Na'vi/Print version

Naʼvi is a constructed language, created for the fictional Naʼvi, the humanoid inhabitants of the moon Pandora in the 2009 film Avatar. It was designed by Paul Frommer, a professor at the Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics, to fit film director 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 real actors, but to not closely resemble any human language.

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 Frommer. To date, it has roughly 2,656 words and a fully fleshed out grammatical system, thanks to the work of Paul Frommer and a robust fan community. The goal of this book is to make what is known of Naʼvi grammar available to fans who are attempting to learn the language.

Contents

• History
• Phonology
• Nouns
• Pronouns
• Adpositions
• Adjectives
• Numbers
• Questions
• Verbs
• Syntax
• Discourse
• Lexicon
• Texts
• Appendix: Glossing conventions
• Glossary of linguistic terms
• Bibliography

History

The basis of the Naʼvi language is James Cameron's 2005 scriptment for Avatar. Cameron felt the need for a complete, consistent language for the alien characters of the film, so that their speech would feel realistic for the audience. His production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, contacted the linguistics department at the University of Southern California; 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 to him at the Marshall School of Business at USC. Frommer and Cameron met to discuss the director's vision for the language and its use in the film, and Cameron took Frommer aboard.

Cameron's Na'vi words

Cameron created some three dozen cultural words and personal, plant, and animal names in his scriptment. He had been to New Zealand a few years before, and says that he had the sound of the Māori language in mind when he came up with the names; Frommer also noticed a "Polynesian flavor". Cameron's words are:

• Naʼvi "the People"
• Omaticaya (Omatikaya) (clan name)
• Neytíri (heir to Moʼat)
• atokirinaʼ "seed of the Great Tree"
• Tsuʼtéy (heir to Eytukan)
• tsahik (tsáhìk) "shaman"
• Éytukan (clan leader)
• Eywa "Gaia"
• Móʼat (clan shaman)
• Neytiri te Ckaha Moʼatʼite, Neytiri Moʼatʼite
  "Neytiri of the Tskaha, daughter of Moʼat"
• teylu "grubs"

• Silwanin (sister of Neytiri)
• shahaylu (tsaheylu) "neural bond"
• ikran "banshee"
• taronyu "hunter"
• seyri "lip"
• ontu "nose"
• mikyun "ear"
• nari "eye"
• ireiyo "thank you",
• Iknimaya (approx. "stairway to heaven")
• saʼatenuk (saʼnok) "mother"
• toruk "last shadow"

• Vitraya Ramunong ("well of souls") (≈ ayvitrayä ramunong)
• Toruk Macto (toruk makto) "rider of last shadow"
• uniltaron "dream hunt" (initiation)
• utraya mokri (utral aymokriyä) "tree of voices"
• Ninat (female name)
• Beyral (Peyral) (female name)
• oloʼeyctan (oloʼeyktan) "clan leader"
• Tsuʼtey te Rongloa Ateyitan
  "Tsuʼtey of the Rongloa, son of Ateyo"

Frommer's Na'vi language

The language project was subject to three significant constraints. First, Cameron wanted the language to sound alien but, unlike Klingon, to sound pleasant and appeal to the audience. Second, since the storyline included humans who had learned to speak the language, it had to be a language that humans could plausibly learn to speak. Last, the actors would have to be able to pronounce their Naʼvi dialogue without unreasonable difficulty.

Following the model of Cameron's existing vocabulary, Frommer developed three sets of meaningless test words and phrases that conveyed a sense of what the language might sound like: one using contrasting tones, one using varying vowel length, and one using ejective consonants. Cameron didn't care for the first two, but liked the sound of the ejectives. This choice, along with names like Ckaha that Cameron had created, laid the foundation for the phonology that Frommer would use in developing the rest of the Naʼvi language, its morphology, syntax, and an initial vocabulary; a task that took six months. He also translated into Naʼvi four songs Cameron had written in English. The language in its final form contained several elements which were uncommon in human languages, such as verbal inflection using infixes, but all elements are found in one human language or another, even if the combination is unique to Naʼvi.

Filming

By the time casting for Avatar began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to present Naʼvi dialogue during their auditions. During shooting Frommer worked with the cast on their pronunciation and intonation, both for film dialogue and during the recording of James Horner's Avatar score. The bulk of the vocabulary was created by Frommer at this time, as needed for the evolving script. Cameron also coined a few additional words, such as atán "light" and Eywaʼéveng "Pandora" (the Naʼvi world; lit. "child of Eywa"). Actors would occasionally make mistakes in speaking Naʼvi; in some cases, these were accepted as natural learner's errors made by their human characters; in others, they were incorporated into the language. The latter include páte "to arrive" from Zoe Saldaña, who played Neytiri; latsí "to keep up" from Laz Alonso, who played Tsuʼtey; and snumìna "dim-witted" from CCH Pounder, who played Moʼat.

The game

Frommer expanded the vocabulary further in May 2009 when he worked on the Avatar video game, which required words that had not been needed for the film. A few grammatical elements such as the intentional mood were added at this time, and so do not occur in the film. At the time of the film's release on December 18, 2009, the Naʼvi vocabulary consisted of approximately 1000 words.

Public reception

The language acquired a public following, including an internet forum dedicated to learning it, within weeks of release. Frommer expressed hopes that the language would "have a life of its own". He accepted several new words suggested by members of the forum, such as prrwll "moss", and phrases coined for non-Naʼvi concepts such as eltu lefngap "metallic brain" for "computer". In March 2010 he asked the forum for a list of needed vocabulary as the basis for doubling the size of the language.

Phonology

While all of Naʼvi's sounds occur in human languages, their combination is unique. Naʼvi lacks voiced stops like [b d ɡ] even though it has the voiced fricatives [v z]; more prominent than such intentional gaps though are its ejective stops [pʼ tʼ kʼ], spelled px tx kx, which are novel to most English speakers. Naʼvi also has the syllabic consonants ll and rr in addition to its seven simple vowels. Although the sounds were designed to be pronounceable by the human actors of the film, there are unusual and difficult consonant clusters, such as in fngap [fŋap] "metal" and tskxe [tskʼɛ] "rock".

The fictional Naʼvi language of Pandora is unwritten, but the actual (constructed) language is written in the Latin alphabet. The movie scripts were written in a slightly anglicized orthography for the actors of Avatar, with ng, ts for Frommer's preferred g, c. For the sake of simplicity, we will use the anglicized orthography.

Typical Naʼvi words include zìsìt "year", fpeio "ceremonial challenge", nìʼawve "first", muiä "be fair", tireaioang "spirit animal", kllpxìltu "territory", uniltìrantokx "avatar".

Vowels

Altogether, Naʼvi has thirteen vowel-like sounds. These include seven simple vowels:

	front	back
high	i [i]	u [u] ~ [ʊ]
	ì [ɪ]
mid		o [o]
	e [ɛ]
low	ä [æ]
	a [a]

as well as four diphthongs: aw [au̯], ew [ɛu̯], ay [ai̯], ey [ɛi̯], and two syllabic consonants: ll [l̩] and rr [r̩], which mostly behave as vowels. The u varies between [u] and [ʊ]; it's the former in open syllables such as tute 'person' and unil 'dream'; it may be either in closed syllables such as tsun 'be able to' and tsmuk 'sibling'.

Naʼvi vowels may occur in sequences, as in the Polynesian languages, Bantu, and Japanese. Each vowel counts as a syllable, so that ʼeoioa "ceremonious" has five syllables, /ˈʔɛ.o.i.o.a/. The syllabic consonants may also occur in sequence with a simple vowel or diphthong, as in hrrap /ˈhr̩.ap/ "dangerous".

Comparison with the vowels of English

Most of the vowels occur in English. The ä e ì i ey ay aw are pronounced as General American and RP bat, bet, bit, marine, obey, kayak, and cow. The u varies between put and flute. The a, o, and ew sounds do not occur in these dialects. A is the central vowel of Australian, Scottish, and Welsh father, or of New York lock, and like a French or Spanish a. For RP and GA speakers, it's closest to the a of father; speakers in southern England and eastern New England who do not rhyme father with bother have the Naʼvi a in father. O is the pure vowel of Scottish and Irish English no or Australian and South African English bought, like a Spanish o or, even closer, French eau and Italian come. The ew is equivalent to the eu in Spanish Europa and the el in Brazilian mel "honey". An English approximation is "oh!" in exaggerations of the Queen's English by American comedians such as Carol Burnett. The syllabic consonants behave as vowels, as in plltxe [pl̩.tʼɛ] "to speak" and prrteʼ [pr̩.tɛʔ] "pleasure". The rr is strongly trilled, like Spanish rr, but forming a syllable of its own, like an imitation of a cat's purr. The ll is similar to the syllabic le of bottle, but is "light", as in leap or as in Irish English, not "dark" as GA and RP syllabic l is.

Which English word you associate with which vowel will depend on your dialect. For example, if you're Canadian, Naʼvi e will be like the vowel in bet. However, if you're a New Zealander, it will be closer to your pronunciation of bat. If you're from London, the u varies between the vowels of flute and put. However, if you're Australian, flute will not be a good approximation, and it may be best to stick with put.

Naʼvi vowels compared with the standard pronunciation
of nine English-speaking countries.

Naʼvi	Naʼvi (IPA)	England, Canada, USA	Australia	New Zealand	South Africa	Ireland	Scotland	Wales
i	[i]	marine     (in all major English dialects)
u	[u] or [ʊ]	flute or put	put	put	put	flute or put	—	flute or put
ì	[ɪ]	bit	bit	—	kit	bit	bit	bit
o	[o]	—	law	law	law	no	no	no
e	[ɛ]	bet	bet	bat	—	bet	bet	bet
ä	[æ]	bat	bat	—	bat	?	~bat	~bat
a	[a]	~father	father	—	wise	~father	cat	cat
aw	[au̯]	cow	~cow	~cow	—	?	cow	cow
ew	[ɛu̯]	—     (like eew!, but starting with an [ɛ] sound)
ay	[ai̯]	kayak	~kayak	~kayak	—	—	kayak	kayak
ey	[ɛi̯]	obey	~obey	~obey	obey	—	—	obey
ll	[l̩]	—     (syllabic as in bottle, but "light" as in leap or as in Irish English)
rr	[r̩]	—     (syllabic as in US church, but trilled as in Welsh English)

A tilde (~) indicates that the word is only an approximation of the Naʼvi pronunciation. A dash (—) indicates that there is no good approximation in this dialect. A question mark (?) indicates that available sources did not supply a good approximation, but one might exist.

Stress

Naʼvi does not have vowel length or tone, but it does have contrastive stress: tute [ˈtutɛ] "person", tute [tuˈtɛ] "female person", or täftxuyu [tæ.ˈftʼu.ju] "weaver", täftxuyu [tæ.ftʼu.ˈju] weaves (formal), like the difference between English billow and below. 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: lamu [laˈmu] "was", lamängu [lamæˈŋu] "was (negative speaker attitude)", etc. Although case affects the pronouns that are based on oe "I", most affixes do not affect the stress of other nouns or pronouns. For example, from nga "you", there is nìaynga [nɪ.ai̯.ˈŋa] "like you all"; from lìʼu [ˈlɪ.ʔu] "word" there is aylìʼufa [ai̯.ˈlɪ.ʔu.fa] "with the words".

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 may be unique to Naʼvi, though Nambikwara uses tx, kx for similar if not identical sounds.

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Ejective	px [pʼ]	tx [tʼ]		kx [kʼ]
Plosive	p [p]	t [t]		k [k]	ʼ [ʔ]
Affricate		ts (c) [ts]
Fricative	f [f] v [v]	s [s] z [z]			h [h]
Nasal	m [m]	n [n]		ng (g) [ŋ]
Liquid/glide		r [ɾ] l [l]	y [j]	w [w]

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.

In syllable-final and word-final position, p, t, k have no audible release, [p̚ t̚ k̚], as in Malay, Cantonese, and other languages of Southeast Asia. Thus a t followed by an s in the next syllable is not equivalent to ts, and so remains ts rather than c in Frommer's preferred orthography: fìzìsìtsre [fɪ.ˈzɪ.sɪt̚ .sɾɛ] (not *fìzìsìcre [fɪ.ˈzɪ.sɪ.t͡sɾɛ]) "before this year".

Comparison with the consonants of English

The plosives p t k and the affricate ts are tenuis, as in Spanish or French. Most English dialects have aspirated consonants in words like pie, tie, kite, which if imitated would result in a strong foreign accent. Naʼvi p, t, k are instead like the sounds in English spy, sty, sky.

Stops without audible release, such as Naʼvi final p, t, k, occur in English in words and names such as aptly, Atkins, actor. However, some English dialects also have such sounds in word-final position, as Naʼvi does, especially in casual speech.

The glottal stop, written with an apostrophe, is the catch in the middle of the word uh-oh!. In the Hawaiʻian language, the glottal stop is represented by a letter called the ʻokina (ʻ), which is not the same as a true apostrophe (ʼ) but is often replaced with an apostrophe in modern publications. Cockney English is well known for using a glottal stop for t in words like bottle. This is the effect that the name Naʼvi should have: two syllables, not three. What makes the glottal stop difficult is that it may begin words: ʼeveng is "a child", eveng "children". In languages which have this distinction, such as Arabic, a glottal stop in initial position is much more forceful than it is in uh-oh, and may sound like a tiny cough.

The r is flapped, as in much of Irish and Scottish English, as well as in Malay and in Spanish pero "but". It sounds a bit like the tt or dd in the American pronunciation of the words latter, ladder.

Naʼvi ng and ts (g and c) are common in English in words such as cats and sing (not finger!). However, in Naʼvi they may occur at the beginning of a word, as in tsa "that" and nga "you".

The ejectives are not inherently difficult, but few English speakers have a model to imitate. You may want to review the Wikipedia article.

Syllable structure

Naʼvi syllables may be as simple as a single vowel, or as complex as skxawng "moron" or fngap "metal", both double-consonant–vowel–consonant (CCVC).

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. 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 ʼ, making for 39 possible clusters at the beginning of a syllable, as in ayskxawng /ai̯.ˈskʼau̯ŋ/ "morons" or lefngap /lɛ.ˈfŋap/ "metallic". Other sequences occur across syllable boundaries, such as naʼvi /ˈnaʔ.vi/ "person", ikran /ˈik.ɾan/ "banshee", and atxkxe /atʼ.ˈkʼɛ/ "land".

When a consonant that could form either an onset on a coda appears between vowels, it is normally the onset of the following syllable. Atokirinaʼ, for example, is a-to-ki-ri-naʼ. However, there are exceptions: mimetic kxangangang "boom!" (crack of thunder) is kxang-ang-ang, as the second and third syllables are echoes of the first. In careful enunciation, syllable divisions sometimes follow the morphology of a word. For example, ayoe "we" is formed from the plural prefix ay- and the pronoun oe "I"; and in careful speech it may be syllabified ay-o-e [ai̯ˈoɛ]. However, in rapid speech the default consonant-vowel pattern takes over and it is pronounced a-yo-e [aˈjoɛ], and in most words the default CV.CV pattern takes over even in careful speech: Verbal VC infixes are apparently always divided between syllables, as V.C, for example in so-li and sä-pi, from si "do". There are a few root roots with a distinction between a diphthong followed by a vowel (VC.V) and a simple vowel followed by y or w plus the vowel (V.CV); for instance, tswayon "fly" contains the diphthong ay, tsway-on, whereas layon "black" and irayo "thank you" do not: la-yon, i-ra-yo. The distinction is perhaps not very robust, but it is noted in the dictionary.

Not all vowels are created equal. Whereas the seven simple vowels and four diphthongs occur in any type of syllable, the syllabic consonants only occur in consonant-vowel syllables, as in vrrtep (vrr-tep) "demon". Nouns ending in a diphthong or a syllabic consonant also take the case endings used after consonants, not those used after the simple vowels. In addition, two identical simple vowels may not occur in a row. That is, *me-e-vi and *a-a-pxa are not found; they reduce to mevi and apxa.

Sound change

The most notable form of sound change in Naʼvi is a kind called lenition. This is a weakening that the plosive consonants undergo after certain prefixes and prepositions, as in Irish. 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 ʼ disappears entirely. This is basically equivalent to dropping down a row in the consonant chart above.

Consonant lenition

Underlying	Weakened
px	p
tx	t
kx	k
p	f
ts	s
t	s
k	h
ʼ	—

Because of lenition, 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 ro "at", tsa "that" takes the form sa. Lenition is also salient in interrogative words, as they each come in two forms based on the interrogative element pe : tupe, pesu "who?", kempe, pehem "do what?", krrpe, pehrr "when?", tsengpe, peseng "where?".

The nasal consonants m, n, ng tend to assimilate to a following stop, so that tìng mikyun "to listen" (lit. "give an ear") is generally pronounced as if it were tìm mikyun, tìng nari "to look" (lit. "give an eye") as if it were tìn nari, zenke "mustn't" as zengke, and lunpe "why?" as lumpe.

Vowel sequences consist of dissimilar vowels only. Naʼvi does not have vowel length, and this means that derived sequences of similar vowels contract into one. For example, when feminine -e is added to túte "person", the result contracts to tuté "female person", with the only difference being stress placement. Similarly, the dual number me- of eveng "children" contracts to meveng "two children". On the other hand, when two i's come together 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: Ngáru iráyo seiyí oe. Double consonants may occur at syllable boundaries; however, while the plural (ay-) of yerik "hexapede" is transcribed ayyerik for ease of reading, in pronunciation it is little different from *ayerik.

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

There are other instances of sound change to avoid sequences that don't occur in Naʼvi, though the details are not known. For example, the syllabic consonants cannot follow their non-syllabic homologs: though /lr̩/ occurs in lrrtok "a smile", *lll and *rrr are not found. Thus the perfective infix ‹ol› affects the root of plltxe "to say, to speak": p‹ol›lltxe becomes poltxe "spoke".

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-ʼaw "only" in 'hanʼaw txo' "so (ha) only (nìʼaw) if (txo)". These examples fit the meter of a song, but similar things occur in fluent speech, for example 'räʼsi!' for räʼä si! "don't do it!" and 'nayweng' for nìayoeng "like us".

Spoken samples

There are three online recordings of Frommer speaking extended amounts of Naʼvi, which give a good indication of its pronunciation. They can be found in the texts. After reading this Wikibook, you should be able to understand all three.

Nouns

Naʼvi nouns are inflected according to the following template:

NUMBER+STEM-(GENDER)-CASE

Gender is optional and uncommon, even for pronouns 'he' and 'she', but number and case are required. There are no articles like "a" or "the", though there is a suffix for "some" that appears before the case ending.

Number

In Naʼvi, plurals are only used if there are at least four objects.

Number		Prefix
1	Singular	(none)
2	Dual	me+
3	Trial	pxe+
4+	"Plural"	ay+ or + (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 language (English has a remnant in "both"), but also trial forms for three of an item, which in human languages are only found with pronouns. A plural is more than dual or trial; that is, four or more. For example, in "the wings of a banshee", tsyal "wing" is plural (ikranä syal), because banshees (ikran) have four wings, but in "the wings of a bird", tsyal cannot be plural syal, but only dual mesyal, because birds have only two wings.

When number is unknown, for example when asking how many of something there are, the plural is used, as in English: Q: "How many children do you have?" A: "One." When quantity is specified with a number, then the singular form is used. (See Numbers.) And when number is established, it need not be repeated: Menga lu skxawng "you two are idiots"; aynga lu karyu "y'all are teachers" (plural haryu).

The prefixes trigger lenition, which is indicated in the table above by the "+" signs rather than the hyphens that usually mark prefix boundaries. Trials are not common, but occur for example in pxehilvan "the three rivers" (kilvan "river"). 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"). In the dual and trial, lenition of a glottal stop may result in a sequence of two e's, in which case they contract: ʼeveng "a child", pxeveng "three children".

Gender

Naʼvi does not have grammatical gender. However, where desired, masculine individuals may be distinguished by the suffix -an, and feminine ones by -e :

Masculine	-an
Feminine	-e

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

However, gender is not generally used unless there is some reason for distinguishing it.

'Some'

The suffix -o, which has the role of "some" in the pronouns tuteo "somebody" and ʼuo "something", may be used with other nouns too, as with ketuwong "alien" in,

Lu ketuwongo nìʼaw.

"It's just some alien."

Case

Nouns are declined for case depending on their function in the sentence: subject (intr and erg), object (acc), recipient (dat), possessor (gen), and topic (top), like the English pronoun "I, me, my, mine". The case markers each have two to three forms (allomorphs), the distribution of which is somewhat variable:

Case forms	full	reduced
Intransitive (intr)	(unmarked)
Ergative (erg)	-ìl	-l
Accusative (acc)	-it	-ti -t
Genitive (gen)	-ä, -yä
Dative (dat)	-ur	-ru -r
Topical (top)	-ìri	-ri

Apart from the genitive, which does not follow the pattern of the other cases, the case suffixes have full (vowel-initial) forms after orthographic consonants (consonants, syllabic consonants, and diphthongs), and reduced (consonant-initial) forms after simple vowels. In addition, the accusative and dative cases have short forms in which their final vowel is dropped; this would appear to depend on the rhythm of speech and perhaps formality rather than anything grammatical.

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

Subject and object

Core nouns are declined in a tripartite case 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". 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" Neytiri herahaw Neytiri h‹er›ahaw (name).intr sleep‹ipfv›

"Neytiri hunted a hexapede" Neytiril yerikit tolaron Neytiri-l yerik-it t‹ol›aron (name)-erg hexapede-acc hunt‹pfv›

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

Oeyä tukrul txe'lanit tivakuk "Let my spear strike the heart" Oeyä tukru-l txeʼlan-it t‹iv›akuk my spear-erg (A) heart-acc (O) strike‹sjv› (V)

Katot täftxu oel "I weave the rhythm" kato-t täftxu oe-l rhythm-acc (O) weave (V) I-erg (A)

When evident from context, the subject need not be stated:

"Oe trram naʼrìng-mì tarmok. Tsoleʼa syetute-t.

"Yesterday I was in the forest, saw a Trapper".

Oe	trr-am	naʼrìng-mì	tarmok	tsoleʼa	syetute-t
I.intr	day-past	forest-in	was	saw	Trapper-acc

The genitive

A genitive case in -ä/-yä can be seen in oeyä tukru "my spear" above. English expresses the genitive with either -'s (the pianist's hands) or with of (the hands of the clock). Unlike the other cases, the genitive shows the relationship of nouns to each other, rather than between a noun and a verb. Although sometimes called a "possessive", the genitive has a broader range of use than actual possession:

	Naʼviyä luyu hapxì		kifkeyit Eywaʼevengä
	"You are part of the People"		"the world of Pandora"
	naʼvi-yä l‹uy›u hapxì people-gen be‹form› part		kifkey-it eywa-ʼeveng+yä world-acc Gaia-child-gen

Multiple genitives may occur, one after the other, as in

holpxay ayzekwäyä feyä

"the number of their fingers"

hol-pxay	ay-zekwä-yä	f[e]-yä
few-many	pl-finger-gen	they-gen

and

Aylìʼufa awngeyä ʼeylanä aʼewan

"In the words of our young friend"

ay-lìʼ-ʼu-fa	awng[e]-yä	ʼeylan-ä	a-ʼewan
pl-say-thing-per	we-gen	friend-gen	attr-young

Note that they do not occur in any particular order.

