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{{Infobox language
|name     = Naʼvi
|nativename = ''Lìʼfya leNaʼvi''
|pronunciation = ˈnaʔvi
|pronunciation_key = IPA
|creator     = [[w:Paul Frommer|Paul Frommer]]
|created     = 2005
|setting     = ''[[w:Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar]]''
|scripts     = [[w:Latin script|Latin script]]
|familycolor = Constructed language
|fam1     = [[constructed language]]s
|fam2     = [[artistic language]]s
|fam3     = [[fictional language]]s
|posteriori = [[constructed language]]s<br />&nbsp;[[a priori (languages)|a priori languages]]
|iso3     = none
|linglist = 08n
|glotto   = none
|notice   = IPA
}}
The '''Naʼvi language''' (Naʼvi: ''{{lang|art|Lìʼfya leNaʼvi}}'') is the [[constructed language]] of the [[Naʼvi]], the [[w:Sapience|sapient]] [[w:Humanoid|humanoid]] [[w:Indigenous peoples|indigenous]] inhabitants of the fictional moon Pandora in the 2009 film [[w:Avatar (2009 film)|''Avatar'']]. It was created by [[w:Paul Frommer|Paul Frommer]], a professor at the [[w:University of Southern California|USC]] [[w:USC Marshall School of Business|Marshall School of Business]] with a doctorate in [[w:Linguistics|linguistics]]. Naʼvi was designed to fit [[w:James Cameron|James Cameron]]'s conception of what the language should sound like in the film, to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not closely resemble any single human language.

When the film was released in 2009, Naʼvi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding of its grammar was limited to the language's creator.<ref name="www.npr.org">{{Cite web| title = Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar' Aliens : NPR | url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121350582 | access-date = 16 December 2009 }}</ref> However, this has changed subsequently as Frommer has expanded the lexicon to more than 2600 words<ref name="www.dict-navi.com">{{Cite web| title = DictNa'vi Online Dictionary | url = http://dict-navi.com| access-date = 30 June 2020 }}</ref> and has published the grammar, thus making Naʼvi a relatively complete, learnable and serviceable language.

==Roots==
The Naʼvi language has its origins in James Cameron's early work on ''Avatar''.  In 2005, while the film was still in [[scriptment]] form, Cameron felt it needed a complete, consistent language for the alien characters to speak.  He had written approximately thirty words for this [[alien language]] but wanted a linguist to create the language in full.  His production company, [[Lightstorm Entertainment]], contacted the linguistics department at the [[University of Southern California]] seeking someone who would be interested in creating such a language. Edward Finegan, a professor of linguistics at USC, thought that the project would appeal to Paul Frommer, with whom he had co-authored a linguistics textbook, and so forwarded Lightstorm's inquiry on to him.  Frommer and Cameron met to discuss the director's vision for the language and its use in the film; at the end of the meeting, Cameron shook Frommer's hand and said "Welcome aboard."

Based on Cameron's initial list of words, which had a "Polynesian flavor" according to Frommer,<ref name=uso>{{Cite web|url=http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-alien.html |title=An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar |work=Unidentified Sound Object |first=Matteo |last=Milani |date=November 24, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010}}</ref> the linguist developed three different sets of meaningless words and phrases that conveyed a sense of what an alien language might sound like: one using [[Tone (linguistics)|contrasting tones]], one using [[Vowel length|varying vowel lengths]], and one using [[ejective consonant]]s.  Of the three, Cameron liked the sound of the ejectives most.  His choice established the [[phonology]] that Frommer would use in developing the rest of the Naʼvi language – [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[syntax]], and an initial [[Lexicon|vocabulary]] – a task that took six months.

==Development==
The Naʼvi vocabulary was created by Frommer as needed for the script of the movie. By the time [[Casting (performing arts)|casting]] for ''Avatar'' began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Naʼvi dialogue during auditions.  During [[Filmmaking#Production|shooting]] Frommer worked with the cast, helping them understand their Naʼvi dialogue and advising them on their Naʼvi [[pronunciation]], [[Stress (linguistics)|stress]], and [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]].  Actors would often make mistakes in speaking Naʼvi.  In some cases, those mistakes were plausibly explained as ones their human characters would make; in other cases, the mistakes were incorporated into the language.

