Na'vi Language Translator

This Na'vi language translator started out as an AI tool, and I threw that version away. It got "I see you" right every time, then turned "my brother doesn't understand music" into Na'vi with the wrong ending on brother, the kind of slip a fan spots in a second. So this one has no AI in it. Canon phrases come out exactly the way Paul Frommer wrote them, and everything else is looked up word by word in a checked Na'vi word list.

How Do You Say I See You in Na'vi?

It's Oel ngati kameie. Break it apart. Oel is I, tagged as the one looking. Ngati is you, tagged as the one being looked at. Kameie is kame, to see into someone, with a fond little -ei- tucked inside. Neytiri and Jake trade it in the 2009 film, and it means a lot more than hi. Seeing a bus coming is tse'a, a different verb, and the tool uses that one when you type plain see.

Na'vi Phrases, Word by Word

Every phrase here is canon, from the film script, Frommer's Activist Survival Guide or his blog, Na'viteri. Type the English, get exactly this.

English	Na'vi	Word by word
Hello	Kaltxì	hello
I see you	Oel ngati kameie	I, you, see
I love you	Nga yawne lu oer	you, beloved, are, to me
How are you?	Ngaru lu fpom srak?	to you, is, wellbeing, yes or no?
Thank you	Irayo	thank you
Goodbye	Kìyevame	see you again soon
Eywa be with you	Eywa ngahu	Eywa, with you
Yes / No	Srane / Kehe	yes / no
Please	Rutxe	please
Sorry	Ngaytxoa	my apologies
Welcome	Zola'u nìprrte'	you have come, with pleasure
Don't worry	Ngari txe'lan mawey livu	as for you, heart, calm, may it be
Well done	Seysonìltsan	well done
Moron	Skxawng	moron
Forever	Tì'i'avay krrä	until the end, of time

Skxawng is the one people remember. Neytiri throws it at Jake more than once, and it's become the word fans use for anyone who walks into a tree. If you've ever walked into a glass door in front of people, that's the moment, and a Na'vi fan will happily shout it at you from across the room.

How to Say It Out Loud

Harder to read than to say, honestly. The ì? Same as the i in bit. The ä? The a in cat. That apostrophe is a sound too. It's the catch in the middle of uh-oh.

Then there are tx, kx and px. They aren't two letters. Each is one sharp sound, a t, k or p said with a little pop of air and no breath behind it. Linguists call these ejectives. Try kaltxì a few times and you'll hear it. Say it slowly in front of a mirror and you'll see your throat do a tiny jump right on the T, which is the whole trick. The stress goes on the second part, so it's kal-TXÌ.

Why I Dropped the AI

Na'vi marks who does what with endings, not word order. With a verb like tslam, to understand, the person doing it takes -l or -ìl and the thing understood takes -t or -ti. The AI kept forgetting the first ending. It also put the doer ending on "children" in "the children run," and running doesn't take that ending at all, so the sentence came out sounding like the kids were running something over. Three rounds of test sentences, and a few came back wrong every single time. I couldn't promise a fan it wouldn't happen to their tattoo. I wanted a page where every word that comes out can be looked up in the dictionary by anyone who doubts it, and the AI couldn't give me that.

So here's how the tool works now. A whole phrase it knows comes out word for word from canon. Everything else comes out as dictionary words in your order, plus a note saying the endings aren't on. No Na'vi word for pizza? Then it's <pizza>, in brackets, and nobody gets an invented word on their arm. Slower to read. Never wrong.

Pasting Na'vi in works too, off the same list. The words come from the Reykunyu dictionary, which keeps the source for every entry. The Reykunyu dictionary has the full grammar, plus audio of real speakers.

Klingon fan? There's a Klingon Translator. Tolkien? The Elvish Translator. Other made-up tongues wait on the translators page.

Na'vi, Answered

Is Na'vi a real language? Yes, a constructed one. Paul Frommer built it for James Cameron starting in 2005. He was teaching at USC's business school back then, and he still posts new words on his blog.

How do you say I love you in Na'vi? Nga yawne lu oer. Literally, you are beloved to me. Softer than the English version, if you ask me.

What does skxawng mean? Moron. It's Neytiri's favorite word for Jake early in the first film, and it's still the most quoted Na'vi insult.

How many words does Na'vi have? Over 3,000 entries in the dictionary now. The 2009 film had roughly a thousand. The sequels kept Frommer busy.

Can it translate English to Na'vi and Na'vi to English? Both ways. Type English, get canon Na'vi or dictionary words. Paste Na'vi, get English back, as a whole phrase if it knows one and word by word if it doesn't, with each word's meaning listed underneath so you can check it yourself.

How do you pronounce kaltxì? Kal-TIH. Give the T a little pop with no puff of breath, and lean on the second half.