The Na'vi Language Sound System

2.1.1.1

The voiceless stops are unaspirated at the beginning and middle of a word. They are also unreleased at the end of a word, as well as at the end of a syllable when followed by another consonant (such as txepmì and 'oktrr). However, within a phrase a final stop coming before a vowel will in natural speech be released as the words flow together, oel set omum. Unreleased stops will be most noticeable at major pauses, as in oel omum set.

2.1.1.2

The r is an alveolar flap. The l is clear and front, as in "leaf", not the velarized, "dark-l" of English "call".

2.1.1.3

Frommer devised a scientific orthography in which two of the digraphs were written as a single letter, c for ts and g for ng. The digraph system was easier for the actors, but it has also been used by Frommer in media interviews and in most of his own email. The scientific orthography is only seen in a few early emails to and from Frommer.

2.1.1.4

Because plain stops can be used as syllable codas, the more common ejective notation, p’, is too ambiguous: tsap’alute is not *tsapxalute.

2.1.2.1

Reef Na'vi pronounces u as [u] in all positions, and ù as [ʊ] in all positions.

2.1.2.2

Forest Na'vi has merged the vowels u and ù, so that they are always [u] in open syllables, and may be either [u] or [ʊ] in closed syllables. Lu is always pronounced [lu], while pum may be either [pum] or [pʊm].

2.1.2.3

The diphthongs are aw, ay, ew, and ey. Only in diphthongs will w or y be seen at the end of a syllable (new) or before a final consonant (hawng). Syllable shapes like *niw or *hoyng cannot occur.

2.1.4.1

Since a syllable may lack a consonant onset or coda, it is not unusual to see several vowels next to each other in a word. In that case, each vowel is a syllable, muiä [mu.i.æ], ioang [i.o.ɑŋ].

2.1.4.2

In general, the sequence VCV will be syllabified V.CV rather than VC.V, so tsenge is [tsɛ.ŋɛ] not *[tsɛŋ.ɛ]. Onomatopoeia may override this, as in kxangangang [k’ɑŋ.ɑŋ.ɑŋ], where the echo effect is desired.

2.1.4.3

There are no long vowels in Forest Na’vi, meaning identical vowels will not occur next to each other (but see 2.3.1). Reef Na'vi, due to glottal stop elision (2.1.6.3), can have long vowels in several environments, including by omitting contraction (2.3.1.5).

2.1.4.4

Double consonants do not occur in root words, but may occur at morpheme boundaries, for example in derivations, tsukkäteng < tsuk- + käteng, or with enclitics Mo’atta < Mo’at + ta (2.1.5.3).

2.1.4.5

As is usual in most Human languages, some interjections break the rules, such as oìsss, a sound for anger, or saa, a threat cry.

2.1.5.1

For this word alone, woman, an accent may be written in normal Na’vi to indicate the accent, tuté.

2.1.5.2

Some word creation processes may cause accent shifts (5.1.2.3, 5.1.8).

2.1.5.3

All adpositions as well as a few conjunctions and particles may be enclitic. They give up their own stress accent and effectively become part of the word to which they are attached, and are written so, tsane (< tsaw + ne), horentisì (< horenti + sì).

2.1.5.4

Though a noun compound is written as a single word, the individual parts of that compound may each retain their original accent, as in tireafya’o spirit path.

2.1.6.1

An ejective consonant at the start of a syllable - and, thus, also at the start of a word - is instead pronounced as a voiced stop in Reef Na'vi. That is, px tx kx → [b d g].

In general, this change is not spelled out. That is, Reef Dialect text will spell night as txon but expect the reader to understand it is pronounced as though don. If you wish to emphasize that the Reef Dialect is being used, however, it can be spelled don.

In a word like tìkankxan, spelling out the Reef Dialect change results in an ambiguous spelling, *tìkangan. To prevent interpreting the spelling ng as [ŋ] instead of [ŋg], an interpunct (preferred) or hyphen may be used: tìkan·gan or tìkan-gan.

2.1.6.2

When in a cluster with y the s and ts palatalize. That is, sy is pronounced [ʃ] and tsy is [tʃ]. Due to Na'vi's syllable structure, this can only happen at the start of a syllable.

This Reef Na'vi sound change is never indicated in spelling.

2.1.6.3

When between two vowels, the glottal stop is normally dropped in Reef Na'vi. Both vowels are still distinctly enunciated, even if they are identical, as in rä'ä below.

This change is also present to a certain degree in Forest Na'vi, such as with the name Lo'ak (2.3.8.1).

While the glottal stop is retained at the start and end of words, when affixes are added which then place the stop between vowels the stop may be dropped. For example, the phrase for humorous person is tute a'ipu in Forest Na'vi, but tute aipu in Reef Na'vi, or the adverb nìaw rather than Forest Na'vi nì'aw.

2.1.6.4

In unstressed syllables ä may become e in Reef Na'vi.

2.1.7.1

Vowels and diphthongs are simply pronounced and spelled as themselves. The pseudovowels take a leading glottal stop, since they require a consonant onset (2.1.4)

2.1.7.2

The name for consonants which cannot end a syllable are formed by adding ä, as in Tsä. Those which can end a syllable use the vowel e and repeat the consonant at the end of the name, PeP.