Frommer expanded the vocabulary further in May 2009 when he worked on the [[James Cameron's Avatar: The Game|''Avatar'' video game]], which required Naʼvi words that had not been needed for the film script and thus had not yet been invented. Frommer also translated into Naʼvi four sets of song lyrics that had been written by Cameron in English, and he helped [[vocalist]]s with their pronunciation during the recording of [[James Horner]]'s [[Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture|''Avatar'' score]].  At the time of the film's release on December 18, 2009, the Naʼvi vocabulary consisted of approximately 1000 words.

Work on the Naʼvi language has continued even after the film's release.  Frommer is working on a compendium which he plans to deliver to [[20th Century Fox|Fox]] in the near future.<ref name=vf>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html |title=Brushing up on Na'vi, the Language of ''Avatar'' |journal=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |first=Julian |last=Sancton |date=December 1, 2009 |access-date=January 16, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108074609/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html |archive-date=January 8, 2010 }}</ref>  He hopes that the language will "have a life of its own,"<ref name=lat>{{Cite news|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/11/usc-professor-creates-alien-language-for-avatar.html |title=USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar' |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |first=Geoff |last=Boucher |date=November 20, 2009 |access-date=January 16, 2010}}</ref> and thinks it would be "wonderful" if the language developed a following.<ref name=uso /> Since then, it has developed a following, as is evident through the increasing learner community of the language.<ref name="ubc">{{Cite journal|date=July 28, 2011|title=Language of Avatar under study|url=https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2011/07/28/language-of-avatar-under-study/|journal=UBC Media Releases|access-date=October 25, 2011}}</ref> The community's Lexical Expansion Project, together with Frommer, has expanded the lexicon by more than 50 percent.

Frommer also maintains a blog, Na’viteri, where he regularly posts additions to the lexicon and clarifications on grammar. Naʼviteri has been the source of the vast majority of Naʼvi growth independent of Frommer's contract with 20th Century Fox.

==Structure and usage==

{{Refimprove section|date=August 2013}}

The Naʼvi language was developed under three significant constraints.  First, Cameron wanted the language to sound alien but pleasant and appealing to audiences.  Second, since the storyline included humans who have learned to speak the language, it had to be a language that humans could plausibly learn to speak.  And finally, the actors would have to be able to pronounce their Naʼvi dialogue without unreasonable difficulty.  The language in its final form contains several elements which are uncommon in human languages, such as [[Grammatical conjugation|verbal conjugation]] using [[infix]]es.  All Naʼvi linguistic elements are found in human languages, but the combination is unique.

===Phonology and orthography===
Naʼvi lacks [[voiced plosive]]s like {{IPAblink|b}} {{IPAblink|d}} {{IPAblink|ɡ}}, but has the [[ejective consonant]]s {{IPAblink|pʼ}} {{IPAblink|tʼ}} {{IPAblink|kʼ}}, which are spelled ''px, tx, kx.'' It also has the [[syllabic consonant]]s ''ll'' and ''rr''.  There are seven vowels, ''a ä e i ì o u.'' Although all the sounds were designed to be pronounceable by the human actors of the film, there are unusual [[consonant cluster]]s, as in ''fngap'' {{IPA-art|fŋap|}} "metal".<ref>[http://www.lexpress.to/archives/4560/ "Na'vi, la langue d'Avatar"], ''L'express,'' 1 December 2009</ref>

Naʼvi syllables may be as simple as a single vowel, or as complex as ''skxawng'' "moron" or ''fngap'' above (both [[consonant|C]]C[[vowel|V]]C).

The fictional language Naʼvi of Pandora is unwritten. However, the actual (studio) language is written in the [[Latin script]] for the actors of ''Avatar''. Some words include: ''zìsìt'' "year", ''fpeio'' "ceremonial challenge", ''’awve'' "first" (''’aw'' "one"), ''muiä'' "fair", ''tireaioang'' "spirit animal", ''tskxe'' "rock", ''kllpxìltu'' "territory", ''uniltìrantokx'' "avatar" (dream-walk-body).

====Vowels====
There are seven monophthong vowels:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Type !! front !! back
|-
!rowspan=2|High
|''i'' {{IPA|[i]}} || rowspan=2|''u'' {{IPA|[u]}} <br/>~ {{IPA|[ʊ]}}
|-
|''ì'' {{IPA|[ɪ]}}
|-
!Middle
|''e'' {{IPA|[ɛ]}} || ''o'' {{IPA|[o]}}
|-
!Low
|''ä'' {{IPA|[æ]}} || ''a'' {{IPA|[ɑ]}}
|}
There are additionally four [[Diphthong|diphthongs]]: aw [aw], ew [εw], ay [aj], ey [εj], and two syllabic consonants: ll [l̩] and rr [r̩], which mostly behave as vowels.

