Pronoms, pluriel et possessions

Les adjectifs ne sont pas la seule façon de décrire les noms. Dans ce chapitre, nous aborderons quelques autres outils permettant d'ajouter des informations : les pronoms, le pluriel et la possession.

Dans ce chapitre, nous allons répondre à ces questions:

  1. Qu'est-ce qu'un pronom ?
  2. Comment les Na'vis expriment-ils le pluriel ?
  3. Qu'est-ce que la lénition ?
  4. Comment les Na'vis expriment-ils la possession ?

1. « Qu'est-ce qu'un pronom ? »

Vous avez déjà vu et utilisé plusieurs pronoms sans vous en rendre compte. Un pronom est un type de nom spécial qui fait référence à une chose spécifique, mais qui, dans des contextes différents, signifie des choses différentes. Voici quelques exemples: « vous », « moi », « je », « lui » ou « elle ». Si je disais « vous » et que vous disiez "vous", nous ferions référence à des personnes spécifiques différentes, mais nous utilisons le même mot pour le faire.  

Puisque les pronoms font référence à une chose spécifique, ils ne prennent presque jamais d'adjectifs. Il serait bizarre de dire « le vous rouge ». Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire, le rouge ? Combien de « vous » y a-t-il ?! Il existe d'autres règles spéciales avec les pronoms qui seront bientôt abordées. Les pronoms Na'vi les plus courants sont les suivants :
oe
(pn.)
Je, moi
nga
(pn.)
tu
po
(pn.)
il/elle (non genré, troisième personne)
sno
(pn.)
soi-même
Pensez comme les Na'vi !
Po et sno n'ont pas de genre. Le Na'vi évite généralement d'indiquer le genre sauf si c'est absolument nécessaire et préfère les terms communs neutres en genre.
Les trois premiers (oe, nga et po) sont assez simples. Le dernier, sno, est un peu étranger au français. Il renvoie toujours au sujet lui-même. Nous couvrirons bientôt une utilisation plus logique de sno :
​
Neytiri yawne lu snor
Neytiri est aimée d'elle-même
po yawne lu snor
il/elle est aimé[e] de lui-même/d'elle-même
(Neytiri could be po)

Il existe un autre ensemble de pronoms, mais pour apprécier réellement leur élégance, nous devons d'abord expliquer le pluriel. 

2. « Comment les Na'vis expriment-ils le pluriel ? »

Le pluriel, comme vous le savez peut-être, c'est lorsqu'il y a plusieurs du même nom qui sont discutés en même temps. En français, un nom est mis au pluriel par l'ajout de -s, -x ou -aux en finale de mot pour indiquer qu'il y a deux ou plusieurs de quelque chose. Par exemple, « boîte » devient « boîtes ».

En Na'vi, le pluriel est un peu différent. Tout d'abord, ils reconnaissent trois types de nombres - 2, 3 et 4 ou plus. Ensuite, le pluriel est représenté par un préfixe au lieu d'un suffixe. 
1

utral
arbre
2
​me+
meutral
deux arbres
3
pxe+
pxeutral
trois arbres
4 ou plus
ay+
ayutral
arbres (4+)
Pensez comme les Na'vi !
Les Na'vis accordent plus d'importance aux proportions qu'à des chiffres précis. Un, deux et trois sont des montants sensiblement différents les uns par rapport aux autres, mais après 4, cela commence à être « beaucoup » et chaque addition représente un pourcentage plus petit de l'ensemble.
Il existe également un autre préfixe apparenté: fra-. Cela signifie « tous les » ou « chaque ». 
frautral
chaque arbre, tous les arbres

Vous remarquerez peut-être que les préfixes pluriels ont été répertoriés avec un + à la fin, alors que fra- a un -. C'est la troisième différence avec le pluriel en Na'vi : il peut changer le mot auquel il est rattaché. Les préfixes et les adpositions avec un + à la fin provoquent une lénition.
​​

3. "What is lenition?"

