Ni'nat or Ninat?
 

I was watching the movie the other night with some friends, when I noticed something. In the scene Tree of Voices scene, when Neytiri is offering Jake both Ninat and Peyral, the way she says Ninat is far closer to "Ni'Nat" than "Nin-at".

Anyone else notice this? (and I can't remember the way Jake says it) And would you write it "Ninat" or "Ni'nat"?

Noticed that also, so I would assume the way Neytiri pronounces it would be the correct one. Not to sure on Ninat vs. Ni'nat, seems that most people just write it "Ninat".

Ninat. The ' is a more obvious stop (contrast Mo'at), the use of it as a letter isn't actually present in English so there's no real base for comparison for many people.

Hmm, never actually thought about how one would write it. The way Neytiri says it could arguably be one or the other. I'll just stick with Ninat for now though :P

Cool, thanks guys. If I ever do this fic of Peyral and Ninat, I'll use 'Ninat'.

Although, hrm. Now I'm more confused over the meaning of her name - "nin" is "look at", from memory (at public comp, can't easily check), but Neytiri clearly says 'ni-nat', so logically the meaning would be 'ni' ("like/as") + other things. *rubs head*

Not all names have a literal meaning (actually, the only one that DOES is Toruk :P (technically, I guess Seze could be considered although I think that's different because it's named after something else and isn't a compound word. ))

Well, Peyral means "Meant to Wait", Neytiri (as far as I can remember) is "Wants Life" - they aren't just meaningless symbols thrown together. Take your real name, or mine - my full first name, Ashleigh, means "ash-tree field". By and large, names have meanings. And in fiction, these meanings can (but not always) be quite symbolic - Miles "soldier", Jake from Jacob "supplanter", Trudy from Gertrude "spear-strength". Even Neytiri's "wants life" - she's so vibrant and fierce, and the name suits her.

So, not knowing what Mo'at means, or not knowing what Ninat means, bothers me. But I can be pedantic like that *g*