a'vi language

a’vi

Pronunciation

ˈnaʔvi

Created by

Paul Frommer

Date founded

2005

Setting and usage

2009 film Avatar

Total speakers

1 (none fluent)

Category (purpose)

constructed languages

artistic languages

fictional languages

Na’vi

Category (sources)

constructed languages

a priori languages

Language codes

ISO 639-1

one

ISO 639-2

art

ISO 639-3

–

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The
a’vi language is the constructed language of the
Na’vi, the sapient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of the
fictional moon Pandora in the 2009 film Avatar. It was
created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the Marshall
School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Na’vi
was designed to fit James Cameron's conception of what
the language should sound like in the film, to be
realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of
the film, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not
closely resemble any single human language.

When the film was released in 2009, Na’vi had a growing
vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding

of its grammar was limited to the language's creator.

[1]

Contents

1 History
2 Phonology and orthography

2.1 Vowels
2.2 Consonants
2.3 Sound change

3 Grammar

3.1 Pronouns
3.2 Nouns

3.2.1 Number
3.2.2 Gender
3.2.3 Case

3.2.3.1 Subject and object
3.2.3.2 The genitive and
vocative
3.2.3.3 The dative
3.2.3.4 The topic
3.2.3.5 Case allomorphs

3.2.4 Adpositions

3.3 Adjectives and other attributives
3.4 Numbers
3.5 Particles
3.6 Verbs

3.6.1 Participles and reflexives
3.6.2 Tense, aspect, mood

3.6.2.1 Tense
3.6.2.2 Aspect
3.6.2.3 Mood

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3.6.3 Affect
3.6.4 Imperatives
3.6.5 To be
3.6.6 To do

3.7 Questions and demonstratives
3.8 Syntax

3.8.1 Subordinate clauses

4 Lexicon

4.1 Changing parts of speech
4.2 Original vocabulary
4.3 Phrases

5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links

History

The Na'vi 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

[2]

, 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 best. His choice established the
phonology that Frommer would use in developing the rest of the Na'vi language - morphology, syntax, and
an initial vocabulary - a task that took six months.

The Na'vi 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 Na'vi 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 Na'vi linguistic elements are found in human languages, but the
combination is unique.

The Na'vi vocabulary was created by Frommer as needed for the script. By the time casting for Avatar
began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Na'vi
dialogue during auditions. During shooting Frommer worked with the cast, helping them understand their
Na'vi dialog and advising them on their Na'vi pronunciation, stress, and intonation. Actors would
occasionally make mistakes in speaking Na'vi. In some cases, those mistakes were plausibly explained as
ones their human characters would make; in other cases, the mistakes were incorporated into the language.

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Frommer expanded the vocabulary further in May 2009 when he worked on the Avatar video game, which
required Na'vi words that had not been needed for the film script and thus had not yet been invented.
Frommer also translated into Na'vi four sets of song lyrics that had been written by Cameron in English, and
he helped vocalists with their pronunciation during the recording of James Horner's Avatar score. At the time
of the film's release on December 18, 2009, the Na'vi vocabulary consisted of approximately 1000 words.

Work on the Na'vi language has continued even after the film's release. Frommer is working on a

compendium which he plans to deliver to Fox in the near future.

[3]

He hopes that the language will "have a

life of its own,"

[4]

and thinks it would be "wonderful" if the language developed a following.

[5]

Phonology and orthography

Na’vi lacks voiced stops like [b d ɡ], but has the ejective stops [pʼ tʼ kʼ], spelled px, tx, kx, and the voiced
fricatives [v z]. It also has the syllabic consonants ll and rr. There are seven vowels, spelled a ä e i ì o u.
Although all the sounds were designed to be pronounceable by the human actors of the film, there are

unusual consonant clusters, as in fngap [fŋap] "metal"

[6]

and tskxe [tskʼɛ] "rock"

[7]

.

Na’vi syllables may be as simple as a single vowel, or as complex as skxawng "moron" or fngap "above"
(both CCVC).

The fictional language Na’vi of Pandora is unwritten. However, the actual (studio) language is written in the
Latin alphabet for the actors of Avatar. The movie scripts were written in a slightly anglicized orthography,
with ng, ts for Frommer's preferred g, c. Sample words: zìsìt "year", fpeio "ceremonial challenge", nìawve

"first" (aw "one"), muiä "be fair", tiréaióang "spirit animal", kllpxìltu "territory", uniltìrantokx "avatar".

[8]

Vowels

There are seven simple vowels:

front back

high

i [i]

u [u]
~ [ʊ]

ì [ɪ]

mid e [ɛ] o [o]

low ä [æ] a [a]

as well as four diphthongs: aw [aw], ew [εw], ay [aj], ey [εj].

The front vowels and diphthongs ä e ì i ey ay are pronounced as English bat, bet, bit, marine, obey, kayak,
whereas the central/back vowels and diphthongs a o u aw ew are pronounced as in Spanish a o u au eu,

though with u varying between English foot and food.

[9]

Note that the e is open-mid while the o is close-mid,

and that there is no *oy. In addition, there are two syllabic consonants which behave as vowels, ll [l̩] and rr
[r̩], as in plltxe [pl̩.tʼɛ] "to speak" and prrte’ [pr̩.tɛʔ] "pleasure". The rr is strongly trilled, and the ll is "light",
as in leap, never a "dark" (velarized) *[ɫ̩] as in wool.

Na’vi vowels may occur in sequences, as in the Polynesian languages, Bantu, and Japanese.

[10]

Each vowel

counts as a syllable, so that tsaleioae has six syllables, [tsa.lɛ.i.o.a.ɛ], and meoauniaea has eight,
[ˈmɛ.o.a.ˈu.ni.a.ˈɛ.a]. The syllabic consonants may also occur in sequence with a simple vowel or diphthong,
as in hrrap [hr̩.ap] "dangerous". However, diphthongs before another vowel are not distinguished from the
consonants y, w between vowels.

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Na’vi does not have vowel length or tone, but it does have contrastive stress: túte [ˈtutɛ] "person", tuté
[tuˈtɛ] "female person". Although stress may move with derivation, as here, it is not affected by inflection
(case on nouns, tense on verbs, etc). So, for example, the verb lu "to be" has stress on its only vowel, the u,
and no matter what else happens to it, the stress stays on that vowel: lolú [loˈlu] "was" (l‹ol›u), lolängú

[lolæˈŋu] "was (ugh!)"

[11]

(l‹ol›‹äng›u), etc.

Consonants

There are twenty consonants. There are two Latin transcriptions: one that more closely approaches the ideal
of one letter per phoneme, with the letters c and g for [ts] and [ŋ] (the values they have in much of Eastern
Europe and Polynesia, respectively), and a modified transcription used for the actors, with the digraphs ts
and ng used for those sounds. In both transcriptions, the ejective consonants are written with digraphs in x, a
convention that appears to be unique to Na’vi, though Nambikwara uses tx, kx for similar glottalized
consonants.

