The Complete Guide to Na'vi Grammer

[deamon5550]

NOTE: This language is constantly expanding, I will try to update this as new grammar rules are discovered.

Starting off with Word order: (as its nice and short)

The word order in Na'vi is entirely free, there are no rules as to what order the words are written. Although in one interview it was said that the word order was similar to German, in that the verbs come last. This is contradictory to several canon sentences by Frommer, and so false. In English subject and object is shown by word order (I hunt you; you hunt I(me)), in Na'vi subject is shown using suffixes attached to the Nouns (see "Nouns" below)

Gender:

Gender is marked using the suffixes -an (male) and -è (female). An example is tsmuk-an (brother) and tsmuk-è (sister)

Numbers: (plural or otherwise)

Prefixes are used to show the number of a word. Singular is not marked at all.

aw- one (as in one person, one thing, used if you want to specifically mark something as being "one")
me- duel, or a pair (a pair of boots, two eyes) (can trigger lenition, see bolow)
mun- two that is not a pair (2 rocks)
pxe- trial (three) (lenition)
ay- plural (four and up) (There is leniation, discussed below)

Lenition:

Lenition is the change of the first letter of a word when it is made plural, ay- (general plural) me- (duel) and pxe- (trial) all trigger lenition, as well as adpositions in some cases (NOTE: not all the adpositions cause lenitions, and the ones that do are not all know yet). In lenition the plural prefix may be dropped. (the general example is tokx (body) can be aysokx or just sokx.

Initial letters that trigger lenition are:

kx, px, tx -- which change to k, p and t (the ejective (x) is dropped)
p, t/ts, k -- change to f, s and h
' (glotteral stop) -- the stop is dropped (simple)

Nouns:

The basic template for nouns is, number+stem-(gender)-case

Suffixes are used to change nouns, the (currently known ones) are:

-ri / -ìri -- Topical, used to show the topic of a sentence.
-ti / -it / -t -- Accusative, used to show the object in a sentence, usually used in conjunction with...
-l / -ìl -- Ergative, shows the agent (instigator) in a sentence.
-yä / -ä / eyä -- Genative, shows possession
-ru / -u / -r / -iru / -ur -- Dative, giving something to someone, a recipient, or doing something for someone. (NOTE: not sure how many of those different dative suffixes are canon)

For better descriptions, simply Google the different terms

Adjectives:

Adjectives are very simple, when an adjective is describing a noun you use the prefix/suffix -a- (can be used as a prefix or a suffix) for example, you could say, large-a rock or rock a-large (I'm using English words to make it simpler) When is is not describing a noun you use the verb lu of "be'

Verbs:

Verbs are the interesting ones as they use infixes. Infixes are placed in one of three places, two in the penultimate syllable and one in the ultimate syllable. (e.g. the second last or last syllable.) Verb infixes are divided up into three categories, tense, aspect and mood.

Tense, placed in position 1 (penultimate syllable) shows when the action occurred, English as three tenses, past, present and future. Na'vi has 5, general past, recent past, present, immediate future, and general future. The following infixes are used to show these:

<ay> general future (will ___)
<iy> immediate future (is about to ___)
<--> present (no infix for present)
<ìm> recent past (just ___)
<am> general past (was ___)

A well known example is
Taron (to hunt)
t<ay>aron -- will hunt
t<iy>aron -- is about to hunt
taron -- hunt (present)
t<ìm>aron -- just hunted
t<am>aron -- hunted (in the past)

Aspect
Quote:

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

Sorry couldn't explain it any better than that.

The aspect infixes are

<ol> the perfective (____ed)
<er> the imperfective (____ing)

So:

t<ol>aron -- hunted
t<er>aron -- hunting

And mood, there are three moods in Na'vi an unmarked mood used when making an ordinary assertion, an imperative mood used for making commands, and a subjunctive/optative used when one is stating something that is not certain.

The Subjunctive/optative is marked with the infix <iv>, and the imperative is marked through intonation (for example GO!)

The imperative is shown through intonation (Go!, Run! etc.)