​Lenition is a changing of certain sounds caused by some prefixes. When a leniting prefix or adposition is put before a word that begins with a consonant, the consonant will sometimes change. This usually results in an easier to pronounce word, though these changes also make the plurals extra clear. 

Only certain consonants are affected by lenition. Fortunately the set of affected letters follow an easy to remember pattern.

1. If it is an ejective sound, replace it with its non-ejective counterpart
KX » K
PX ​» P
TX ​» T
2. ​If the sound has an ejective counterpart, soften the sound
K ​» H
P ​» F
T or TS ​» S
3. ​Tìftang (‘) disappears completely (unless before LL or RR)
' ​»  
In the previous example with the word utral, the word was not modified for lenition because the letter U does not fall under any of these categories. However, if we used a word like payoang, it would be affected by lenition.
​
payoang
​fish
mefayoang
​two fish
pxefayoang
three fish
ayfayoang
​4+ fish

Because we so often use the 4+ prefix and Na’vi loves saving syllables whenever possible, the general plural prefix (ay+) has a special rule. If ay+ would cause lenition, the prefix can be optionally dropped. The lenited consonant must still remain, though. Otherwise we’d have no idea it was pluralized!

kxetse
​tail
ayketse
​4+ tails
ketse
4+ tails

​There is one last exception. If tìftang (‘) is followed by a pseudovowel (LL or RR), it is not lenited. This is because pseudovowels cannot lead a syllable.

'rrpxom
​thunder
pxe'rrpxom
three thunders

Na’vi plurality is intertwined with the pronouns we covered earlier in an elegant way. In English, the group pronoun “we” is extremely context sensitive. One cannot always immediately determine if “we” includes the listener or not. Na’vi makes this very clear. This is called inclusivity- it establishes who is included (or excluded) in the group pronoun.

Consider the word oeng. This is a combination of oe and nga. Me + you =  oe + nga. This form of “we” includes both the speaker and listener. This can be extended to pxoeng and ayoeng for 3 and 4+ individuals, including both the speaker and listener. Another word for ayoeng is awnga, which is a contraction of ay+, oe, and nga.
Think like the Na’vi!
When oeng or ayoeng have a case ending, the a in nga returns: oengal, ayoengat, and so on. Be careful to not write "oengìl"!
​If you don’t want to include the listener, you can use moe. This derives from me+ and oe, literally “two me(s)”. You can similarly say pxoe and ayoe for 3 or 4+ others. This is when you are saying “we”, as in “me and someone else, not you”. Notice the lack of nga!

The same goes for nga- it becomes menga, literally “two you(s)”- you and someone else (but not me.) Similarly, nga can be extended to pxenga and aynga. All of these are for groups that include the listener, but not the speaker- there is no oe!

And finally, as you may expect, we can apply this to po as well (though be careful with lenition!). These forms are mefo, pxefo, and ayfo. Since the ay+ causes lenition, ayfo is usually just fo. This obviously excludes both the speaker and listener. You can even apply fra- here, to create frapo - “everyone”.

As for sno, it is never pluralized, since it always refers back to a previously described (and already pluralized) noun.
​
pxesaronyu snoru srung si
the three hunters help themselves
(It is implied that sno refers to the pxesaronyu)
​

4. "How does Na'vi express possession?"

Possession is a way of describing one noun as belonging to or being a part of another.  For example, “Neytiri’s knife” is referring to a specific knife- the one that Neytiri has. In English, this sometimes takes the form “[thing] of [owner]”, for example “branch of a tree” = "tree's branch"

The possessive relationship uses the genitive case ending. The “owner” of the relationship takes this case ending. Like the others, it takes different forms depending on the word it is attached to. 
  • -ä if the word ends in a consonant (including LL and RR), U, or O
  • -yä on everything else
​
tstal Neytiriyä
Neyitiri’s knife
Neytiriyä tstal
Neyitiri’s knife
ultralä vul
branch of tree
vul ultralä
branch of tree