The dative

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

Nga Naʼviru yomtìyìng

"You will feed the people"

nga	naʼvi-ru	yom+t‹ìy›ìng
you.intr	the.people-dat	will.feed (to.eat+give‹imm›)

More generally, it is used for the direction or endpoint of an action, as in poru tìng-nari "look at him". 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›		Ngaru 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?")

Such constructions contain verbs such as lu "be" that involve little overt action, including more concrete concepts of having. When one has something for someone, a double dative is used:

Lu oeru aylìʼu frapor.

"I have something (= words) to say, to everyone."

lu	oe-ru	ay-lìʼu	fra-po-r
be	I-dat	pl-word	every-one-dat

Note that word order and context help clarify who has something to say to whom: lu oeru "I have" is the default word order for a possessive dative, in contrast to the recipient dative frapor. (See Word order in the chapter on Syntax.)

The dative is also used with objects/recipients of 'do' + noun constructions and causative verbs, which will be covered in the chapter on Verbs. That is, whereas in English one assists someone (accusative), in Naʼvi fko si srung tuteoru one does assistance to someone (dative).

The topic and the topical case

A topic indicates the background context of a clause, and the topic marker -ri/-ìri is somewhat equivalent to (though much more common than) English "as for", "concerning", "regarding", etc. Topics are not grammatically required but are used to structure the presentation of what one has to say. The topic marker 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. Note that "nose" itself is unmarked for case, as it's the subject of the intransitive verb "to be".

Such a topic-comment structure sets up the background of the sentence, what the speaker intends to speak about with the rest. (Thus the term 'topic-comment': what the speaker intends to talk about, followed by what s/he has to say about it.) This construction takes some of the pressure off of the case system, with the result that not too many nouns need to be marked with the same case:

Sìpawmìri oe ngaru seiyi irayo

sì-pawm-ìri	oe	nga-ru	s‹ei›i	irayo
pl+nomz-ask-top	I	you-dat	do‹approb›	thank

"Thank you for the questions" (lit. "As for the questions, I thank you")

As with other cases, -ìri is restricted to the noun at the base of the noun phrase, regardless of the word order of that phrase:

Lìʼfyari leNaʼvi ʼRrtamì, vay set ʼalmong a fraʼu zeraʼu ta ngrrpongu.

lìʼfya-ìri	le-naʼvi	ʼRrta-mì	vay	set	ʼ‹alm›ong	a	fra-ʼu	z‹er›aʼu	ta	ngrr-pongu
language-top	adj-people	Earth-in	until	now	unfold‹past.pfv›	sbrd	every-thing	come‹ipfv›	from	root-group

"Everything that has gone on with Naʼvi until now on Earth has come from a grassroots movement."

(lit. "As for the Naʼvi language on Earth, everything that until now has unfolded comes from a base group")

Here the word lìʼfya "language" is modified by leNaʼvi "Naʼvi" and ʼRrtamì "on Earth", yet the suffix appears on that first word.

This -ìri can also behave as a more typical case, linking the noun phrase to the verb, rather than setting up a topic as an introduction for the rest of the clause to comment on:

Pxan livu txo nìʼaw oe ngari

pxan	l‹iv›u	txo	nì-ʼaw	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")

Ngaru seiyi oe irayo ngeyä pxesìpawmìri

nga-ru	s‹ei›i	oe	irayo	ng[e]-yä	pxe+tì-pawm-ìri
you-dat	do‹approb›	I	thank	you-gen	tri+nomz-question-top

"I thank you for (in regards to) your three questions"

The absolutive

The absolutive form of a noun is an unmarked case form. In Naʼvi, both the intransitive subject and the citation (dictionary) form are unmarked. However, the absolutive is also used after a preposition, as after ne "to" in kä ne kelku (also kä kelkune) "go home"; and it occurs when a noun stands in parallel (in apposition) to another, regardless of the case of the other noun. For example, in ʼeylanur awngeyä Peyral "to our friend Beyral", ʼeylan "friend" but not Peyral takes the dative case; compare awngeyä Peyralur "to our Beyral".

Case allomorphs

Except for the genitive, which is discussed below, and the "long" accusative, which is invariable, all case suffixes have a full form which begins with a vowel, and a reduced form in which that vowel is dropped. The full form is found after consonants and syllabic consonants, and the reduced form is found after simple vowels. Diphthongs take the shortest form that is syllabic; in the case of the dative, that means either the full of reduced form, -ur or -ru.

Case form distribution (apart from gen)

Case forms	erg	short acc	long acc	dat	top
full form after consonant	hetuwongìl	yerikit txeʼlanit	ketuwongti Kelutralti	ʼeylanur	skxawngìri kemìri
after syllabic consonant	trrìl ʼewllìl	trrit ʼewllit	trrti ʼewllti	trrur ʼewllur	trrìri ʼewllìri
syllabic form after diphthong	tìngayìl	kifkeyit	payti	payur payru	payri
reduced form after pure vowel	tukrul Neytiril	aylìʼut katot ʼupxaret	swiräti	naʼviru	lìʼfyari fyawìntxuri

The difference between the long and short forms of the accusative would appear to be one of register rather than of grammar. 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. However, it may also provide for euphony, for example in aylìʼut horentisì "the words and rules (ACC)", from lìʼu "word" and koren "rule".

The dative also has a long and short form, though apparently only on pronouns. For instance "to me" may be either oeru or oer, and "to them" foru or for.

There are a few exceptions to this pattern. Kemri "rule.top" is given as an alternate of kemìri in a proverb, where meter may play a role, just as sì "and" and lu "be" may be reduced to s and l before a vowel in song, without that being a general rule of the grammar. A colloquial contraction of tsaʼu "that", tsaw, has case forms acc tsawt and top tsawri, but these may just be retentions of the forms of the full words, tsaʼut and tsaʼuri, where they are regular.

The forms of the genitive pattern somewhat differently, and here it is an initial consonant of the suffix which drops. Nouns which end in a simple front or central vowel, i, ì, e, ä, a, take the suffix -yä, as in

• aymokriyä of voices, tsawkeyä of the sun, ayzekwäyä of fingers, tompayä of the rain,

but the suffix -ä appears after consonants, syllabic consonants, diphthongs, and the back/rounded vowels u, o:

• ayzìsìtä of the years, txonä of the night, trrä of the day, kifkeyä of the world, fìlìʼuä of this word.

Changes in the noun stem occur in some nouns; in addition, the final a or o vowel of pronouns changes to e when genitive -yä is added:

• ngeyä your (from nga), feyä their (from fo).

The vocative

Naʼvi does not have a case suffix for nouns used to address someone, a function called the vocative, but instead use a particle ma, which occurs before the name or term of address: Ma Neytiri, herahaw srak? "Neytiri, are you sleeping?", rather like archaic or poetic "O!" in English. It occurs before the noun phrase, and is never suffixed: Ma oeyä ʼeylan! "My friend!"; ma smukan sì smuke "O brothers and sisters", ftu oe neto rikx, ma skxawng! "Get away from me, moron!".

Ma is obligatory with people and Eywa (God), but optional with animals. For example, it is used ceremonially with animals one has killed in a hunt, but may be omitted when talking to one's paʼli (horse). It may thus indicate a degree of politeness vs. intimacy.

With collective nouns, such Naʼvi "the People" and tsampongu "war party", in which the singular form is used for multiple people, a collective vocative suffix -ya is found as an alternative for ma: Mawey, naʼviya, mawey! "Calm, people, calm!"; frapoya! "(hey) everybody!".

Diminutives

It is not clear if Naʼvi has a regular system of diminutives, but there are some compounds with hìʼi "little, small" that have this function. For example, tanhì "star" appears to derive from atan "light" and hìʼi, and hìʼang "bug" appears to be similarly derived from ioang "animal". The words for "son" and "daughter", ʼitan and ʼite, are based on a different root: they are the masculine and feminine derivations of ʼit "a little, a bit".

Affectionate terms would appear to not be related. "Mommy" and "daddy" are saʼnu and sempu, short for saʼnok "mother" and sempul "father".

Pronouns

Naʼvi pronouns include personal pronouns, used for persons and other animate nouns, and demonstrative pronouns, used for inanimate nouns and to distinguish "this" from "that".

Personal pronouns

Naʼvi personal 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.

Pronouns	sing.	dual	trial	plural (4+)	generic
Exclusive	óe	móe	pxóe	ayóe	fko
Inclusive	—	oéng	pxóeng	ayoéng, awngá
2nd person	ngá	mengá	pxengá	ayngá
3rd person animate	pó	mefó	pxefó	ayfó, fó
3rd person inanimate	(use demonstratives)

Fo is the "short plural" form of po; ayfo is the explicit plural. Ayoeng (pronounced aywéng) and awnga are both contractions of the historical plural *ay-oe-nga.

"One" as a pronoun is fko:

Zéne	fko	n‹iv›úme	nì-txán
must	one	learn‹sjv›	adv-much

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

Po can mean he, she, or it, but only if animate; for inanimate and abstract nouns, a demonstrative pronoun such as tsa (or tsaʼu, tsaw) "that" must be used. "He" and "she" can optionally be differentiated as poan and poe; this may be done to distinguish two referents in the same context, as normally both are translated simply as po. It is not known if the other pronouns can also do this.

The formal forms of "I" and "you" are óhe and ngengá, which likewise take the me- and ay- prefixes. The inclusive forms are derived from these with sì "and":

Formal	sing.	dual	trial	plural
Exclusive	óhe	móhe	pxóhe	ayóhe
Inclusive	—	óhe ngengásì	móhe ngengásì, óhe mengengásì	(various combinations)
2nd person	ngengá	mengengá	pxengengá	ayngengá

Generally when formal pronouns are used, the verb is inflected for formality as well.

Demonstrative pronouns

For demonstrative pronouns and their compounds, such as fìʼu "this", tsaʼu ~ tsaw "that", and saʼu ~ saw "those", see the chapter on questions. Of the simple pronouns, *tsa can be used as an independent pronoun "that, it (inanimate)", but it does not occur in the intransitive case, and may be restricted in the grammatical roles it plays. Note that when demonstrative pronouns modify a noun, they may do so directly as "pre-nouns", in which case they indicate relative location: tsatute "that person", fìtute "this person".

Case

Pronouns inflect for case as nouns do:

Oél ngáti kámeie

Oe-ìl	nga-ti	kam‹ei›e
I-erg	you-acc	See‹approb›

"I (am glad to) See you" (a greeting)

There are some changes in pronouns when case endings are added. The final vowel becomes e before the genitive -yä : oéyä "my", ayoéyä "our", ngéyä "thy", ayngéyä "your", péyä "her/his", féyä "their", awngeyä "our" (inclusive plural), ohengeyä "our" (formal inclusive dual; note that the sì is lost with inflection), etc.

The exclusive pronouns based on oe are generally contracted to /ˈwɛ/ when inflected for case, though they may remain /ˈo.ɛ/ with careful enunciation. The inclusive pronouns based on oeng revert to their historical form *oe-nga when inflected, so that the ergative is oéngal, not ^xoengìl.

Although not all forms are attested, it appears that otherwise the inflections are the same as those on nouns.

	intr	erg	short acc	long acc	gen	short dat	long dat	top
Exclusive	oe	oel	?	oeti	oeyä	oer	oeru	oeri
Inclusive	oeng	oengal	oengat	oengati	oengeyä?	awngar	awngaru	?
2nd person	nga	ngal	ngat	ngati	ngeyä	ngar	ngaru	ngari
3rd animate	po	pol	pot	?	peyä	por	poru	fìʼuri
3rd inanimate	tsaw	tsal	tsat	tsati	tseyä	tsar	tsaru	tsari

Of the two forms of the inclusive plural, ayoeng and awnga, the latter is shorter when inflected: ergative ayoengal /ai̯.ˈwɛ.ŋal/ vs. awngal /au̯.ˈŋal/.

Pronouns also take adpositions, as in oehu, ngahu, pohu "with me, you, him/her", tsane "to it". Tsaw has the irregular form sat after the (non-leniting) preposition ftu: ftu sat "(away) from that".

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, as in English, or as an suffix at the end of the noun, as in Japanese, a greater degree of freedom than human languages allow. For example, "with you" may be either hu nga or ngahu. When used as suffixes, they are much like the numerous cases found in Hungarian and Finnish.

Attested adpositions

Adpositions may be stressed when they occur as prepositions, but not as suffixes, where they have no effect on the stress of the noun.

Adp.	Len.	English	Example	Translation
äo	−	"under"	äo Utral Aymokriyä	under the Tree of Voices
eo	−	"before (place), in front of"	eo ayoeng	before us
io	−	"above"
uo	−	"behind"
fa	−	"with", "by means of"   (instrument)	aylìʼufa ʼeylanä	in the words of a friend
fkip	−	"up among"
fpi	+	"for the sake of"
ftu	−	"from" (direction)	Note irregular ftu sat "from that"
hu	−	"with, together with" (accompaniment)	Eywa ngahu hu Eywa	Gaia (be) with you with Eywa
ìlä	+	"via, along, by"
ka	−	"across"
kip	−	"among"	ayngakip	among you
kxamlä	−	"through (the middle of)"		(kxam "the middle" ìlä "via")
lok	−	"close to"	lok ʼawkx, ʼawkxlok	near the cliff (also a verb, "to approach")
luke	−	"without"	lu luke kxu	be without harm
maw	−	"after" (in time)	maw hìkrr	in a moment
mì	+	"in", "on"	mì teʼlan ʼRrtamì fìtrrmì	in the heart(s) on Earth on this day
mìkam	−	"between"		(mì "in" kxam "the middle")
mungwrr	−	"except"	éyktanmungwrr	except the leader
na	−	"like", "as"	na ayskxe mì teʼlan rel na uniltìranyu	like stones in my heart (simile) a picture as an avatar (form)
ne	−	"to" (direction)	terìran ayoe ayngane tsenge a tsane po karmä	we are walking your way the place to which she was going
nemfa	−	"into"		(from ne mì+fa)
pxaw	−	"around"
pxel	−	"like", "such as"	sute pxel nga	people such as you
ro	+	"at" (location)	ro fäpa, ro helku	at the top, at home
sì	−	"and" (phrases)	trrä sì txonä, aylìʼut horentisì	of day and night, words and rules
sìn	−	"on", "onto" (?)
sre	+	"before" (time)	sreseʼa	prophesize
ta	−	"from" (generic)	aungia ta Eywa	a sign from Eywa
takip	−	"from among"
tafkip	−	"from up among"
teri	−	"about, concerning"	teri lìʼfya leNaʼvi plltxe	talk about the Naʼvi language
vay	−	"up to" (space or time)	vay set vaykrr	up to now, still, (with a negative verb) not yet until
wä	+	"against"		(as in "fight against")

Various locative and temporal adverbs are derived from these: neʼìm "toward the back", nefä "upwards", nekll "downwards"; taʼem "from above"; mawkrr "after, afterwards"; srekrr "before, beforehand". Note also kä neto "go away (toward the distance)" and tok mìso "be there in the distance", both perhaps based on the particle to "than". Sreseʼa "to prophesize" is literally "to foresee", sre+tseʼa.

There are words besides traditional adpositions that have the same dual preposition/suffix use, such as sì "and" and pe+, -pe "which?", though the latter case is a dual prefix/suffix (peu, ʼupe "what?"—see Questions), never a preposition.

Though a prefix, the adverbial nì- "-ly" functions as a generic adposition: nìfyaʼo alaw "in a clear manner". It may be used where no specific adposition is correct; mì fyaʼo, for example, would mean literally "in the way, on the path", not *"in the manner".

Lenition and the ambiguity of short plurals

When used as prepositions, certain of these trigger lenition, marked "+" in the table above. One of the leniting prepositions is mì "in", as in mì sokx "in the body", from tokx "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 a suffix, however, the noun is not lenited.

	noun		preposition + noun		noun-suffix
Singular	tokx	"body"	mì sokx	"in the body"	tokxmì	"in the body"
Short plural	sokx	"bodies"		"in the bodies"	sokxmì	"in the bodies"
Long plural	aysokx		mì aysokx		aysokxmì

Adjectives

Naʼvi adjectives may modify a noun directly, in an attributive role, such as "the blue cat", or indirectly, linked to the noun with a verb like "to be" in a predicative role, as in "the cat is blue" or "the cat became blue".

Predicative adjectives

Predicative adjectives are not marked in any special way, except that they occur with a copula like the verbs lu "be" or slu "become":

kilvan	ngim	lu
river	long	be

"The river is long"

Other word orders also work: kilvan lu ngim, lu ngim kilvan, ngim lu kilvan, etc.

This bare form is also used with the verb ʼefu "feel" for internal states, such as

Oe ʼefu som "I am hot"

Oe ʼefu nitram "I am happy"

Attributive adjectives

In their attributive role, adjectives may occur either before or after the noun they modify. Such adjectives are marked by a particle a, which only occurs when an adjective modifies a noun directly in this way, and which appears 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
long-attr	river

or as kilvan angim,

kilvan	a-ngim
river	attr-long

When more than one adjective modifies a noun, they may appear on either side, as in,

oeyä	ean-a	txìm	a-tsawl
my	blue-attr	butt	attr-big

"my big blue butt"

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

When an adjective begins or ends with the vowel a, the attributive a blends into it. So, for example, snúmìna "stupid" only changes when it follows a noun: snumìna, asnumìna, and apxá "great" does not change at all: skxawng apxa, apxa skxawng "a big moron".

Adjectives are not inflected. That is, they do not agree with the noun they modify, as in

Sì ʼekong teʼlanä le-Naʼvi

"and the beat of the hearts of the People",

sì	ʼekong	ay+txeʼlan+yä	le-naʼvi
and	beat	pl+beat+gen	adj-people

where only the noun teʼlan "hearts", not the adjective le-Naʼvi "Naʼvi", takes the genitive suffix -yä or the plural prefix ay+. Similarly, in the topic lìʼfyari leNaʼvi "as for the Naʼvi language", only lìʼfya "language" takes the topical case -ìri.

Adjectives may remain as such when their noun is made into an adverb:

fyaʼo letrrtrr "an everyday manner"

nìfyaʼo letrrtrr "in an everyday manner"

This is common with the noun fyaʼo, and helps clarify the multiple readings of a simple adverb. For example, the adverb nìlaw, from from the adjective law "clear, understandable", is ambiguous; Po poltxe nìlaw may mean either "She spoke clearly" or "Clearly, she spoke." However, po poltxe nìfya'o alaw (she spoke in a clear manner) can only mean "She spoke clearly."

Comparison

Comparative constructions are marked by the grammatical particle to; where this occurs, there is no need for the word nìʼul "more". Thus sìltsan means "good", but when it appears with to it should be translated "better":

"S/he is better than me"

Po to oe lu sìltsan or

Lu po sìltsan to oe or

Sìltsan lu po oeto or

Oeto po lu sìltsan or

Oeto sìltsan lu po etc.

Nìʼul "more" is used when there is no direct comparison with to, as in txur nìʼul "(be) stronger!".

The superlative ("-est") is conveyed with the compound particle frato "than everything":

Tsoleʼa syeptutet atsawl frato mì sìrey.

ts‹ol›eʼa	syep-tute-it	a-tsawl	fra-to	mì+	tì-rey
see‹pfv›	trap-person-acc	attr-big	every-than	in+	nomz-live

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

Two adjectives are inherently superlative, swey "best" and ʼeʼal "worst".

Other attributives

Adjectives are not the only things which can modify a noun. Numbers, for example, also require the attributive a in such situations:

ʼawa tìpawmìri "regarding one (particular) question" (ʼaw "one").

Nouns may also modify nouns; for this they do not take a but rather the genitive case -yä. The genitive is used for possession, but also for more general association. The syntactically free (discourse-determined) word order of adjectives in a noun phrase holds for these other attributives as well:

tompayä kato		"the rainʼs rhythm"	(tompa 'rain', kato 'rhythm')
Utral Aymokriyä		"the Tree of Voices"	(utral 'a tree', mokri 'a voice')

However, in the case of a prepositional phrase, a genitive suffix on the noun may be ambiguous. The attributive a can clarify, though it is written as a separate word, as it governs a multi-word phrase rather than a single numeral or adjective:

Ngeyä teri faytele a aysänumeri ngar irayo seiyi ayoe nìwotx

nga+yä	teri	fì-ay+txele	a	ay-sänume-ìri	nga-ru	irayo	s‹ei›i	ay-oe	nì-wotx
you-gen	about	this-pl+matter	sbrd	pl-instruction-top	you-dat	thank	do‹approb›	pl-I	adv-all

"We all thank you for your teachings concerning these matters"

Here teri faytele "concerning these matters" is an attributive, marked by a, of ngeyä aysänumeri "your teachings", for effectively "your about-these-matters teachings".

Relative clauses are clauses that modify a noun; the same attributive a is used:

Ftxey ʼawpot a Naʼviru yomtìyìng

"Choose one (ʼawpo) who will feed the People (Naʼvi)"

That is, "choose a will-feed-the-people individual". See the section on relative clauses in the chapter on syntax for further explanation.

Numbers

As the Naʼvi have four digits per hand, they have a base-eight ("octal") number system. Until recently, they only counted up to sixteen, their number of fingers and toes, any number greater than that being simply pxay "many".

There are numerals for the numbers one through eight. Above that, one counts eight-one for nine, eight-two for ten, etc., until sixteen, which is two eights. At sixty-four (eight eights), a new numeral comes in, zam, which is the octal equivalent of decimal 'hundred'.

Cardinal numbers

units decimal octal ʼaw one 1 múne two 2 pxey three 3 tsìng four 4 mrr five 5 púkap six 6 kínä seven 7 vol eight 10

'teens' decimal octal voláw nine 11 eight-one vomún ten 12 eight-two vopéy eleven 13 eight-three vosìng twelve 14 eight-four vomŕr thirteen 15 eight-five vofú fourteen 16 eight-six vohín fifteen 17 eight-seven mévol sixteen 20 two eights

eights decimal octal vol eight 10 eight mévol sixteen 20 two eights pxévol twenty-four 30 three eights tsìvol thirty-two 40 four eights mŕrvol forty 50 five eights púvol forty-eight 60 six eights kívol fifty-six 70 seven eights zam sixty-four 100 zam

'hundreds' decimal octal zam 64 100 zam mézam 128 200 two zam pxézam 192 300 three zam tsìzam 256 400 four zam mŕrzam 320 500 five zam púzam 384 600 six zam kízam 448 700 seven zam vózam 512 1000 eight zam

The second series above continues with mevoláw 'two-eights-one', mevomún 'two-eights-two', etc.; the units are similarly suffixed to the other multiples of eight. Thus all numbers up to at least kivohín "sixty-three" (octal 77) are single words. Numbers between zam and mezam (one-hundred twenty-eight, octal 200) are not attested. The 'hundreds' continue with pxezam etc. Higher orders are vozam 512 (octal 1000: thus mevozam for octal 2000 etc.) and zazam 4096 (octal 10,000: thus mezazam for octal 20,000 etc.).

