Kxì nìmun! As promised, here’s a post that should add quite a few new entries to our dictionaries. I have more than 64 new words on my list; I’ll post 32 (°40) now and include the rest in a follow-up post shortly. Sìlpey oe, faylì’u amip sìyevunu ayngar ulte lesar lìyevu nìteng.

First, in keeping with the holiday season (mìftxele, for those who celebrate, Happy Easter and Happy Passover!), here is some new vocabulary specifically related to belief and the spiritual dimension:

aho (vin., a.HO, inf. 1,2) ‘pray’

Eywaru aho, ma ’itan, fte Nawma Sa’nokìl tìyevìng ngar tìtxurit.

‘Pray to Eywa, my son, that Great Mother will give you strength.’

Derivatives:

tìaho (n., tì.a.HO) ‘prayer (in general, abstract idea)

saho (n., sa.HO) ‘a prayer’

Saho is derived from *säaho, where the two vowels have merged.

syawn (n.) ‘blessing’

As in English, syawn can refer to the deity’s conferring favor upon something, or to someone’s sanction or support for a thing or activity.

Newey yawne lu oer ulte new oe muntxa sivi poehu. Rutxe, ma sempul, tìng moer ngeyä syawnit.

‘I love Newey and want to marry her. Please, father, give us your blessing.’

The verbal form is:

tìng syawn (vin.) ‘bless’

The syntax is similar to that of tìng mikyun, tìng nari, etc.

Eywa tivìng syawn ngar, ma ’ite.

‘May Eywa bless you, my daughter.’

(An alternative and acceptable rendering of the previous example is Eywal tivìng ngar sneyä syawnit.)

parul (n., pa.RUL) ‘miracle’

As in English, a parul is a surprising or extraordinary event with positive consequences that can’t be explained by the laws of nature and is often attributed to divine intervention. Also as in English, its meaning can be extended to events that are highly unusual, extraordinary, or unexpected.

Fwa ayioang apxay fìtxan Na’viru srung soli fte Sawtutet livätxayn lu parul nìngay.

‘That so many animals helped the Na’vi defeat the Sky People was a genuine miracle.’

Derivations:

parulnga’ (adj., pa.RUL.nga’) ‘miraculous’ (nfp)

parultsyìp (n., pa.RUL.tsyìp) ‘term of affection for children’

Txon lefpom, ma parultsyìp. Hivahaw nìmwey.

‘Good night, my dear little one. Sleep peacefully.’

A parul is more than unusual:

keltrrtrr (adj., kel.TRR.trr) ‘unusual’

(The derivation is obviously from ke + letrrtrr.)

It is in fact extraordinary:

txankeltrrtrr (adj., TXAN.kel.TRR.trr) ‘extraordinary’

nìtxankeltrrtrr (adv., nì.TXAN.kel.TRR.trr) ‘extraordinarily’

Oey ’eylan plltxe nìNa’vi na hufwe nìtxankeltrrtrr.

‘My friend speaks Na’vi extraordinarily fluently.’

Next, some vocabulary based on new roots:

hafyon (n., ha.FYON) ‘wisdom’

Note that hafyon is more than just tìomum ‘knowledge’; it implies the mature judgment that comes from experience.

Derivations:

lafyon (adj., la.FYON) ‘wise’ (ofp)

This comes from le + hafyon, where *lehafyon has evolved over time to simply lafyon.

hafyonga’ (adj., ha.FYO.nga’) ‘wise (nfp)’

(Here the n of hafyon has been absorbed by the ng of –nga’.)

So a wise leader is eyktan lafyon, while wise words are aylì’u ahafyonga’.

fkxara (n., FKXA.ra) ‘stress (mental or emotional feeling)’

Krra oe ftxulì’u, pxìm ’efu fkxarat nìtxan.

‘When I give a speech, I often feel a lot of stress.’

fkxaranga’ (n., FKXA.ra.nga’) ‘stressful’

Ngeyä fpomtokxìri fìtìfkeytok afkxaranga’ lu lehrrap.

‘This stressful situation is dangerous to your health.’

afpawng (n., a.FPAWNG) ‘grief’

Maw kxitx sempulä larmängu Peyralä afpawng txewluke.

‘After (her) father’s death, Peyral’s grief was endless.’

afpawng si (vin.) ‘grieve’

keyn (vtr.) ‘put down’

Keyn is the opposite of kxeltek ‘pick up.’

Ngey tskoti kiveyn. Li yerik holifwo.

‘Put down your bow. The hexapede has already run away.’

