Naʼvi language
Naʼvi | |
---|---|
Lìʼfya leNaʼvi | |
Pronunciation | [ˈnaʔvi] |
Created by | Paul Frommer |
Date | 2005 |
Setting and usage | Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water |
Purpose | |
none (in-universe) a priori languages | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | (a proposal to use nvi was rejected in 2012[1]) |
08n | |
Glottolog | None |
IETF | art-x-navi |
The Naʼvi language (Naʼvi: Lìʼfya leNaʼvi) is a
When the film was released in 2009, Naʼvi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding of its grammar was limited to the language's creator.[2] However, this has changed subsequently as Frommer has expanded the lexicon to more than 2600 words[3] and has published the grammar, thus making Naʼvi a relatively complete, learnable and serviceable language.
Roots
The Naʼvi language has its origins in James Cameron's early work on Avatar. In 2005, while the film was still in scriptment form, Cameron felt it needed a complete, consistent language for the alien characters to speak. He had written approximately thirty words for this alien language but wanted a linguist to create the language in full. His production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, contacted the linguistics department at the University of Southern California seeking someone who would be interested in creating such a language. Edward Finegan, a professor of linguistics at USC, thought that the project would appeal to Paul Frommer, with whom he had co-authored a linguistics textbook, and so forwarded Lightstorm's inquiry on to him. Frommer and Cameron met to discuss the director's vision for the language and its use in the film; at the end of the meeting, Cameron shook Frommer's hand and said "Welcome aboard."
Based on Cameron's initial list of words, which had a "Polynesian flavor" according to Frommer,[4] the linguist developed three different sets of meaningless words and phrases that conveyed a sense of what an alien language might sound like: one using contrasting tones, one using varying vowel lengths, and one using ejective consonants. Of the three, Cameron liked the sound of the ejectives most. His choice established the phonology that Frommer would use in developing the rest of the Naʼvi language – morphology, syntax, and an initial vocabulary – a task that took six months.
Development
The Naʼvi vocabulary was created by Frommer as needed for the script of the movie. By the time casting for Avatar began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Naʼvi dialogue during auditions. During shooting Frommer worked with the cast, helping them understand their Naʼvi dialogue and advising them on their Naʼvi pronunciation, stress, and intonation. Actors would often make mistakes in speaking Naʼvi. In some cases, those mistakes were plausibly explained as ones their human characters would make while learning the language in-universe; in other cases, the mistakes were incorporated into the language.
Frommer expanded the vocabulary further in May 2009 when he worked on the
Work on the Naʼvi language has continued even after the film's release. Frommer is working on a compendium which he plans to deliver to
Frommer also maintains a blog, Na’viteri, where he regularly posts additions to the lexicon and clarifications on grammar. Naʼviteri has been the source of the vast majority of Naʼvi growth independent of Frommer's contract with 20th Century Fox.
Structure and usage
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2013) |
The Naʼvi language was developed under three significant constraints. First, Cameron wanted the language to sound alien but pleasant and appealing to audiences. Second, since the storyline included humans who have learned to speak the language, it had to be a language that humans could plausibly learn to speak. And finally, the actors would have to be able to pronounce their Naʼvi dialogue without unreasonable difficulty. The language in its final form contains several elements which are uncommon in human languages, such as verbal conjugation using infixes. All Naʼvi linguistic elements are found in human languages, but the combination is unique.
Phonology and orthography
Naʼvi lacks
Naʼvi syllables may be as simple as a single vowel, or as complex as skxawng "moron" or fngap above (both CCVC).
The fictional language Naʼvi of Pandora is unwritten. However, the actual (studio) language is written in the Latin script for the actors of Avatar. Some words include: zìsìt "year", fpeio "ceremonial challenge", ’awve "first" (’aw "one"), muiä "fair", tireaioang "spirit animal", tskxe "rock", kllpxìltu "territory", uniltìrantokx "avatar" (dream-walk-body).
Vowels
There are seven monophthong vowels:
front | back | |
---|---|---|
High
|
i ⟨i⟩ | u ~ ʊ ⟨u⟩ |
ɪ ⟨ì⟩ | ||
Mid | ɛ ⟨e⟩ | o ⟨o⟩ |
Low
|
æ ⟨ä⟩ | a ⟨a⟩ |
There are additionally four diphthongs: aw [aw], ew [εw], ay [aj], ey [εj], and two syllabic consonants: ll [l̩] and rr [r̩], which mostly behave as vowels.