When a number modifies a noun, the singular form is used for the noun. In addition, as an attributive, the number itself requires the attributive affix a:

zìsìt amrr "five years",

ʼawa tìpawmìri "regarding one (particular) question",

munea ʼeveng "two children"

(compare meveng "children" when there are two of them).

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers take the (unstressed) suffix -ve. However, the forms are somewhat irregular; they are generally based on the short/combining forms of the numerals, but "third" and "eighth" are based on the long/final forms.

units decimal octal ʼáwve first 1st múve second 2nd pxéyve third 3rd tsìve fourth 4th mŕrve fifth 5th púve sixth 6th kíve seventh 7th vólve eighth 10th

'teens' decimal octal voláwve ninth 11th vomúve tenth 12th vopéyve eleventh 13th vosìve twelfth 14th vomŕrve thirteenth 15th vofúve fourteenth 16th vohíve fifteenth 17th mévolve sixteenth 20th

The series continues with mevoláwve "seventeenth (21st)", etc. *Zamve (*zave ?) is not attested. As these are adjectives, they take a when modifying nouns directly: aʼáwve / ʼáwvea, etc.

Converting between octal and decimal

Conversion from English decimal to Naʼvi octal numbers can be tedious. It may be easier to count on your fingers by tucking in your pinkies so that you have the same eight fingers as a Naʼvi has: English "ten" is therefore 1 set of hands plus 2 extra fingers, or Naʼvi 12 vomun. Converting from Naʼvi back to English is more straightforward, if you think of the Naʼvi number as so-many eights plus so-many: Naʼvi "72", for example, would be "seven eights (7×8=56) and two", or English 58. Because eight is a power in binary arithmetic, many of the Naʼvi numbers are also binary units which may be familiar from computing; vozam (octal 1000), for example, is decimal 512.

Derivations of numbers

Numerals form various derivatives, such as ʼawpo "an individual", nìʼawve "first(ly)" (as in, "I was here first"), ʼawsiténg "together" (one-make-same), kawtu "no-one" (not-one-person), kawkrr "never" (not-one-time), nìʼaw "only" (one-ly), and nìʼawtu "alone" (one-person-ly), all from ʼaw "one"; also nìmun "again" (second-ly) and perhaps muntxa "mated" from mune "two".

There are two words for "once", ʼawlie and ʼawlo, the difference of which is not clear. "Twice" is melo.

Questions

Naʼvi, like English, has two ways of asking questions: "yes-no" questions for simple affirmation or denial, as in "Are you going?", and "wh-" questions asking for elaboration, such as "Where are you going?". There are also numerous series of words that answer wh- questions: "Here", "There", "Nowhere", "Everywhere", "Elsewhere", "The same place", etc.

Yes-no questions

Yes-no questions may be asked with the question marker srake?, srak?, though sometimes intonation alone is used.

Ngaru lu fpom srak?

"Are you well?" (lit. "Do you have peace?")

or, when repeating a question to oneself after being asked,

Srake tsun oe fayupxaret tslivam nìftue?

"Whether I can easily understand these messages?"

Such questions may be answered simply srane "yes" or kehe "no".

Srake is not equivalent to English question tags like "isn't that right?", which aim to elicit agreement more than information. The Naʼvi question tags are ke fìfya srak? "(is it) not this way?", kefya srak? "isn't it?", or kefyák? for short.

Yes-no questions can also be worded with the verb ftxey "choose", here functioning as a conjunction "whether", with fuke "or not". Thus instead of srake nga zaʼu? "Are you coming/will you come?", one may ask,

Ftxey nga zaʼu fuke?

"Are you coming or not?"

ftxey	nga	zaʼu	fu-ke
whether	you	come	or-not

Wh-questions

Information questions are asked with question words based on the leniting interrogative morpheme pe+, -pe "which?". These need not occur at the beginning of a clause:

Oeru pelun? (or oeru lumpe?)

"Why me?"

to which an actual explanation is expected (unless the question is rhetorical).

Pe-words such as pelun / lumpe are only used for questions, not as relative pronouns as in "I don't know why it was me". (For that, see the chapter on syntax.) Pe+, -pe may be used with any noun, but it generally occurs with one of half a dozen common generic nouns, such as tute "person" for pesu / tupe "who?" and ʼu "thing" for peu / ʼupe "what?". Many of these nouns act also as adverbs, and the resulting question words are adverbial, as in

peseng, tsengpe "where?", from tsenge "(at a) place"

pehrr, krrpe "when?", from krr "(at a) time"

pefya, fyape "how?", from fyaʼo "(in a) manner"

Peu / ʼupe is generally used for concrete objects, a more restricted range than "what?" in English. For actions and ideas, more specific words are used, such as

Kempe si nga? (also Pehem si nga?)

"What are you doing?"

based on kem "deed", or

Pelìʼu poltxe nga? (also Lìʼupe poltxe nga?)

"What did you say?"

based on lìʼu "word".

Answer words

Paralleling the pe+ and -pe question words, and potentially answering them, are words based on "pre-nouns". Theses are morphemes that have concrete independent meaning, like "this" or "that", but which are found prefixed to nouns, such as the demonstratives fì- "this" and tsa- "that":

pelun (or lumpe) "why? which reason?"

fìlun "this reason", faylun "these reasons"

tsalun "thus, that reason", tsaylun "those reasons"

Other prenouns are kaw- "no" ("not one"), fra- "every", fne- "kind", la- "other", and teng- "same". There is also a suffix -o "some" that combines with many of these same answer words.

Not all combinations are attested.

	Thing	One	Person	Place	Time	Action	Kind	Manner	Reason	Word
Interrogative	ʼupe		tupe	tsengpe	krrpe	kempe	fnepe	fyape	lumpe	lìʼupe
	peu		pesu	peseng	pehrr	pehem	pefnel	pefya	pelun	pelìʼu
	what?	which?	who?	where?	when?	what?	what kind of?	how?	why?	what?
Distal	tsaʼu ~ tsaw saʼu ~ saw		tsatu	tsatseng	tsakrr	tsakem	tsafnel tsayfnel	tsafya	tsalun(?)	tsalìʼu(?)
	that, those	that one		there	then	that, those	such a	thus	that reason	that
Proximal	fìʼu	fìpo		fìtseng	set	fìkem	fìfnel fayfnel	fìfya	fìlun(?)	fìlìʼu
	this	this one		here	now	this	such a	thus	this reason	this
Indefinite	ʼuo		tuteo	tsengo	krro(?)
	something	someone		somewhere	some time
Negative	keʼu		kawtu	kawtseng(?)	kawkrr
	nothing	no-one		nowhere	never
Exclusive	fraʼu	frapo		fratseng	frakrr
	everything	everyone		everywhere	always
Other		lapo
		someone else		elsewhere
Same	tengʼu				tengkrr			tengfya
	same thing	same one			while			as

Po might be the third-person animate pronoun po, and thus contrast with tu for people only.

The table merely shows the more common forms; fì- (and its plural fìay- "these", commonly shortened to fay-) and tsa-, along with its plural tsay-, may combine as a prefix to any noun: fayvrrtep "these demons", tsayhetuwong "those aliens". (Tsaʼu, however, is pluralized as other pronouns, aysaʼu or saʼu.) Pe combines with other nouns as well, either as a prefix or a suffix. As usual for affixes, they are unstressed, and they do not need the attributive a: compare fayvrrtep with kea txep / txep ake "no fire" and ke txep "not a fire".

Nouns combined with pre-nouns still behave as nouns, for example with case: fìlìʼuä ral "the meaning of this word".

An exception to the stress pattern is Fìtrr lu trrpeve? "Which day (of the week, etc.) is it today?", where a suffix -pe is stressed before the ordinal suffix -ve.

The such/kind series based on fnel governs the genitive of a noun: tsafnel syulangä "such a flower, that kind of flower". Such phrases may be reduced, with the prenoun+fnel becoming a compound prenoun: pefnesyulang? "which (type of) flower?" – fìfnesyulang, tsafnesyulang "such a flower"; plural fayfnesyulang, tsayfnesyulang.

Verbs

Naʼvi 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. "Hunt", for example, is táron, but "hunted" is toláron, with the infix ‹ol›.

Infixes

There are two positions for infixes: between the consonant and vowel of the first syllable, and between the consonant and vowel of the final syllable. For example, the phonetically simple verb káme "see into, understand", and the more complicated steftxaw "examine", take the first and second position infixes ‹ol› and ‹uy› as follows:

	Root	position 1	position 2	positions 1 and 2
Form	káme	koláme	kámuye	kolámuye
Parsed		k‹ol›ame	kam‹uy›e	k‹ol›am‹uy›e
Form	steftxáw	stoleftxáw	steftxuyáw	stoleftxuyáw
Parsed		st‹ol›eftxaw	steftx‹uy›aw	st‹ol›eftx‹uy›aw

Note that the infix comes directly before the vowel, and so after any consonant cluster like the st and ftx in ste-ftxaw. The infix also occurs before whatever functions as the vowel, including ll and rr. For example, the ‹ol› inflection of fŕrfen "visit" is folŕrfen.

In monosyllabic words like lu "be", si "do", new "want", and tspang "kill", however, all infixes appear in that one syllable, retaining their relative order:

	Root	position 1	position 2	positions 1 and 2
Form	néw	noléw	nuyéw	noluyéw
Parsed		n‹ol›ew	n‹uy›ew	n‹ol›‹uy›ew
Form	tspáng	tspoláng	tspuyáng	tspoluyáng
Parsed		tsp‹ol›ang	tsp‹uy›ang	tsp‹ol›‹uy›ang

Moreover, when the vowel of the infix matches the vowel of such a verb, it may look like a suffix: luyu "be" (l‹uy›u, not *lu-yu), sivi "do" (s‹iv›i, not *si-vi). This is clearer in speech than in writing, because the stress stays on the root vowel: luyú (not *lúyu), siví (not *sívi). Similarly when a penultimate syllable mirrors an infix: lónu "release", lolónu "released" (l‹ol›onu, not *lo-lonu).

If there is no initial consonant, the infix still comes before the vowel:

Tsampongut Tsuʼteyl iveyk.

tsam-pongu-t	Tsuʼtey-l	‹iv›eyk
war-party-acc	(name)-erg	lead‹sjv›

"Tsuʼtey will lead the war party."

In first position more than one infix may occur. When both convey temporal information, they fuse together (see below); however, when one infix has a more concrete function, such as a reflexive (acting on oneself), then it precedes the temporal infix(es). Adding such a "pre-first" infix ‹us› to the words above, and filling all three slots, we get:

Root	káme	steftxáw	néw	tspáng	éyk
Form	kusolámuye	stusoleftxuyáw	nusoluyéw	tspusoluyáng	usoluyéyk
Parsed	k‹us›‹ol›am‹uy›e	st‹us›‹ol›eftx‹uy›aw	n‹us›‹ol›‹uy›ew	tsp‹us›‹ol›‹uy›ang	‹us›‹ol›‹uy›eyk

However, it is rare to encounter forms this complex.

Pre-first position: Valency

The "pre-first" infix position is taken by infixes for non-temporal distinctions such as valence (changing the number of arguments of the verb).

Active participle (actv)	us
Passive participle (pass)	awn
Reflexive (refl)	äp
Causative (caus)	eyk

The participles are active, as in ikran atusaron "a hunting banshee" and ioang apuslltxe "a talking animal", and passive, as in yerik atawnaron "a hunted hexapede" and aylìʼu apawnlltxe "spoken words", from taron "hunt" and plltxe "speak".

The active participial infix us is found in forms such as kérusey "dead", from ke "not" and rey "live" (that is, "not-living"), and txántslusam "wise", from txan "much" and tslam "understand" (that is, "much-understanding"). The passive awn is found in nìawnomum "as is known", from omun "know" and the adverbial prefix nì-. Like their English translations in -ing and -en, Naʼvi participles have characteristics of both verb and adjective, and may modify a noun: ruséya túte "a living person", túte atslusám "an understanding person".

Hetuwongìl awngeyä swotut skaʼa, fte kllkivulat keruseya tskxet.

ay+ke-tute-wong-ìl	awnga+yä	swotu-it	skaʼa	fte	kllte+k‹iv›ulat	ke-r‹us›ey-a	tskxe-it
pl+not-person-alien-erg	we.incl+gen	sacred.place-acc	destroy	so.that	earth+dig‹sjv›	not-live‹actv›-attr	rock-acc

"The aliens destroy our sacred place to dig up dead rock."

Naʼvi participles only work as adjectives, not as nouns. That is, rusey translates "living" in "the living earth", but not in "the living is good here". For this latter nominal (noun) meaning, add the nominalizing prefix tì-:

Korén aʼáwve tìruséyä ʼawsiténg

"The first rule of living together" (the Golden Rule)

koren	a-ʼawve	tì-r‹us›ey+yä	ʼawsiteng
rule	attr-first	nomz-live‹actv›+gen	together

Tìrusey "living" is distinct from tìrey "life", as in mì sìrey "in (my) life". While the existence and exact meaning of tì- derivatives is unpredictable, tì- ‹us› gerunds are regular, and may be used with any verb.

Likewise, the participle is not used for adverbs. Whereas in English one may say "she ran away laughing", in Naʼvi that would be "she ran away while (she was) laughing", with tengkrr "while" and the imperfective h‹er›angham for "(she was) laughing".

A reflexive indicates that the subject performs the action on his or her self. For example, oe yur is "I wash (something)", and oel yur kìʼongit is "I wash the (sp.) fruit", whereas "I wash myself" is reflexive óe yäpúr (y‹äp›ur), not transitive *oel yur oeti. Win is "fast", win si is to make fast (that is, to rush or hurry something), and win säpi is to make oneself fast (that is, to rush or hurry along).

A causative makes an intransitive verb transitive. For example, latem means "change" in the sense that 'something changes'; but to actively change something is leykatem. "To begin" is similar:

Sngoläʼi (sng‹ol›äʼi) tìkangkem "the work began"

Oel sngeykoläʼi (sng‹eyk›‹ol›äʼi) tìkangkemit "I began the work"

In some cases, the causative requires a different English translation, such as sleyku "produce" from slu "become".

However, there are other strategies for while "feed" is a causative translation of yom "eat", if the meaning of feeding is providing food, the Naʼvi word is not yeykom "make eat" but yomtìng "give (tìng) "eat".

The use of the causative depends on the meaning and transitivity of the verb; see the section on transitivity for details.

First position: Tense, aspect, and mood

Following these, but still in the penultimate syllable, are infixes for tense, aspect, and mood. With one exception (the subjunctive after a modal verb, see below), these are optional. That is, they are used to clarify things such as tense, but tend to be dropped when they can be understood from context.

Naʼvi aspect Perfective (pfv) ol Imperfective (ipfv) er

Naʼvi tense Future (fut) ay Immediate future (imm) ìy Present (pres) (unmarked) Recent past (rec) ìm Past (past) am

Naʼvi mood Subjunctive (sjv) iv Intentional (intent) s Imperative (imp) (intonation)

These appear after the previous set of infixes. So with the future infix ‹ay›, "they will wash themselves" is fo yäpayúr (y‹äp›‹ay›ur).

Tense

Tense is the easiest of these concepts for an English speaker. However, whereas English has three tenses, past present and future, Naʼvi 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‹past›] "hunted"

t‹ìm›aron [hunt‹rec›] "just hunted"

t‹ìy›aron [hunt‹imm›] "is about to hunt"

t‹ay›aron [hunt‹fut›] "will hunt"

Naʼvi 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, or tìyetxaw oe "I'll be right back".

More than one tense may be used in a verb. For instance, the recent past and immediate future double up in,

Oel pot tspìmìyang.

Oe-l	po-t	tsp‹ìm›‹ìy›ang
I-erg	s/he-acc	kill‹rec›‹imm›

"I was just about to kill him."

Aspect

unmarked taron "hunts"

imperfective t‹er›aron "hunts, hunting"

perfective t‹ol›aron "hunts, hunted"

Aspect is a more difficult concept. There are two in Naʼvi, a perfective, used when one views the action as a simple event, as if one were on the outside of the action looking in; and an imperfective, used when one views the action as having some component structure or flow, as if one were inside with the action. This distinction is not easily found in English, but there are parallels. For instance, if I were to say, "I went to the bookstore," your response is likely to be something like, "so? what did you get?". This is because I presented the event as a simple whole—perfective—and the implication is that we've now moved on to the next thing that happened. However, if I were to say, "I was going to the bookstore," your response is more likely to be, "and? what happened on your way?". This is because I presented the event as open ended—imperfective—and the implication is that we are still dealing with what happened during that event, even though it's the same event in both cases.

Even closer are constructions based on verbs of perception, such as "I saw him sit for an hour", with "sit" in the perfective (he sat for an hour, and I witnessed the whole event), and "I saw him sitting for an hour", with "sit" in a kind of imperfective (he sat for some time, of which I witnessed an hour—an internal portion of the event). Or more vividly, if more violently, "I saw the accused stab the victim" (I saw the crime in its entirety; I'm presenting it as a point in time) and "I saw the accused stabbing the victim" (I saw a part of the action as I passed by). In Naʼvi, however, aspect may occur on the main verb, and may take place in the past, present, or future. An example of the Naʼvi perfective is tsl‹ol›am "got it" or "understood", from tslam "understand"—the (unmarked) tense is either present tense or irrelevant; the point being communicated is that the understanding is a complete event, a point in time. An example of the imperfective is t‹er›ìran ayoe ayngane "we are walking your way"; here the action is in process, a current in time. Although the English translation suggests present tense, the Naʼvi could actually be past or future: "we were walking your way (past imperfective) when we (suddenly) got it (past perfective)".

Tense and aspect need not be marked when they have been established, or if they can be understood by context. For example, in

Oel hu Txewì trram naʼrìngit tarmok. Tsoleʼa ...

Oe-l	hu	Txewì	trr-am	naʼrìng-it	t‹a‹r›m›ok.	Ts‹ol›eʼa ...
I-erg	with	(name)	day-past	forest-acc	occupy‹past‹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. However, both may be made explicit, and in such cases aspect is combined with the tense infixes:

recent-past imperfective oe t‹ì‹r›m›aron "I was just hunting"

past imperfective oe t‹a‹r›m›aron "I was hunting"

recent-past perfective oe tsl‹ì‹l›m›am "I just got it"

immediate-future perfective oe tsl‹ì‹l›y›am "I'm about to get it"

As noted in the chapter on Phonology, verbs with syllabic consonants may be irregular when inflected for aspect. If the aspectual infix ends in the analogous simple consonant (ol for ll or er for rr), and the syllable is not stressed, then the illegal sequence *lll or *rrr reduces to a simple l or r, as in plltxé "speak", pefective *p‹ol›lltxe → poltxé. However, if the syllable is stressed, then the infix, which cannot be stressed, drops out, resulting in a homonym with the uninflected form, as in fŕrfen "visit", imperfective *f‹er›rrfen → fŕrfen.

Mood

There are four moods in Naʼvi: an unmarked mood (the indicative) used when making an ordinary assertion, an imperative mood used for making commands, a subjunctive used when one is stating something that is not certain, and an intentional to show that an action is purposeful. The imperative, as in English, has no affix: Kä! "go!" 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 Naʼvi 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, but cannot say that it is so. It is found for example in

Oeri tìngayìl txeʼlanit tivakuk

oe-ri	tì-ngay-ìl	txeʼlan-it	t‹iv›akuk
I-top	nomz-true-erg	heart-acc	strike‹sjv›

"Let the truth strike my heart," literally "that the truth strike my heart."

It is equivalent to the infinitive in English to show that something is done for a purpose, as in

Sawtute zeraʼu fte fol Kelutralti skivaʼa

ay+taw-tute	z‹er›aʼu	fte	ay+po-ìl	kelku-utral-ti	sk‹iv›aʼa
pl+sky-person	come‹ipfv›	so.that	pl+s/he-erg	home-tree-acc	destroy‹sjv›

"The humans are coming to destroy Hometree"

The subjunctive is obligatory after modal verbs of obligation, ability, or desire, such as zene "must", tsun "can", and new "want". (See section Modal verbs below.) This is the only time that a tense, aspect, or mood marker is grammatically required. For example, in

Trram kä naʼrìngur fte tsun tivaron yerikit.

trram	kä	naʼrìng-ur	fte	tsun	t‹iv›aron	yerik-it.
day-past	go	forest-dat	so.that	be.able	hunt‹sjv›	hexapede-acc

"Yesterday (we) went to the forest so we could hunt a hexapede",

the past tense on kamä "went" and subjunctive on tsivun "be able" have been omitted, but the subjunctive on tivaron cannot be.

There is some overlap between the Naʼvi subjunctive and the English conditional mood, in that the if-clause may take the subjunctive:

Pxan livu txo nìʼaw oe ngari, tsakrr nga Naʼviru yomtìyìng

pxan	l‹iv›u	txo	nì-ʼaw	oe	nga-ìri	tsa-krr	nga	naʼvi-uru	yom-t‹ìy›ìng
worthy	be‹sjv›	if	adv-one	I	you-top	that-time	you	people-dat	eat-give‹imm›

"Only if I be worth of you, will you then feed the people."

The subjunctive is also used as an optative 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, or sp‹iv›aw oeti rutxe "please believe me". This is similar to the imperative.

There is no infix for a true imperative:

Kä! Kä! "Go! Go!"

Pot lonu! "Release him!"

Ikranti makto. ʼEko taʼem "Take the banshee. Attack from above."

The pronoun may be stated overtly:

ʼAwpot set ftxey ayngal

ʼawpo-t	set	ftxey	ay-nga-l
one-acc	now	choose	pl-you-erg

"Now you choose one"

Negative imperatives (prohibitives) are conveyed with räʼä "don't!":

Txopu räʼä si! "Don't be afraid!"

Tsakem räʼä si! "Don't do that!"

Instead of the bare root of the imperative, the subjunctive may be used in its optative role to make what was historically a request or polite command, though the distinction is no longer maintained:

Aynga neto rivikx!

ay-nga	ne-to	r‹iv›ikx
pl-you	to-away	move‹sjv›

"(May you all) step back!"

Similarly with the prohibitive:

Neto räʼä kivä "Don't go away!"

The intentional mood is used for planned actions, contrasting with the (indicative) for things that one has no control over. It is only attested in the future tenses.

Other

Other reported temporal and aspectual forms include tovaron, tevaron, telaron, tairon. Their meaning is not known, and tairon at least would appear to be spurious, as the infix does not occur in its normal position.

Two of the infixes are known elsewhere: they are suffixes in trram "yesterday" and trray "tomorrow", from trr "day", and in txonam "last night" and txonay "tomorrow night" from txon "night".

