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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Na'Vi: a new language constructed for the film Avatar
Guest
1
2009/12/18 - 6:25am

Even though it's brand new and constructed, it appears the linguist throws in some spelling and morphological anomalies. Where is the new-language smell? What ever happened to fantasy?

The movie features dazzling special effects, blue aliens, and a brand new language called Na'Vi, which features clicks, glottal stops and unique ways of conjugating verbs, and was created by University of Southern California professor Paul Frommer.

Na'Vi

Guest
2
2010/01/12 - 9:56am

I love this. What fun it must be to invent ones own language. 🙂

I actually did this myself in the 8th grade as a way to communicate among geeky friends while excluding bullies from reading our notes. Sadly, my copy of the dictionary was destroyed (by bullies) & the language died. That was about 35 years ago.

Guest
3
2010/01/12 - 11:07am

Darrell said:

What fun it must be to invent ones own language. 🙂


Not always fun. If you haven't read Arika Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages, I recommend it.

Guest
4
2010/01/30 - 1:29am

What fun it must be to invent ones own language.

Not always fun …

If not fun, it could be at least funny:

Roger Ebert / January 1, 1981

Selections from Caveman Basic, a word guide that was handed
to patrons as they entered the theater to see Caveman:
AIEE: Help! Save me!
ALOONDA: Affection, desire.
BO-BO: Man, friend, human.
CA-CA: Excrement.
FECH: Bad, no good, ugly
GWEE: To go.
HARAKA: Fire, burning thing.
KUDA: Come here, where are we now this way right here.
MA: Me, myself
MACHA: Wild animal, beast, non-human.
NYA: No, none, not happening, negative.
OOL: Food.
POOKA: Hurt, injured, messed up no good.
WHOP: Stop whoa, hold it!
ZUG-ZUG: Sexual intercourse.

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