Note that the e is open-mid while the o is close-mid, and that there is no *oy. The rr is strongly
These vowels may
. Each vowel counts as a syllable, so that tsaleioae has six syllables, [tsa.lɛ.i.o.a.e], and meoauniaea has eight, [mɛ.o.a.u.ni.a.ɛ.a].Naʼvi does not have vowel length or tone, but it does have contrastive
Consonants
There are twenty consonants. There are two Latin transcriptions: one that more closely approaches the ideal of one letter per
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩
|
ŋ ⟨ng (g)⟩ | |||
Plosive | plain | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩
|
k ⟨k⟩ | ʔ ⟨ʼ⟩ | |
ejective | pʼ ⟨px⟩ | tʼ ⟨tx⟩
|
kʼ ⟨kx⟩ | |||
Affricate | ts ⟨ts (c)⟩ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | h ⟨h⟩ | ||
voiced | v ⟨v⟩ | z ⟨z⟩ | ||||
Approximant | central | w ⟨w⟩ | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | ||
lateral | l ⟨l⟩
|
The fricatives and the affricate, f v ts s z h, are restricted to the onset of a syllable; the others may occur at the beginning or at the end (though w y in final position are considered parts of diphthongs, as they only occur as ay ey aw ew and may be followed by another final consonant, as in skxawng "moron"). However, in addition to appearing before vowels, f ts s may form consonant clusters with any of the unrestricted consonants (the plosives and liquids/glides) apart from ’, making for 39 clusters. Other sequences occur across syllable boundaries, such as Naʼvi [naʔ.vi] and ikran [ik.ɾan] "banshee".
The plosives p t k are
Sound change
The plosives undergo
Lenition has its own significance when the plural prefix can optionally be omitted. In the above example, ayfo can be shortened to fo. Similarly, the plural of tsmukan "brother" can be smukan (from aysmukan).
Grammar
Naʼvi has
- Oel ngati kameie
- Ngati oel kameie
- Oel kameie ngati
As sentences become more complex, some words, like adjectives and negatives, will have to stay in a more or less fixed position in the sentence, depending on what the adjective or negative is describing.
- "Today is a good day"
- Fìtrr lu sìltsana trr
- Sìltsana trr fìtrr lu
In this case, the adjective sìltsan(a) (good) will need to stay with the noun trr (day), therefore limiting the sentence to fewer combinations on the construction of the sentence, but as long as it follows or precedes the noun, the sentence is fine. By putting the attributive a before the adjective, the adjective can be put after the noun:
- Fìtrr lu trr asìltsan
Nouns
Nouns in Naʼvi show greater
The plural prefix is ay+, and the dual is me+. Both trigger lenition (indicated by the "+" signs rather than the hyphens that usually mark prefix boundaries). In nouns which undergo lenition, the plural prefix may be dropped, so the plural of tokx "body" is either aysokx or just sokx.
Nouns are declined for
There are two other cases—genitive in -yä, dative in -ru—as well as a topic marker -ri. The latter is used to introduce the topic of the clause, and is somewhat equivalent to Japanese wa and the much less common English "as for". It preempts the case of the noun: that is, when a noun is made topical, usually at the beginning of the clause, it takes the -ri suffix rather than the case suffix one would expect from its grammatical role. For example, in,
Oe-ri
I- ontu nose teya full l⟨äng⟩u be⟨PEJ⟩
"My nose is full (of his distasteful smell)", lit. "As for me, (my) nose is full"
- since the topic is "I", the subject "nose" is associated with "me": That is, it's understood to be "my nose". "Nose" itself is unmarked for case, as it's the subject of the intransitive verb "to be". However, in most cases the genitive marker -yä is used for this purpose.
Besides case, the role of a noun in a clause may be indicated with
Naʼvi pronouns encode clusivity. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the speaker is including his/her addressee or not. There are also special forms for "the two of us" (with or without the addressee), "the three of us", etc. They do not inflect for gender; although it is possible to distinguish "he" from "she", the distinction is optional.
The deferential forms of "I" and "you" are ohe and ngenga. Possessive forms include ngeyä "your" and peyä "her/his". "He" and "she" can optionally be differentiated as poan and poé.
The grammatical distinctions made by nouns are also made by pronouns.
Adjectives
Naʼvi adjectives are uninflected—that is, they do not agree with the noun they modify—and may occur either before or after the noun. They are marked by a syllable a, which is attached on the side closest to the noun. For example, "a long river" can be expressed either as,
ngim-a
long-
"a long river"
or as,
kilvan
river
a-ngim
"a long river"
The free word order holds for all attributives: Genitives (possessives) and relative clauses can also either precede or follow the noun they modify. The latter especially allows for great freedom of expression.