Labial Alveolar Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Ejective

px [pʼ]

tx [tʼ]

kx [kʼ]

Plosive

p [p]

t [t]

k [k]

’ [ʔ]

Affricate

ts (c) [ts]

Fricative

f [f]

v [v]

s [s]
z [z]

h [h]

asal

m [m]

n [n]

ng (g) [ŋ]

Liquid/glide w [w]

r [ɾ]

l [l]

y [j]

The fricatives and the affricate, f v ts s z h, are restricted to the onset of a syllable; the other consonants may
occur at either 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 stops and liquids/glides) apart from ’, making for 39 clusters. Other sequences
occur across syllable boundaries, such as na’vi [naʔ.vi] "person", ikran [ik.ɾan] "banshee", and atxkxe
[atʼ.kʼɛ] "land".

The plosives p t k and the affricate ts are tenuis, as in Spanish or French. In final position, they are
unreleased, as in Indonesian and other languages of Southeast Asia. The r is flapped, as in Spanish and
Indonesian; it sounds a bit like the tt or dd in the American pronunciation of the words latter / ladder.

The combination of ejective plosives and voiced fricatives, but no voiced or aspirated plosives, is unusual in
human language, but does occur in the Kamchatkan language Itelmen.

Sound change

The most notable form of sound change in Na’vi is a kind of consonant mutation called lenition. This is a
weakening that the plosive consonants undergo after certain prefixes and prepositions. In this environment,
the ejective plosives px tx kx become the corresponding plain plosives p t k; the plain plosives and affricate p
t ts k become the corresponding fricatives f s h; and the glottal stop ’ disappears entirely.

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Consonant lenition

Underlying Weakened

px

p

tx

t

kx

k

p

f

ts

s

t

s

k

h

’

—

Because of this, the singular and plural forms of nouns can appear rather different. For example, the plural
form of po "s/he" is ayfo "they", with the p weakening into an f after the plural prefix ay-, and after the
preposition ftu "from", tsa "that" takes the (accusative) form sat. Other examples of lenition are the
interrogative forms below.

The nasal consonants m, n, ng tend to assimilate to a following nasal, so that tìng mikyun "to listen" (lit.
"give an ear") is usually pronounced as if it were tìm mikyun, and tìng nari "to look" (lit. "give an eye") is
usually pronounced tìn nari.

Vowel sequences are only attested for dissimilar vowels. Na’vi does not have vowel length, and this appears
to mean that sequences of similar vowels do not occur. For example, when two i's come together, as in the
approbative inflection of si "to do" in ngaru irayo s‹ei›i oe "I thank you :)", a y is inserted to separate them:
gáru iráyo seiyí oe. Also, when feminine -é is added to túte "person", the result contracts to tuté "female
person", with the only difference being stress placement.

With the informal pronoun oe "I" and its derivatives, the o reduces to a /w/ sound whenever the stress shifts

to the e : Óel /ˈo.ɛl/ "I",

[12]

but oéru /ˈwɛɾu/ "to me" and ayoéng /ajˈwɛŋ/ "all of us".

The vowels of short grammatical words are sometimes elided before a lexical word or phrase that begins
with a vowel, at least in song, for instance sì "and" in s-ayzìsìtä kato "and the rhythm of the years" and lu
"to be" in a l-ayngakip "who is among you"; the same may happen of unstressed vowels of grammatical
prefixes, as the ì of nì-’aw "only" in han’aw txo "so (ha) only (nì’aw) if (txo)". It is not clear if this is an
aspect of normal Na’vi speech, or if it was forced by the meter of the song.

Grammar

Accounts of the grammar cover parts of speech, their uses, and some of their inflections, but not much about
the syntax.

Pronouns

Na’vi pronouns encode clusivity. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the
speaker is including the person spoken to or not. There are also special forms for "the two of us" (oeng "you
& me", moe "s/he & me"), "the three of us", etc. Pronouns do not inflect for gender; although it's possible to
distinguish "he" from "she", the distinction is optional.

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Pronouns sing. dual trial

plural

exclusive

oe

moe

?

ayoe

inclusive

—

oeng

?

ayoeng, awnga

2nd person nga

menga ?

aynga

3rd person po

mefo

?

ayfo, fo

Oeng is a contraction of oe-nga, which form it reverts to when inflected: ergative oengal, etc. (See Case
below.)

The formal forms of "I" and "you" are óhe and ngengá.

[13]

Possessive forms include oeyä "my", ngeyä

"your", ohengeyä "our" (inclusive dual and formal), peyä "her/his". "He" and "she" can optionally be
differentiated as poan and poé; this may be done to distinguish two referents in the same context, as
normally both are translated as simply po. Fo is the "short plural" form of po; ayfo is the explicit plural.

"One" as a pronoun is fko:

Zene fko n‹iv›ume nì-txan

must one learn‹

SJV

›

ADV

-much

"There is much to learn" (lit. "One must learn much")

Pronouns are declined for case as nouns (below) are:

Oel ngati kameie

Oe-l nga-ti

kam‹ei›e

I-

ERG

you-

ACC

See‹

APPROB

›

[14]

"I See you (yeah!)" (a greeting)

[15]

ouns

Na’vi noun phrases are inflected according to the following template, not including attributives (adjectives
etc.):

NUMBER

+

STEM

-(

GENDER

)-

CASE

There are no articles like "a" or "the".

umber

Singular (no prefix)

Dual

me+

Trial

?

Plural

long: ay+, or short: +
(prefix ay- plus lenition, or just lenition)

Nouns show greater number distinctions than human languages do: besides singular and plural, they not only
have special dual forms for two of an item (eyes, hands, lovers, etc.), which are not uncommon in human

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language (English has a remnant in "both"), but also trial forms for three of an item, which on Earth are only
found with pronouns. However, gender is only occasionally (and optionally) marked.

The plural prefix is ay+, and the dual is me+ (nari "eye", menari "eyes"). 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" may be either aysokx (the "full plural") or
sokx (the "short plural").

Gender

Na’vi does not have grammatical gender. However, masculine individuals may be distinguished by the suffix
-an, and feminine ones by -e, both of which are stressed:

Masculine -an

Feminine -e

For example, tsmuk or tsmúktu is "sibling", tsmukán "brother", and tsmuké "sister".

Case

Many of the case markers have several allomorphs, the distribution of which is not entirely known:

Intransitive

(unmarked)

Ergative

-ìl, -l

Accusative

-it, -t, -ti

Genitive

-ä, -yä, -eyä

Dative

-ru, -u, -r

Topic/regarding -ìri, -ri

Subject and object

Nouns are declined for case in a tripartite system, which is quite rare among human languages, though found
in Nez Perce. In a tripartite system, there are distinct forms for the object of a clause, as in "Neytiri hunted a
hexapede"; the agent of a transitive clause which has such an object, as in "Neytiri hunted a hexapede"; and
the argument ("subject") of an intransitive clause, which does not have an object, as in "Neytiri is

sleeping".

