Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alphabet p. 2
Lenition p. 3
Names p. 3
Pronouns p. 4
Verbs p. 5 & 6
Cases p. 6 & 7
Adjectives p. 7
Questions p. 7
Negative p. 7
Word order p. 8
1. Alphabet
Na’vi IPA Example Notes
a a father
ä æ cat, pack
aw aw now
ay aj eye, fly
e ɛ then
ew ɛw
ey ɛj say
f f fool
h h ham
i i machine
ì ɪ thin, bit
k k skill unaspirated
kx k‟
l l left
ll əl people Always front and
light, never
ɫ
m m man, ham
n n no, tin
ng ŋ sing
o o mow
p p spin unaspirated
px p‟
r ɾ bottle (AmE)
rr r strongly trilled
s s see, city
t t stop unaspirated
ts ts cats
tx t‟
u u; ʊ do, foot
v v voice, have
w w we
y j yes
z z zoo
„ ʔ The middle of
uh-oh
Tip 1: Although they‟re two letters, think about ay, aw, ey, ew, ts, kx, px, tx, ll, rr, ng as
single entities.
Tip 2: Ay, aw, ey, ew and ll, rr are considered as vowels.
2. Lenition
What is lenition?
It‟s the changing of a consonant to make the pronunciation easier. It happens when
some prefixes are added to the word or certain adpositions are placed before them.
Consonant It becomes:
px; tx; kx p; t; k respectively
p f
t; ts s
k h
„ vanishes
3. Names
3.1. Genders
As in English, Na‟vi has two genders: male and female. Usually, genders are only used
when what we want to say might become ambiguous without them. Thus we usually
use the normal word, with no gender.
Male Female
Word Word+an Word+e
Example: tsmuk (sibling) Tsmukan (brother) Tsmuke (sister)
3.2. Plural
There are three types of plural in Na‟vi. The plural for two, three or more things.
Tip 1: As the plural prefixes cause lenition, tute (person) became (me)sute.
Tip 2: The plurals always must match. Other way, don‟t use them. An example:
Moe mesmukan lu (We two are two brothers) or Moe tsmukan lu (We two are brother).
NEVER: Moe aysmukan lu (We two are many brothers).
Tip 3: When the prefix ay+ is added is occurs lenition, ay may be removed. So aysute
and sute mean the same thing: people.
4. Pronouns
In Na‟vi pronouns show excluding and including. What I means is that there are
different forms depending if the listener/reader is or isn‟t in the action. Pronoun‟s plural
is formed as the name‟s plural.
Then, based on the English pronouns table, I can create the following one:
This subject usually creates a lot of confusion, so I decided to explain it again here.
The inclusive is used when, in the sentence, the “we” pronoun includes the person who
is listening or reading what I said/wrote:
The exclusive is almost the same thing, but the person that listens or reads is not
included:
The inclusive is basically formed adding ng to the plural in the exclusive. Why, you ask?
Because ng comes from nga (you).
5. Verbs
The verbs in Na‟vi are conjugated for tense and not for person. To do it, you only have
to add infixes to the word (they are placed inside the word, in certain positions).
There are three positions to put infixes. Pre-first, first and second. In the pre-first, we
put infixes like the reflexive, causative, active participle and passive participle infix. In
the first one, we put essentially the verbal tense infixes. Finally, in the second position,
we put the mood infixes.
The positions are: t<pre-first><first>ar<second>on. To easily recognize the positions, I
recommend the method that I use: count from the end of the word and search the first
vowel. The second position will be placed before it. Then search for the second vowel.
The first position will be placed before it. And immediately before the first position, is
the pre-first position. When the verb has only one vowel, the following happens: l<pre-
first><first><second>u. The verb used in the example is the verb lu (to be), and the
positions are all placed before the single vowel. The order is the same that would
appear in a two or more vowels word.
There is no infix for the present. Thus, if you want to say “I hunt” it would be “Oe taron”.
5.2. Subjunctive
It is not easy for beginners, so I won‟t say very much about it.
The infixe <iv> forms the subjunctive and is used to form de conditional (e.g. I would
hunt) as well as the conjunctive (e.g. May God be with you). It is also used when you
find two verbs, one close to the other, in the sentence. In that case, you put it in the
second verb (e.g. I want to hunt Oe new tivaron). It is put in the first infix position.
5.3. Affect
The mood infix is placed in the second infix position and they show how you are feeling
about the action.
There are two:
<ei> is used to show joy or wish that the action happens.
<äng> is used to show disdain for the action.
Examples:
6. Cases
In Na‟vi the order of the words is relatively free, because there are cases that tell us
what is the function of a certain element in the sentence.
Examples:
There are exceptions when the word finishes in aw, ay, ew, ey, ll or rr.
6.1. Genitive
Once more, there are exceptions when the word finishes in aw, ay, ew or ey.
Examples:
Oeyä kelku My house
Tuteyä rum Person‟s ball
6. Adjectives
So that we can identify the noun which is described by the adjective, we put -a- (which
works as a prefix or suffix) in the closest side to the noun of the adjective.
Examples:
The adjective also may describe the noun using the verb “to be”. When it happens, the
-a- is not used.
Example:
7. Questions
In questions which answer will be yes/no, we add in the end the word “srak”.
Example:
Na’vi Português
Peu/‟upe („u thing + pe) What? (what thing?)
Pesu/tupe (tute person + pe) Who?
Pefnel/fnepe (fnel kind + pe) Which kind?
Pefya/fyape (fya way + pe) How?
Pehem/kempe (kem thing [action] + pe) What? (what action?)
Pehrr/krrpe (krr time + pe) When?
Pelun/lumpe (lun reason + pe) Why?
Peseng/tsengpe (tseng place + pe) Where?
Polpxay/holpxaype (holpxay number + pe) How many?/What number?
Pìmtxan/hìmtxanpe (hìmtxanpe amount+ pe) How much?/What amount?
8. Negative
Of course you don‟t need to do as him, but most of the people do.