Verb infix positions

These positions show the locations of the infixes in the verb. 1a/1b are the locations of the aspect, tense and mood infixes and the 2 is the position of the affect infix (<ei>, <äng> and <uy>)

In first position, more than one infix can occur. When both convey temporal information, they fuse together; however, when one has a more concrete function, such as a reflexive (acting on oneself), then it precedes the temporal infix(es). Labeling these positions 1a, 1b, and 2, we find the following patterns:

without infixes typical form
trisyllabic -- CV.CV.CV
disyllabic -- CV.CV
monosyllabic -- CV

with infixes maximal form
trisyllabic -- CV.C‹1a›‹1b›V.C‹1b›V
disyllabic -- C‹1a›‹1b›V.C‹2›V
monosyllabic -- C‹1a›‹1b›‹2›V

without infixes maximal form
trisyllabic -- CCVC.CCVC.CCVC
disyllabic -- CCVC.CCVC
monosyllabic -- CCVC

with infixes minimal form
trisyllabic -- CCVC.CC‹1a›‹1b›VC.CC‹2›VC
disyllabic -- CC‹1a›‹1b›VC.CC‹2›VC
monosyllabic -- CC‹1a›‹1b›‹2›VC

without infixes minimal form
trisyllabic -- V.V.V
disyllabic -- V.V
monosyllabic -- V

with infixes
trisyllabic -- V.‹1a›‹1b›V.‹2›V
disyllabic -- ‹1a›‹1b›V.‹2›V
monosyllabic -- ‹1a›‹1b›‹2›V

[deamon5550]

Page 2: (no clue how it got this long )

Other:

There are numerous prefix/suffix and infixes that don't fit into the above catagories:

le- changes a noun into an adjective
-si changes a verb into a noun
nì- changes an adjective into an adverb
tì- changes a verb into an abstract noun
<us> used to show when a verb is used as a noun or adjective

<äp> used to show that the subject is doing the action to his/herself (e.g. oe t<us>aron (I hunt myself)

-tu associates a person with a verb ("to capture" into "captive")
-yu states that a person specilizes in something (hunter, fisher)

ke- to indicate the negative

<ei> shows pleasure
<äng> shows displeasure
<uy> formal

Pronouns:
Quote:

A pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun (or noun phrase) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English

singular

exclusive: oe -- I/me
inclusive: —
2nd person: nga -- You
3rd person: po -- He/she

duel

exclusive: moe -- We (but not the person being spoken to, like telling a friend "me and my brother, we are going to the store")
inclusive: oeng -- We (you and the person being spoken to)
2nd person: menga -- You two
3rd person: mefo -- Those two

trial

exclusive: pxoe -- We (but not the person being spoken to)
inclusive: pxoeng -- We (you, someone else, and the person being spoken to)
2nd person: pxenga -- You three
3rd person: pxefo -- Those three

plural(more than 3)

exclusive: ayoe -- We (but not the person being spoken to, like telling a friend "me and all my friends are going to the store")
inclusive: ayoeng, awnga -- We (everybody in the topical group)
2nd person: aynga -- You (indicating a group of more than 3)
3rd person: ayfo, fo -- Them (indicating a group of more than 3)


Formal:
If you are addressing someone in a higher position than yourself, or are trying to be polite, you may want to try some of these variations of the basic pronouns.

Singular
exclusive -- òhe
inclusive -- —
2nd person -- ngengá

Duel
exclusive -- mòhe
inclusive -- òhe ngengásì
2nd person -- mengengá

Trial
exclusive -- pxòhe
inclusive -- various combonations
2nd person -- pxengengá

Adpositions

(’)em -- over, above
eo -- before, in front of
(’)ìm -- behind, in back
fa -- per (with, by means of)
fpi -- for the sake of
ftu -- from (direction) ftu sat -- from that (lenition)
hu -- with, together with (accompaniment)
Eywa ngahu -- Eywa (be) with you
ìlä -- via, along, by
ka -- across
kip -- amon"
aynga kip -- among you
mì -- in
mì te’lan -- in the heart (lenition)
ne -- to (direction)
Terìran ayoe aynga ne -- we are walking your way
ta -- from (generic)
aungia ta Eywa -- a sign from Eywa
vay -- until
vay set -- up to now, still, (with a negative verb) not yet
terí − about, concerning

Particles

Vocative

ma, shows that you are talking to someone, instead of about them.
ma sempul -- father
ma tsmukan -- brother

(contrary to many peoples belief that it means my (as in my father, my brother))

Negaive

ke is the negating particle in na'vi, often used with other negative words to form a double negative.