[16]

An object is marked with the accusative suffix -it/-t/-ti, and an agent with the ergative suffix

-ìl/-l, while an intransitive argument has no case suffix. That is, the ergative and accusative tend to occur as
a pair, whereas a single argument has no case inflection. Translating our English examples:

"Neytiri is sleeping"

eytiri herahaw

eytiri

h‹er›ahaw

(name)[

INTR

] sleep‹

IPFV

›

"Neytiri hunted a hexapede"

eytiril yerikit tolaron

eytiri-l

yerik-it

t‹ol›aron

(name)-

ERG

hexapede-

ACC

hunt‹

PFV

›

The use of such case forms leaves the word order of Na’vi largely free, for example, agent-object-verb
(AOV) or object-verb-agent (OVA):

Oeyä tukrul txe'lanit tivakuk

Katot täftxu oel

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"Let my spear strike the heart"

Oeyä tukru-l

txe’lan-it

t‹iv›akuk

my

spear-

ERG

(A) heart-

ACC

(O) strike‹

SJV

› (V)

"I weave the rhythm"

kato-t

täftxu

oe-l

rhythm-

ACC

(O) weave (V) I-

ERG

(A)

The genitive and vocative

There are two other cases, genitive in -ä/-yä and dative in -ru, as well as a vocative particle ma and a topic
marker -ìri/-ri. The genitive can be seen in oeyä tukru "my spear" above. Unlike the other cases, it shows
the relationship of nouns to each other, rather than between a noun and a verb. The vocative ma is used
when addressing someone: Ma eytiri, herahaw srak? "Neytiri, are you sleeping?", rather like archaic or
poetic "O!" in English.

The dative

The dative is prototypically used for giving something to someone, marking a recipient, or doing something
for someone, marking a benefactor:

ga a’viru yomtìyìng

"You will feed the people"

nga

na’vi-ru

yom+tܓyݓng

you[

INTR

]

[17]

the.people-

DAT

will.feed (to.eat+give‹

IMM

›)

However, it is also used in situations, so-called dative constructions, where an English speaker might not
expect it:

Oeru txoa livu.

"Forgive me"

oe-ru txoa

l‹iv›u

I-

DAT

forgiveness be‹

SJV

›

garu lu fpom srak?

"Hello, how are you?"

nga-ru

lu fpom

srak?

You-

DAT

be well.being

QUESTION

(Literally, "May there be forgiveness for me"

= "May I have forgiveness")

(Literally, "Is there well-being for you?"

= "Do you have well-being?")

The dative is also used with lu "be" for more concrete concepts of having. When one has something for
someone, a double dative is used:

Lu oeru aylì’u frapor.
"I have something (= words) to say, to everyone."

lu oe-ru ay-lì’u fra-po-r

be I-

DAT

pl-word every-one-

DAT

The topic

Topics indicate the background context of a clause, and the topic marker -ri/-ìri is somewhat equivalent to

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(though much more common than) English "as for", "concerning", "regarding", etc. It preempts the case of
the noun: that is, when a noun is made topical, it takes the -ri/-ìri suffix rather than the case suffix one
would expect from its grammatical role. For example, in,

Oeri ontu teya längu

Oe-ri ontu teya l‹äng›u

I-

TOP

nose full be‹

PEJ

›

"My nose is full [of his distasteful smell]",

since the topic is "I", the subject "nose" is associated with "me": That is, it's understood to be "my nose"

without stating that explicitly.

[18]

Note that "nose" itself is unmarked for case, as it's the subject of the

intransitive verb "to be".

The topic need not come in the introduction of the clause:

Pxan livu txo nì’aw oe ngari

pxan

l‹iv›u

txo nì-’aw

oe nga-ri

worthy be‹

SJV

› if

ADV

-one I you-

TOP

"Only if I am worthy of you" (lit. "Only if I be worthy in regard to you")

In this case, it functions as an adposition for a single noun phrase, rather than setting up a topic-comment
structure for the entire clause.

Nouns are not double-marked for case. Attributives do not agree with the nouns they modify, and this holds
for possessives as much as for adjectives. So while "my spear" in citation form is oeyä tukru, in the ergative
case it is oeyä tukrul, with only tukrul "spear" marked for the ergative.

Case allomorphs

Case suffixes come in several different forms, which are not fully attested. All appear to have distinct forms
depending on whether the noun ends in a consonant or in a vowel, with a -V or -VCV form for
consonant-final nouns, and a -CV form for vowel-final nouns, so that adding case endings does not result in

consonant or vowel clusters.

[19]

However, this is not the only distinction. The case inflections on pronouns differ slightly from those of
nouns; the genitive is -eyä, which replaces any final vowel on the pronoun, rather than expected -yä. The
accusative also has a long form -ti which is attested both on the pronoun ngati "you" and on nouns. For
instance, a quick response to the greeting oel ngati kameie "I See you", with the long form of the accusative,

is kame ngat, with the short form.

[20]

Thus the difference would appear to be one of register rather than of

grammar.

[21]

Variant case forms

TR

ERG

ACC

GE

DAT

TOP

forms:

—

-(ì)l

-(i)t, -ti

-(e)(y)ä

-(r)

?

(u)

-(ì)ri

pronoun.

EXCL

oe

oel

?

oeyä

oeru

oeri

pronoun.

INCL

oeng

oengal ?

oengeyä?

[22]

?

?

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pronoun.2

nga

ngal

ngati, ngat ngeyä

ngaru

ngari

pronoun.3

po, tsa pol

pot, tsat

peyä

por

?

N ending in V —

tukrul
Neytiril

katot,
swiräti

tompayä, mokriyä na’viru

ultxari?

N ending in C —

tìngayìl

ye’rikit
txe’lanit
ketuwongti
Kelutralti

txonä, zìsìtä,
trrä, kifkeyä

tsahiku?

[23]

skxawngìri

Adpositions

Besides case, the role of a noun in a clause may be indicated with an adposition. This may occur either as a
preposition before the noun, or as an enclitic after the noun, a greater degree of freedom than human
languages allow. For example, "with you" may be either hu nga or ngahu. When used as enclitics, they are
much like the numerous cases found in Hungarian and Finnish. When used as prepositions, more along the
lines of what English does, certain of them trigger lenition. One of the leniting prepositions is mì "in", as in
mì sokx "in the body". This may cause some ambiguity with short plurals: mì sokx could also be short for mì
aysokx "in the bodies". When mì is used as an enclitic, however, the noun is not lenited: tokxmì "in the
body", sokxmì "in the bodies".

Some common adpositions:

’em "over, above"

’ìm "behind, in back"

eo "before, in front of"

eo ayoeng

before us

fa

"per" (with, by means of)

fpi "for the sake of"

ftu "from" (direction)

hu "with, together with" (accompaniment) Eywa ngahu

Gaia (be) with you

ìlä "via, along, by"

ka "across"

kip "among"

ayngakip

among you

mì "in"

mì te’lan

in the heart

ne "to" (direction)

Terìran ayoe ayngane we are walking your way

ta

"from" (generic)

aungia ta Eywa

a sign from Eywa

These may be combined for more specific location: ne’ìm "toward the back"; ta’em "from above". Note also
neto "away (toward the distance)" and mìso "away (in the distance)", both perhaps based on the particle to
"than".