Note that the ''e'' is open-mid while the ''o'' is close-mid, and that there is no ''*oy.'' The ''rr'' is strongly [[Trill consonant|trill]]ed, and the ''ll'' is "light", never a "dark" ([[velarisation|velarized]]) {{IPA|*[ɫ̩]}}.

These vowels may [[hiatus (linguistics)|occur in sequences]], as in the [[Polynesian languages]], [[Swahili language|Swahili]], and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. Each vowel counts as a syllable, so that ''tsaleioae'' has six syllables, {{IPA|[tsa.lɛ.i.o.a.e]}}, and ''meoauniaea'' has eight, {{IPA|[mɛ.o.a.u.ni.a.ɛ.a]}}.

Naʼvi does not have vowel length or tone, but it does have contrastive [[stress (phonetics)|stress]]: ''túte'' "person", ''tuté'' "female person". Although stress may move with [[Derivation (linguistics)|derivation]], as here, it is not affected by [[inflection]] (case on nouns, tense on verbs, etc.). So, for example, the verb ''lu'' ("to be") has stress on its only vowel, the ''u,'' and no matter what else happens to it, the stress stays on that vowel: ''lolú'' "was" (''l{{angle bracket|ol}}u''), ''lolängú'' "was (ugh!)" (''l{{angle bracket|ol}}{{angle bracket|äng}}u''), etc.

====Consonants====
There are twenty consonants. There are two Latin transcriptions: one that more closely approaches the ideal of one letter per [[phoneme]], with the ''c'' and ''g'' for {{IPA|[ts]}} and {{IPA|[ŋ]}} (the values they have in much of Eastern Europe and Polynesia, respectively), and a modified transcription used for the actors, with the digraphs ''ts'' and ''ng'' used for those sounds. In both transcriptions, the [[ejective consonant]]s are written with digraphs in ''x,'' a convention that appears to have no external inspiration, but could potentially be inspired by the Esperanto convention of writing ''x'' as a stand-in for the circumflex.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Type
! [[labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[ejective consonant|Ejective]]
| ''px'' {{IPA|[pʼ]}}
| ''tx'' {{IPA|[tʼ]}}
|
| ''kx'' {{IPA|[kʼ]}}
|
|-
! [[plosive consonant|Plosive]]
| ''p'' {{IPA|[p]}}
| ''t'' {{IPA|[t]}}
|
| ''k'' {{IPA|[k]}}
| ''ʼ'' {{IPA|[ʔ]}}
|-
! [[Affricate]]
|
| ''ts (c)'' {{IPA|[ts]}}
|
|
|
|-
! [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| ''f'' [f]<br/>''v'' {{IPA|[v]}}
| ''s'' [s]<br/>''z'' {{IPA|[z]}}
|
|
| ''h'' {{IPA|[h]}}
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| ''m'' {{IPA|[m]}}
| ''n'' {{IPA|[n]}}
|
| ''ng (g)'' {{IPA|[ŋ]}}
|
|-
! [[Approximant consonant|Liquid/glide]]
| ''w'' {{IPA|[w]}}
| ''ɾ'' {{IPA|[ɾ]}}<br/>''l'' {{IPA|[l]}}
| ''y'' {{IPA|[j]}}
|
|
|}

The fricatives and the affricate, ''f v ts s z h'', are restricted to the onset of a syllable; the others may occur at the beginning or at the end (though ''w y'' in final position are considered parts of diphthongs, as they only occur as ''ay ey aw ew'' and may be followed by another final consonant, as in ''skxawng'' "moron"). However, in addition to appearing before vowels, ''f ts s'' may form [[consonant cluster]]s with any of the unrestricted consonants (the [[plosive]]s and [[approximant|liquids/glides]]) apart from ''’'', making for 39 clusters. Other sequences occur across syllable boundaries, such as ''Naʼvi'' {{IPA|[naʔ.vi]}} and ''ikran'' {{IPA|[ik.ɾan]}} "banshee".