Emotive

pak -- hah! (as in Tsamsiyu pak? "Hah! A warrior!" (you call that a warrior?)),
nang -- oh my! (suprise) (as in sevin nìtxan nang! "my aren't you pretty!")
ko -- asks for agreement like the eh of Canadian English (as in makto ko! "Let's ride!")

Numbers

Recently a reply was received from Frommer, and now we have numbers!

First off, an overview of the Na'vi number system, as it is not like the English number system. It is octal, or base 8, so in their system there is no digits 8 or 9. So basically their number line would go 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,11...16,17,20,21...etc. Remember that the 8 in decimal is equal to the 10 in octal.

Octal to Decimal

To start off here is a really nice example:

In decimal systems each decimal place is a base of 10. For example:

74(10) = 7*10¹ + 4*10°

In octal numerals each place is a power with base 8. For example:

112(8) = 1*8² + 1*8¹ + 2*8°

By performing the calculation above in the familiar decimal system we see why 112 in octal is equal to 64+8+2 = 74 in decimal.

The formula to convert decimal to octal is to divide the decimal number by the largest possible power of 8 and successively divide the remainders by successively smaller powers of 8 until the power is 1. The octal equivilent to the decimal number is formed by the quotients.

For example, to convert 125(10) to octal:
125 / 8² = 1
125 − ((8²)*1) = 61
61 / 8¹ = 7
61 − ((8¹)*7) = 5
Thus: 125(10) = 175(8)

Decimal to Octal

The real formula to converting Octal to Decimal is
But have fun deciphering that so here is an easier way:
To converting Octal to Decimal you expand the number out (like writing it in scientific notation)

So for example:

764(8) would expand out to 7 x 8² + 6 x 8¹ + 4 x 8°, and when you combine them back together (in decimal) you get 448 (7*64) + 48 (6*8) + 4 (4*1) which equals 500(10).

Any Questions? Feel free to ask I find it confusing too sometimes.

[deamon5550]

Na'vi Number names

The part most of you have probably been waiting for, The Na'vi number names. First off Please Note: the number names are still being deciphered for higher numbers (as in >64 (octal))

simply put:

0: -- -- -- -- vol (10) -- mevol (20) -- pxevol (30) -- tsìvol (40) -- mrrvol (50) -- puvol (60) -- -- kivol (70)
1: ’aw -- -- volaw (11) mevolaw (21) pxevolaw (31) tsìvolaw (41) mrrvolaw (51) puvolaw (61) -- kivolaw (71)
2: mune -- vomun (12) mevomun (22) pxevomun (32) tsìvomun (42) mrrvomun (52) puvomun (62) kivomun (72)
3: pxey -- vopey (13) mevopey (23) pxevopey (33) tsìvopey (43) mrrvopey (53) puvopey (63) -- kivopey (73)
4: tsìng -- vosìng (14) mevosìng (24) pxevosìng (34) tsìvosìng (44) mrrvosìng (54) puvosìng (64) kivosìng (74)
5: mrr ---- vomrr (15) mevomrr (25) -- pxevomrr (35) tsìvomrr (45) mrrvomrr (55) puvomrr (65) -- kivomrr (75)
6: pukap -- vofu (16) -- mevofu (26) -- pxevofu (36) tsìvofu (46) -- mrrvofu (56) puvofu (66) -- kivofu (76)
7: kinä -- vohin (17) -- mevohin (27) -- pxevohin (34) tsìvohin (47) mrrvohin (57) puvohin (67) -- kivohin (77)

I tried to align them as best i could (they work in my screen hope they work in yours) There really needs to be a table option here

Sentence examples

Subject and Object

Oeyä tukrul txe'lanit tivakuk
Let my spear strike the heart
Oeyä tukru-ltxe’lan-it t‹iv›akuk
my spear-ERG heart-ACC strike‹SJV›

So spear is the subject and heart is the object.