Adjectives and other attributives

Na’vi adjectives may occur either before or after the noun they modify. They are marked by a particle a,
which is attached on the side closest to the noun, another feature that is unusual by the standards of human
languages. For example, "a long river" can be expressed either as ngima kilvan,

ngim-a

kilvan

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long-

ATTR

river

or as kilvan angim,

kilvan a-ngim

river

ATTR

-long

The a affix is optional for derived le- adjectives after a noun: trr lefpom or optionally trr alefpom "a
peaceful day", but lefpoma trr.

The attributive affix a- is only used when an adjective modifies a noun. Predicative adjectives instead take
the "be" verb lu:

kilvan ngim lu

river long be

(also kilvan lu ngim etc.) "The river is long"

Adjectives are uninflected. That is, they do not agree with the noun they modify, as in Sì ’ekong te’lanä
le-a’vi "and the beat of the hearts of the People", where only the noun te’lan "hearts", not the adjective
le-a’vi "Na’vi", takes the genitive suffix -ä.

The syntactically free (discourse-determined) word order of adjectives in a noun phrase holds for all
attributives: Genitives (possessives) and relative clauses can also either precede or follow the noun they
modify. The latter is marked by a particle a.

Genitives (possessives) in -yä

tompayä kato "the rhythm (kato) of the rain (tompa)"
Utral Aymokriyä "the Tree (utral) of Voices (aymokri)"

Relative clauses

Ftxey ’awpot a a’viru yomtìyìng "Choose one (’awpo) who will feed the People (a’vi)"

umbers

As the Na’vi have four digits per hand, they have a base-eight number system. Before human contact, they
only counted up to vofu 16; any number greater than that was pxay "many". Only a few numbers are
attested:

’aw

1

mune

2

tsìng

4

onmrr (?) 5

vofu

16

tsìvol

32 (ergative?)

From this it would appear that the root for 4 is tsì, for 8 is vo, and that 32 is "4 eights".

Numerals form various derivatives, such as ’awpo "one" (an individual), (nì)’awve "first", ’awsiténg
"together" (one-make-same), kawtu "no-one" (negative k-), kawkrr "never" (not-one-time), nì’aw "only",
and nì’awtu "alone" from "one"; also nìmun "again" and perhaps muntxa "to mate" from mun- "two".

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Particles

Various particles occur, such as vocative ma above. Ma is used with people, and with animals one has killed
in a hunt, but not when talking to one's pa’li (horse). It may thus indicate a degree of politeness.

The negating particle ke is used together with other negative words:

fì-ketuwong ke n‹ay›ume ke-’u

this-alien

not learn‹

FUT

› no-thing

"This alien will learn nothing."

[24]

There are also emotive particles or interjections attested at the ends of phrases or clauses, such as
disparaging pak, as in Tsamsiyu pak? "Hah! A warrior! (you call that a warrior?)", surprise nang "oh my!",
as in sevin nìtxan nang! "my aren't you pretty!", and a particle ko which elicits agreement ("Let's", "okay?",
"why don't you", "wouldn't you agree?", etc.), as in makto ko! "Let's ride!" and

Tsun tutet tspivang ko

tsun

tute-t

tsp‹iv›ang ko

be.able person-

ACC

kill‹

SJV

›

eh

"They can kill a person, you know."

[25]

Verbs

Verbs are conjugated for tense 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 tolaron, with the infix ‹ol›.

[26]

There are three positions for infixes: two after the onset of the penultimate syllable, and a third after the
onset of the final syllable. Because many Na’vi verbs have two syllables, these commonly occur on the first
and last syllables, as in the examples below. In monosyllabic words like lu "be" and tsun "can", however,
they all appear after the initial consonant, keeping their relative order, as in tsolängun [ts‹ol›‹äng›un] "was
able to (ugh!)". If an infix appears in the first or only syllable of a verb, and there is no initial consonant, the

infix comes first:

[27]

tsam-pongu-t Tsu’tey-l

‹iv›eyk

war-party-

ACC

(name)-

ERG

lead‹

SJV

›

"Tsu’tey will lead the war party."

verb length

typical

form

without

infixes

typical

form

with infixes

maximal form

without infixes

maximal form

with infixes

minimal

form

without

infixes

minimal

form

with

infixes

trisyllabic

verb

CV.CV.CV

CV.C‹1›
‹2›V.C‹3›V

CCVC.CCVC.CCVC

CCVC.CC‹1›
‹2›VC.CC‹3›VC

V.V.V

V.‹1›
‹2›V.‹3›V

disyllabic

verb

CV.CV

C‹1›
‹2›V.C‹3›V

CCVC.CCVC

CC‹1›
‹2›VC.CC‹3›VC

V.V

‹1›
‹2›V.‹3›V

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monosyllabic

verb

CV

C‹1›‹2›‹3›V CCVC

CC‹1›‹2›‹3›VC

V

‹1›‹2›‹3›V

Participles and reflexives

The first infix position is taken by infixes for participles and reflexives.

Participle us

Reflexive ?

The participial infix us is found in forms such as kérusey "dead", from ke "not" and rey "to live" (that is,
"not-living"), and txantslusam "wise", from txan "much" and tslam "to understand" (that is, "much-
understanding"). There may be other participial infixes.

Tense, aspect, mood

The second infix position is taken by infixes for tense, aspect, and mood. These follow the first-position
infixes when these co-occur, but all appear in the penultimate syllable of the verb stem.

a’vi aspect

Perfective (

PFV

)

ol

Imperfective (

IMFV

) er

a’vi tense

Future (

FUT

)

ay

Immediate future (

IMM

) ìy

Present (

PRES

)

(unmarked)

Recent past (

REC

)

ìm

Past (

PST

)

am

a’vi mood

Subjunctive (

SJV

)

and optative

iv

Imperative (

IMP

) (intonation)

Tense

Tense is the easiest of these concepts for an English speaker. However, whereas English has three tenses,
past present and future, Na’vi has five, with the addition of a recent past ("just did") and an immediate
future ("about to do"):

taron [hunt] "hunts"
t‹am›aron [hunt‹

PST

›] "hunted"

t‹ìm›aron [hunt‹

REC

›] "just hunted"

t‹ay›aron [hunt‹

FUT

›] "will hunt"

t‹ìy›aron [hunt‹

IMM

›] "is about to hunt"

Na’vi past and future are used for general statements about events in the past or future, as in English; they
are not necessarily remote in time. There is no absolute timeframe involved; whether something is
considered recent or immediate depends on the judgement of the speaker. An example of the immediate
future ìy is nì-Ìnglìsì p‹ìy›lltxe oe "I'll speak in English now", at which point the speaker switches to English.
That is, by uttering those words, the speaker anticipates that the switch will take place right away.