The plosives ''p t k'' are [[tenuis consonant|tenuis]], as in Spanish or French. In final position, they have [[no audible release]], as in [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]] and other languages of Southeast Asia, as well as in many dialects of English in words such as "bat". The ''r'' is [[flap consonant|flapped]], as in Spanish and Indonesian; it sounds a bit like the ''tt'' or ''dd'' in the American pronunciation of the words ''latter / ladder''.

====Sound change====
The plosives undergo [[lenition]] after certain [[prefix]]es and [[preposition]]s. The ejective consonants ''px tx kx'' become the corresponding plosives ''p t k''; the plosives and affricate ''p t ts k'' become the corresponding fricatives ''f s h''; and the glottal stop ''’'' disappears entirely. For example, the plural form of ''po'' "s/he" is ''ayfo'' "they", with the ''p'' weakening into an ''f'' after the prefix ''ay-.''

Lenition has its own significance when the plural prefix can optionally be omitted. In the above example, ''ayfo'' can be shortened to ''fo''. Similarly, the plural of ''tsmukan'' "brother" can be ''smukan'' (from ''aysmukan'').

===Grammar===
{{main|Na'vi grammar}}

Naʼvi has [[free word order]]. For example, the English "I see you" (a common greeting in Naʼvi), can be as follows in Naʼvi:

''Oel ngati kameie''

''Ngati oel kameie''

''Oel kameie ngati''

All forms of "I see you" in Naʼvi are completely correct. As sentences become more complex though, some words, like adjectives and negatives, will have to stay in a more or less fixed position in the sentence, depending on what the adjective or negative is describing.

"Today is a good day"

''Fìtrr lu sìltsana trr''

''Sìltsana trr fìtrr lu''

In this case, the adjective ''sìltsan(a)'' (good) will need to stay with the noun ''trr'' (day), therefore limiting the sentence to fewer combinations on the construction of the sentence, but as long as it follows or precedes the noun, the sentence is fine. By putting the attributive ''a'' before the adjective, the adjective can be put after the noun:

''Fìtrr lu trr asìltsan''

More information about this can be found in the ''Adjectives'' section.

====Nouns====
Nouns in Naʼvi show greater [[grammatical number|number]] distinctions than those in most human languages do: besides [[singular number|singular]] and [[plural number|plural]], they not only have special [[Dual (grammatical number)|dual]] forms for two of an item (eyes, hands, lovers, etc.), which are common in human language (English has a remnant in "both"), but also [[trial number|trial]] forms for three of an item, which on Earth are only found with pronouns. Gender is only occasionally (and optionally) marked.

The plural prefix is ''ay+,'' and the dual is ''me+.'' Both trigger lenition (indicated by the "+" signs rather than the hyphens that usually mark prefix boundaries). In nouns which undergo lenition, the plural prefix may be dropped, so the plural of ''tokx'' "body" is either ''aysokx'' or just ''sokx.''

[[gender (language)|Masculine and feminine]] nouns may be distinguished by suffix. There are no articles (words for "a" or "the").

Nouns are declined for [[grammatical case|case]] in a [[tripartite language|tripartite]] system, which is rare among human languages. In a tripartite system, there are distinct forms for the object of a clause, as in "he kicks <u>the ball</u>"; the agent of a [[transitivity (grammatical category)|transitive]] clause which has such an object, as in "<u>he</u> kicks the ball"; and the subject of an intransitive clause, which does not have an object, as in "<u>he</u> runs". An object is marked with the [[accusative case|accusative]] suffix ''-ti,'' and an agent with the [[ergative case|ergative]] suffix ''-l'', while an [[intransitive case|intransitive subject]] has no case suffix. The use of such case forms leaves the [[word order]] of Naʼvi largely free.

There are two other cases—[[genitive case|genitive]] in ''-yä'', [[dative case|dative]] in ''-ru''—as well as a [[topic marker]] ''-ri''. The latter is used to introduce the topic of the clause, and is somewhat equivalent to Japanese ''wa'' and the much less common English "as for". It preempts the case of the noun: that is, when a noun is made topical, usually at the beginning of the clause, it takes the ''-ri'' suffix rather than the case suffix one would expect from its grammatical role. For example, in,

:{|
|-
|''Oe-ri''||''ontu''||''teya''||''l{{angle bracket|äng}}u''
|-
|I-[[topic marker|{{sc|top}}]]||nose||full||be{{angle bracket|[[Pejorative|{{sc|pej}}]]}}
|}
:"My nose is full (of his distasteful smell)", lit. "As for me, (my) nose is full"; since the topic is "I", the subject "nose" is associated with "me": That is, it's understood to be "my nose". "Nose" itself is unmarked for case, as it's the subject of the intransitive verb "to be". However, in most cases the genitive marker -yä is used for this purpose.