​There are two exceptions to this rule that only come up in a small number of cases. First, if the word ends in -ia, the a at the end becomes ä. Second, there's a strange interaction with the word Omatikaya (the clan name), which may be the result of a currently unspecified pattern.

tìpe'un soaiä
the family's decision
aungiä ral
the omen's meaning
Omatikayaä hapxì
member of the Omatikaya

​The genitive case behaves differently when attached to a pronoun. If a pronoun ends in a vowel, that vowel is replaced with an e. Then as before, because it ends in an e, the -yä ending is used.

oe » oeyä

tsko oeyä
my bow
nga » ngeyä

​​säfpìl ngeyä
your idea
po » peyä
​
​peyä wutso
his/her meal
sno » sneyä
​
sneyä samsä’o
their own weapons

​Because possession describes a noun, the owner must be near the noun it modifies, but can come before or after. Similar to adjectives, If it wasn’t near the noun it was describing, it would be hard to tell who owns what! 

While the genitive behaves like an adjective in many ways, it is not a true adjective. For instance, it does not take up an adjective slot. 

ngeyä spuwina tsko atun
​your previous, red bow

​Genitives can also be chained together. It’s best to work starting from the noun and moving outwards to avoid ambiguity.

​oeyä sempulä tsko
my father’s bow
tsko sempulä oeyä
​my father’s bow​
From the Film! 
Jake rallies the Omatikaya people to help him in uniting the clans.

Tsu’tey (Translating):

fìtsenge lu awngeyä!
This place is ours!
Speaking of ambiguity, be careful with the placement of the genitive. With adjectives, we could place them between two nouns because the a-connector pointed us towards the noun being described. But with the genitive, we cannot do this! There is nothing indicating which noun is being described!
​
yerikìl awin syuveti yom
the fast hexapede eats food
yerikìl oeyä syuveti yom
my hexapede eats food -or- ​hexapede eats my food?

​Fortunately, due to flexible word order, you can always arrange your sentences in a way where there is no ambiguity.
​
oeyä yerikìl syuveti yom
my hexapede eats food
yerikìl syuveti oeyä yom
​hexapede eats my food

Finally, we mentioned the pronoun sno earlier. The most common usage of this pronoun is with the genitive case, referring back to the subject. 
​
Neytiril tstalit sneyä Tsyeykur tìng
Neytiri gives her knife to Jake

​In this situation we do not use peyä. Instead, peyä is how we reference possession by someone who isn’t the subject. 

Neytiril tstalit peyä Tsyeykur tìng
Neytiri gives (someone else's) knife to Jake

In Summary

1. What's a pronoun?
A pronoun is a noun that refers to a specific thing, but the exact thing being referenced depends on the situation. They rarely take adjectives.

Pronouns can be combined with plurality prefixes to describe groups. Na’vi groups specify inclusivity: whether the speaker or listener are included in the group or not.

2. How does Na'vi express plurality?
Na’vi has 3 kinds of plurality, and employs prefixes to indicate plurality.​
me+
two (dual)
pxe+
​three (trial)
ay+
four+ (general or unknown)
​Additionally, fra- can be used to say “all <noun>” or “every <noun>”.

3. What is lenition?
A softening or changing  of sounds. Prefixes marked with a + cause lenition.
​KX » K
TX » T
PX » P
K » H
P » F
​T/TS »S
​‘ » [  ]
​If the ay+ prefix causes lenition, it can be optionally dropped while leaving the lenited sound.

4. How does Na'vi express possession?
The genitive case ending -(y)ä. Works for “X’s” and “X of Y” relations.
  • -ä is used if the word ends in a consonant, u, or o.
  • -yä is used on everything else.
  • -a → -ä in cases where the noun ends in ia, aya, or eya
Pronouns are modified, where the final vowel becomes an e.
The genitive can be chained to establish complex relationships.
Be careful with genitive placement to not create ambiguity.
NA'VI AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
Lu- the Most Misunderstood Word
Commands and Negation