Fused T.A.M. infixes

When tense, aspect, and mood infixes occur together, they fuse: The consonant of the aspect infixes within the tense, as recent past-imperfective ‹ìrm› in tìrmaron "(I) was just hunting", from ‹ì‹er›m›; or the consonant of the tense or aspect infixes within the subjunctive mood:

Aspect×tense in the indicative ind — pfv ipfv fut ay aly ary imm ìy ìly ìry — — ol er rec ìm ìlm ìrm past am alm arm

Aspect and tense in the subjunctive sjv — pfv ipfv fut iyev* — — iv ilv irv past imv —

Intentional mood intent — pfv ipfv sjv fut asy — imm ìsy — ? ?osl ?esr ? rec ?ìsm — past ?asm

The expected future subjunctive *iyv, however, is a problem, as *iy is not a possible syllable coda in Naʼvi. This is solved by inserting an epenthetic vowel e: ‹iyev›; moreover, in the common expression kìyevame "see (you) soon", there is a degree of vowel assimilation, and both ‹iyev› and ‹ìyev› are acceptable forms of this inflection. Note that because the vowel distinctions of the future and past tenses are lost, there are only three tenses rather than five in the subjunctive mood. Three-way combinations of tense, aspect, and mood (the dashes in the right-hand table) do not occur.

Although the intentional mood is only attested in the future, it is possible that it may be used for the past or present, perfective or imperfective, or even in the subjunctive, though this would require an epenthetic vowel the way the future subjunctive does, or a compound as in compound tense.

Ayngati hasyawnu ayoel

ay-nga-ti	h‹asy›awnu	ay-oe-ìl
pl-you-acc	protect‹fut.intent›	pl-I-erg

"We will protect you."

With the negative, it indicates an intention that something not happen:

Tafral ke lìsyek oel ngeyä keyeʼungit.

ta-fì-ral	ke	l‹ìsy›ek	oe-ìl	nga-yä	ke-yeʼung-it
from-this-reason	not	obey‹imm.intent›	I-erg	you-gen	in-sanity-acc

"Therefore I will not heed your insanity."

The intention is that of the speaker, regardless of the subject of the verb:

Nga kasyä

nga	k‹asy›ä
you	go‹fut.intent›

"You shall go."

Ke zasyup lìʼOna ne kxutu a mìfa fu a wrrpa.

ke	z‹asy›up	lìʼOna	ne	kxutu	a	mì+pa	fu	a	wrr-pa
not	fall‹fut.intent›	(name)	to	enemy	sbrd	in+side	or	sbrd	out-side

"The lʼOna will not perish to the enemy within nor to the enemy without."

Second position: Affect

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

Naʼvi affect

Positive attitude (approb)	ei
Negative attitude (pej)	äng (äg)
Formal ceremonial (form)	uy
Evidential (evid)	ats (ac)

For example, in the greeting in the section on nouns, Oel ngati kameie "I See you", the verb kame "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 affect can also be more indirect, as in,

Ngaytxoa, fìpänuti oeyä tswolängaʼ oel.

"Sorry, I forgot this promise of mine."

ngay-txoa	fì-pänu-ti	oe-yä	tsw‹ol›‹äng›aʼ	oe-ìl
true-forgiveness	this-promise-acc	I-gen	forget‹pfv›‹pej›	I-erg

The formal infix, which is used in ceremonial contexts, goes with the formal pronouns, though the reverse does not always hold: Ngenga ... 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 ceremonial 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 annoyed by the prospect.

The evidential indicates uncertainty or indirect knowledge, as in,

Fpìrmìl oel futa aynga natsew tsiveʼa fìʼut.

"I was just thinking that you might want to see this."

fp‹ìrm›ìl	oe-ìl	fìʼu-it-a	ay-nga	n‹ats›ew	ts‹iv›eʼa	fìʼu-it
think‹recipfv›	I-erg	this-acc-sbrd	pl-you	want‹evid›	see‹sjv›	this-acc

To reinforce the uncertainty, kxawm "perhaps" may be added.

Special verbs

A few verbs have grammatical in addition to lexical uses.

Be, have, and copulas

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;

Naʼviyä, l‹uy›u hapxì "(you) are‹formAL› part of the People",

where it links two noun phrases ("you" being understood); and

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".

Other verbs with this behavior include the copulas slu "become" and lam "seem".

Lu also functions as a verb of existence, equivalent to "there is" or "there are":

aungia l‹ol›u

"there was a sign"

ke fparmìl oel futa lu tute a tsun ...

"I didn't think there was anyone who could ...".

When used with—and generally preceding—a noun in the dative, it has the more specialized sense of "have", as in

Lu oeru ikran

"I have a banshee" (lit. "there is a banshee to me").

When used with a locative adposition, it shows existence in a place:

Paʼli lu uo utral.

"The horse is behind a tree; there is a horse behind the tree."

ʼAngtsìk lu lok ʼawkx.

"The hammerhead is close to the cliff."

However, there is a separate idiom for being within a location: the transitive verb tok "to occupy, to be in a place", as above in

Oel hu Txewì trram naʼrìngit t‹arm›ok

"Yesterday I was with Txewì in the forest",

where the location takes the accusative case rather than an adposition.

Do

Naʼvi has a basic verb si which means "do" or "make". Besides its basic use, as in kempe si nga? "what are you doing?", it is used in numerous expressions, and is the primary way of turning a noun into a verb:

tsam "war"		tsám si "make war"
kélku "home"		kélku si "dwell" (lit., "make (one's) home")
tsapʼálute "an apology"		tsapʼálute si "apologize" ("make an apology")
iráyo "thanks"		iráyo si / si irayo "thank"
lŕrtok "a smile"		lŕrtok si "smile"
txópu "fear"		txópu si "be afraid"
Si forms idiomatic expressions with the organs of the senses:
nári "eye"		nári si "watch out, be careful"
éltu "brain"		éltu si "pay attention, quit goofing off"

Si follows the noun, and though it may be separated from it (txopu räʼä si "Do not fear!"), the two words behave as an intransitive compound: The noun never takes the accusative suffix, and the subject of si never takes the ergative. When there is an object to the noun+si construction, it takes the dative, as in ngaru irayo si "thank you".

Si can also be used with adjectives, such as teya "full" in kato oeru teya si "the rhythm fills me (with joy)".

In citation form, the si in these set phrases is unstressed. However, it may acquire stress when inflected. For example, from tìsraw "pain", there are intransitive tìsraw si /tɪˈsɾau̯si/ "be painful" and causative tìsraw seyki /tɪˈsɾau̯ sɛi̯.ˈki/ "cause pain".

The noun or adjective may be dropped when context makes it clear:

Nga tsapʼalute soli srak?

"Have you apologized?"

Soli.

"I have."

Give

The verb "give", tìng, has a smaller number of idiomatic usages. It is combined with organs of the senses to indicate an attentive action of that sense. So from nari "eye" there is tìng nari ("tìnnari") "look at" (cf. tseʼa "see"), and from mikyun "ear" there is tìng mikyun ("tìmmikyun") "listen" (cf. stawm "hear"). Somewhat less idiomatic are tìng tseng "back down" (lit. "give place"), pänutìng "promise" (lit. "give a promise"), oeyktìng "explain why" (lit. "give the cause"), yomtìng "feed" (lit. "give to eat"), and teswotìng "grant" (based on an unattested root).

Directional verbs

Naʼvi has two verbs that indicate direction: kä "go" and záʼu "come". These may combine with other verbs to give them a sense of direction, what in linguistics is called 'andative' and 'venitive'. For example, ʼärìp is "move" (move something, as with the hand); from it are käʼärìp "push" (move something away) and zaʼärìp "pull" (move something closer). Similarly, múnge "convey" may be used as either "bring" or "take"; for "bring" specifically, it is combined with zaʼu to indicate direction toward the speaker: zamúnge. Similarly, kä combines with mákto "ride" for kämákto "ride out". These directional verbs are not restricted to combining with other verbs; kä is also attested with tsatseng "there" in käsatseng "out there".

Modal verbs

As in English, Naʼvi has modal verbs ('helping verbs') which have a distinct syntax from other verbs. These are basic verbs of obligation, ability, or desire, such as zene "must", tsun "can", fmi "try", and new "want". They are followed by a regular verb, which must take the subjunctive mood, whereas English would use the infinitive, as above in 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". Likewise oe new k‹iv›ä "I want to go" and fmayi oe ʼ‹iv›eyng "I will try to answer / try and answer". The subject is not repeated if it's the same for the two verbs, but is required otherwise: Oe new nga k‹iv›ä "I want you to go" (lit. "I want (that) you should go").

Note that the subject of the modal is intransitive regardless of the lexical verb:

Oe new yivom teylut.

"I want to eat teylu."

oe	new	y‹iv›om	teylu-t
I.intr	want	eat‹sjv›	grubs-acc

Also,

Fmawnit menariyä ke tsun oe spivaw.

"I can't believe what my eyes are telling me."

fmawn-it	me+nari-yä	ke	tsun	oe	sp‹iv›aw
news-acc	du+eye-gen	not	able	I	believe‹sjv›

If there is an overt subject to the lexical verb, then it would be inflected for case as it would without the modal: Oe new ngal yivom teylut "I want you to eat teylu".

Compound verbs

In compound verbs, only the verbal root inflects. For example, zenke "mustn't" is an abbreviation of zene ke "must not", and so both first- and second-position infixes appear in the zen-. [needs confirmation] On the other hand, in pänutìng "promise", the verbal root is tìng "give", so all infixes appear in that syllable. In the case of a two-verb compound, such as yomtìng "feed" ("eat" plus "give"), all infixes appear in the final verb root, in this case tìng.

Syntax

From the preceding chapters, you should be able to read and perhaps produce sentences like the following:

Eytukanìl tskot alor Neytiriru toleiìng.

"Eytukan gave the beautiful bow to Neytiri, I'm happy to say."

Eytukan-ìl	tsko-it	a-lor	Neytiri-ru	t‹ol›‹ei›ìng
(name)-erg	bow-acc	attr-pretty	(name)-dat	give‹pfv›‹approb›

The word order may change depending on the relative relevance of the participants, deference on the part of the speaker, and the like, as will be covered in the chapter on Discourse; if the adjective moves, it may of course become lora. However, much more complex sentences than this are possible in Naʼvi, and that is the subject of this chapter.

The negative

Negation, both of noun phrases and of clauses, is made with the negating particle ke, which appears before the negated element. Naʼvi utilizes multiple negation, like ke lu kawtu "there isn't no-one" (= there isn't anyone / there is no-one):

fì-ketuwong	ke	n‹ay›ume	ke-ʼu
this-alien	not	learn‹fut›	no-thing

"This alien will learn nothing."

The vowel e elides in certain lexicalized expressions, such as kawtu "no-one" above and kawkrr "never". A longer form, kehe, is used as an interjection when answering "no" rather than negating a noun or verb. Whereas ke only occurs before the word or phrase it modifies, the adjectival forms kea and ake may occur before or after a noun: kea säfpìl or säfpìl ake "no idea".

In the case of zene "must", there are two negative constructions. "Mustn't (be obliged not to)" is zenke, whereas the opposite order, ke zene "don't have to" merely indicates a lack of obligation. Both take the subjunctive:

Nga zenke kivä! "You must not go!"

Nga ke zene kivä. "You don't have to go."

Double negation does not (necessarily) hold across multiple clauses. In a following section, for example, the sentence

Ke fparmìl oel futa lu tute a tsun nì-Naʼvi set fìfya pivlltxe!

"I didn't think that there was anyone who could speak Naʼvi like this!"

is only negated in its independent clause, "I didn't think".

Conjunction

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, in order to", fteke "lest". A is used for relative clauses, as in tute a tsun "a.person who can", futa means "that" after a transitive verb, as in ke fparmìl futa ... "(I) didn't think that ...", fwa means "that" after an intransitive verb, as in law lu oeru fwa ... "It's clear to me that ...", and tsnì means "that" in ätxäle si tsnì ... "(I) request that ...".

The difference between sì "and" and últe "and" is 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".

Sì may also cliticize to the second noun phrase, as in the formal inclusive pronouns, or in

aylìʼut horentisì lìʼfyayä leNaʼvi

"(describe) the words and rules of the Naʼvi language"

ay-lìʼ-ʼu-it	ay+koren-ti-sì	lìʼ-fya-yä	le-Naʼvi
pl-say-thing-acc	pl+rule-acc-and	say-way-gen	adj-People

Note that the accusative suffix -it/ti is attached to both conjoined nouns aylì'u and horen, and that the genitive lì'fyayä "the language's (words and rules)" governs both.

The simple conjunction for "or" is fu. However, when the meaning is that either of two choices is equally acceptable or unacceptable, or that the speaker doesn't care which it is, the construction A, B, ke tsranten "(either) A (or) B, it doesn't matter" is used:

Yola krr, txana krr, ke tsranten.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes."

yol-a	krr	txan-a	krr	ke	tsranten
short-attr	time	great-attr	time	not	be.important

The conjunction slä "but" joins two clauses,

Zìsìt((o)) amrr ftolia ohe, slä zene fko niyevume nìtxan.

"I studied for five years but there is much still to learn."

zìsìt-((o))	a-mrr	ft‹ol›ia	ohe	slä	zene	fko	n‹iyev›ume	nì-txan
year-?	attr-five	study‹pfv›	I.form	but	must	one	learn‹fut.sjv›	adv-much

whereas the adverb ngián "however" does not:

Aylìʼu ngian nìʼit skepek lu.

"But you sound rather formal." (lit. "[your] words, however, are a bit formal.")

ay-lìʼu	ngian	nì-ʼit	skepek	lu
pl-word	however	adv-bit	formal	be

Naʼvi does not have a special infinitive form of the verb, like "to speak" in "teach him to speak". Instead, fte "so that" is used with the subjunctive. There are several examples below.

Reported speech

Quoted speech is introduced with the quotative particle san and the unquotative particle sìk. Naʼvi only allows direct speech, not indirect (reported) speech; that is, "He said, 'I will go'," but not "He said he would go." If the quotation occurs at either end of the sentence, then only one of the particles need be used:

Poltxe oe, san zene ke uniltìranyu keʼuzivaʼu fìtseng.

p‹ol›lltxe	oe	san	zene	ke	unil-tìran-yu	ke-ʼu	z‹iv›aʼu	fì-tseng.
say‹pfv›	I	quot	must	not	dream-walk-er	no-one	come‹sjv›	this-place

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

Here the end of the quotation is obvious, as the speaker finished speaking. However, if it occurs in the middle, so that there is non-reported material on either side, then both particles occur together as correlatives:

Poltxe Eytukan san oe kayä sìk, slä oel pot ke spaw.

p‹ol›lltxe	Eytukan	san	oe	k‹ay›ä	sìk	slä	oe-l	po-t	ke	spaw
say‹pfv›	(name)	quot	I	go‹fut›	unquot	but	I-erg	s/he-acc	not	believe

"Eytukan said he would go (lit. 'I will go'), but I don't believe him."

Practically speaking, however, an initial quote may still need san, as otherwise the audience might not realize that it's reported speech; it would require a context that makes that obvious before the first particle could be dropped.

These particles can also be used for the words that make up thoughts. Because the quotation is retained verbatim, speakers may end up referring to themselves in the second or third person. For instance, if someone named Ateyo had been unable to respond to someone's questions, he might say,

Räʼä fpivìl san oeyä sìpawmìri Ateyo ke new oeru ʼiveyng sìk.

räʼä	fp‹iv›ìl	san	oe-yä	ay+tì-pawm-ìri	Ateyo	ke	new	oe-ru	ʼ‹iv›eyng	sìk
don't	think‹sjv›	quote	I-gen	pl+nomz-ask-top	(name)	not	want	I-dat	respond‹sjv›	unquote

"Don't think that I don't want to respond to your questions." (Lit. 'Don't think, "Ateyo doesn't want to respond to me about my questions".')

The word "whether" is used for indirect questions, and so like other wh- words is not translated directly; since it's used for yes-no questions, the Naʼvi equivalent is san srake ... sìk. That is, for "he asked whether they went", say polawm po san srake fo holum sìk (or whatever the actual wording was) "he asked, 'Did they go?'".

One construction in Naʼvi is equivalent to an indirect question in English, "tell me whether (or not)",

Piveng oer ftxey nga new rivey fuke.

"Tell me if you want to live."

p‹iv›eng	oe-ur	ftxey	nga	new	r‹iv›ey	fu-ke
tell‹sjv›	I-dat	choose	you	want	live‹sjv›	or-not

Subordinate clauses

Some of the subordinating conjunctions, such as those indicating purpose, trigger the subjunctive in a dependent clause:

Nari soli ayoe fteke nìhawng livok.

"We_excl were careful not to get too close."

nari-s‹ol›i	ayoe	fte-ke	nì-hawng	l‹iv›ok
eye-make‹pfv›	we	so.that-not	adv-excessive	close‹sjv›

Sáwtute zeráʼu fte fol Kélutralti skivaʼá.

"The humans are coming to (that they may) destroy Hometree."

saw-tute	z‹er›aʼu	fte	fo-l	kel-utral-ti	sk‹iv›aʼa
pl+sky-person	come‹ipfv›	so.that	pl+s/he-erg	home-tree-acc	destroy‹sjv›

However, the independent clause is not always made explicit:

Txo new nga rivey, oehu!

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

txo	new	nga	r‹iv›ey	oe-hu
if	want	you	to.live‹sjv›	me-with

This can result in strings of subjunctive clauses:

Nga sänume sivi poru fte tsivun pilvlltxe sì tivìran na ayoeng.

"You will teach him so that he may speak and walk as we do."

nga	sä-nume	s‹iv›i	po-ru	fte	ts‹iv›un	p‹i‹ol›v›lltxe	sì	t‹iv›ìran	na	ay-oe-nga
you	nomz-learn	do-sjv	him-dat	so.that	be.able‹sjv›	converse‹sjv‹pfv››	and	walk‹sjv›	like	pl-I-you

Here the first verb, sivi, is subjunctive as a polite command, the second, tsivun, as the intended consequence of that command after fte ("teach him so that he may be able to), and the other two as dependents of the modal tsun.

Relative clauses

Naʼvi does not have relative pronouns such as English who, which, what; instead, the attributive particle a is employed:

tute	a	tsun	nì-Naʼvi	plltxe
person	sbrd	be.able	adv-Naʼvi	speak

"a person who can speak Naʼvi"

It wouldn't matter if the phrase were "a thing which" (or "that"), "a time when", "a reason why", or "a place where"; all would use the same particle a to translate the English wh- word:

po	(tsa-ne)	k‹arm›ä	a	tsenge-t	ke	ts‹ìm›eʼa	oe-l
s/he	it-to	go‹past.ipfv›	sbrd	place-acc	not	see‹rec›	I-erg

"I didn't see where she was going" (lit. "I didn't see the place to which she was going")

This a is the same morpheme as the a in attributive adjectives; indeed, relative clauses can be thought of as multi-word adjectives: The examples above might be more literally translated as "an able-to-speak-Naʼvi person" and "a she-was-going-to-it place", with "able to speak Naʼvi" and "she was going to it" being attributives (≈ adjectives). Indeed, attributive adjectives are simply reduced, one-word relative clauses;

sìltsana tìpawm "a good question"

is just a reduced form of

lu sìltsan a tìpawm "a question which is good".

Relative clauses are also similar in meaning to the participle:

Palulukan atusaron lu lehrrap.

palulukan	a-t‹us›aron	lu	le-hrrap
thanator	attr-hunt‹actv›	be	adj-danger

"A hunting thanator is dangerous."

Palulukan a teraron lu lehrrap.

palulukan	a	t‹er›aron	lu	le-hrrap
thanator	sbrd	hunt‹ipfv›	be	adj-danger

"A thanator that's hunting is dangerous."

A slightly more complex example of a relative clause is,

ʼAwpot set ftxey ayngal a l-ayngakip, ʼawpot a Naʼviru yomtìyìng.

"Choose one among you (that is, 'one who is among you'), one who will feed the People."

ʼawpo-t	set	ftxey	ay-nga-l	a	lu	ay-nga-kip,	ʼawpo-t	a	Naʼvi-ru	yom+t‹ìy›ìng
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 ʼawpot a Naʼviru yomtìyìng "one who will feed the People", the attributive a is not adjacent to the verb, and so cannot be attached to it in writing the way it is attached to adjectives.

The 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

Similarly, mesyalhu a ikran "a banshee with (-hu) two wings".

In cases where English uses a stranded preposition, as in "someone to talk with", Naʼvi needs to repeat the noun or a pronoun:

Ke lu kawtu a nulnivew oe pohu tireapivängkxo äo Utral Aymokriyä.

"There's nobody I'd rather commune with under the Tree of Voices"

ke	lu	ke-ʼaw-tu	a	nì-ul-n‹iv›ew	oe	po-hu	tirea-p‹iv›ängkxo	äo	utral	ay-mokri-yä
not	be	not-a-one	sbrd	adv-more-want‹sjv›	I	him/her-with	spirit-converse‹sjv›	under	tree	pl-voice-gen

Or literally, "There isn't nobody that I'd more like to commune with them under the Tree of Voices." Similarly,

Po tsane karmä a tsengit ke tsìmeʼa oel.

po	tsa-ne	k‹arm›ä	a	tsenge-it	ke	ts‹ìm›eʼa	oe-ìl
she	it-to	go‹past.ipfv›	sbrd	place-acc	not	see‹rec›	I-erg

"I didn't see where she was going."

Or literally, "I didn't see the place that she went to it." The tsane could be dropped, though with a bit of ambiguity, as it would no longer be completely clear that the place was her destination.

When a subject or object in the relative clause refers to the noun that it modifies, then it can be dropped:

tsayerikit tolaron a tute "the person who hunted that hexapede" (it's not required to say in full pol tsayerikit tolaron a tute "the person who he hunted that hexapede")

fìtutel tolaron a yerik "the hexapede which this person hunted" (rather than fìtutel pot tolaron a yerik "the hexapede which this person hunted it")

However, a noun in the dative or other case may not be dropped, though normally converted to a pronoun:

lu poru mesyal a ikran "a banshee that has two wings" (lit. 'a banshee which to it there are two wings'), not *mesyal lu a ikran or *mesyal a ikran.

Relative clauses with empty nouns

In the previous examples, the relative clause modified a pronoun, fìʼu "this", which did little except to anchor the relative clause. By inflecting the pronoun for case, this allows the relative clause to play various roles in the sentence. For example, the pronoun may be in the accusative, fìʼut, which when followed by a plays the role of "that" in "I think that [X]":

Ke fparmìl oel futa lu tute a tsun nì-Naʼvi set fìfya pivlltxe!

"I didn't think that there was anyone who could speak Naʼvi like that at this point!"

ke	fp‹arm›ìl	oe-l	fì-ʼu-t=a	lu	tute	a	tsun	nì-Naʼvi	set	fì-fya	p‹iv›lltxe
not	think‹past.ipfv›	I-erg	this-thing-acc=sbrd	be	person	sbrd	be.able	adv-Naʼvi	now	this-way	speak‹sjv›

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

As an accusative form, futa is used with an ergative agent when the main verb is transitive. With an intransitive clause, the form would be fwa, a contraction of fìʼu-a.