Besides case, the role of a noun in a clause may be indicated with [[adposition]]s. Any adposition may occur as either as a [[preposition]] before the noun, or as an [[enclitic]] after the noun, a greater degree of freedom than English allows. For example, "with you" may be either ''hu nga'' or ''ngahu''. When used as enclitics, they are much like the numerous cases found in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] and [[Finnish language|Finnish]]. When used as prepositions, more along the lines of what English does, certain of them trigger lenition. One of the leniting prepositions is ''mì'' "in", as in ''mì sokx'' "in the body". This may cause some ambiguity with short plurals: ''mì sokx'' could also be short for ''mì aysokx'' "in the bodies".<ref>When ''mì'' is used as an enclitic, however, the noun is not lenited: ''tokxmì'' "in the body", ''sokxmì'' "in the bodies".</ref>

Naʼvi pronouns encode [[clusivity]]. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the speaker is including his/her addressee or not. There are also special forms for "the two of us" (with or without the addressee), "the three of us", etc. They do not inflect for gender; although it is possible to distinguish "he" from "she", the distinction is optional.

The deferential forms of "I" and "you" are ''ohe'' and ''ngenga''. Possessive forms include ''ngeyä'' "your" and ''peyä'' "her/his". "He" and "she" can optionally be differentiated as ''poan'' and ''poé''.

The grammatical distinctions made by nouns are also made by pronouns.

====Adjectives====
Naʼvi [[adjective]]s are uninflected—that is, they do not agree with the noun they modify—and may occur either before or after the noun. They are marked by a syllable ''a'', which is attached on the side closest to the noun. For example, "a long river" can be expressed either as,

:{|
|-
|''ngim-a''||''kilvan''
|-
|long-[[Attributive adjective|{{sc|attr}}]]||river
|}

or as,

:{|
|-
|''kilvan''||''a-ngim''
|-
|river||[[Attributive adjective|{{sc|attr}}]]-long
|}

The free word order holds for all attributives: Genitives (possessives) and [[relative clause]]s can also either precede or follow the noun they modify. The latter especially allows for great freedom of expression.

The [[attributive adjective|attributive]] affix ''a-'' is only used when an adjective modifies a noun. [[predicative adjective|Predicative]] adjectives instead take the "be" verb ''lu'':

:{|
|-
|''kilvan''||''ngim''||''lu''
|-
|river||long||be
|}
:"The river is long"

====Verbs====
Verbs are conjugated for [[grammatical tense|tense]] and [[grammatical aspect|aspect]], but not for [[grammatical person|person]]. That is, they record distinctions like "I am, I was, I would", but not like "I am, we are, s/he is". Conjugation relies exclusively on [[infix]]es, which are like suffixes but go inside the verb. "To hunt", for example, is ''taron'', but "hunted" is ''t{{angle bracket|ol}}aron'', with the infix ''{{angle bracket|ol}}''.

There are two positions for infixes: after the onset (optional consonant(s)) of the [[penult|penultimate syllable]], and after the onset of the final syllable. Because many Na’vi verbs have two syllables, these commonly occur on the first and last syllable. In monosyllabic words like ''lu'' "be", they both appear after the initial onset, keeping their relative order.

The first infix position is taken by infixes for tense, aspect, mood, or combinations thereof; also appearing in this position are [[participle]], [[reflexive verb|reflexive]], and [[causative]] forms, the latter two of which may co-occur with a tense/aspect/mood infix by preceding it. Tenses are [[past tense|past]], recent past, present (unmarked), [[future tense|future]], and immediate future; aspects are [[perfective aspect|perfective]] (completed or contained) and [[imperfective aspect|imperfective]] (ongoing or uncontained). The aspectual forms are not found in English but are somewhat like the distinction between 'having done' and 'was doing'.

:''taron'' [hunt] "hunts"
:''t{{angle bracket|ìm}}aron'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|rec}}}}] "just hunted"
:''t{{angle bracket|ay}}aron'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|fut}}}}] "will hunt"
:''t{{angle bracket|er}}aron'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|impv}}}}] "hunting"
:''t{{angle bracket|ol}}aron'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|pfv}}}}] "hunted"
:''t{{angle bracket|ì{{angle bracket|r}}m}}aron'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|rec}}{{angle bracket|{{sc|impv}}}}}}] "was just hunting"

Tense and aspect need not be marked when they can be understood by context or elsewhere in the sentence.

