2.1

## Overview

The Na'vi language has 20 consonant sounds, 7 vowel sounds and two vocalic resonants Frommer calls "pseudovowels."

## 2.1.1 - Consonants

### **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 - Vowels

The vowel in parentheses only shows up as a distinct phoneme in Reef Na'vi. All the others are in both dialects.

### **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.

## 2.1.3 - Pseudovowels

The pseudovowel **rr** is a syllabic, trilled [r̩ː],, and **ll** is a syllabic [l̩ː].

## 2.1.4 - Syllable Structure

Na'vi has a strict but straightforward syllable structure.

* A syllable is permitted to have no onset consonant (i.e., it may start with a vowel).
* A syllable is permitted to have no coda consonant (i.e., it may end with a vowel).
* Any consonant may start a syllable.
* A consonant cluster of **f s ts** + **p t k px tx kx m n ng r l w y** may start a syllable (e.g., **tslam**, **ftu**).
* **P t k px tx kx ' m n l r ng** may occur in syllable-final position.
* **Ts f s h v z w y** may *not* occur in syllable-final position.
* There are no consonant clusters in syllable-final position.
* A syllable with a pseudovowel must start with a consonant or consonant cluster and must not have a final consonant; this plays a role in lenition (2.2.1) and the declension of nouns (3.1.1.1).

### **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 - Stress Accent

Every Na’vi word has at least one stress accent, which is not predictable. In a very few situations otherwise identical words may differ only by accent, such as **tute** *person* vs. **tute** *woman*.

**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 - Reef Na'vi

The reef Na'vi dialect has differences in both consonants and vowels from Forest Na'vi.

### **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].

Examples:

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**.

#### 2.1.6.1.1

When a word that ends with an ejective takes a suffix that starts with a vowel, the pronunciation of the ejective will adjust to the new syllable structure. For example, **'awkx** is [ʔawk'], with the ejective, but **'awkxit** is [ˈʔaw.git], with the voiced pronunciation.

### 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.

Examples:

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.

Examples:

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.

Examples:

## 2.1.7 - Spoken Alphabet

Except for **tìftang**, the glottal stop, the names of the phonemes encode information about how the sound is used. They also have unusual capitalization when written out:

### **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**.