More than one tense may be used in a verb:

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Oe-l po-t

tsp‹ìm›‹ìy›ang

I-

ERG

s/he-

ACC

kill‹

REC

›‹

IMM

›

"I was just about to kill him"

Aspect

Aspect is a more difficult concept. There are two in Na’vi, a perfective, used when one views the action as
contained, as if one were on the outside of the action looking in; and an imperfective, used when one views
the action as ongoing or uncontained, as if one were inside with the action.

taron [hunt] "hunts"
t‹er›aron [hunt‹

IPFV

›] "hunts, (is) hunting"

t‹ol›aron [hunt‹

PFV

›] "hunts, (has) hunted"

This distinction is not found in English but is somewhat like the distinction between (in the past tense)
'having done' and 'was doing' or 'used to do'. However, in Na’vi, either aspect may take place in the past,
present, or future. An example of the perfective is tsl‹ol›am "got it" or "understood", from tslam "to
understand"—the (unmarked) tense is either present tense or irrelevant; the point being communicated is
that the understanding is complete. An example of the imperfective is t‹er›ìran ayoe ayngane "we are
walking your way"; here the action is in process. Although the English translation suggests present tense, the
Na’vi could actually be past or future.

Aspect may be combined with the tense infixes. Only the imperfective past tenses are attested:

t‹ì‹r›m›aron [hunt‹

REC

‹

IPFV

››] "was just hunting"

t‹a‹r›m›aron [hunt‹

PST

‹

IPFV

››] "was hunting"

Tense and aspect need not be marked when they can be understood by context or are established elsewhere
in the sentence. For example, in

Oe-hu Txewì trr-am

na’rìng-mi t‹a‹r›m›ok.

Ts‹ol›e’a ...

I-with (name) day-

PST

? forest-in

exist‹

PST

›‹

IPFV

› see‹

PFV

›

"Yesterday I was with Txewì in the forest, (and we) saw ...",

the first clause sets up the context of the past tense, so the verb 'saw' can be marked as simply perfective,

not as past perfective.

[28]

Mood

There are three attested moods in Na’vi: an unmarked mood used when making an ordinary assertion, an
imperative mood used for making commands, and a subjunctive/optative used when one is stating something
that is not certain. The imperative, as in English, has no affix: Kä! "go!" (This will be covered in a separate
section below.) The subjunctive is little used in English, but is found in a few set expressions such as "if I
were you" (not *am you), "God bless you" (not *blesses), "I move that the meeting be adjourned" (not *is
adjourned), etc. The Na’vi subjunctive is formed with the infix iv, but is much more common than in
English, used whenever one wishes, fears, or suspects that something might or must be so. It is found for
example in

Oeri tìngayìl txe’lanit tivakuk

oe-ri tì-ngay-ìl

txe’lan-it t‹iv›akuk

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I-

TOP NMZ

-true-

ERG

heart-

ACC

strike‹

SJV

›

"Let the truth strike my heart" or "that the truth may strike my heart."

The subjunctive is commonly used after words of obligation such as zene "must", or ability, such as tsun "be
able", and may translate the English infinitive, as above in the examples zene fko n‹iv›ume nìtxan "there is
much to learn" and tsun tutet tsp‹iv›ang ko "they can kill a person, you know".

The subjunctive (optative) is also used to request that someone do or be allowed to do something, by
expressing one's wish that they do it, as in,

Tivìran po ayoekip

t‹iv›ìran po ay-oe-kip

walk‹

SJV

› s/he pl-I-among

"Let her walk among us[

EXCL

],"

and it is used to give permission, for instance in responding with p‹iv›lltxe "speak!" ("may you speak!")
when someone announces they have something to say.

Other temporal and aspectual forms include tovaron, tevaron, telaron, tairon.

Affect

The final infix position is taken by infixes for affect: Sspeaker attitude, whether positive or negative;
formality; and evidentiality to mark for uncertainty or indirect knowledge.

a’vi affect

Positive attitude ei

Negative attitude äng

Formal

uy

Evidential

?

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 feels in the meeting. In the subsequent
sentence, Oeri ontu teya längu "My nose is full [of his smell]", however, the phrase teya lu "is full" is
inflected negatively as teya l‹äng›u to indicate the speaker's distaste at the experience.

The formal infix goes with the formal pronouns: genga ... l‹uy›u set "You are now ...".

Only one affect inflection may be used per verb, so the choice depends on the speaker's priorities. For
example, once formality is established, the formal infix can be dropped, clearing the way for other affectual
inflections even if the formal pronouns continue to be used.

Although only one affect infix may appear, they may co-occur with first- or second-position infixes in the
penultimate syllable:

oe t‹ìrm›ar‹ei›on [hunt‹

REC

.

IPFV

›‹

APPROB

›] "I was just hunting": The speaker is happy about the

experience, whether due to success or just the pleasure of the hunt.
po t‹ay›ar‹äng›on [hunt‹

FUT

›‹

PEJ

›] "he will hunt": The speaker is anxious about or bored by the

prospect.

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Imperatives

There is no infix for the imperative: kä! "go!". However, the subjunctive may be used:

Aynga neto rivikx!

ay-nga ne-to

r‹iv›ikx

pl-you to-away move‹

SJV

›

"(Everyone) step back!"

Τhe pronoun may be stated overtly:

’Awpot set ftxey ayngal

’awpo-t set ftxey

ay-nga-l

one-

ACC

now choose pl-you-

ERG

"Now you choose one"

Negative imperatives (prohibitives) are conveyed with rä’ä "don't!": Txopu rä’ä si "don't be afraid!"

Nouns may be used in a similar way, as if they were interjections: ’eko "attack!"

[29]

To be

The verb lu is a copula, meaning that it links two concepts together (like an equal sign), as in fo lu kxanì
"they are forbidden (here)", where it links a noun phrase and adjective; aungia lu "there is a sign",
introducing a topic; a’viyä, l‹uy›u hapxì "(you) are‹

FORMAL

› part of the People", where it links two nouns

("you" being understood); tsahìk-u txele lu "the matter is for the Tsahìk". It is the copula lu that makes a
predicate out of an adjective: kilvan angim "a long river", kilvan ngim lu "the river is long".

There is also a verb of existence tok, which means to be in a place. Together, lu and tok split the functions of
the English verb "to be".

To do

Na’vi has a general verb si which means "to do" or "to make". It's used in numerous expressions, and is the
primary way of turning a noun into a verb: tsam "war", tsam si "to make war", kelku "home", kelku si "to
dwell" (lit., "to make (one's) home"); tsap’alute "an apology", tsap’alute si "to apologize" ("to make an
apology"), ireiyo "thanks", ireiyo si / si ireiyo "to thank", ’eko "an attack", ’eko si "to attack" ("to make an
attack"), lrrtok "a smile", lrrtok si "to smile", etc. Si forms idiomatic expressions with the organs of the
senses: from nari "eye", nari si "to watch out, be careful"; from eltu "brain", eltu si "to pay attention, quit
goofing off".