The second infix position is taken by infixes for [[affect (linguistics)|affect]] (speaker attitude, whether positive or negative) and for [[evidentiality]] (uncertainty or indirect knowledge). For example, in the greeting in the section on nouns, ''Oel ngati kameie'' "I See you", the verb ''kame'' "to See" is inflected positively as ''kam{{angle bracket|ei}}e'' to indicate the pleasure the speaker has in meeting you. In the subsequent sentence, ''Oeri ontu teya längu'' "My nose is full (of his smell)", however, the phrase ''teya lu'' "is full" is inflected pejoratively as ''teya l{{angle bracket|äng}}u'' to indicate the speaker's distaste at the experience. Examples with both infix positions filled:

:''t{{angle bracket|ìrm}}ar{{angle bracket|ei}}on'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|rec.impv}}}}{{angle bracket|{{sc|laud}}}}] "was just hunting": The speaker is happy about it, whether due to success or just the pleasure of the hunt
:''t{{angle bracket|ay}}ar{{angle bracket|äng}}on'' [hunt{{angle bracket|{{sc|fut}}}}{{angle bracket|{{sc|pej}}}}] "will hunt": The speaker is anxious about or bored by it

===Lexicon===
The Naʼvi language currently has over 2,600 words. These include a few English [[loan word]]s such as ''kunsìp'' "gunship". The complete dictionary, including the odd inflectional form, is available online at http://dict-navi.com. Additionally, the community of speakers is working with Dr. Frommer to further develop the language. Naʼvi is a very modular language and the total number of usable words far exceeds the 2,600 dictionary words. For example: ''rol'' "to sing" → ''tìrusol'' "the act of singing" or ''ngop'' "to create" → ''ngopyu'' "creator". Workarounds using existing words also abound in the Naʼvi corpus, such as ''eltu lefngap'' "metallic brain" for "computer" and ''palulukantsyìp'' "little thanator" for "cat".

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Wikinews|Elvish, Klingon and Na'vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film}}
* {{Cite news|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/11/usc-professor-creates-alien-language-for-avatar.html |title=USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar' |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |first=Geoff |last=Boucher |date=November 20, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1977 |title=Some highlights of Na'vi |first=Paul |last=Frommer |author-link=Paul Frommer |author2=Zimmer, Benjamin |work=Language Log |date=December 19, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010}}
* {{Cite web|url=http://usoproject.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-with-paul-frommer-alien.html |title=An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar |work=Unidentified Sound Object |first=Matteo |last=Milani |date=November 24, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010}}
* {{Cite journal|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html |title=Brushing up on Na'vi, the Language of ''Avatar'' |journal=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |first=Julian |last=Sancton |date=December 1, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100108074609/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/brushing-up-on-navi-the-language-of-avatar.html |archive-date=January 8, 2010 }}
* {{Cite book |title=James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora |publisher=!t (HarperCollins) |location=New York City |first=Maria |last=Wilhelm |author2=Mathison, Dirk |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-06-189675-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/avatarconfidenti00mari }}
* {{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html |title=Skxawng! |work=[[The New York Times]] |first=Benjamin |last=Zimmer |author-link=Benjamin Zimmer |date=December 4, 2009 |access-date=January 9, 2010}} This includes a sound recording of Frommer saying several phrases in Naʼvi.

==External links==
{{Portal|Language}}
{{Commons category|Na'vi language}}
{{wikibooks|Na'vi}}
* [http://naviteri.org Naviteri.org] - Paul Frommer's blog about the Naʼvi language
* [https://Kelutral.org Kelutral.org] - Modern resources, lessons, and community for learning the Na’vi Language.
* [http://dict-navi.com/en/ Dict-Na'vi.com] - Naʼvi/English online dictionary (multilingual)
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8409000/8409319.stm BBC interview from December 2009] in which Frommer recites part of the ''Hunt Song'' (0818 broadcast: 3'30")
* [http://learnnavi.org LearnNavi.org] - Provides a dictionary (multilingual), grammar guide, and more. 

{{James Cameron's Avatar}}
{{Constructed languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Na'vi Language}}
[[Category:Na'vi language| ]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Constructed languages introduced in the 2000s]]
[[Category:2005 introductions]]