Learn how to speak Na’vi
Paul Frommer, a former professor at the University of Southern California, created Navi Conran, an invented language intended for human communication. Cameron memorably quoted the language when he won his second Golden Globe for Best Director in 2010, translating what he said as, “I see you, brothers and sisters.”
To align with Prime Minister Cameron’s vision, “the Na’vi language had to be completely new,” Frommer told Campfire Writing in 2024. “It had to sound ‘nice’ and it had to be consistent with the 30-odd words he had already come up with, mostly character and animal names.”
It had to be a language that humans could actually learn, like the people in the movie. And since Mr. Frommer knew that not many people would see Avatar, he said, “We wanted to make sure it was interesting and unusual and would stand up to intense scrutiny.”
The professor said he had created a workbook that included “word-for-word gloss and English-style ‘audio’ transcriptions that some actors found useful.” “But the key tool was the MP3 recordings that we could download and use for practice.”
He then coached them directly, “tweaking the pronunciation and making sure the intonation of the sentences was appropriate. Several times, the natural sounds the actors came up with became a standard battle cry. And on one occasion, the actors unconsciously coined a new word.”