Genitive

Aylì’ufa awngeyä ’eylanä a’ewan
In the words of our young friend
ay-lì’-’u-fa awng[e]-yä ’eylan-ä a-’ewan
pl-say-thing-per our-GEN friend-GEN attr-young

Sorry a little complex but completely canon (from a letter from Frommer)
So in this our and friend are both possessive
The [e]-yä is the genitive suffix for pronouns

Dative

Oeru txoa livu.
Forgive me
oe-ru txoa l‹iv›u
I-DAT forgiveness be‹SJV›

Here the Dative suffix is marking that you are the recipient of the forgiveness (and the subjunctive is showing that it is uncertain)
(I love the simple sentenses )

Topic

Sìpawmìri oe ngaru seiyi irayo
Thank you for the questions (lit. "As for the questions, I thank you")
sì-pawm-ìri oe nga-ru s‹ei›i irayo
pl+nomz-ask-TOP I you-Dat do‹approb› thank

Past all the other confusing grammar, you can see that the topical marker is showing that ask (questions) is the topic of the thanks

Adjective

ngima kilvan
ngim-a kilvan
long-a river

kilvan angim
kilvan a-ngim
river a-long

kilvanngimlu (No -a- suffix is used)
river long be
The river is long

FAQ (frequently asked questions)

Prefix/suffix and infixes:

How do you add the -a- to the adjective apxa (large)?

large as an adjective (apxa) has been a topic of disscussion for a while, but really...we don't know. It has been speculated that a y is added (like s<ei>i becomming seiyi) although there does have to be the -a- since without it the entire meaning of the sentense is changed.

Tuteru a-apxa tukru lu
The big person has a spear

Tuteru apxa tukru lu
The spear is big to the person.

Alt codes

Windows:

These are usful for any charters that do not appear of your regular keyboard (such as letters with accents). To use these hold the ALT key while pressing the numbers on the number pad (the one to the right on the regular letter keys, not the one above) These are useful when writing any language not just Na'vi (which is why i included more than the ones *known* to be used in Na'iv.) More complete lists can be found else where of the internet.

ä: ALT-0228
á: ALT-0225
à: ALT-0224
ë: ALT-0235
è: ALT-0232
é: ALT-0233
ï: ALT-0239
ì: ALT-0236
í: ALT-0237
ö: ALT-0246
ò: ALT-0242
ó: ALT-0243
ü: ALT-0252
ù: ALT-0249
ú: ALT-0250
ñ: ALT-0241

Mac:

Go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Menu

Click the box next to "Keyboard Viewer". Make sure "Show input menu in menu bar" is also selected (it should have selected automatically when you made the first selection). Close System Preferences.

Now, depending on the language you have selected, a flag will be in the menu bar. Now, whenever you want to type a special character, click the flag in the menu bar and select "Show Keyboard Viewer". When you press Shift and Option, the on screen keyboard will show you that adding the K will make the  character. You don't need to keep a list of ALT-#### codes on a piece of paper near your computer.

Well, that took a while Anyway hope that helps you understand the Na'vi grammer, I recommend using this along with a translator or Na'vi-English dictionary to help you get those phrases just right.

Any questions, ask away please, I love questions. oel tìyawn sìpawmìri.

Please tell me if i have made any mistakes.

[deamon5550]

Added Adpositions (this time I had the room :P)

[Arthur]

> There's something you either overlooked or it's not adressed anywhere for reference:
> On "My nose is full", it translates to "Oe-ri ontu teya lu". But the object of "be" is "my nose", which would translate as "oe-yä ontu".
> So I take it that if both a genitive and a topic marker are needed, we are to prioritize the topic marker, instead of adding both suffixes? I'm boggled :S

[deamon5550]

Yes, I am quite sure that you cannot have two suffixes of one word, but I have no idea which ones have priority of others.

[KalaKuival]

ì: ALT-141

Ohkay...So anyone knows why i get.... "Ź" when I press ALT 141?
-----
Good guide already copied and started translating

[Fosus]

Yay! Thanks for the new guide ! Awesome work, this is really helpful

[Arthur]

Yes, I am quite sure that you cannot have two suffixes of one word, but I have no idea which ones have priority of others.

> You should adress that on the grammar guide, so that whoever knows can shed some light uponit.

Ohkay...So anyone knows why i get.... "Ź" when I press ALT 141?
-----
Good guide already copied and started translating

> What language are you translating to?

> And there are a few keyboard encodings that use different Unicode character numbers. The easiest way to find out how to enter a specific letter, is to go on "Start menu", and either type "charmap" on your Run window for XP users, or "Character Map" for Vista and 7 users. Lookup the letter you want to put and click it. On the bottom right corner you should see the assigned alt code.

> Also, note that a three-digit alt code is not the universal one. The three digit one changes from font to font, from encoding to encoding, and from computer to computer.
> The universal Alt code for ì is Alt+0236

[Appleyard]

deamon5550, i've sent u a private message some hours ago about your grammar. can u answer it please? u can post it here aswell if you want to

respect :D