Here's a website for the language created for Avatar:
Learn Navi dot org
And a
radio interview with
the Linguist.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Oh really? *Checks it out*
Whoa... Little deep for me. This is written for linguists.
they are certainly getting their geek on
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
They DO go on there, don't they? And admittedly the transcription does require knowledge of a character set uncommon in the US. However, most European dictionaries are now using the IPA for their phonetic respellings...
Right off. I can give you a rough estimate on how to say some of the "complicated" sounds:
The "ejectives" [tx, px, kx] Put a lot of force behind t, p, or k, trying for a sound like, but not quite, a click of the tongue. Helps if you imagine a big puff of air being ejected .
The glottal stop, represented in Na'vi by the apostrophe is what we in English use at the hyphen in "uh-oh" or in certain British varieties use to replace "t" in "bottle"
"e" in written Na'vi is kind of like the "or" in Received Pronunciation/BBC English's version of "world."
"a" is like the a in Japanese or Italian
"รค" , with the umlaut, is like the a in General American's pronunciation of "cat"
Aheh, nvm just realized they've got a decent chart on the first page there.
It is rough, but then, it was mainly intended for actors, so everything is POSSIBLE to say by a human voice.
It may help to realize that Marc Okrand's Klingon Dictionary is about as difficult to grasp from a first-timer's perspective.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
Found a translation by Doctor Frommer for a line from another James Cameron movie:
[table]
| Txo |
new |
nga |
rivey, |
oehu! |
| if |
want |
2 |
live |
1-with |
| Come with me if you want to live. |
[/table] With "1" referring to "first person" and "2" referring to "Second person."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll