1,2) ‘prevent’
tìftanglen (n., tì.ftang.LEN) ’prevention’
pxawtxap (vtr., pxaw.TXAP, inf. 2, 2) ‘squeeze’
vun (vtr.) ‘provide’

We also received a new phrase that joins ngaru lu fpom srak?, kempe leren?, and ngafkeyk fyape? as a way to ask how one is doing!  We can say makto fyape? literally meaning "How's the riding?".  There are several responses to this and they are typically single adverbs such as nìltsan or nìksran.  One response of note is makto zong, meaning "ride safely."

In addition to all of this, his most recent post contains a nice summary of the grammatical structures used to ask and answer questions in Na'vi that we highly recommend, whether you are just learning these topics or need a refresher!

Karyu Pawl has also been featured on a BBC audio show about languages and how they form. if you are interested, check his blog for the links to the recorded show and audio segment!

Finally, the recent posts are featuring the works of the winners of the Na'vi writing contest that was held in April!  Congratulations to the winners Tseyla, Marloncori, Laura Garduño, and Vawmataw!  Looking forward to the next writing contest and looking forward to checking in with everyone with the next Na'viteri post!

Karyu Pawl's blog can be found at http://naviteri.org

Siva ko ulte 'ivong Na'vi!