User:Aquatiki/Lesson 1
Na'vi is a fantastic, new language invented for the movie Avatar. Paul Frommer, the inventor, mixed rare and unique elements from human languages to create an alien language that is learnable, but exotic. Anyone can learn it, but everyone will have to overcome unfamiliar hurdles.
The first thing to realize about Na'vi is that writing is secondary. That is, the Na'vi people don't have a writing system and don't think of their language as having two forms. English speakers are used to have two very different modes of production. Think of these two sentences
I'm totally not gonna put up with it! I find such a course of events to be intolerable.
Essentially, they mean the same thing, but one is written English and one spoken English. If you have studied rhetoric or public speaking, then you know the huge differences between the eye and the ear. Whenever possible, practice Na'vi aloud and develop your ear for it.
Contents
Familiar Sounds
Because the written system for Na'vi was invented solely to describe the sound system, there are no exception, no complicated rules for spelling. It also means that whenever you see a sound written down it is always that sound. (This is unlike English were the O-U-G-H in /tough/, /through/, /thorough/, /although/, /trough/ are all pronounced differently.) In Na'vi, an 'A' is an 'A' is an 'A'.
Here are sounds with which you should already be comfortable
| written | sound |
|---|---|
| a | /ah/ as in father1 |
| e | /eh/ as in better2 |
| f | /f/ as in heffer |
| h | /h/ as in reheat |
| i | /i/ as in machine3 |
| k | /k/ as in kettle |
| l | /l/ as in release |
| m | /m/ as in remit |
| n | /n/ as in renig |
| o | /o/ as in mote4 |
| p | /p/ as in moped |
| s | /s/ as in reset |
| t | /t/ as in teach |
| u | /u/ as in chute5 |
| v | /v/ as in revive |
| w | /w/ as in rewire |
| y | /y/ as in yodel |
| z | /z/ as in zoology |
- This is the same thing as a long 'E' sound.
- Do not make it a long 'E': there is another letter for that!
- Do not make it a short 'I' (as in /bit/): there will be another letter for that!
- Do not make it a short 'O' (as in /hot/): that doesn't exist in Na'vi.
- This can also be short (as in /cut/), but that's not important right now.
Diphthongs
Hopefully, that last table was reassuring to you: a majority of sounds in Na'vi are the same as in English!
There are more sounds in Na'vi which we have in English, but are written with two letters. One sound written with two symbols is a digraph. Most of these digraphs are diphthongs, two vowels run together into one, complicated sound.
| written | sound |
|---|---|
| aw | /ah+u/ as in sound |
| ay | /ah+ee/ as in fry |
| ew | /eh+o/ as in Laosian1 |
| ey | /eh+ee/ as in make |
- OK, I know this is cheating: it's not really an English sound. If you like, think of Tony Danza saying, "A-O, O-A!"
Diacriticals
Two more sounds are simple English vowels, but they are written strangely.
| ä | /a/ as in fat |
| ì | /ih/ as in bit |
These are sounds you know, but you can't type them on an American typewriter.
New Sounds
In Na'vi, there aren't really any sounds you've never heard before, but they occur in new ways and in strange places.
R
It might almost be better not to write 'R's in Na'vi with the English letter 'R'. This is because you make the correct sound all the time, you just don't ever do it where an 'R' is written. Think about the word water. Say it aloud. Unless you slowed down to a completely unnatural level, you did not actually say a 'T' sound in the middle. Was it a 'D'? Actually, it is a consonant with no name in English, but in most languages it's what passes for an 'R'. It is, in fact, the Na'vi 'R'.
= Double Consonants aka Pseudovowels
There are two digraphs in Na'vi which function as vowels but are made out of consonants. Frommer calls these 'pseudovowels' and they take the place of vowels inside a syllable.
RR
Do you miss your American 'R' already? Well fear not, there is a place for the purring sound we all make, especially at the end of words, in English. Consider the following words:
Perfect Purring Infer Referred
If you're like most American, the 'E's and the 'U's don't make any difference in your pronunciation of the 'R's. We make a sound not unlike a cat purring and the vowel doesn't even really matter. What if those same words were spelled thus:
Prrfect Prring Infrr Refrrd
It wouldn't change anything, other than the appearance on paper. Well, Na'vi does this exact thing. If you can't do an impression of a happy cat, now is the time to learn! Remember, as a digraph, 'RR' is written as two letters but represents one sound.
LL
The other double-consonant sound in Na'vi is the double 'L'. Again, the spelling of English words only hides the fact that you already make this sound, while writing it differently.
Kull Kll Pulling Plling Able --> Abll Fiscal Fiscll
If you ask certain children to say "fail" slowly, you can hear that they say it as a two syllable word: fay + ll. Perhaps your tongue is a bit too far back in your throat, and you sound a little bit like Jabba the Hut being strangled (stranglld?) but you are very close to the right sound.