The
kilvan
river
ngim
long
lu
be
"The river is long"
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for tense and aspect, but not for person. That is, they record distinctions like "I am, I was, I would", but not like "I am, we are, s/he is". Conjugation relies exclusively on infixes, which are like suffixes but go inside the verb. "To hunt", for example, is taron, but "hunted" is t⟨ol⟩aron, with the infix ⟨ol⟩.
There are two positions for infixes: after the onset (optional consonant(s)) of the penultimate syllable, and after the onset of the final syllable. Because many Na’vi verbs have two syllables, these commonly occur on the first and last syllable. In monosyllabic words like lu "be", they both appear after the initial onset, keeping their relative order.
The first infix position is taken by infixes for tense, aspect, mood, or combinations thereof; also appearing in this position are participle, reflexive, and causative forms, the latter two of which may co-occur with a tense/aspect/mood infix by preceding it. Tenses are past, recent past, present (unmarked), future, and immediate future; aspects are perfective (completed or contained) and imperfective (ongoing or uncontained). The aspectual forms are not found in English but are somewhat like the distinction between 'having done' and 'was doing'.
- taron [hunt] "hunts"
- t⟨ìm⟩aron [hunt⟨REC⟩] "just hunted"
- t⟨ay⟩aron [hunt⟨FUT⟩] "will hunt"
- t⟨er⟩aron [hunt⟨IMPV⟩] "hunting"
- t⟨ol⟩aron [hunt⟨PFV⟩] "hunted"
- t⟨ì⟨r⟩m⟩aron [hunt⟨REC⟨IMPV⟩⟩] "was just hunting"
Tense and aspect need not be marked when they can be understood by context or elsewhere in the sentence.
The second infix position is taken by infixes for affect (speaker attitude, whether positive or negative) and for evidentiality (uncertainty or indirect knowledge). For example, in the greeting in the section on nouns, Oel ngati kameie "I See you", the verb kame "to See" is inflected positively as kam⟨ei⟩e to indicate the pleasure the speaker has in meeting you. In the subsequent sentence, Oeri ontu teya längu "My nose is full (of his smell)", however, the phrase teya lu "is full" is inflected pejoratively as teya l⟨äng⟩u to indicate the speaker's distaste at the experience. Examples with both infix positions filled:
- t⟨ìrm⟩ar⟨ei⟩on [hunt⟨REC.IMPV⟩⟨LAUD⟩] "was just hunting": The speaker is happy about it, whether due to success or just the pleasure of the hunt
- t⟨ay⟩ar⟨äng⟩on [hunt⟨FUT⟩⟨PEJ⟩] "will hunt": The speaker is anxious about or bored by it
Lexicon
The Naʼvi language currently has over 2,600 words. These include a few English
See also
References
- ^ "Change Request Documentation: 2011-035". SIL International.
- ^ "Do You Speak Naʼvi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar' Aliens". NPR. December 15, 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ a b Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar". Unidentified Sound Object. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- ^ Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing up on Naʼvi, the Language of Avatar". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on January 8, 2010. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ Boucher, Geoff (November 20, 2009). "USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
- ^ "Language of Avatar under study". UBC Media Releases. July 28, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
- ^ "Naʼvi, la langue d'Avatar", L'express, 1 December 2009
- ^ When mì is used as an enclitic, however, the noun is not lenited: tokxmì "in the body", xokxmì "in the bodies".
Further reading
- Frommer, Paul; Zimmer, Benjamin (December 19, 2009). "Some highlights of Naʼvi". Language Log. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar". Unidentified Sound Object. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing up on Naʼvi, the Language of Avatar". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on January 8, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
- Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. New York City: !t (HarperCollins). ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0.
- Zimmer, Benjamin (December 4, 2009). "Skxawng!". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2010. This includes a sound recording of Frommer saying several phrases in Naʼvi.
External links
- Naviteri.org - Paul Frommer's blog about the Naʼvi language
- LearnNavi.org - Community forums, Naʼvi language learning resources, dictionary (multilingual), grammar guide, and more.
- Kelutral.org - Modern resources, lessons, and community for learning the Na’vi Language.
- Dict-Naʼvi.com - Naʼvi/English online dictionary (multilingual)
- BBC interview from December 2009 in which Frommer recites part of the Hunt Song (0818 broadcast: 3'30")
- TheFatRat & Maisy Kay - The Storm (Official Music Video) - A song with parts of its lyrics in Naʼvi