Law lu oeru fwa nga mì reltseo nolume nìtxan!

"It's clear to me that you've learned a lot in art."

law	lu	oe-ru	fì-ʼu-a	nga	mì	rel-tseo	n‹ol›ume	nì-txan
clear	be	I-dat	this-thing-attr	you	in	image-art	learn‹pfv›	adv-great

Tsnì is also used with an intransitive main verb such as sìlpey "to hope" or noun + si :

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

(If the "I" were spoken here, it would be of the form oe.)

Both the tsnì and the subjunctive may be dropped, in which case a clause like "I hope" functions as a discourse particle, coordinate to the adjacent clause:

Sìlpey oe, layu oeru yeʼrìn sìltsana fmawn a tsun oe ayngaru tivìng.

"I hope I will soon have good news to give you."

sìlpey	oe
hope	I
l‹ay›u	oe-ru	yeʼrìn	sìltsan-a	fmawn	a	tsun	oe	ay-nga-ru	t‹iv›ìng
be‹fut›	I-dat	soon	good-attr	news	sbrd	can	I	pl-you-dat	give‹sjv›

Other small grammatical words than pronouns may head the relative clause. One of them, krr "time", behaves as an adverb in that it does not take case endings to show its relationship to the main verb:

Tìeyngit oel tolel a krr, ayngaru payeng.

"When I get an answer, I'll tell you."

tì-eyng-it	oe-l	t‹ol›el	a	krr	ay-nga-ru	p‹ay›eng
nomz-to.answer-acc	I-erg	receive‹pfv›	sbrd	time	pl-you-dat	tell‹fut›

Note that the verb 'get' is perfective, even though it is not in the past, as I do not plan on telling you until the event of getting the answer is complete.

Such subordinating words may also appear at the beginning of a sentence:

Fwa sute pxel nga tsun oeyä hìʼia tìngopit sivar fte pivlltxe nìlor fìtxan oeru teya si.

fìʼu-a

ay+tute

pxel

nga

tsun

oe-yä

hìʼi-a

tì-ngop-it

s‹iv›ar

fte

p‹iv›lltxe

nì-lor

fì-txan

oe-ru

teya

si

this-sbrd

pl-person

like

you

can

I-gen

little-attr

nomz-create-acc

use‹sjv›

so.that

speak‹sjv›

adv-beautiful

this-much

I-dat

full

make

"I'm glad that people like you can use my little creation to speak so beautifully."

Here the independent clause is fì'u oeru teya si "this fills me (with joy)".

Combined with the adposition hu "(together) with", this fwa translates the English conjunction "although", and similar expressions based on tsafya "that way" the conjunction "however (whichever way)". However, "however" in the sense "but" (as in this sentence) is a separate word, ngian, as noted above.

Discourse

Beyond the level of syntax is discourse. This is the influence that the practical requirements of speech have on grammar. Such influences include the relative frequency of words and phrases; context, mutual knowledge, and the flow of information in a conversation; and the intentions and feelings of the speakers. For example, the choice between long and short case forms and long and short plural forms may depend on such factors; other areas of grammar influenced by discourse factors include the choice between preposition and suffix; "free" word order; the choice between referring to something with a noun or with a pronoun; the omission of pronouns, tense, aspect, and mood when these are assumed to be understood; the choice between using the topic or a grammatically determined case for a noun phrase; the use of second-position (affect) infixes in a verb; and the transitivity of the verb.

Discourse particles

Various particles in Naʼvi are used for addressing people, expressing emotion, and organizing a conversation. For example, tse is used to introduce an utterance, a mild announcement that one has something to say, like "now" or "well" in English. Tut is a particle of continuation; if someone asks for your name, or how you are, after answering you can add ngaru tut? "and you?" The vocative particle ma was covered in the chapter on nouns, and the question-tag particle srake in the chapter on questions. Also considered particles are interjections such as tewti! "wow!", though other parts of speech may be used in this fashion, such as tam "to suffice" or "okay".

Affect

The second-position infixes, covered in the chapter on verbs, are determined primarily be discourse phenomena: The emotional connection the speaker has with the event, how likely the statement is to be accurate, and how much respect the social situation calls for.

There are also emotive particles that appear at the end of a clause and reflect the emotional connection the speaker feels about the topic of discussion or with the audience:

• Disparaging pak, as in Tsamsiyu pak? "Hah! A warrior! (you call that a warrior?)"

• A particle for surprise, exclamation, and encouragement, nang "oh my!", which typically occurs with nìtxan "so much", as in sevin nìtxan nang! "my aren't you pretty!" or "look how pretty you are!"

• A particle ko which elicits agreement, like the eh of Canadian English (in other English dialects, ko can be translated "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."

Omission of pronouns

Pronouns allow one to refer to something multiple times without repeating its name. However, Naʼvi goes a step further: Pronouns tend to be used when switching from one referent to another, but otherwise dropped. That is, once the identity of a referent is established, pronouns aren't necessary, even for the subject of a clause. This is familiar from English texting, but is not as common in conversation. In Naʼvi, it is good conversational style as well. The identity of subjects may also be recovered from situational expectations. If a simple statement of a feeling is made, such as ʼefu ngeyn "feel(s) tired", it can be assumed that the subject is the speaker, oe, as one can only be sure of one's own feelings; and if a question, ʼefu ngeyn srak?, it can be assumed that the speaker is inquiring about (ay)nga "you", as you're the only one whose feelings you would know directly. For third persons, one would normally expect the evidential in ‹ats›, as one can have no direct knowledge of the feelings of another person: ʼefatsu ngeyn "(s/he) seems tired"; ʼefatsu ngeyn srak? "do (they) seem tired (to you)?".

Register

Two language registers are attested in Naʼvi. The formal ceremonial register has already been introduced; it's characterized by formal pronouns and an infix to the verb. There is also a military register. This is characterized by clipped speech—clipped even by Naʼvi standards—and abbreviated pronouns. For example,

Tìkan tawnatep!

"Target lost!"

T‹awn›atep cannot function as an English passive; the closest in the normal register would be tìkan atawnatep "a lost target".

In addition, the ä is dropped from genitive pronouns: oey (pronounced [wey]) "my", ngey "your", pey "her/his", etc.

Topic–comment

As was discussed in the section on case, Naʼvi frequently uses a topic–comment structure, where a phrase is placed at the beginning of the sentence as the topic (background) for the comment which follows:

Sìpawmìri oe ngaru seiyi irayo

sì-pawm-ìri	oe	nga-ru	s‹ei›i	irayo
pl+nomz-ask-top	I	you-dat	do‹approb›	thank

"Thank you for the questions" (lit. "As for the questions, I thank you")

However, a noun phrase is sometimes moved to the front of a clause without it taking the topic case:

Fìswiräti, ngal pelun molunge fìtseng?

"This creature, why do you bring him here?"

fì-swirä-ti	nga-ìl	pe-lun	m‹ol›unge	fì-tsenge
this-creature-acc	you-erg	what-reason	bring‹pfv›	this-place

Since the topical case can only be used with nouns, in order to topicalize a clause, it must be relativized to a dummy noun:

Furia nì'Ìnglìsì pamrel sivi, oeru txoa livu.

"Excuse me for writing in English."

fì-ʼu-ri-a	nì-ʼÌnglìsì	pam-rel	s‹iv›i	oe-ru	txoa	l‹iv›u
this-thing-top-attrib	adv-English	sound-image	make‹sjv›	I-dat	pardon	be‹sjv›

(Lit. "as for writing in English, may I be forgiven".)

Word order

expand 'focus'

Naʼvi 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. One of the few cases where a set word order is common is that lu tends to come at the beginning of a clause when it is used without a subject to mean "there is", a construction used for "to have": Lu oeru ikran "I have a banshee".

The basic (least marked) order is perhaps subject before object. Moving an argument to the front of a clause can be used to focus on it. For example,

Naʼvil ayyerikit yom "The People eat hexapedes"

Ayyerikit Naʼvil yom "Hexapedes (not direhorses) are eaten by the People"

That is, "hexapedes" are the point of the statement. (Naʼvi does not have a passive voice, which may perform a somewhat similar function in English.) This is the opposite of the topic, which would set the hexapedes up as the background for a following point:

Ayyerikìri, Naʼvil yom "As for hexapedes, the People eat them."

Likewise, moving an argument from where it would be expected at the front of a clause to the end may give it more "punch":

Lu oeru kxetse "I have a tail" (neutral statement)

Ngeyä kxetse lu oeru "Your tail is mine!" (emphasis on mine)

As noted under dative case in the chapter on nouns, the default word order of possession is lu "be" followed by the possessor in the dative, as in lu oeru "I have". Along with context, this helps distinguish who is who in a multiple dative construction:

Lu oeru aylìʼu frapor.

"I have something (= words) to say, to everyone."

lu	oe-ru	ay-lìʼu	fra-po-r
be	I-dat	pl-word	every-one-dat

where frapor "everyone" can be understood to be the recipient because it is not adjacent to the verb.

Another factor in Naʼvi word order is aesthetic. For example, nga yáwne lu oér "I love you" (lit. "you are beloved to me") has the order it does because it is considered the most euphonious.

In proverbs and songs, meter is also a consideration. For example, in the korén aʼáwve tìruséyä ʼawsiténg ("the first rule of living together", AKA the Golden Rule):

Hém ngeyä zénke fkóru livú,

tsáhem a ngáru pŕrteʼ ke lú

Clause order

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 Naʼvi:

Tsun oe ngahu nì-Naʼvi pivängkxo a fìʼu oeru prrteʼ lu.

"It's a pleasure to be able to chat with you in Naʼvi."

tsun	oe	nga-hu	nì-Naʼvi	p‹iv›ängkxo	a	fì-ʼu	oe-ru	prrteʼ	lu
be.able	I.intr	you-with	adv-Naʼvi	chat‹sjv›	sbrd	this-thing	I-dat	pleasure?	be

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

For example, "I didn't see where she was going", po tsane karmä a tsengit ke tsìmeʼa oel above, could also be worded oel tsìmeʼa ke tsengit a po karmä tsane, where po karmä tsane "she was going there" occurs on either side of the object tsengit "place". This contrast can be further seen in the following, where a relative clause is used to nominalize a clause in order for it to form a topic:

Ngal oeyä ʼupxaret aysuteru fpoleʼ a fìʼuri, ngaru irayo seiyi oe nìtxan!

"Thank you very much for sending my message to people!"

nga-l	oe-eyä	ʼupxare-t	ay+tute-ru	fp‹ol›eʼ	a	fì-ʼu-ri	nga-ru	irayo	s‹ei›i	oe	nì-txan
you-erg	I-gen	message-acc	pl+person-dat	send‹pfv›	sbrd	this-thing-top	you-dat	thank	do‹approb›	I.intr	adv-much

or conversely,

Furia ngal oeyä ʼupxaret aysuteru fpoleʼ, ngaru irayo seiyi oe nìtxan!

fì-ʼu-ri-a	nga-l	oe-eyä	ʼupxare-t	ay+sute-ru	fp‹ol›eʼ	nga-ru	irayo	s‹ei›i	oe	nì-txan
this-thing-top-sbrd	you-erg	I-gen	message-acc	pl+person-dat	send‹pfv›	you-dat	thank	do‹approb›	I.intr	adv-much

"Because" for the English clause order (verb-X because verb-Y) is either taweyk(a) (from oeyk "cause") or talun(a) (from lun "reason"). With the opposite clause order, the forms switch to aweykta and alunta.

Transitivity

Verbs in which transitive and intransitive forms imply different agents are made transitive with the causative infix ‹eyk›. For example, latem means "change", as an object changes by itself, as say the seasons change; if an external agent causes the change, however, the form is l‹eyk›atem. Similarly sngäʼi is "begin" in the sense that something happens on its own, as the rain begins; with an external agent, as in "I began work", the form is sng‹eyk›äʼi. However, with many verbs, transitivity does not imply a change in the acting agent. For example, pey may be either "wait" (intransitive) or "await" (transitive):

Nìaynga oe perey nìteng.

"Like you, I too am waiting."

nì-ay-nga	oe	p‹er›ey	nì-teng
adv-pl-you	I	wait‹ipfv›	adv-same

Oe tsun pivey trrit a nga tayìng ayoer(u) nì'ul.

"I can await the day when you will give us more."

oe	tsun	p‹iv›ey	trr-it	a	nga	t‹ay›ìng	ay-oe-ru	nì-ʼul
I	can	wait‹sjv›	day-acc	sbrd	you	give‹fut›	pl-I-dat	adv-more

Here the person waiting is the same, regardless of the transitivity of the verb, so the causative infix is not used.

General action, without any specific object, as in English "I ate too much", is intransitive, whereas an implied but unstated object, as in "he ate some (of it)", is transitive. Thus,

Oe taron

"I hunt"

oe	taron
I.intr	hunt

Here the speaker is merely saying that hunting is an activity that they engage in; this equivalent to such intransitive clauses as "I walk". An overt object, on the other hand, requires that the agent be in the ergative case:

Oel tolaron paʼlit

"I hunted a direhorse"

oe-l	t‹ol›aron	paʼli-t
I-erg	hunt‹pfv›	direhorse-acc

If, however, the agent is in the ergative case, but there is no expressed object, then an omitted object is understood. So if asked about yerik, the speaker might say,

Taron oel kop.

"I hunt them too"

taron	oe-l	kop
hunt	I-erg	as.well

In the case a relative clause removed either the subject or object of a dependent clause, the case of the other, and the transitivity of the dependent verb, are unaffected:

Ikran a tolaron oel tsawl lu nìtxan.

"The banshee I hunted was very big."

ikran	a	t‹ol›aron	oe-l	tsawl	lu	nì-txan
banshee.intr	sbrd	hunt‹pfv›	I-erg	big	be	adv-great

Here ikran is in the intransitive case because it is the subject of lu "to be"; however, oel remains in the ergative, since the object is understood from the context: Ikran a tolaron pot oel tsawl lu nìtxan "the banshee which I hunted it was very big".

The ergative case can also be dropped if the object is retain in a non-accusative case, as in a topic:

Tìfyawìntxuri oeyä perey aynga nìwotx.

"You are all waiting for my guidance."

tì-fya-wìntxu-ri	oe-yä	p‹er›ey	ay-nga	nì-wotx
nomz-way-show-top	I-gen	wait‹ipfv›	pl-you	adv-all

With an intransitive verb, the causative simply makes the verb transitive. For example, from po holahaw "he.INTR slept" we get oel h‹eyk›olahaw poti "I.ERG put him.ACC to bed (made him sleep)". However, if the verb is already transitive, its subject (now the 'causee') becomes dative rather than accusative. That is, there may be up to three arguments, in the ergative, dative, and accusative cases. So, from Neytiril yerikit tolaron "Neytiri.ERG hunted a hexapede.ACC, we get:

Eytukanìl Neytiriru yerikit teykolaron.

"Eytukan had Neytiri hunt a hexapede."

eytukan-ìl	neytiri-ru	yerik-it	t‹eyk›‹ol›aron
(name)-erg	(name)-dat	hexapede-acc	hunt‹caus›‹pfv›

Not all arguments are required; also, the causee can be included but made more peripheral by putting it in an adpositional phrase:

Eytukanìl yerikit teykolaron.	Also:	Eytukanìl fa Neytiri yerikit teykolaron.
"Eytukan had a hexapede hunted."		"Eytukan had a hexapede hunted by Neytiri."
eytukan-ìl yerik-it t‹eyk›‹ol›aron (name)-erg hexapede-acc hunt‹caus›‹pfv›		eytukan-ìl fa neytiri yerik-it t‹eyk›‹ol›aron (name)-erg by (name) hexapede-acc hunt‹caus›‹pfv›

In English, the opposite of a causative is a passive. Naʼvi does not have passives; something like "hexapedes are eaten" would be worded fkol yom ayyerikit "one eats hexapedes", with the pronoun fko "one". The difference between "hexapedes are eaten by the People" and "the People eat hexapedes" is essentially one of word order; since Naʼvi word order is free, it can be changed without having to change the verb or the subject, as noted above.

Lexicon

Frommer had created a thousand words for Naʼvi by the time Avatar was released. Although that number is relatively small, Frommer has stated that with further development the language could be used for everyday conversation.

Common phrases

A few conversational items are

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

oel ngati kameie "I See you" (a greeting)

kame ngat "See you" (a shortened response)

kìyevame "good-bye; See you soon"

kaltxì "hello"

ngaru lu fpom srak? "how are you?"

rutxe "please"

irayo "thank you"

oe ngaru irayo seiyi "I thank you"

Fyape fko syaw ngar? "What's your name?" (lit., "How does one call you?")

Oeru syaw (fko) Atayo. Ngaru tut? "(They) call me Atayo. And you?"

maw hìkrr ayoe tìyätxaw. "we'll be right back."

yawne "beloved"

nga yawne lu oer "I love you"

oeru txoa livu "forgive me"

Eywa ngahu "God (Gaia) be with you"

yola krr, txana krr, ke tsranten "It doesn't matter how long it takes"

ngari Nawma Saʼnok lrrtok soleiyi "the Great Mother has smiled upon you"

ftxozäri aylrrtok ngaru "smiles to you on you celebration" (happy holidays, happy birthday, etc.)

lrrtok ngar "good luck!"

skxawng! "moron!"

pxasìk "screw that!; no way!"

oe omum "I know"

tam "okay"

tslolam "got it; understood."

tsun tivam "not bad/pretty good" (that should do / good enough)

sìlpey oe pxengaru srung soli "I hope I helped you"

X nìNaʼvi slu ʼupe? "how do you say X in Naʼvi?"

Ayfizayu plltxuye san... or Plltxuye ayfizayu san... "Once upon a time..." (lit. "the ancestors tell (us)...")

Fìfya plltxuye ayfizayu. "This is what the ancestors tell." (closing to a story)

Oe tìyawn ngenga. "I love you"

Naʼvi has insults, such as skxawng, and rude words, such as pxasìk, but no words considered obscene.

Compounds

Many words are created by compounding, which is effected by simply joining the elements together: kämakto "to ride out", from kä "to go" and makto "to ride"; eltungawng (a species of hallucinogenic worm), from eltu "a brain" and ngawng "a worm"; ftéke "lest", from fte "so that" and ke "not". In compounds with a monosyllabic verb, it may be the second element which inflects, even when the inflection would be expected before that, as in yomtìng "to feed" (lit. "to give to eat"), where the first-position infix ìy appears instead in the final syllable: yom-t‹ìy›ìng.

Compounds are often truncated, for example prrnesyul "bud" from prrnen "infant" + syulang "flower". Similarly, tute "person" is frequently compounded in an abbreviated form -tu, as in pamtseotu "musician" (lit. 'sound-art-person').

Ideophones

Naʼvi has a few attested ideophones, words which mimic the sound or sensation of the thing they describe, such as kxangangang "boom!", which appears to capture the initial explosion with the first syllable, and the reverberating effect of it with the subsequent syllables.

Idioms

Some Naʼvi expressions are idiomatic or have been shortened to the point they are no longer directly understandable. For instance, oeru teya si means "I'm glad"; it's short for fpom oeru teya si "joy fills me".

Loan words

The Naʼvi vocabulary includes a few English loan words, such as ʼRrta "Earth". Naʼvi lacks the English sounds b, d, g, ch, j, oy, qu, sh, th, and the s sound in fusion. Therefore, when English words or names are adopted, these need to be replaced with Naʼvi sounds. B, d, and hard g are replaced with p, t, k, as in pätsì "badge", toktor "doctor" (title), and kunsìp "gunship"; sh and the fusion sound are replaced with s and z, as in kunsìp, while ch, j, and soft g are replaced with ts or tsy, as in pätsì and Tseyk "Jake".

Changing parts of speech

In English, word order is fixed subject-verb-object, number-adjective-noun, etc, but a word may be used as any of several parts of speech. For example, "dance" may be a noun or a verb (to dance a dance), "yellow" may be an adjective or a noun (a yellow apple, a deep yellow), "fast" may be an adjective or an adverb (we walked fast, we are fast), etc. Naʼvi is the opposite: Word order is largely free, but with a few exceptions, words are restricted to a specific part of speech. For instance, srew can only be a verb "to dance"; the noun is tìsrew. Likewise rim is "yellow" and tìrim "the color yellow"; win "fast" and nìwin "quickly".

In general:

• Adjectives may be derived from nouns and verbs with le-: hrrap "danger" → lehrrap "dangerous"; fngap "metal" → lefngap "metallic"; sar "use" → lesar "useful". Note also leNaʼvi "of the Naʼvi, Navish". (The attributive a- is generally dropped before this le-.)
• Adverbs are formed from all parts of speech with nì-: ftue "easy" → nìftue "easily"; ayoeng "us" → nìayoeng "like us"; rim "yellow" → nìrim "in yellow"; sìlpey "to hope" → nìsìlpey "hopefully", awnomun "known" (omun "to know" → nìawnomum "as is known").
• Abstract nouns may be derived from verbs and adjectives, and even from concrete nouns, with the prefix tì-: rey "to live" → tìrey "life"; ngay "true" → tìngay, "truth".
• An agent of a verb (English -er) is indicated with -yu: taron "to hunt" → taronyu "a hunter".

Affixation is common in Naʼvi. Another strategy, reduplication, is only attested in one word, the adjective letrrtrr "everyday, ordinary", from trr "day", though ʼengeng "even, level" shows evidence of reduplication in the past.

Not all apparent affixes necessarily are. Some are coincidence. For example, the word tìran "to walk" is a verb; the tì is part of the root, not the nominal prefix. The noun "a walk" would be tìtìran. Likewise meuia "honor" is singular, not dual, which would be memeuia, and tswayon "to fly" is not future, which would be tswayayon.

Note that some states described with adjectives in English are stative verbs in Naʼvi, such as sim "be near", lìm "be far", and fnu "be quiet". The first two have irregular adverbial forms, asim "nearby" and alìm "far away", which presumably originated from an adverbial phrase nì-[noun] a sim etc.

A few words belong to more than one part of speech. Most notable of these are words of time, such as krr "time" and trr "day", the derivatives of which function as both noun and adverb. Tsakrr, for example, doesn't mean just "that time" but more commonly "then" (at that time), and fìtrr isn't just "this day" but also "today" (on this day).

Cognates

Numerous Naʼvi words appear to be cognate, though without any known method of derivation. For example, eyk is "to lead", oeyk "a cause", and ‹eyk› caus; other words possibly related to each other are ʼewan "young" and ʼeveng "child", or ke yey "not straight" (crooked) and kxeyey "mistake".

Texts

The publicly available texts in Naʼvi include short snippets and phrases released in interviews, a couple spoken samples of the language provided with transcriptions, two poems, and a page from the Naʼvi script of the film.

Phrases

Following are publicly released samples of Naʼvi that were not used in the text of this Wikibook.

Fìskxawngìri tsapʼalute sängi oe.