Although the si may occasionally come before the noun (nga-ru ireiyo s‹ei›yi or s‹ei›yi ireiyo oe "I thank
you"), the two words behave as an intransitive compound: The noun never takes the accusative suffix, and

the subject of si never takes the ergative.

[30]

Questions and demonstratives

Yes-no questions may be asked with the final question marker srak?, but sometimes intonation alone is used.
Information questions are asked with question words based on the leniting interrogative-pronoun morpheme

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pe "which?". These are only used for questions, not as relative pronouns as in "I don't know which to
choose". Interrogative pe corresponds to demonstrative morphemes fì "this" and tsa "that". The morphemes
that combine with these combine with others as well, such as ke "no", fra "every", la "other", and teng
"same":

Interrogative

Proximal

Distal

egative

All

thing

peú,
’úpe

"what?
which
thing?"

fì’u

"this,
this
thing"

tsa’u

"that,
that
thing"

ke’u

"nothing"

fra’u "everything"

person

pesu,
tupe

"who?"

fìpo

"this
one"

tsatu

"that
person"

kawtu

"no-one"

frapo "everybody"

lapo

manner

pefya,
fyape

"how?
which
way?"

fìfya

"like
this"

action

pehem,
kempe

"how?
which
action?"

fìkem

"this
(action)"

tsakem

"that
(action)"

time

pehrr,
krrpe

"when?" set

"now"

tsakrr

"then"

kawkrr "never"

?

"always"

reason

pelun,
lumpe

"why?"

place

peseng,
tsengpe

"where?" fìtseng "here"

tsatseng "there"

?

"nowhere" ?

"everywhere"

The forms based on kem are used when asking or telling what one is doing: Kempe si nga? "What are you
doing?"

These are merely the more common forms; pe, fì (and its plural fay "these") and tsa may combine with any
noun: fìtxep "this fire", tsaswirä "that creature". For this they are unstressed and do not need the attributive
a; compare kea txep / txep ake "no fire" and ke txep "not a fire".

Syntax

As noted above, Na’vi constituent order (subject-object-verb order) is syntactically free—that is, it is
determined by discourse factors rather than by syntax. The word order within a noun phrase (demonstrative-
numeral-adjective-noun etc.) is similarly free.

Negation, both of noun phrases and of clauses, is made with the grammatical particle ke, which appears
before the negated element. The vowel elides in certain lexicalized expressions, such as kawkrr "never"
above. As illustrated above and below, double negatives are used.

Various other particles such as conjunctions join phrases and clauses. Examples are sì and últe "and", fu
"or", slä "but", na "like, as" (na ayoeng "as we (do), like us"), san (quote), sìk (unquote), fte "so that", fteke

"lest". A is used for relative clauses, as in tute a tsun "a.person who can",

[31]

futa means "that", as in ke

fparmìl futa ... "(I) didn't think that ...", and tsnì means "that" in ätxäle si tsnì ... "(I) request that ...".

Some of these trigger the subjunctive in a dependent clause:

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ari si ayoe fteke nìhawng livok.

[25]

"We

EXCL

were careful not to get too close."

nari+si

ayoe fte-ke

nì-hawng

l‹iv›ok

eye+make we

so.that-not

ADV

-excessive close‹

SJV

›

However, the main clause is not always made explicit:

Txo new nga rivey, oehu!

[32]

"(Come) with me if you want to live."

txo new nga r‹iv›ey

oe-hu

if

want you to.live‹

SJV

› me-with

The difference between sì "and" and últe "and" is not certain, but it appears that sì joins phrases within a
clause, while últe joins clauses. Attested examples include trrä sì txonä "of day and night", win sì txur "fast
and strong", and plltxe sì tìran "to speak and walk", but kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu "See you again, and may
Eywa be with you".

Comparatives and superlatives are marked by -to:

Ts‹ol›e’a sie?-tute-t

a-tsawl

fra-to

mì-sì-rei.

see‹

PFV

› trap?-person-

ACC ATTR

-big every-than in-

NMZ

-live

"(and we) saw the biggest Trapper I've ever seen" (lit. 'in (my) life')

Reported speech is introduced with the quotative particle san:

[33]

P‹ol›lltxe oe, san

zene ke unil-tìran-yu

ke-’u

z‹iv›a’u

fì-tseng.

say‹

PFV

› I

QUOT

must not dream-walk-er no-one come‹

SJV

› this-place

'I have said, [quote] "No dreamwalker may come here".'

Reported speech is often thought of as a kind of subordinate clause, but the Na’vi strategy is unrelated to
that of less contested types of subordination, discussed next.

Subordinate clauses

Na’vi does not have relative pronouns such as English who, which, what;

[34]

instead, a subordinating particle

a is employed:

tute

a

tsun

nì-a’vi

plltxe

person

SBRD

be.able

ADV

-Na’vi speak

"a person who can speak Na’vi"

It wouldn't matter if the phrase were "a thing which" (or "that"), "a time when", or "a reason why"; all would
use the same particle a to translate the English wh- word. This is the same morpheme as the a in attributive
adjectives; indeed, subordinate clauses can be thought of as multi-word adjectives: The example above
might be more literally translated as "an able-to-speak-Na’vi person", with "able to speak Na’vi" being an
attributive (≈ adjective).

A slightly more complex example along the same lines is,

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’Awpot set ftxey ayngal a l-ayngakip, ’awpot a a’viru yomtìyìng.
"Choose one among you (that is, 'one who is among you'), one who will feed the People."

’awpo-t set ftxey

ay-nga-l

a

lu ay-nga-kip,

’awpo-t a

a’vi-ru

yom+tܓyݓng

one-

ACC

now choose

PL

-you-

ERG SBRD

be

PL

-you-among one-

ACC SBRD

People-

DAT

eat+give‹

IMM

›

(Lit, "you-all choose an is-among-you individual, a will-feed-the-People individual")

Here, in ’awpot a a’viru yomtìyìng "one who will feed the People", the subordinating a is not adjacent to
the verb, and so cannot be attached to it in writing the way it is attached to adjectives.

This kind of subordinating strategy is common among human fixed-order verb-final languages such as
Japanese, Korean, and Turkish. Indeed, though these examples followed the English word order of
subordinate clause following the noun it modifies, the human verb-final order of subordinate clause
preceding the noun is also possible in Na’vi:

Tsun oe ngahu nì-a’vi pivängkxo a fì’u oeru prrte’ lu.
"It’s a pleasure to be able to chat with you in Na’vi."

tsun

oe

nga-hu

nì-a’vi

p‹iv›ängkxo a

fì-’u

oe-ru prrte’

lu

be.able I.

