Na'vi Names and a new word
 

Hey guys! I've been poking around this place for a little while, but this would be my first actual post-post. I have two questions, both related to a fanfic I'm toying with.

I.

I am very, very bad with languages, so I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me work out what the Na'vi for 'shelter-seeker' or 'one who seeks shelter' would be. I understand that shelter is hawnu and seek is fwew, but I'm not sure how to stick them together.

II.

Na'vi names. I have an awful lot of ideas in my head for fanfic, and I keep running into the issue of naming the Na'vi characters. Does anyone know how Na'vi names are actually formed? Any way of denoting a feminine name from a masculine, any rules, or...anything?

Any help with either of these would be utterly lovely, and very much appreciated :)

Kaltxì ma 'eylan

So 'shelter-seeker'. Well, technically here in this word the shelter is a noun, so instead of hawnu you'd use tìhawnu. Seek, yes, is fwew. To make it gramatically correct you can use a sentence " Fko/tute/po a fwew tìhawnut "... Yes, na'vi also has a way of compunding words, to my knowing this process is not entierly productive. Perhaps this would work: "Hawnufwewyu", but it could well be false.

About the names. Well, it's not that hard. So far all you have to know are the rules about what and how the letters may be used in a word. As you most likely know letters like g, b,d, j, x, q, c do not exist in the language, and that there are letters like ng, kx, tx, px, ay, ey, aw, ew, rr, ll, and others. When naming a character, simply think of some name and write it in those letters according to the sound. (just in case look up for the word in dictionary, so you wouldn't name it after some action or thing :D, it's not at all a bad ideaa to use some names from Taronyu's dictionary, there's a whole list of those there). If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask.

Oooh, thank you very much! I'll go with the word-version of 'shelter-seeker' rather than the sentence (whenever the fic gets finished), but thanks!

And hmmm, good to know, re: the names. I'll poke about and see what I can come up with.

Thank you!

I have a name question also. I have a story that I've been writing for a while, fantasy not related to anything. The main character I just realized may have a convertible Na'vi name that I got out of a name book years ago. Her first name is Tsuli... which given Tsu'tey as an example, would it be correct to change it (for use in an Avatar story) to Tsu'li?
I looked on the Learn Na'vi site but couldn't find that tsu was a separate entity. It does have to be female so if tsu is male then that kind of throws it out the window.

I would say both are correct Tsuli and Tsu'li, differes only the pronounciation, a little:)

About this male or female thing, I don't know. To me that sounded much like a male name, because of it's "strenght". However there are no rules to what kind of names are female, and what not so yeah :)
(there is a chance to perhaps use -e, ending for "female" nouns, so Tsu'le... just a thought)

Well I think that 'strength' comes from Tsu'tey. Either way, if someone calls me on it, hey... it's an evolving language mistakes will happen.
Thanks for the input!

...no more than Tolkien Elvish or Kligon is considered a real language.

Not sure about elvish, but Klingon is.
You can get Google in Klingon and it has an ISO 639 code (tlh - tlhIngan Hol (name of the language in Klingon)). It has fluent speakers other than Marc Okrand (to Klingon what Paul Frommer is to Na'vi). It is 26 years old as a formal language (Klingon from the original series and early movies was different and didn't have any real rules that could be learned) but development has been slower than Na'vi really.

I see more potential in Na'vi... Certainly, with my attempt to learn Klingon, Na'vi is a much easier language, and has exposure to a much wider fanbase.

...um. Star Trek has a fandom going back over forty years. Lord of the Rings has been out since 1954. Avatar has been out less than a year. Fanbase-wise, I'm not sure it can actually compete. Nor can it said to appeal to a WIDER fanbase - that takes time, if nothing else.

How many people have learned languages from LOTR? I don't know of anyone at all.
Yes, LOTR has a lot of fans, but most wouldn't be inspired to learn the language.
For Star Trek, it's different. As most fans are sci-fi fans (although you could say the same with Avatar), there are arguably more people who may be interested to learn... but Avatar appeals to other fans as well. As I said before, Na'vi is quite a bit easier than Klingon though :P

Meanwhile, back on Pandora....

I was wondering if anyone could come up with a Na'vi translation for 'Rain Shadow' for a name. Toruk is 'Last Shadow' but it doesn't look like it's a word that could be separated. I know there should be a word for rain but don't remember if I found it or not.
Thanks!

I'll join! We'll move to the Amazon :P

yay! i'm one of the people!

From learnnavi:
rain == tompa
shadow == uk (so yes, apparently Toruk can be split)