"I apologise for this moron."

fì-skxawng-ìri	tsapʼalute	s‹äng›i	oe
this-moron-top	apology	make‹pej?›	I

Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì.

"These demons are forbidden here."

fì-ay-vrrtep	fì-tsenge	lu	kxanì
this-pl-demon	this-place	be	forbidden

Oeri ta peyä fahew akewong ontu teya längu.

"(Ugh,) my nose is full of his alien smell."

oe-ri	ta	po-yä	fahew	a-kewong	ontu	teya	l‹äng›u
me-top	from	s/he-gen	smell	attr-alien	nose	full	be‹pej›

Tawsìp ngeyä lu sngeltseng.

"Your ship is a garbage scow." [translation from Klingon]

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

Lìʼfya ngeyä sìltsan leiu nìtxan.

"Your (use of) language is very good!"

lìʼ-fya	ngeyä	sìltsan	l‹ei›u	nì-txan
speak?-way	your	good	be‹approb›	adv-great

ʼAwvea ultxari ohengeyä, Nawma Saʼnok lrrtok siveiyi.

"May the Great Mother smile upon our first meeting."

ʼawvea	ultxa-ri	ohe-nga-yä	nawm-a	saʼnok	lrrtok	s‹iv›‹ei›i
first	meeting-top	I.form+you-gen	great-attr	mother	smile	make‹sjv›‹approb›

Lu awngar aytele apxay a teri saʼu pivlltxe.

"We have a lot to talk about."

lu	awnga-ru	ay+txele	a-pxay	a	teri	ay+tsa-ʼu	p‹iv›lltxe
be	we.incl-dat	pl+matter	attr-many	sbrd	about	pl+that-thing	speak‹sjv›

Oeyä ikran slivu nga, tsakrr oeng ʼawsiteng mivakto.

"Be my banshee and let's ride together."

oe-yä	ikran	sl‹iv›u	nga	tsa-krr	oe+nga	ʼaw-si-teng	m‹iv›akto
I-gen	banshee	become‹sjv›	you	that-time	I+you	one-make-same	ride‹sjv›

Tengkrr palulukan moene kxll sarmi, poltxe Neytiril aylìʼut a frakrr ʼok seyä layu oer.

"As the thanator charged towards us, Neytiri said something I will always remember."

teng-krr	palulukan	me-oe-ne	kxll	s‹arm›i
same-time	(name)	du-I-to	charge	make‹past.ipfv›

p‹ol›lltxe	Neytiri-ìl	ay-lìʼu-it	a	fra-krr	ʼok	ay+ts[e]-yä	l‹ay›u	oe-ru
say‹pfv›	(name)-erg	pl-word-acc	sbrd	all-time	memory	pl+it-gen	be‹fut›	I-dat

Film script

A portion of the script of Jake, the human protagonist in the film Avatar, is visible in a short documentary on the making of the film. Three minutes in, there's a close-up of a page of Jake's Na'vi dialog, "Naʼvi Dialog for Jake—3-13-2007", reproduced here. Stress is marked by underlining. Since the dialog is Jake's, it is likely that some of the Naʼvi may be ungrammatical.

Oel ngati kameie, ma Tsmukan, ulte ngaru seiyi ireiyo.

I See you Brother, and thank you.

oe-ìl	nga-ti	kam‹ei›e	ma	tsmuk-an	ulte	nga-ru	s‹ei›i	ireiyo
I-erg	you-acc	See‹approb›	voc	sibling-masc	and	you-dat	make‹approb›	thanks

Ngari hu Eywa saleu tirea, tokx ʼìʼawn slu Naʼviyä hapxì.

Your spirit goes with Eywa, your body stays behind to become part of the People.

nga-ri	hu	eywa	salew	tirea	tokx	ʼìʼawn	slu	naʼvi-yä	hapxì
you-top	with	Gaia	proceed	spirit	body	remain	become	people-gen	part

Sìfmetokit emzolaʼu ohel.

I have passed the tests.

+tì-fmetok-it	em-z‹ol›aʼu	ohe-ìl
pl+nomz-test-acc	over-come‹pfv›	I.form-erg

Ätxäle si tsnì livu oheru Uniltaron.

I respectfully request the Dream Hunt.

ätxäle	si	tsnì	l‹iv›u	ohe-ru	unil-taron
request	make	that	be‹sjv›	I.form-dat	dream-hunt

Ma Eytukan, lu oeru aylìʼu frapor.

Eytukan, I have something to say, to everyone.

ma	eytukan	lu	oe-ru	ay-lìʼ-ʼu	fra-po-ru
voc	(name)	be	I-dat	pl-say-thing	every-one-dat

Aylìʼu na ayskxe mì teʼlan.

The words are like stones in my heart.

ay-lìʼ-ʼu	na	ay+tskxe	mì+txeʼlan
pl-say-thing	like	pl+stone	in+heart

Eo ayoeng lu txana tìkawng.

A great evil is upon us.

eo	ay-oe-nga	lu	txan-a	tì-kawng
before	pl-I-you	be	great-attr	nomz-bad

Sawtute zeraʼu fte fol Kelutralti skivaʼa.

The Sky People [humans] are coming to destroy Hometree.

+taw-tute	z‹er›aʼu	fte	fo-ìl	kelku+utral-ti	sk‹iv›aʼa
pl+sky-people	come‹ipfv›	so.that	they-erg	home+tree-acc	destroy‹sjv›

Pìyähem fìtseng yeʼrìn.

They will be here soon.

p‹ìy›ähem	fì-tsenge	yeʼrìn
arrive‹imm›	this-place	soon

Ayngari zene hivum, tx[...] (rest of line obscured)

You have to leave, or you will die.

ay-nga-ri	zene	h‹iv›um
pl-you-top	must	leave‹sjv›

Ma Tsuʼtey te Ro[...]

Tsuʼtey of the Rongloa, son of [...]

ma	tsuʼtey	te
voc	(name)	of [in names]

Naʼviru [...]

to the people [...] (handwritten)

naʼvi-ru

people-dat

Jake's speech near the end of the movie, which Tsu'tey translated, is as follows. It was cut in places for the timing of the film, so it does not completely follow the English:

Fpoleʼ sawtutel ʼupxaret

The sky people have sent us a message

[san] Ayoeri tsat new

tsun mivunge [sìk].

that they can take whatever they want [and no-one can stop them].

Slä awngal 'upxaret fpìye' for.

But we will send them a message.

Kämakto nìwin, ayngati spivule hufwel.

You ride out [as] fast [as] the wind can carry you.

Ayolo'ru alahe peng ziva'u.

You tell the other clans to come.

For peng syeraw Toruk Makto.

You tell them toruk-makto calls [to them].

Tswayon set oehu,

You fly now, with me,

ma smukan, ma smuke!

brothers, sisters!

sawtuter wìyintxu ayoeng

and we will show the sky people

ke tsun fo fìkem sivi

[that] they cannot take whatever they want [cannot do this]

fìtsenge

[and that] this

l(u) awngeyä!

[this] is our [land]!

A few other lines of the film have been confirmed, including some which did not make it into the final cut:

Grace: Tsun tivam. Aylìʼu ngian nì'it skepek lu.

"Not bad. You sound a little formal."

Tsuʼtey: Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì.

"These demons are forbidden here."

child: Txopu räʼä si, lu ketuwongo nìʼaw.

"Don't be afraid, it's just some alien."

ʼÌʼawn alìm!

"Stay back!"

Moʼat: Fìketuwongti oel stìyeftxaw.

"I will look at this alien." (stìsyeftxaw would also be appropriate here)

Yola krr, txana krr, ke tsranten.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes."

Pori zene kllfrivoʼ nga.

"He is your responsibility."

Eytukan: Tsampongut Tsuʼteyìl iveyk.

"Tsuʼtey will lead the war party."

chant: Srung si poeru, ma Eywa!

"Help her, Gaea!"

Moʼat: Tivìran po ayoekip.

"Let her walk among us."

Lu hasey.

"It is finished."

There have been several attempts at working out the rest of the script. Some of these are summarized at LeanNavi.org here. They likely include numerous errors.

Songs

Frommer translated four of Cameron's songs into Na'vi. The Hunting Song is in the next section; here are the other three.

Weaving Song

Note that several words occur in their short-plural form.

The rhythm of rain and sun,		Tompayä kato, tsawkeyä kato,		tompa 'rain', kato 'rhythm' tsawke 'sun'
Of night and day,		Trrä sì txonä		trr day, txon night
The rhythm of the years,		S(ì) ayzìsìtä kato,		zìsìt year
And the beat of the hearts,		Sì ʼekong teʼlanä		ʼekong a beat, txeʼlan heart
Hearts of the People		Teʼlanä le-Naʼvi
Fills me,		Oeru teya si,		teya full
Fills me.		Oeru teya si.
I weave the rhythm		Katot täftxu oel		täftxu to weave
In yellow and blue,		Nìean nìrim		ean blue, rim yellow
The rhythm of the years,		Ayzìsìtä kato,
The spiral of the lives,		ʼÌheyu sìreyä		ʼìheyu a spiral, tìrey life
Lives of the people,		Sìreyä le-Naʼvi,
Fills me,		Oeru teya si,
Fills me.		Oeru teya si.

Tree Song (Funeral Song)

This song appears in the movie. A fair amount of elision occurs, marked in parentheses.

We are all seeds / Of the Great Tree		Utralä (a)Nawm / ayrinaʼ l(u) ayoeng,
Whose strength is in our legs		A peyä tìtxur mì hinam awngeyä
Like the mighty trunks,		N(a) aysangek afkeu,
In our arms		Mì pun
As sheltering branches,		N(a) ayvul ahusawnu,
In our eyes		M(ì) aynar
The blue-flower		Na seze
Which unfolds to the sun.		A ʼong ne tsawke.
We are all seeds / Of the Great Tree		Utralä (a)Nawm / ayrinaʼ l(u) ayoeng,
Whose song is within us.		A peyä tìrol m(ì) awnga.

Spiral Song

Music creates patterns		Pamtseol ngop ayrenut
In the silence of the mind		Mì ronsemä tìfnu
As weavers do		Tengfya ngop säftxuyul
In the physical world.		Mì hifkey.
Chorus:
We sing to See		Awnga rol fte kivame
We See to sing		Kame fte rivol
We sing our way		Rerol tengkrr kerä
Down the eight paths		Ìlä fyaʼo avol
To the center.		Ne kxamtseng.
The songs bind the thirteen spirals		Aywayl yìm kifkeyä
Of the solid world		ʼÌheyut avomrr
To the eight spirit paths		Sìn tireafyaʼo avol
Like the threads of a Songcord.		Na waytelemä hìng.
Chorus

Spoken texts

There are four online recordings of Frommer speaking extended amounts of Naʼvi.

Short dialog

• Zimmer, Benjamin (December 4, 2009). "Skxawng!". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html. Retrieved January 9, 2010. 

Half-way down the article is a sound recording of a short conversation, with English subtitles. The Naʼvi is not documented; what follows likely contains some errors. Unintelligible segments are marked with ((double parentheses)).

Oel hu Txewì trram naʼrìngit tarmok.

Yesterday I was with Txewì in the forest

Tsoleʼa syeptutet atsawl frato mì sìrey.

and we saw the biggest Trapper I've ever seen.

((L))u fo l((e))hrrap

Those things are dangerous.

Tsun tutet tspivang ko

They can kill a person, you know.

Oe ((o))mum.

I know.

Nari soli ayoe [moe] fteke nìhawng livok.

We were careful not to get too close.

Glossary:

Trram yesterday, naʼrìng a forest, tok to occupy (a place)

Tseʼa to see, syep to trap, tute a person, tsawl big, tìrey life

Hrrap danger, tspang to kill, omum to know

Nari si to pay attention, fteke lest, hawng excessive, lok approach

Hunt Song

• BBC interview

In the 0818 broadcast, at time 3′30″, Frommer recites the second verse and chorus of the Hunt Song he translated for Cameron. The Naʼvi text is as follows:

We are walking your way		Terìran ayoe ayngane		tìran to walk
We are coming		Zeraʼu		zaʼu to come
We are singing your way		Rerol ayoe ayngane		rol to sing
So Choose		Ha ftxey		ftxey to choose
Choose one among you		ʼAwpot set ftxey ayngal a l(u) ayngakip		ʼawpo an individual
Who will feed the People.		ʼAwpot a Naʼviru yomtìyìng.		yom to eat, tìng to give
Chorus
Let my arrow strike true		Oeyä swizaw nìngay tivakuk		swizaw an arrow, ngay true, takuk to strike
Let my spear strike the heart		Oeyä tukrul txeʼlanit tivakuk		tukru a spear, txeʼlan a heart
Let the truth strike my heart		Oeri tìngayìl txeʼlanit tivakuk
Let my heart be true.		Oeyä txeʼlan livu ngay.
You are fast and strong		Lu nga win sì txur		win fast, txur strong
You are wise		Lu nga txantslusam		txan much, tslam to understand
I must be fast and strong		Livu win sì txur / oe zene
So only Only if I am worth of you		Ha n(ì)ʼaw Pxan livu txo nìʼaw oe ngari		nìʼaw only, pxan worthy
Will you feed the People		Tsakrr nga Naʼviru yomtìyìng

Public letter

• A public letter in Naʼvi (2010 Jan 20) using basic vocabulary, read aloud by Frommer and with English subtitles.

The Naʼvi is as follows. Stressed syllables are underlined.

Ayeylanur oeyä sì eylanur lìʼfyayä leNaʼvi nìwotx:	To all my friends and friends of the Naʼvi language: ʼeylan a friend, lìʼfya a language (lit. 'way of speaking'), nìwotx all of
Oel ayngati kameie, ma oeyä eylan, ulte ayngaru seiyi irayo.	I See you, my friends, and I thank you. kame to "See", to look into and understand, irayo thanks
Fpoleʼ ayngal oer fìtxan nìftxavang a ʼupxaret stolawm oel.	I have heard the message you have sent me so passionately. fpeʼ to send, fìtxan so much (lit. 'this much'), nìftxavang passionately, ʼupxare a message, stawm to hear
Lìʼfyari leNaʼvi oel ʼefu ayngeyä tìyawnit.	I feel your love for the Naʼvi language. ʼefu to feel, tìyawne love (lit. 'belovedness')
Ulte omum oel futa tìfyawìntxuri oeyä perey aynga nìwotx.	And I know you are all waiting for my guidance. omum to know, tìfyawìntxu guidance, pey to wait
Spivaw oeti rutxe, ma oeyä eylan:	Please believe me, my friends. spaw believe, rutxe please
oe new nìtxan ayngaru fyawivìntxu.	I want very much to guide you. new to want, nìtxan much, fyawìntxu to guide
Slä nìawnomum,	But as you know, (nì-?-omum, not currently parsable)
zene oe ʼawsiteng tìkangkem sivi fohu	I must work together with those ʼawsiteng together, tìkankem si to work
a Uniltìrantokxit sì kifkeyit Eywaʼevengä zamolunge awngar.	who have brought us “Avatar” and the world of Pandora. unil-tìran-tokx an Avatar (lit. 'dream-walker body'), kifkey a world, Eywa-ʼeveng Pandora (lit. 'child of Eywa'), za-munge bring hither
Foru ʼupxaret oel fpoleʼ,	I have sent them a message,
slä vay set ke pamähängem kea tìʼeyng.	but up to now no answer has arrived. set now, pähem to arrive, tìʼeyng an answer
Nìaynga oe perey nìteng.	Like you, I too am waiting. nìteng similarly
Tìʼeyngit oel tolel a krr,	When I receive an answer, tel to receive
ayngaru payeng,	I will let you know, peng to tell
tsakrr payeʼun sweya fyaʼot	and I will then decide the best way peʼun to decide, swey best, optimal, fyaʼo a way
a zamivunge oel ayngar aylìʼut horentisì lìʼfyayä leNaʼvi.	to bring you the words and rules of Naʼvi. lìʼu a word, koren a rule,
Sìlpey oe, layu oeru yeʼrìn sìltsana fmawn a tsun oe ayngaru tivìng.	I hope I will soon have good news to give you. sìlpey to hope, yeʼrìn soon, sìltsan good, fmawn news, tìng to give
Aylìʼufa awngeyä ʼeylanä aʼewan Markusì ta Ngalwey . . .	In the words of our young friend Markus from Galway . . . ʼewan young
ʼIvong Naʼvi!	Let Naʼvi bloom! ʼong to bloom
Kìyevame ulte Eywa ngahu.	Goodbye for now, and may Eywa be with you.
Ta ʼeylan karyusì ayngeyä, Pawl.	Your friend and teacher, Paul. karyu a teacher

On this Night

• Eliyahu Ha-Naʼvi (2010 Mar 21)

Traditional questions for Passover Seder.

Fìtxon na ton alahe nìwotx pelun ke lu teng?

"Why is this night unlike all other nights?"

fì-txon	na	ay+txon	a-lahe	nì-wotx	pe-lun	ke	lu	teng
this-night	like	pl-night	attr-other	adv-all	which-reason	not	be	same

Tonìri alahe, awngal yom hametsì-t, yom matsa-t, ke tsranten; fìtxon yom matsa-t nìʼaw.

"Other nights, we may eat either leavened or unleavened bread; this night we eat only unleavened bread."

ay+txon-ìri	a-lahe	awnga-ìl	yom	hametsì-it	yom	matsa-t	ke	tsranten
pl-night-top	attr-other	we-erg	eat	hametz-acc	eat	matzah-acc	not	matter

fì-txon	yom	matsa-t	nì-ʼaw
this-night	eat	matzah	adv-one

Tonìri alahe, awngal yom fkxenti lerìk nìwotx; fìtxon yom sat a lu syäʼä nìʼaw.

"Other nights, we eat all manner of greens; this night we eat only those which are bitter."

ton-ìri	alahe	awnga-ìl	yom	fkxen-ti	le-rìk	nìwotx
nights-as.for	other	we-erg	eat	vegetable.food-acc	adj-leaf	all

fìtxon	yom	ay+tsa-it	a	lu	syäʼä	nìʼaw
tonight	eat	pl-that-acc	that	be	bitter	only

Tonìri alahe, awnga ke yemfpay si keng ʼawlo; fìtxon yemfpay si melo.

"Other nights, we do not dip even once; this night we dip twice."

ton-ìri	alahe	awnga	ke	yem-f?-pay	si	keng	ʼaw-lo
nights-as.for	other	we.intr	not	put-?-liquid	do	even	one-time

fìtxon	yemfpay	si	me-lo
tonight	dip	do	two-time

Tonìri alahe, awngal yom wutsot tengkrr hereyn nìpxim, tengkrr teruvon, ke tsranten; fìtxon yom tengkrr teruvon.

"Other nights, we dine either sitting upright or reclining; this night we eat reclining."

ton-ìri	alahe	awnga-ìl	yom	wutso-it	teng-krr	h‹er›eyn	nì-pxim
nights-as.for	other	we-erg	eat	meal-acc	same-time	sit‹ipfv›	adv-erect

teng-krr	t‹er›uvon	ke	tsranten
same-time	lean‹ipfv›	not	matter

fìtxon	yom	teng-krr	t‹er›uvon
tonight	eat	while	lean‹ipfv›

Tonìri alahe, awngal yom wutsot nìfyaʼo letrrtrr; fìtxon yom nìʼeoio.

"Other nights, we dine normally; this night we dine with special rites."

tonìri	alahe	awnga-l	yom	wutso-it	nì-fyaʼo	le-trr~trr
nights	other	we-erg	eat	meal-acc	adv-way	adj-day~redup

fìtxon	yom	nì-ʼeoio
tonight	eat	adv-ceremony

Earth Day

• Mipa ʼUpxare fpi Frapo mì Srr ʼRrtayä (2010, Aprin 22)

Ma oeyä eylan,

Fìtrrmì letsranten—Trr ʼRrtayä—new oe pivlltxe ayngaru san kaltxì sìk ulte tivìng ayngar lìʼut a tìʼefumì oeyä lu lor frato mì lìʼfya leNaʼvi: meoauniaea. Fìlìʼuä ral lu tìmeʼem sì tìrusey mì hifkey na Nawma Saʼnokä hapxì, ʼuo a fpi reyʼeng Eywaʼevengmì ʼRrtamì tsranten nìtxan awngaru nìwotx.

Ngaytxoa, nìawnomum ke lolu oer nìkeftxo mì soka srr ayskxom letam fte lìʼfyari awngeyä tìkangkem sivi. Slä lu oeru fmawno asìltsan: yeʼrìn ʼìyiʼa sänume a tsari kllfroʼ oe; mawkrr layeiu oer krr nìʼul fte ngivop aylìʼut sì tsayfnesänumvit a tsun frapor srung sivi fte nivume sì ziverok nìswey.

Tsakrrvay, ayngeyä tìmweypeyri irayo seiyi oe, ulte fìtrrä ftxozäri, sìlpey oe, ayngaru prrteʼ livu.

Kìyevame ulte Eywa ayngahu.

Ta Pawl

My friends,

On this important day—Earth Day—I want to say hello to you and present to you the word that, in my opinion, is the most beautiful in the Naʼvi language: meoauniaea. The meaning of this word is “harmony, living in the world as part of the Great Mother,” something that matters a lot to all of us for the sake of The Balance of Life on both Pandora and Earth.

My apologies: As you know, in recent days I have not had sufficient opportunity to work on our language. But I have some good news. My teaching responsibilities will soon end; after that I will have more time to create words and the kinds of lessons that can help everyone best learn and remember.

In the meantime, I thank you for your patience, and I hope you enjoy today's celebration.

Goodbye and Eywa be with you.

From Paul

Appendix: Glossing conventions

The samples of Naʼvi in this book are parsed with interlinear glosses, following the conventions of the Leipzig Glossing Rules, an international consensus on glossing texts for grammatical analysis. The gloss is the line or lines added below the text being analyzed, or between the text and its translation. The conventions cover two areas, the layout and punctuation of the parsed text, and the abbreviations using in parsing it.

Glossing layout

A glossed text will typically consist of:

1. the original Naʼvi text in the first line, followed by
2. the same words, with each broken up into its constituent parts, called morphemes, then—underneath and aligned with this—
3. a translation of each of those morphemes (the actual gloss), and finally
4. a running translation of the text in English.

The fundamental point of interlinear glossing is that each word be aligned with its gloss for legibility, and that each word be parsed into the same number of units in the second and third lines for unambiguous analysis.

For example, the phrase for poltxe oe "I spoke to them" may be glossed as follows:

For poltxe oe.

ay+po-ru	p‹ol›lltxe	oe
PL+he/she-DAT	to.speak‹PFV›	I.INTR

"I spoke to them."

The first word, for, consists of three morphemes: a plural ay+ (which here has been dropped, though its effects remain), the third-person pronoun po "he/she", and the dative case suffix -ru, here shortened to -r. In the second line, where the word is broken down, these are presented in their full forms, ay+po-ru. The hyphen in po-ru shows that the -ru is a suffix. The plus sign in ay+ shows that, although a prefix, ay- changes the following root, in this case from po to fo. In the third line, each of these bits is glossed, retaining the punctuation of the second line: ay+ as "PL+", an abbreviation for 'plural', po as "he/she", and -ru as "-DAT", an abbreviation for 'dative case'.