INTR

you-with

ADV

-Na’vi chat?‹

SJV

›

SBRD

this-thing I-

DAT

pleasure? be

(Lit. "this being-able-to-chat-with-you-in-Na’vi thing is a pleasure to me")

The subordinator/attributive a is also used when a prepositional phrase modifies a noun. In English, "the cat
in the hat" can be thought of as "the cat which is in the hat", with the verb 'to be' dropped. In Na'vi, though
the 'be' need not be said, the a 'which' must be:

Fìpo lu vrrtep a mìsokx atsleng
"It is a demon in a false body"

fì-po

lu vrrtep a

mì+tokx a-tsleng

this-one

BE

demon

ATTR

in+body

ATTR

-false

The object pronoun fì’ut "that.

ACC

", when followed by this a, may contract to futa, which can be translated

as "that" as in "I think that [X]":

Ke fparmìl oel futa lu tute a tsun nì-a’vi set fìfya pivlltxe!
"I didn't think that there was anyone who could speak Na’vi like that at this point!"

ke fp‹a‹r›m›ìl

oe-l

fì-’u-t

=

a

lu tute

a

tsun

nì-a’vi

set fì-fya

p‹iv›lltxe

not

think‹

PST

›

‹

IMFV

›

I-

ERG

this-thing-

ACC

=

SBRD

be person

SBRD

be_able

ADV

-Na’vi now this-way speak‹

SJV

›

(Lit. "I didn't think this [X] thing", where [X] is "there is a can-now-thus-speak-Na’vi person".)

A similar contracted conjunction tsnì appears in,

Ätxäle si tsnì livu oheru Uniltaron.
"I (respectfully) request (that I have) the Initiation."

ätxäle si

tsnì l‹iv›u

ohe-ru

unil-taron

request make that be‹

SJV

› I[

FORM

]-

DAT

dream-hunt

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2010-01-17 17:57

Lexicon

Frommer had created a thousand words for Na’vi by the time Avatar was released. These include a few
English loan words such as kunsìp "gunship" and toktor "doktor".

A few conversational items are,

káme "to See" (to see into and understand a person)

oél ngáti kámeie "I See you" (a greeting)
káme ngát "See you" (a shortened response)
kìyeváme "good-bye; See you soon"

kaltxì "hello"
ngaru lu fpom srak? "how are you?"
rutxé "please"
iréiyo "thank you"

óe ngáru seiyí iréiyo "I thank you"

oéru txóa livú "forgive me"
Éywa ngáhu "God (Gaia) be with you"
skxáwng! "moron!"
pxasik "screw that!"
óe ómum "I know"
tslolám "got it; understood."
tsún tivám "not bad/pretty good" (that should do / good enough)

Many words are created by compounding, which is effected by simply joining the elements together:
kämákto "to ride out", from kä "to go" and makto "to ride"; éltungawng "a brainworm", from eltu "a brain"
and ngawng "a worm"; ftéke "lest", from fte "so that" and ke "not". In verbal compounds, it may be the
second verb which inflects, as in yomtìng "to feed" (lit. "to give to eat"), where the first-position infix ìy
appears instead in the second syllable: yomtìyìng.

Changing parts of speech

Adjectives may be derived from nouns with le-: hrrap "danger", lehrrap "dangerous". (The attributive a- is
generally dropped before this le-.) Adverbs are formed with nì-: ftúe "easy", nìftúe "easily"; ayoeng "us",
nìayoeng "like us". Abstract nouns may be derived from verbs and adjectives with the prefix tì-: rey "to
live", tìrey "life"; ngay "true", tìngay, "truth". People or things affected by a verb are indicated by
compounding with -tu: spe’é "to capture", spe’étu "a captive". A person who specializes in a verb (English

-er) is indicated with -yu: táron "to hunt", táronyu "hunter".

[35]

Original vocabulary

Frommer followed the example of Cameron, who had invented three dozen Na’vi personal, plant, and

animal names in the film script. They are,

[36]

followed by Frommer's modifications in italics,

Na’vi, Omaticaya (Omatikaya) (clan name), Neytíri, atokirina’ (seeds of the Great Tree), Tsu’téy, tsahik
"shaman", Éytukan, Eywa "Gaia", Mó’at, Neytiri (te Ckaha) Mo’at’ite "Neytiri of the Ckaha, daughter of

Mo’at",

[37]

teylu "grubs", Silwanin, shahaylu (tsaheylu) "neural bond", ikran "banshee", taronyu "hunter",

seyri "lip", ontu "nose", mikyun "ear", nari "eye", ireiyo "thank you",

[38]

Iknimaya (approx. "stairway to

heaven"), sa’atenuk (sa’nok) "mother", toruk "last shadow", Vitraya Ramunong ("well of souls") (≈
ayvitrayä ramunong), Toruk Macto (toruk makto) "rider of last shadow", uniltaron "dream hunt", utraya
mokri (utral aymokriyä) "tree of voices", Ninat, Beyral (?), olo’eyctan (olo’eyktan) "clan leader", Tsu’tey te

Rongloa Ateyitan "Tsu’tey of the Rongloa, son of Ateyo",

[39]

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20 z 24

2010-01-17 17:57

Phrases

Fìskxawngìri tsap’alute sengi oe.

"I apologise for this moron."

fì-skxawng-ìri tsap’alu-te s‹eng›i oe

this-moron-

TOP

apology-? make‹?› I.

INTR

Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì.

"These demons are forbidden here."

f-ay-vrrtep

fì-tseng-e

lu kxanì

this-

PL

-demon[

INTR

] this-place-? be forbidden

Oeri ta peyä fahew akewong ontu teya längu.

"My nose is full of his alien smell (ugh!)."

oe-ri

ta

pe-yä

fahew a-kewong

ontu

teya l‹äng›u

me-

TOP

from s/he-

GEN

smell

ATTR

-alien

[40]

nose[

INTR

] full be‹

PEJ

›

Kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu.

"See you again, and may Eywa be with you."

k‹ìy›‹ev›ame ulte Eywa nga=hu

See‹

IMM

›‹?› and Eywa you=with

Tawsìp ngeyä lu sngeltseng.

[32]

"Your ship is a garbage scow."

taw+sìp ngeyä lu sngel+tseng

sky+ship your be garbage+place

Ayftxozä lefpom ayngaru nìwotx!

"Happy Holidays to you all!"

ay-ftxozä le-fpom

ay-nga-ru nì-wotx

pl-holiday

ADJ

-well_being pl-you-

DAT ADV

-all

Mipa zìsìt lefpom ngaru!

"Happy New Year!"

mip-a

zìsìt le-fpom

nga-ru

new-

ATTR

year

ADJ

-well_being you[

SG

]-

DAT

Lì’fya ngeyä sìltsan lu nìtxan.

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2010-01-17 17:57

"Your use of language is very good."

lì’-fya

ngeyä sìltsan lu nì-txan

speak?-way your good

be

ADV

-great

’Awve ultxari ohengeyä, awma Sa’nok lrrtok siveiyi.

"May the Great Mother smile upon our first meeting (yeah!)."

’awve ultxa-ri

ohengeyä

nawm-a

sa’nok lrrtok s‹iv›‹ei›i

first

meeting-

TOP

our.

INCL

.

DU

.