Some words connected with fire:

palon (vin., PA.lon, inf. 1,2) ‘burn’

We’ve already seen the transitive verb for ‘burn,’ nekx, which typically indicates fire burning or consuming something else. Palon is the intransitive ‘burn’:

Txep ahì’i mì teptseng parmalon.

‘A little fire was burning in the fireplace.’

rem (n.) ‘fuel’

Na’viri lu fìutralä rìn rem letsranten.

‘The wood of this tree is an important fuel for the Na’vi.’

tong (vtr.) ‘put out, quench’

Mawkrra ngal txepit tolong tsun hivum.

‘After you’ve put out the fire you can leave.’

The folks at the Disney theme park asked for some words to use with kids who are engaging in a coloring activity with crayons. First, they needed specific words for red and orange. As you know, the Na’vi words ean and tun cover the blue-green and red-orange parts of the spectrum respectively. Blue specifically is ta’lengean (“skin ean”) while green is rikean (“leaf ean”). But what about red and orange?

reypaytun (adj., REY.pay.tun) ‘red’ (“blood tun”)

(As a reminder, although the Na’vi have blue skin, their blood is red like ours.)

txeptun (adj., TXEP.tun) ‘orange’ (“fire tun”)

As for crayon:

vultsyìp (n., VUL.tsyìp) ‘stick’

’opinvultsyìp (n., ’O.pin.vul.tsyìp) ‘crayon’

A crayon, then, is literally a “color stick.” ’Opinvultsyìp is quite a mouthful for kids, but fortunately there’s a colloquial shortening:

pinvul (n., PIN.vul) ‘crayon’

Here’s a conversational term I think you’ll find useful:

srankehe (part., intj., sran.KE.he) ‘more or less, somewhat, yes and no, kind of’

You’re already very familiar with a compound word from srane + kehe, namely srake/srak. Srankehe comes from the same source but has a very different use. It’s an equivocal response to a yes-no question, when you don’t want to commit yourself—that is, when you want to hedge. You’re not saying yes, you’re not saying no.

A: Srake faysäfpìl lu pum ngey nìwotx?

‘Are all these ideas your own?’

B: Srankehe.

‘More or less.’

In colloquial speech, this word is usually pronounced srangkehe, although it’s not spelled that way.

tì’ongokx (n., tì.’O.ngokx) ‘birth’

Tì’ongokxìri ngeyä ’itanä seykxel sì nitram!

‘Congratulations on the birth of your son!’

Finally, a few words from my backlog of LEP suggestions:

rìkxi (vin., rì.KXI, inf. 1,2) ‘tremble, shake, shiver’

As the LEP members described it, “The meaning of this verb is ‘tremble, shiver’ as a leaf in the wind, or ‘shake’ as a vigorous, intentional movement. When not intentional, it is best described as a quick, erratic movement caused by the cold or [an] intense emotion.”

Pori mesyokx rìkxi, ha ke tsayun yerikit tivakuk.

‘His hands tremble, so he will not be able to hit the hexapede.’

Ralu rìkxi krra srew, rì’ir si palukanur a lu alaksi fte spivä.

‘Ralu does a shake while dancing, imitating a thanator that’s ready to leap.’

The transitive sense of shake is expressed by the causative <eyk> infix:

Reykìkxi utralti, zup mauti.

‘If you shake the tree, the fruit will fall.’ (That is, actions have consequences.)

Derivation:

nìrìkxi (adv., nì.rì.KXI) ‘shakily, tremblingly’

kawkxan (adj., kaw.KXAN) ‘free, unblocked, unobstructed, clear’

This is derived from ke + ’aw + exkan ‘barricade, obstruction.’

Nga tsun kivä set. Fya’o lu kawkxan.

‘You can go now. The way is clear.’

That’s it for Part 1. Part 2 of the Zama Lì’u Amip is coming soon.

As always, please let me know if you spot any typos or other goofs. And again, Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and Happy Spring ayngaru nìwotx!

Hayalovay!

ta Pawl

P.S. My apologies to all those whose questions and comments I haven’t yet responded to. I will as soon as I can.

Edit 1 April: Repeated entry mawftxele replaced by tì’ongokx; *tìyeving –> tìyevìng. Irayo ma Plumps.

Edit 3 April: Nawma Sa’nok –> Nawma Sa’nokìl, keltxek –> kxeltek, ‘opinvulstyìp –> ‘opinvultsyìp. Irayo ma pxeylan alu Kxrekorikus, Plumps, sì EanaUnil!

Edit 30 Sept: For nìtxankeltrr, adj –> adv. Irayo, ma Eana Elf!