Similarly in the second word, poltxe. Here the root form plltxe appears in the gloss. The angle brackets around ‹ol› shows that it's an infix. The gloss for the infix, "‹PFV›" (an abbreviation of 'perfective aspect'), appears at the end of the gloss "to.speak" because, in Naʼvi, the position of an infix is determined by counting from the end of the verb. Note the gloss of plltxe: Because glossing is supposed to be a one-to-one conversion, the two words "to speak" are linked together with a period to show they correspond to a single word in Naʼvi.

The third word, oe "I", plays the role of an intransitive subject. Because that does not have a morpheme in Naʼvi, there is no way to parse it in the second line. Therefore, in keeping with the one-to-one glossing principle, the gloss for intransitive case, INTR, is connected to the translation "I" with a period.

Not all of these details will always be necessary, depending on the point of the gloss. So, for example, if the only point is to illustrate the perfective aspect, or which grammatical case the verb requires, the gloss may be reduced to:

For poltxe oe.

fo-r	p‹ol›lltxe	oe
they-to	speak‹PFV›	I

"I spoke with them."

Glossing abbreviations

Morphemes which can be readily translated into English may be done so. However, this is not always possible: English has no good translation for the dative suffix, for example. Rather than writing "dative" each time, an abbreviation is used; these typically have three letters: DAT. They are generally written in small capitals, as here, to more easily distinguish abbreviations from actual translations.

The following abbreviations may be found in this book:

Gloss Stands for Naʼvi morpheme ACC accusative case -it, -ti ACTV active participle ‹us› ADJ adjective le- ADV adverbial nì- APPROB approbative affect ‹ei› ATTR attributive a-, -a CAUS causative ‹eyk› DAT dative case -ur, -ru DEM demonstrative -ʼu DIM diminutive -tsyìp DIST distal demonstrative tsa- DU dual number me+ E epenthetic morpheme -e- ERG ergative case -ìl EVID evidential ‹ats› EXCL exclusive person (various) FAM familiar register FEM feminine gender -e FORM formal register ‹uy› FUT general future tense ‹ay› GEN genitive case -yä IDEO ideophone (various) IMM immediate future tense ‹ìy› IMP imperative mood (none) INCL inclusive person (various) IND indicative mood (none) INTENT intentional mood ‹s› INTR intransitive case (none) IPFV imperfective aspect ‹er› MASC masculine gender -an NEG negative ke NOMZ nominalizer tì- PAST general past tense ‹am› PASS passive participle ‹awn› PEJ pejorative affect ‹äng› PFV perfective aspect ‹ol› PL plural ay+, + PRES present tense (none) PROH prohibitive mood räʼä PROX proximal demonstrative fì- QUES yes-no question marker srak(e) QUOT quotative marker san REC recent past tense ‹ìm› REDUP reduplication REFL reflexive voice ‹äp› SG singular (none) SJV subjunctive mood ‹iv› SBRD subordinator a (same as ATTR) TOP topic -ìri TRI trial number pxe+ UNQUOT unquotative marker sìk VERBZ verbalizer si VOC vocative case ma, -ya WH wh-question pe+, -pe

Compound infixes The following twelve compound tense-aspect-mood infixes are found: past.pfv alm (a‹ol›m) fut.pfv aly (a‹ol›y) past.ipfv arm (a‹er›m) fut.ipfv ary (a‹er›y) fut.intent asy (a‹s›y) sjv.pfv ilv (i‹ol›v) sjv.past imv (i‹m›v) sjv.ipfv irv (i‹er›v) sjv.fut iyev, ìyev (i‹y›v) rec.pfv ìlm (ì‹ol›m) imm.pfv ìly (ì‹ol›y) rec.ipfv ìrm (ì‹er›m) imm.ipfv ìry (ì‹er›y) imm.intent ìsy (ì‹s›y)

Glossary of linguistic terms

A C D E F G I L M N O P Q R S T U V W

• The accusative case is a grammatical case that marks the direct object of a verb. For example, in English the pronoun "I" becomes "me" when it's the object, as in "see me" (compare "I see"). In English, "me" is also used for the recipient, as in "give me" (that is, "give it to me"), as well as after a preposition ("with me, for me"). In Naʼvi, these require different cases: unmarked oe tseʼa "I see", accusative oeti tseʼa "see me", dative oeru tìng "give me", and oehu "with me".
• Adjectives are a class of words which modify nouns, like "blue", "lazy", and "funny". In Naʼvi, adjectives have two forms: an attributive form marked by a for modifying a noun directly, and a predicate form without a that is used with verbs like lu "to be" and slu "to become" to modify a noun indirectly: soma tsawke or tsawke asom "a hot sun", vs. tsawke lu som "the sun is hot".
• Adposition is a generic term for either a preposition, which comes before a noun, or the equivalent after a noun, a postposition. In describing Naʼvi, the term is used for those small grammatical words which may be either a preposition or a suffix, such as hu "together with" in hu oe or oehu "with me".
• Adverbs are a class of words which modify things other than nouns, such as verbs or even entire clauses. Many Naʼvi adverbs are marked with the prefix nì-, like nìftue "easily" from ftue "easy" (the English equivalent, for those who use it, is -ly), but there are also little adverbs without nì- such as set "now".
• Affect is an inflection of a verb which conveys how the speaker feels about an event or state. It may be a pleasant emotion, as in "thank you so much!! (smiley face)", here called approbative affect; an unpleasant emotion, as in "that's really messed up", here called pejorative affect; a degree of deference or ceremonial solemnity, called formal affect; or a degree of certainty or uncertainty about the truth of what is being said, conveyed by evidential affect.
• An affricate is a consonant that changes its quality in the middle, starting off as a plosive but finishing as a fricative. English affricates are ch (starts off as a t, finishes as an sh) and j (starts off as a d, finishes with the sound of z in azure). The Naʼvi affricate is c (ts), which starts off as a t and finishes as an s. See diphthong, a similarly transitioning vowel.
• Allomorphs are different forms of a word or morpheme determined by the context in which it's found. For example, the English article "a" has that form (that allomorph) before a consonant; before a vowel, a different allomorph is used, "an": That is, the "an" in "an apple" and the "a" in "a pear" are considered different forms of a single word.
• Allophones are different forms of a sound of a language that are not meaningful for speakers of the language. In English, for example, there are two L sounds, a "light L" in leaf and a "dark L" in wool, but if they were exchanged, the result would be a bad accent, not new English words. Naʼvi likewise has two U sounds, one like English food (in many dialects, at least) and another like English foot; however, while this distinction is important in English (these are different English phonemes), in Naʼvi they are mere details of pronunciation. Likewise, the Naʼvi consonants p t k have allophones with no audible release at the end of a syllable or word.
• An alveolar consonant is one where the tip of the tongue contacts the alveolar ridge, the part of the roof of the mouth just behind the gums. Alveolar consonants include [t, d, n, s, z, l, r].
• Approbative affect is a verb form, ‹ei›, that marks positive speaker affect. That is, if you feel good about the event you are describing, you might put ‹ei› inside the verb; this is the spoken equivalent of a smiley-face emoticon.
• A grammatical argument of a verb is a noun phrase that tells who or what performed the action, the action was performed on, etc.: subject, object, recipient, beneficiary, location, time, etc. A core argument is an argument that is required for a clause (sentence) to be complete. If a core argument is left out, the listener might wonder who/what did the action, or who/what it was done to. For example, if I were to say "shattered yesterday", you would wonder what shattered yesterday; the subject "the window" in "the window shattered yesterday" is thus not just an argument but a core argument. If I were to say "I shattered yesterday", providing one core argument, "I", it is clear that I shattered something; thus "the window" in "I shattered the window" is also a core argument. However, where or when the window shattered, as in "I shattered the window in the bedroom on Wednesday", are not considered central to the sentence. In Naʼvi, core arguments generally take the intransitive, ergative, accusative, and dative cases; non-core arguments may also take the dative, and well as numerous adpositions, as in English "in the bedroom", "on Wednesday".
• An article is a word such as "a" or "the" in English. Articles do not exist in Naʼvi: tute may be "person", "a person", or "the person", depending on the context.
• Aspect is a way that verbs represent time. Rather than locating an event or state in time, the way tense does, aspect describes "the internal temporal constituency of a situation", or in different words, is a way "of conceiving the flow of the process itself". Aspects in English include "I went, I used to go, I was going, I had gone" (all past tense); "I lose, I am losing, I have lost, I have been losing, I am going to lose" (all present tense); and "I will see, I will be seeing, I will have seen" (all future). What distinguishes these aspects within each tense is not (necessarily) when the event occurs, but how the time in which it occurs is viewed: as complete, ongoing, consequential, planned, etc. There are two verbal aspects in Naʼvi, perfective and imperfective, each of which is independent of the tense of the verb. That is, without context or a tense infix to disambiguate, it is not possible to say whether they occur in the past, present, or future.
• An aspirated consonant is one pronounced with a puff of air, as pie, tie, chi in English, but not equivalent sounds in French or Spanish, nor in English spy, sty, sky. For discussion, see the footnote in the section on consonants in the chapter on phonology.
• Assimilation is a change in one sound to make it more similar to a neighboring sound. For example, the plural suffix -s in English cats is unvoiced [s], as it's adjacent to unvoiced [t], whereas the -s in dogs is voiced [z], as it's adjacent to voiced [ɡ].
• An attributive is a word that modifies a noun. Adjectives are frequently attributive, as blue in blue sky ('a sky that is blue'); however, other parts of speech may be as well. In spot remover, for example, spot is an attributive noun, as it modifies the noun remover ('a remover of spots'). In English, verbs are typically made attributive through their -ing or -ed forms, as in washing machine ('a machine that washes'). However, in Naʼvi, verbs can be made attributive with the same particle a that adjectives use: tute a tsun kivä or tsun kivä a tute "a person who can go" (that is, 'a can-go person'). Naʼvi uses this strategy rather than the relative pronouns such as "who" that English uses.
• Grammatical case is an inflection (form) of a noun or pronoun that reflects its role in a sentence. In English, this is most easily seen in the pronouns: for the first-person pronoun, the case forms are "I", "me", and "my". "I" is used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, corresponding to the Naʼvi intransitive and ergative case forms oe and oel; "my" to show possession or association with a noun, corresponding to the Naʼvi genitive case form oeyä; and "me" for other roles, corresponding to the Naʼvi accusative and dative case forms oeti and oeru, as well as adpositional forms such as hu oe / oehu "together with me".
• A causative is a grammatical device that shows the action of the verb is caused by an external agent. English does not have a causative as such. Sometimes different phrasing is used: "I had a table made" vs. "I made a table (myself)"; sometimes simple transitivity is used: "I walked the dog" (caused the dog to walk) or "I boiled the water" (caused the water to boil); or a different verb may be used: "I killed a fly" (caused a fly to die).
• A clause is a simple sentence: A verb together with its associated phrases. "I pet my cat" is both a sentence and a clause (a verb with two noun phrases, its subject "I" and its object "my cat"). However, complex sentences may consist of several clauses, typically joined by conjunctions: "I really hope that you get to go and have a good time", for example, is three clauses: "I really hope that", "you get to go", [and] "(you) have a good time". It could be reworded as three simple sentences: "I really hope this: You get to go. You will have a good time."
• Clusivity is a nonce term for a distinction in words for "we", depending on whether they include the person spoken to ('you and I': inclusive) or exclude the person spoken to ('they and I': exclusive). That is, exclusive "we" is purely first person, whereas inclusive "we" is a combination of first and second person.
• Words are said to be cognate when they can be traced back to the same historical form and so are related as cousins. For example, who (formerly hwa) and what are cognate in English, as are he and it (formerly hit); in both cases, the final -t was once the inflection for neuter gender. Likewise, words like twin, twine, twenty, twelve, and two are cognate.
• A compound word is a word formed by joining two or more other words, like "pancake".
• The conditional mood is a grammatical mood used to express that something would or could be the case if some condition were met, such as "I would go if I were you", or "you could do it if you tried". In Naʼvi, the subjunctive mood may be used for the if clause.
• A conjunction is a grammatical word that joins phrases or clauses, such as and, or, but, if, than, because, etc. Naʼvi has two conjunctions meaning "and", one, sì, for joining phrases, and another, ulte, for joining clauses.
• A consonant cluster is a sequence of consonants in a word or syllable. In English, the word and syllable strengths has two consonant clusters, one at each end, /str/ and /ŋθs/ (or for some people, /ŋkθs/). In Naʼvi, consonant clusters can only come at the beginning of a syllable, and then only if they start with a f, s, or ts. Other clusters can occur in the middle of a word where two syllables meet, as the /ʔv/ in Naʼvi.
• Constituent order is the word order of the primarily elements of a clause, that is, the order of the verb and its subject and objects. English is fairly strongly constrained to have a subject-verb-object ("SVO") order; Japanese, on the other hand, is a verb-final language, with a subject-object-verb ("SOV") order. Naʼvi can readily accommodate either pattern.
• A copula is a verb that equates one noun to another. The most common of these is "be", as in "the cat is a mammal"/"cats are mammals". Some languages, such as Japanese, have dedicated words for the copula. Naʼvi however, like English, uses the same 'be' verb (lu) for the copula as it does for existence ("the cat is in the kitchen"). Another copula in Naʼvi is slu "to become". In English, copulas require that the two pronouns take different cases ("I am me"; "I became me"), but in Naʼvi, neither noun takes a case ending.
• Correlatives are grammatical words that work together to perform a single function. Examples from English are either ... or, both ... and, so ... as, more ... than. Naʼvi has correlatives that English doesn't, such as san ... sìk "quote ... unquote", but also lacks correlatives that English has. For example, instead of saying both "more ... than", in Naʼvi one would typically say just "than": po lu tsawl to oe "he is big (= bigger) than me".
• The dative case is a grammatical case that marks the indirect object (recipient) of a verb. For example, in English the pronoun "I" becomes "me" when it's the recipient, as in "give me" (that is, "give it to me"; compare "I give"). In English, "me" is also used for the direct object, as in "see me", as well as after a preposition ("with me, for me"). In Naʼvi, these require different cases: unmarked oe tseʼa "I see", dative oeru tìng "give me", accusative oeti tseʼa "see me", and oehu "with me".

In Naʼvi, the dative is used for (1) the recipient or beneficiary of an action (to say, to give, to apologize, to thank, to call, etc.) and (2) the experiencer of a state (to be cold, to have, etc.)

• A dative construction is a clause (sentence) in which the subject takes the dative case. An example in English is archaic "me thinks" (= "it seems to me"). Naʼvi uses dative constructions to express ideas such as "to have": lu oeru "I have" = "there is to me".
• A demonstrative is a grammatical word used to point out which of several things, times, or places one is referring to. A distal demonstrative is one, such as that, there, or then, that indicates that the referent is appreciably distant, whereas a proximal demonstrative is one, such as this, here, or now, that indicates that the referent is appreciably close. Of these, this and that (as well as their plurals, these and those) are pronouns, as they can stand in for nouns, whereas here and there, now and then are adverbs, as they place the action of the verb in space or time.
• A dependent clause is a clause that is dependent on (subordinate to) another clause or phrase for its meaning. In "I hope that you can make it", the clause you can make it is dependent on the independent clause "I hope that"; similarly, in "all my friends who could make it", the clause who could make it is dependent on the noun phrase all my friends (see also relative clause). The process of making a clause dependent (subordinate) is called subordination, and a word such as "that" that performs this function is called a subordinator.
• Derivation is the process of using the resources of a language to create new words. For example, from English walk people have derived walker, walk-about, walkathon, walkway, walkie-talkie, walk over, walk through, etc. Compare inflection.
• A diminutive is a form of a word that indicates smallness of size, slightness of degree, or endearment. In English, cigarette is a diminutive of cigar.
• A diphthong is a vowel which changes quality as it's being pronounced. This may be a drastic change, as the ow in cow, the y in sky, or the oy in coy, or it may be a more subtle one, such as the a in snake or the ow in crow. See affricate, a similarly transitioning consonant.
• Direct speech, AKA reported speech, is a literal quotation of what someone said: "He said, 'I will go'" is direct speech, whereas "He said that he would go" is indirect speech. Naʼvi has only direct speech.
• Discourse is the use of living language, as in conversation. Some of the more subtle aspects of grammar cannot be understood by looking just at sentences, but only by looking at how those sentences are used in the larger context of discourse. For instance, most people would say that turn the lights out and turn out the lights mean the "same thing", but they tend to be used in different situations. An effect discourse has in Naʼvi is in its word order, especially in its constituent word order.
• A discourse particle is a particle whose role is in discourse rather than in syntax. Examples are um, like, y'know, sorta, none of which have a grammatical function in the traditional sense of the word.
• A double (or multiple) negative is the use of more than one negative word in a clause with a simple negative meaning, as in "I don't have none" or "I didn't never go". In English this has been considered substandard since the Victorian era, but it is normal in many languages, such as French and Spanish, and including Naʼvi.
• Dual number is a grammatical number used for just two of something. For example, menga is "the two of you", and . Old English had the dual pronouns wit "we two" / "the two of us" and yit "you two" / "the two of you". Naʼvi has these (moe or oeng "we two", menga "you two"), but also dual nouns, as in oeyä menari "my eyes".
• Eh is a Canadian English discourse particle used for "ascertaining the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc., of the person or persons addressed" as in, "It's four kilometres away, eh, so I have to go by bike." In its role for eliciting agreement, it is similar to the Naʼvi particle ko.
• Ejectives are consonants made with a popping sound caused by the Adam's apple moving up in the throat like a piston. In Naʼvi they are written px, tx, kx.
• Epenthesis is the insertion of a sound into a word to make it easier to say, for example to conform to a language's phonotactics. For example, many of the actors in Avatar pronounce nga "you" with an epenthetic g sound in it, as if it were "ngga" (that is, with the 'ng' sound of finger rather than of singer), because in English we can't put ng at the beginning of a word.
• The ergative case is a grammatical case that marks the subject of a verb that also has direct object of a verb (that is, a transitive verb). In English the pronoun form "I" (called the nominative case) is used for both "I leave" and "I see it", but in Naʼvi these require different cases: unmarked intransitive oe hum "I leave" and ergative oel tseʼa pot "I see it". However, "I see" as a generic statement without an object would be intransitive oe tseʼa.
• An evidential is a grammatical device that shows why a speaker believes that a reported event occurred. For instance, an evidential affix on a verb may indicate that the speaker personally witnessed the event, heard about it from someone else, inferred it from evidence left on the scene, saw it in a dream, etc.
• A flap consonant is one where the tongue briefly strikes the roof of the mouth, but isn't held there the way it is for [t] or [d]. A flapped ar [ɾ] is found in Irish and Scottish English, and in Spanish in words like pero "but". US and Canadian English approximate a flap with the tt of "latter" and the dd of "ladder", so Naʼvi /r/, really an [ɾ], may sound like a [d] to American ears.
• Grammatical focus is the placement of an element in the foreground of the discourse, either as a way of introducing a new subject of discussion, or to contrast that with another. In English, focus may be accomplished by intonation ("No, he went to the store") or by changing the word order ("The store is where he went"). This is the opposite of a topic, which is a backgrounded element of the discourse.
• A fricative consonant is a sound where the air coming out of the mouth is never stopped, but is quite noisy, like [f], [v], [s], [z], [h]. In Naʼvi, such sounds can only come at the beginning of a word or syllable, never at the end.
• The future tense of a verb conveys that the event or state will happen or is yet to happen. Naʼvi has two future tenses, ‹ay› for a generic future, and ‹ìy› for the immediate future. Naʼvi uses its future tenses for such things whether or not English does; for instance, "when I leave" is oe h‹ay›um a krr in Naʼvi, and "if he does" is txo po s‹ay›i, assuming tense is used at all, even though "will" is not allowed in English.
• General American, or GA, is the de facto standard of English in the United States, used for example in television news broadcasting.
• Grammatical gender is a grammatical division of nouns into groups, often based loosely on physical gender (male-female-inanimate). English only has grammatical gender in its pronouns he, she, it ('masculine', 'feminine', 'neuter') and who, what ('common', 'neuter'). Naʼvi does not have grammatical gender. However, when needed, a noun or pronoun can be made lexically masculine or feminine with the suffixes -an and -e.
• The genitive case is used to show association between two nouns. This includes possession ("the dog's bone"), but also more generic association ("the dog's ears", "the legs of the table"). The Naʼvi genitive loosely translates English "-'s" and "of". However, it is somewhat broader in usage, being how Naʼvi forms attributive nouns. With pronouns, the final vowel changes to e : fo "they", feyä "their".
• A glottal consonant is one, such as [h], that is pronounced in the throat. The glottal stop is the catch in your throat when you say "uh-oh!". In Naʼvi it is a typical consonant sound, as it is in Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian and Maori.
• A grammatical word, also known as a function word, is one that is used for a grammatical function rather than for a dictionary meaning. Examples are pronouns, conjunctions, adpositions, particles, and many of the words vaguely called "adverbs". Compare lexical word.
• An ideophone, AKA mimesis, is a word that suggests its meaning by its very sound. Buzz, shush, bling, and hippetyhop (of a rabbit) are examples in English.
• Grammatical inflections are forms of a word that occur automatically as part of the grammar. For example, the inflections of the verb to walk are walk, walks, walking, and walked; the inflections of the pronoun I are I, me, my, mine. Compare derivation.
• The immediate future is a tense used to say that something is about to happen or is about to be. It is somewhat different than English "going to", which means that things are presently in motion for a future event.
• The imperative mood expresses a command that someone do something: Kä! "go!" See mood.
• Imperfective aspect: See perfective.
• The intransitive case is a case used in Naʼvi for verbs which do not have a direct object (accusative case). There is no case suffix: oe new kivä "I want to go". Compare the ergative case in oel new tsaʼut "I want that".
• An infix is a meaningful bit put in the middle of a word. Infixes are rare in English, but they sometimes occur in informal speech. For instance, the infix ‹ma› gives a word an ironic pseudo-sophistication, as in sophistimacated, saxomaphone, and edumacation.
• An interjection is a word that expresses the speaker's emotion, but is not part of the grammar of the sentence, such as "hey!", "wow!", or "ouch!"
• An interlinear gloss is a translation aid that lies between a text and its translation, and lays out the structure of the text. See the appendix for details.
• Intonation is the variation of speaking tone that conveys emotional affect, hesitation, questions, commands, etc. In writing, we use punctuation to capture some of the intonation in speech.
• A labial consonant is one which involves the lips. They include [p, b, f, v, m]. ([f] and [v] also involve the teeth, but the lip is what moves.) [w] also involves the lips, but in addition the tongue approaches the soft palate, so it is also a velar consonant.
• Lenition is the "weakening" of speech sounds in some environments. For example, in US and Canadian English, /t/ and /d/ become a flap [ɾ] after a stressed vowel, so that latter and ladder are pronounced the same.
• A lexical word, also known as a content word, is a word that is used for its basic dictionary ("lexical") meaning, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Compare grammatical word.
• Light and dark L describes the difference between the /l/ in English leaf, where only the front of the tongue is raised, and the /l/ of all, where the back of the tongue is also raised. In Naʼvi, only light L is used.
• Liquids and glides are vowel-like consonants. In Naʼvi, as in English, they are l, r (the liquids) and w, y (the glides).
• A loan word is a word that was taken from another language. "Pork", for example, is a loan into English from French, where it is simply the word for 'pig'. Naʼvi has some English loans, such as kunsìp "gun ship".
• Modal verbs are special verbs with modal (mood-like) functions. That is, they indicate that a second verb does not describe an actual event, like "can go", "must go", "want to go", etc. In Naʼvi, the second verb takes the subjunctive mood.
• Mood is a non-temporal inflection of verbs. Rather than identifying time, as tense does, or describing the flow of an event, as aspect does, mood encodes the degree of reality of an event. The normal, unmarked mood (called the indicative) is used for actual events, and events portrayed as or predicted to be real. There are two other primary moods in Naʼvi, the subjunctive and imperative, used for hypothetical events. The imperative is a command: If one says "sit down!", however, it does not follow that the person will actually sit down, so the sitting is not an actual event, only a desired one. Similarly, the subjunctive is used in English for things such as "if I were you" (I am not you) and "God bless you" (not *blesses: it is only a wish on my part, not a description of an actual event). In Naʼvi, the subjunctive is used for expressions such as "I can go"; the verb "can" is in the normal indicative, because it describes reality, whereas "go" is in the subjunctive, because there is no implication that I actually will go just because I can. In the future tenses, Naʼvi distinguishes an intentional mood for planned events from the indicative, which is preferentially used for predicted events which the speaker has no control over.
• A morpheme is a meaningful piece of a word. For example, the word "meaningful" is built up from three morphemes, "mean", "-ing", and "-ful". However, the word "word" is a single morpheme; there are no meaningful units within it apart from the sounds (phonemes) which make it up. In the glossed examples in this book, morphemes are separated by hyphens and other punctuation: aylaru = ay-la-ru "to the others".
• Morphology is how morphemes are put together to form words.
• A nasal stop is a stop consonant, such as /m/, /n/, or /ŋ/ where air escapes through the nose. The latter, the sound in English song, is called the velar nasal because the tongue touches the soft palate (the 'velum').
• A negative is a grammatical element that negates or denies another element of a sentence. English negatives begin with n-: "no", "not", "none", "never", etc.
• A consonant with no audible release is a plosive such as [p], [t], [k] that, to an English hear, sounds like it stops halfway through. The lips (for [p]) or the tongue (for [t], [k]) seal off the airstream, and during that closure a glottal stop is made, so that when they release again there is no audible sound. In English, this may occur for some speakers at the end of a word, like the t in "Don't ever do that!", where there is no puff of air between the t and the d; for others, it may be clearer in a word like apt, where there is no puff of air between the p and the t. Note that there is a puff of air after the t in apt: that is an audible release.