FORM

great-

ATTR

mother smile make‹

SJV

›‹

APPROB

›

See also

Fictional universe in Avatar

otes

^ "Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar'
Aliens : NPR" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story
/story.php?storyId=121350582) .
http://www.npr.org/templates/story
/story.php?storyId=121350582. Retrieved 16
December 2009.

1.

^ Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An
interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language
Creator for Avatar" (http://usoproject.blogspot.com
/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-alien.html) .
Unidentified Sound Object.
http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-
with-paul-frommer-alien.html. Retrieved January 9,
2010.

2.

^ Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing
up on Na'vi, the Language of Avatar"
(http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12
/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html) .
Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/online
/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-
of-avatar.html. Retrieved January 16, 2010.

3.

^ Boucher, Geoff (November 20, 2009). "USC
professor creates an entire alien language for
'Avatar'" (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com
/herocomplex/2009/11/usc-professor-creates-alien-
language-for-avatar.html) . Los Angeles Times.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex
/2009/11/usc-professor-creates-alien-language-
for-avatar.html. Retrieved January 16, 2010.

4.

^ Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An
interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language
Creator for Avatar" (http://usoproject.blogspot.com
/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-alien.html) .
Unidentified Sound Object.
http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-
with-paul-frommer-alien.html. Retrieved January
16, 2010.

5.

^ "Na'vi, la langue d'Avatar"
(http://www.lexpress.to/archives/4560/) ,
L'express, 2009 Dec. 1

6.

^ BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment
/8408245.stm)

7.

^ [1] (http://www.delawareonline.com
/apps/pbcs.dll/section?template=zoom&Site=BL&
Date=20091206&Category=ENTERTAINMENT&
ArtNo=912060309&Ref=AR)

8.

^ The closest English equivalent to ew is perhaps
"oh" in exaggerations of the Queen's English by
American comedians such as Carol Burnett.

9.

^ For example, Swahili eua "to purify", Japanese
aoi "blue/green", Hawaiian aeāea (sp. small green
fish) or—with a glottal stop—uauo‘oa "distant
voices".

10.

^ The infix äng adds a nuance of the speaker's
displeasure at the statement being made. Ugh! here
serves as an English approximation of this. (See
affect.)

11.

^ Though in the common greeting oel ngati
kameie, the shift occurs in the oel form (now /wɛl/)
as well.

12.

^ Also with me-, ay- prefixes.

13.

^ See interlinear gloss for the glossing conventions
used in these examples.

14.

^ The "See" is capitalized in the script, as it means
to see into & understand a person. "How to Speak
Na'vi" (http://movieblog.ugo.com/movies/paul-
frommer-interview) , UGO Movie Blog, 2009 Dec
14

15.

^ How to speak 'Avatar'
(http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12
/30/2163435.aspx) ], MSNBC, 2009 Dec 30

16.

^ ga is in the intransitive case because there is
no object to the verb—or rather, because the
semantic object is incorporated into the verb, which

17.

Na'vi language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Na%27vi_language&printab...

22 z 24

2010-01-17 17:57

thus becomes intransitive. With a simple verb tìng
"to give", nga would become ergative: gal
na’viru mautit tìyìng "you will give fruit to the
People".
^ Compare oeyä tukru "my spear" above.

18.

^ Syllabic consonants ll, rr and the w, y ending
diphthongs count as consonants in this situation, as
they take the vowel-initial allomorphs of the case
suffixes.

19.

^ "Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar'
Aliens". (http://www.npr.org/templates/story
/story.php?storyId=121350582) PR, 2009 Dec.
15

20.

^ Indeed, in the film, when the elders Eytukan and
Mo’at speak to a public audience, they use the
long -ti form on nouns as well.

21.

^ Assumed from the formal plural form
ayohengeyä.

22.

^ All clear cases of the dative occur on
vowel-final nouns and pronouns. However, it may
be that tsahiku txele lu. "(this) is a case for the
tsahik" records a consonant-final form.

23.

^ The lack of case marking is yet to be explained.

24.

^

a

b

Transcribed from sound recording in the ew

York Times Magazine (http://www.nytimes.com
/2009/12/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-
t.html?_r=1)

25.

^ Infixes will be marked off with ‹angle brackets›
when parsing words: t‹ol›aron.

26.

^ This may be confusing to read at first, because
the infix appears in front of the verb, while its gloss
comes after the verb. The gloss comes at the end

27.

because this informs the reader that, in order to
determine the position of the infix, one counts
syllables from the end of the verb, not from the
front.
^ This may also be an effect of relative tense

28.

^ The imperative verb would be ’eko si!

29.

^ It is not known if one can say po-l kelku-t s‹ol›i
"he made a home" with the case suffixes, in
contrast with po kelku s‹ol›i "he dwelled" without.

30.

^ This a is just the attributive a used for
adjectives, used with tsun "be able" to form an
attributive verb.

31.

^

a

b

"We Translate Your Phrases into Na'vi"

(http://movieblog.ugo.com/movies/we-translate-
your-phrases-into-navi) , UGO Movie Blog,
December 23, 2009

32.

^ The "unquotative" sìk would presumably be
used for "No-one may come here [unquote], I
said", but that is unattested.

33.

^ Na’vi pe forms are only used to ask questions

34.

^ An exception in the film is toruk-makto "Great
Leonopteryx rider" (makto is "to ride"), as this
phrase was coined by Cameron before Frommer
had designed the grammar.

35.

^ Avatar script (http://www.foxscreenings.com
/media/pdf/JamesCameronAVATAR.pdf) , ca.
2007; acute accents indicate where Cameron had
marked stress.

36.

^ source of ’ite "daughter"

37.

^ Potentially the source of the positive affect infix

38.

^ source of ’itan "son"

39.

^ From ke "not" and an unknown root wong.

40.

References

Ayres, Chris (December 12, 2009). "Na'vi talk down Klingon as the last word in alien-speak"
(http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6954138.ece) . The
Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6954138.ece.
Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Boucher, Geoff (November 20, 2009). "USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar'"
(http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/11/usc-professor-creates-alien-language-
for-avatar.html) . Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/11
/usc-professor-creates-alien-language-for-avatar.html. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Frommer, Paul; Zimmer, Benjamin (December 19, 2009). "Some highlights of Na’vi"
(http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1977) . Language Log. http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
/nll/?p=1977. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for
Avatar" (http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-alien.html) .
Unidentified Sound Object. http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-
alien.html. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing up on Na'vi, the Language of Avatar"
(http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html) .
Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-
of-avatar.html. 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 0061896756.

Na'vi language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Contact us

Zimmer, Benjamin (December 4, 2009). "Skxawng!" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine
/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html) . The ew York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine
/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html. Retrieved January 9, 2010. This includes a sound recording of Frommer
saying several phrases in Na'vi.

External links

BBC interview (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8409000/8409319.stm) in which
Frommer recites part of the Hunt Song he translated for Cameron (0818 broadcast: 3′30″)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%27vi_language"
Categories: Constructed languages | Avatar (film)

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