User:Erimeyz/Beginners' Guide

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Note: This beginner's guide is a work in progress. There is still a lot to be done before it gets released. Feedback from everyone is welcome, including from beginners and experienced Na'vi learners. Please add your comments on the Beginners' Guide talk page, or post to one of the Beginners' Guide threads on the Learn Na'vi forum (such as the Letters and Sounds thread), or send a forum PM to Erimeyz.



Kaltxì! Hello! Welcome to the Learn Na'vi Beginners' Guide. This guide will help you learn to speak Na'vi, the language of the native people of Pandora from James Cameron's Avatar. While there are many ways to learn this language, reading through this guide is the easiest way to get started. You'll find here a series of lessons carefully structured to lead you step-by-step through this beautiful but tricky language.

Each lesson explains important aspects of Na'vi in simple, clear language and provides plenty of examples and exercises to help you learn. When you're done reading through the guide, you'll have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of Na'vi and will be ready to join the thriving Na'vi-speaking community.

So relax, grab a tasty beverage, and let's get started!

Where Do I Begin?

First off, everyone should read About the Na'vi Language. It will give you some background about how Na'vi came to be, what it's like, what you can use it for, and what the future holds.

Next, start learning the language itself. How you do that depends on who you are:

  • If you have a linguistics background and you want to start swimming in the deep end right away, you can just read the Na'vi Language Textbook on Wikibooks. It's the most complete description of the language we have so far. When you're done with that, you can develop your vocabulary using the Na'vi - English Dictionary. You should also browse the Resources page; it provides pointers to lots of helpful information about Na'vi.
    That said, you may want to read through the rest of the Beginners' Guide anyway. It will cover all the basics, including things you may have missed while reading the Wikibook. It's also structured as a series of lessons, which you may find more helpful in learning the language than the rather dense presentation on Wikibooks.
  • If you pick up new languages easily, start with Na'vi Now. It will give you a quick overview of the fundamentals of Na'vi. If you feel comfortable with the language after reading that overview, use the Na'vi - English Dictionary to build up your vocabulary. If the overview seems too short or too confusing, read through the rest of the guide and go through the lessons to get more detailed explanations.
  • Everyone else: start with Na'vi Now, then go through the lessons. The overview won't be enough to teach you the language, but reading it will help place the lessons in context, which in turn will help you absorb the concepts and learn the language.

Finally, everyone should read What to Do Next. It will show you how to develop your vocabulary, tell you where to learn advanced topics, and point you to resources that can help you study and improve your Na'vi skills. It will also introduce you to the Na'vi speaking community and show you how to get involved so that you can read, write, and speak Na'vi with other learners like yourself!

Now that you know where to begin... let's begin!

Contents

Each part of the Na'vi Beginners' Guide is a separate page on the Learn Na'vi wiki. Each page links to the next one so you can go straight through them in order. But if you take a break, leave the site, and come back later, you can return to this main page and jump straight to where you left off.

  • About the Na'vi Language
  • Na'vi Now
  • Na'vi Lessons:
    • Lesson One - Letters and Sounds
    • Lesson Two - More Letters and Sounds
    • Lesson Three - Useful Na'vi Phrases
    • How to improve your pronunciation
    • Sidebar: stress
    • Lesson Four - Simple Sentences
    • Lesson Five - Noun Cases
    • Lesson Six - Verb Tenses
    • Lesson Seven - Plurals
    • Basic grammar
      • To be, free word order, noun-adjective copulas, noun-noun copulas, lack of articles
      • Example sentences, drill different word orders
      • Free word order, subjects and objects, case suffixes
      • Simple transitive sentences - ergative and accusative, allomorphs
      • Simple intransitive sentences
      • Example sentences, drill using same vocab with different cases and in different word order
      • Verb tenses, infixes - past, future
      • Verb tenses - near past, near future
      • Sentence drill
      • Number prefixes, lenition
      • Sentence drill
      • Sidebar: more about stress
      • Pronouns - number, clusivity, ergative, accusative (mention formal in passing)
      • Gender (pronouns, nouns)
      • Sentence drill
      • Dative
      • Dative pronouns
      • Existence - lu (vs. tok?)
      • Possession - lu + dative
      • Sentence drill
      • Adjectives
      • Genitive
      • Genitive pronouns
      • Sentence drill
      • Affect - positive, negative, formal
      • Formal speech - formal affect, formal pronouns, long accusative, etc. (?)
      • Sentence drill
    • Intermediate grammar
      • Adpositions - a few
      • Sentence drill
      • Adpositions - more
      • Sentence drill
      • Aspect
      • Sentence drill
      • Questions
      • Demonstratives
      • Sentence drill
      • Particles
      • Sentence drill
      • Topical
      • Sentence drill
  • What to Do Next

Each lesson past phonetics introduces new vocabulary - never very much at once, though. Each lesson past the first grammar one includes a complete vocabulary list at the bottom of the page, organized by part of speech, with new words from that lesson highlighted somehow.

Help Us Help You!

If you have suggestions for improving the Learn Na'vi Beginners' Guide, we'd love to hear from you! You can leave your comments on the discussion page, or on the Learn Na'vi forum, or by sending a forum private message to Erimeyz.

Irayo, ulte ngaru lu prrte'!
Thanks, and enjoy!