Ejectives must be released.

• A nominalizer is a grammatical element which turns a word into a noun, such as the -ness in vagueness or the -tion in pronunciation.
• Noun incorporation is the moving of a noun into a verb. For example, in English one could say "I picked some berries", or one could say "I went berry-picking". In the former case, the verb "picked" has an object, "berries", and so cannot take another. However, in the latter case, the object has been moved out of the way, tucked into the verb, so now a new object can be added: "I berry-picked some raspberries". This sounds a bit strange in English, but some languages use this strategy quite often. The focus is different: In "I picked some berries", the focus is on the berries, whereas in "I berry-picked" or "I went berry-picking", the focus is on the activity, and one could say that even if no berries were actually picked.
• A numeral is a simple number word. For example, twenty and three are both numbers and numerals in English; twenty-three is a number made from the numerals twenty and three. Naʼvi has nine numerals for its base-eight numbering system: lower numerals for 'one' through 'eight', and a higher numeral for 'sixty-four' that corresponds to English hundred.
• Grammatical number indicates the countable quantity that a word represents. English has two numbers, singular for one and plural for not-one, on its nouns, pronouns, and verbs; Naʼvi distinguishes four numbers, singular, dual, trial, and plural (four or more), on its nouns and pronouns, but not on its verbs.
• An octal, or base-eight, numbering system is one that uses eight as its primary unit, as opposed to a decimal system such as the one in English, which is base ten (decimal). The Naʼvi have four fingers on each hand, for eight total, and so only have basic words for one through eight. Nine is thus "eight and one", and seventeen is "two eights and one", the way in English we say "twenty-one", originally "two tens and one".
• The optative is a grammatical mood used to express wishes and desires, as in "long live the king!" and "bless you". In Naʼvi, as (marginally) in English, the optative role is performed by the more general subjunctive mood.
• A palatal consonant is one in which the middle of the tongue touches or approaches the hard palate. The only palatal consonant in Naʼvi in y.
• A participle is a form of a verb that can be used as a noun or adjective, but which retains tense or aspect inflections like a verb. English has two participles, an active -ing participle used for progressive aspect (similar in some ways to the imperfective aspect), as in he is doing, singing, eating (when used for aspect), the singing canary, the eating hour (used as an attributive), it's his doing, singing, eating (used as a noun, called a "gerund"); and a passive -en/-ed participle used for both the passive voice and the perfect aspect (similar in some ways to the perfective aspect, though not as close as the name might suggest), as in it has done, sung, eaten it (aspect), it is done, sung, eaten (passive), it's a done deal, sung song, eaten food (passive attributive).

The Naʼvi participles, ‹us› and ‹awn›, are active and passive but do not imply any tense or aspect; the explicit equivalent of English -ing and -en would be ‹us›‹er› and ‹awn›‹ol›.

• A grammatical particle is a little immutable word that performs a grammatical function but isn't in a particular word class like adverb.
• The passive voice is used to show that the subject of the verb undergoes the action, as in the food was eaten, the song was sung. (The opposite, they ate the food, they sang the song, is called the active voice.) Naʼvi has a passive participle, as in eaten food, a sung song, but does not have passive clauses like "the song was sung by me". The functions of the English passive clauses are covered by changing the agent to fko "one" or by changing the word order of the clause.
• The past tense of a verb conveys that the event or state did happen. The past tense form of English verbs is -ed, corresponding to Naʼvi ‹am› (generic past tense) and ‹ìm› (recent past). However, English -ed may also be used to translate the Naʼvi perfective aspect, which isn't a tense at all.
• Pejorative relates to the formation "of a less favourable meaning or of unpleasant connotations of a word." In this book it is used for a Naʼvi infix ‹äng› that expresses negative speaker affect, not restricted to contempt, but including boredom, misery, or any negative emotion. The disparaging particle pak more explicitly capture a feeling of contempt.
• Penultimate means "next to last". The penultimate syllable in a word is the next-to-last (second-to-last) syllable; in "penultimate" that would be the "-ti-". Penultimate stress is stress on the penultimate syllable; examples from English are "examples" (the "-amp-") and "English" (the "Eng-").
• perfective and imperfective are the two verbal aspects of Naʼvi. The perfective presents an event as an unanalyzed whole, while the imperfective does the opposite, placing one within the event. Or, metaphorically, the perfective is a snapshot, whereas the imperfective is a movie.

Aspect is independent of the tense of the verb. That is, without context or a tense infix to disambiguate, it is not possible to say whether a verb in the (im)perfective occurs in the past, present, or future. (See aspect for background.)

English does not have these aspects. However, in languages which do, one of the uses of the imperfective is to set a background scene, with the perfective describing actions within that scene, and this provides a decent approximation in English:

"John was reading when I entered."

Here 'entered' presents the totality of the situation referred to [...]: the whole of the situation is presented as a single unanalysable whole, with beginning, middle, and end all rolled into one; no attempt is made to divide this situation up into the various individual phases that make up the action of entry. This is the essence of the perfective aspect: An event presented as an unanalyzed whole.

'Was reading', however, is different. Besides being the background to 'entered', the form 'reading' presents an internal portion of John's reading, [with] no explicit reference to the beginning or to the end of his reading. This is the essence of the imperfective aspect. Or, to continue the citation, the perfective looks at the situation from the outside, without necessarily distinguishing any of the internal structure of the situation, whereas the imperfective looks at the situation from inside, and as such is crucially concerned with the internal structure of the situation, since it can both look backwards towards the start of the situation, and look forwards to the end of the situation, and indeed it is equally appropriate if the situation is one that lasts through all time, without any beginning and without any end. This is why, within the past tense, perfective verbs are typically translated into English as simple past, like 'entered', whereas imperfective verbs are typically translated as 'was reading', 'used to read', and the like. (In English, it is easiest to illustrate aspect in the past tense. However, any tense is possible: Present "John is reading as I enter", future "John will be reading when I enter", etc.: In each tense, the aspectual distinction is the same.)

This aspectual distinction is not decided by the events themselves, but in how the speaker views them or wishes to present them. The very same event may be described as perfective in one clause, and then imperfective in the next. For example,

"John read that book yesterday; while he was reading it, the postman came,"

where the two forms of 'to read' refer to the same thing. In 'John read that book yesterday', however, John's reading is presented as a complete event, without further subdivision into successive temporal phases; while in 'while he was reading it', this event is opened up, so that the speaker is now in the middle of the situation of John's reading, as it is in the middle of this reading that the postman arrives.

The perfective and imperfective need not occur together; indeed they more often do not. However, it is difficult to describe them in English without an explicit contrast like "John was reading when I entered."

• Grammatical person distinguishes the person speaking ("first person"), the person spoken to ("second person"), and others ("third person"). In Naʼvi, person is only indicated in pronouns, not in verbs. See also clusivity.
• A phoneme is a meaningful sound in a language. For example, in English there are two "oo" sounds, the /u/ found in "food", and the /ʊ/ found in "foot". We can tell this is a meaningful difference, because if you change one for the other, you change the word. In Naʼvi, however, this is not a meaningful distinction: [u] and [ʊ] are both variants (called "allophones") of the Naʼvi vowel written "u". In transcription, distinct phonemes, such as English /u/ and /ʊ/, are written in slashes, as here; whereas allophones (sub-phonemes) are written in brackets. Thus we would say that [u] and [ʊ] are allophones of the Naʼvi vowel /u/.
• Phonology is how sounds are used in a language: what they are, where they occur, and how they change.
• Phonotactics is the arrangement of phonemes (sounds) found in a language. In English, for example, /h/ never occurs at the end of a word, whereas it does in Arabic; similarly, /ŋ/ does occur at the beginning of a word in English, whereas it does in Naʼvi. On the other hand, fricatives such as /f v s z/ do occur at the ends of words in English, as in the word fricative itself, but do not do this in Naʼvi. And while both /f/ and /m/ occur at the beginning of words in English, as in fee and me, they do not occur there together, whereas they do in Naʼvi fmi "to try".
• A grammatical phrase is a word together with the words that modify it. A noun phrase is a noun and any adjectives, numerals, or relative clauses associated with it, such as the clear blue sky I saw yesterday. Introduce a noun phrase with a preposition, as into the clear blue sky, and the result is called a prepositional phrase. A clause is made up of a verb and various phrases connected to it.
• A plosive consonant is a sound such as [p], [t], [k], [ʔ] where the air flow is completely blocked.
• The plural is a grammatical number for quantities larger than, or other than, the dedicated number. In English, we have a bare singular for one of an object, like cat; the plural cats is thus used for numbers larger than one. Naʼvi also has grammatical dual and trial numbers for two or three of an object; the Naʼvi plural is thus used for quantities larger than three.
• A predicate is the part of a clause other than the subject; it includes the verb. (This subject-predicate structure of a clause is somewhat similar to a topic-comment structure.) In Naʼvi, the form of an adjective depends on whether it is connected to the verb directly, a predicative adjective without any marking, or is found within a noun phrase, an attributive adjective marked with the particle a.
• A prefix is a meaningful bit put at the beginning of a word. For example, the un- in unlikely is a prefix.
• A preposition is a little grammatical word that links a noun phrase to a verb or another noun phrase. For instance, in "I walked by the park on my way to the store for some bread", the prepositions by, on, to, for tie the noun phrases together with the verb "walked" into a clause, with by, on, and to linking "the park", "my way", and "the store" to where I walked, and for linking "some bread" to why I walked.

Prepositions come before the noun. The generic term is adposition; this word is used for Naʼvi words which may be used as either prepositions or suffixes.

• The present tense is the tense used for an action or state in the present moment. In English, verbs in the present tense are often used for future events ("I'm going to town tomorrow"), but in Naʼvi, the future or immediate future tense would be used.
• Prohibitive mood is a negative imperative mood. In Naʼvi, prohibitives are indicated with the particle räʼä "don't".
• A pronoun is a grammatical word that can stand in for a noun, a lexical word. In English, there are two classes of pronouns, the so-called personal pronouns "I, we, you, he, she, it, one, they", and the demonstrative pronouns "this, that, these, those". These behave differently when they modify another noun: compare "my book" (possession) vs. "this book" (location).
• Received Pronunciation, or RP, is the national standard of English in England, used to varying degrees in education and the media. It is based on the dialect of London.
• A question marker is a grammatical particle that marks a yes-no question. The Naʼvi question marker is srak.
• A quotative marker is a grammatical particle or other device that signals the start of a quotation. It is like saying "quote" in English, but is used as a normal part of the language.
• The recent past is a tense used to say that something has just happened.
• Reduplication is the doubling of a phrase, a word, or an element of a word for grammatical effect. English makes little use of reduplication, but traces can be found in clauses like he cried and cried, they ran and ran, where it conveys an exhaustive affect.
• Register is a form of discourse specific to a social setting. At the "high" end there is formal, polite, and ceremonial language; at the "low" end, there is casual speech and slang. In English, the difference tends to be one of vocabulary: you may use different words, and discuss different things, when talking to your boss than talking with your friends. In Naʼvi, very formal speech has an effect on the grammar as well.
• The reflexive voice is a form of the verb used to show that the subject acts on itself, as in the beloved command of older brothers, "Quit hitting yourself!"
• A relative clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun. In English it will be introduced with a relative pronoun, as in "my friend who saw a mouse", "the day when I saw a mouse", "the room where I saw a mouse", "the reason why I saw a mouse", "the mouse that I saw", etc. Naʼvi relative clauses are introduced with the particle a rather than with a relative pronoun.
• Relative tense is tense that is past, present, or future relative to the moment under discussion, rather than relative to the moment of speaking. For example, in English we use absolute tense when we say, "I went to the store because I knew that my order would be in", with all the verbs (went, knew, would) in the past tense because they all occurred prior to the time we said that. If English had relative tense, that sentence would instead be *"I went to the store because I know that my order will be in"; once we say "went", the point of reference switches to the time I went, and "know" is therefore in the present tense, because it is simultaneous with when I went.
• The singular is a special form of the noun that shows there is just one of the thing. In Naʼvi, as in English, the singular is shown by the lack of an affix for one of the other grammatical numbers.
• A stative verb is one, such as "be", which does not indicate an action or process, but a state of being. In some languages, states such as "red" or "sad" are verbs rather than adjectives as they are in English.
• The stem of a word is the form an affix is attached to. It will be different from the root if it already contains affixes. For example, in "hopefully", "hope is both the root and the stem of "hopeful", and "hopeful" in turn is the stem of "hopefully".
• A stop consonant is one in which the tongue or lips block the mouth, stopping the air from passing through. If the air is stopped completely, as in /p, t, k/. the consonant is a plosive; if it is stopped in the mouth but escapes through the nose, as in /m, n, ŋ/, the consonant is a nasal.
• A stranded preposition is a preposition that is not immediately followed by a noun phrase. In English this is found in verb phrases such as "to put up with", where "this is something I will not put up with" has two stranded prepositions, "up" and "with".
• Stress is the amount of force required to pronounce a syllable correctly in a word. For example, in desert the first syllable is stressed, whereas in dessert it is the second that is stressed. If you tap out the syllables of a word, the stronger taps correspond to stress.
• The subjunctive mood is used for hypothetical or desired actions or states, like "long live the king" and "bless you". See mood
• Subordination: See dependent clause.
• A suffix is a meaningful bit put at the end of a word. For example, the -ful in meaningful is a suffix.
• A syllable is a rhythmic unit of a word. "Pentasyllabic", which means 'having five syllables', has five syllables: PENT-a-syl-LAB-ic. The first and fourth are pronounced more strongly than the others; they are said to be stressed. An open syllable is one that ends in a vowel, as in English kudu; a closed syllable ends in a consonant, as in English dumdum.
• A syllabic consonant is a consonant that forms the core of a syllable, or is a syllable by itself. Examples of the latter are English bottle, button, and rhythm; for most people in the US and Canada, the former is found in church. In Naʼvi, there are two syllabic consonants, ll and rr, which can only occur at the end of a syllable, not in the middle as in church.
• Syntax is how words are put together in speech: how words form phrases, how phrases form clauses, and how clauses form sentences.
• Tense is the grammatical encoding of a point of time in a sentence, as in a verb. This contrasts with aspect, which is the grammatical encoding of the flow of time in a sentence. The five Naʼvi tenses are the present, past, future, recent past, and immediate future. In the subjunctive mood, these reduce to three: present, past, and future.

See also relative tense.

• A tenuis consonant is a consonant, generally a plosive, that is not voiced, not aspirated, and not ejective. That is, it is a "plain" [p], [t], [ts], or [k].
• Tone, as used here, means the use of pitch to distinguish words, as Chinese does. Naʼvi does not have tone, only intonation.
• A grammatical topic is an element of discourse that is set up as the background for the material which follows. Setting up a sentence with a topic and then elaborating on it is called a topic-comment structure. In English, this may be done with phrases such as "as for", or simply with intonation, as in "In English, this may be done ...", or as in "That dog, I can't hunt (with) him no more". Such structures are very common in Naʼvi. This is the opposite of focus, which is a foregrounded element of the discourse.
• A transitive clause, or verb, is one with an overt object. For instance, "I ate today" is intransitive, as there is no particular object that can be associated with the verb, whereas "I eat teylu" is transitive. Some verbs, such as "run", can only be intransitive, as they can never take an object. A clause like "I ran a mile" may feel transitive in English, but I didn't actually do anything to that mile, and in Naʼvi it would be treated as intransitive. Some verbs, such as tìng "give", take two objects, including a recipient in the dative case; these are called ditransitive.
• Trial number is a grammatical number specifically for three of something: pxoe "the three of us", pxenga "the three of you", pxeveng "three children", etc.
• A trill is a rolled R, as in Spanish ¡Arriba!
• A tripartite case system is one that uses three different cases for the 'subject' (argument) of an intransitive verb, the 'subject' of a transitive verb, and the object of a transitive verb. They are, respectively, the intransitive case, the ergative ("working") case, and the accusative case.
• An unquotative marker is a grammatical particle or other device that signals the end of a quotation. It is like saying "unquote" in English, but is used as a normal part of the language.
• Valence is the number of core arguments a verb takes. An intransitive verb has a valence of 1 (the subject: 'they eat'), a transitive verb a valence of 2 (agent and object: 'they see you'), and a ditransitive verb a valence of 3 (agent, recipient, and object: 'we give you them'). Some derivations of a verb change its valence. A passive or reflexive, for example, decreases its valence ('they see you' → 'you are seen'), while a causative increases its valence ('they eat' → 'you feed them'). By changing a verb to an adjective, a active participle effectively reduces a verb's valence to zero.
• A velar consonant is one where the back of the tongue contacts the velum, the soft palate at the back of the mouth. Velar consonants include [k, ɡ, ŋ] and the [x] at the end of Bach. [ŋ] (the "eng" sound) is thus called a velar nasal. For [w], the tongue approaches the velum, but the lips also approach each other, so it is considered to be both velar and labial.
• A verbalizer is an element that changes a word into a verb. Naʼvi uses the verb si for this purpose.
• A vocative is a special form of a noun used when addressing a person. Poetic English has a preposition "O" for the vocative; Naʼvi uses ma. Note this ma is not used when talking about a person, only when talking to them.
• A voiced sound is one, such as a vowel, in which the vocal chords vibrate. Say "fffff" or "sssss" with your fingers on your Adam's apple, and you will feel nothing; do the same with "vvvvv" or "zzzzz" and you will feel a buzzing in your throat. Therefore [v] and [z] and voiced sounds, while [f] and [s] and unvoiced. Though harder to feel, plosives such as [b], [d], [ɡ] are also voiced. Voiced plosives do not occur in Naʼvi.

This phonetic use of the word "voice" is not to be confused with the grammatical concept of voice, as in passive voice and reflexive voice.

• Vowel height is the distance between the tongue and the roof of the mouth when pronouncing a vowel. Cat and dog have 'open' vowels, as the jaw is open when they are pronounced. (This is why a doctor asks your to say "ah!" when looking at your throat, to get your tongue out of the way.) Bee and zoo, on the other hand, have 'close' vowels, as the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth. In between there are open-mid vowels in neck and craw, and close-mid vowels in snake and crow. (In English, the latter are actually diphthongs, but they approximate close-mid vowels.)
• Vowel length is a distinction between long and short vowels. Latin and Hawaiian, for example, each distinguish words depending on whether the vowels within them are pronounced long or short. Naʼvi does not have this feature, so two identical vowels may not occur next to each other.
• A wh-question word is a word such as who, what, where, when, why, how that asks for information. Naʼvi might be said to have "pe-question words", as the equivalent words in Naʼvi all contain the morpheme pe.
• Word order is the order of words in a phrase, such as adjectives before or after a noun, or in a clause, such as subjects before or after a verb. Naʼvi word order is largely "free", meaning that it can change depending on how the speaker wishes to express or or emphasize something. The order of the verb and its core arguments is called constituent order.

Bibliography

An early basic description of Naʼvi by Paul Frommer is a short grammatical sketch,

• Frommer, Paul (December 19, 2009). "Some highlights of Naʼvi". Language Log. Retrieved 2010-01-09. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Discussion on points of grammar and basic language lessons are presented on Frommer's blog,

• Frommer, Paul (from June 24, 2010). "Naʼviteri.org". Retrieved 2010-07-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

The appendix of the so-called "Survival Guide" is the best published source of vocabulary:

• Wilhelm, Maria (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. New York City: HarperCollins. ISBN 0061896756. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Although most of the purported Naʼvi in the main text is spurious (though it does include two of the four songs that Frommer translated into Naʼvi for Cameron, the Hunting Song and the Weaving Song), the appendix is reasonably accurate, though significantly less reliable and complete than the dictionaries here at Wikibooks. That appendix is a copy of an early draught of Frommer's glossary that he has since modified. Neu "to want", for example, is now new. Some of the words for Naʼvi foods which did not make it into the final cut of the film have been reassigned to new meanings, such as kxener "smoke".

The LearnNaʼvi community keeps a list of vocabulary with attested usage online here. LearnNaʼvi also has a dictionary which may sometimes be more up to date than the one here.

Notes

References