MOVIES: ‘Avatar’ – How the Na’vi language was constructed

In ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ Zoe Saldana (left) portrays Neytiri and Sam Worthington is Jake Sully – Image: 20th Century Studios/AP Photo/picture alliance

Very few people get to invent a new language that is heard by millions: DW talked to linguist Paul Frommer about how he developed the “Avatar” aliens’ language.

“It’s been quite a remarkable event in my life,” says linguist Paul Frommer, recalling his first encounter with James Cameron.

Searching for someone to develop a constructed language for a science-fiction film, the renowned director had sent an email to the linguistics department of the University of Southern California.

In his application for the job, Frommer convincingly expressed his enthusiasm for the challenge.

“Welcome aboard,” Cameron told the doctor in linguistics at the end of their first 90-minute talk in 2005.

“My life really hasn’t been the same ever since,” Frommer tells DW ahead of the release of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third film of the epic franchise, 20 years later.

Creating an unusual language

Cameron’s premise for the language was that it should sound “nice” — “of course, that’s a subjective kind of thing,” says Frommer. It also had to be easy enough for actors to learn it, as it was clear from the start that there wouldn’t be any electronic manipulation of the characters’ voices.

“So the underlying assumption was that the Na’vi have a vocal production mechanism that’s essentially equivalent to ours, so they can make the sounds that we can in human language.”

Even though there are different aspects of Na’vi that can be compared to other languages, it can’t be directly linked to any single one. “I wanted to make it unusual,” says Frommer.

A language ‘on steroids’

Describing the process of developing the language, Frommer refers to the different “modules” used in linguistics — the building blocks he worked with.

First of all, at the core of a language are its phonetics and phonology, or its “sounds and the sound system,” he explains.

The sounds that are omitted from the language are just as important as the ones that are included, points out Frommer, “because that gives it its specific flavor.”

He included, for example, ejective sounds — popping sounds that can be heard in parts of Africa, Asia and Native American languages. He also included unusual combinations of consonants in the language, basically “taking familiar sounds, but putting them together in unfamiliar ways.”

Linguist Paul Frommer at the Hollywood premiere of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ – Image: Britton Watkins

Then, Frommer determined the language’s morphology, which is how words are built: “That takes a certain amount of creativity,” he says. Even though he was inspired by constructions that also exist in other human languages, he “took certain things and put them on steroids.”

For example, there are five levels of verb conjugation: the present, the immediate past, the distant past, the immediate future and the distant future.

Word order is also very flexible in sentences. The function of a word in Na’vi is not determined by its placement in a sentence, but through declension, with six different cases. The German language, by comparison, has four grammatical cases — nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object) and genitive (possession).

Then there’s the whole question of coming up with the vocabulary. “That in a way is maybe the most artistic part of the process,” says the linguist. The words had to fit in the frame of the language, but the way Frommer came up with new terms was simply by “playing around with words” and seeing how they roll in the mouth.

Varang (played by Oona Chaplin) is the leader of an aggressive Na’vi clan called the ‘Ash People,’ who survived volcanic devastation – Image: 20th Century Studios/AP Photo/picture alliance

Giving thought to each word

With each film in the franchise, new colloquialisms and dialects are developed to reflect the way the different Na’vi clans speak. The vocabulary thereby keeps expanding, and Frommer estimates there are now more than 3,000 Na’vi-language words.

With this vocabulary, Frommer explains, you can already discuss all types of human experiences in terms of relationships and everyday activities.

Na’vi doesn’t cover technical or scientific fields, but “you can get your message across even if you don’t have a lot of nuance at this point.”

By comparison, there are approximately 600,000 word forms in the Oxford English dictionary, and an educated native speaker might know around 40,000 words.

The closing song on the ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ soundtrack is sung in Na’vi by Zoe Saldana who plays Neytiri – Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney/AP Photo/picture alliance

In the two decades since the first “Avatar” film was produced, AI has appeared as a powerful new tool. But even though large language models could presumably spit out countless new Na’vi words that would follow Frommer’s rules, the linguist says he’d “rather go more slowly and just give each word its own thought and make sure that it just feels right to me.”

Na’vi enthusiasts can also suggest new terms through a platform called the Lexical Expansion Project. But the linguist has the final say on new additions: “I am still the only gatekeeper.”

Finding a special community

Fans of “Star Trek” or J.R.R. Tolkien‘s “Lord of the Rings” famously demonstrate their enthusiasm for these complex fictional universes by learning Klingon or Elvish, which are also constructed languages — or “conlangs.”

Similarly, there is now a community of Na’vi learners around the world, with a printed dictionary and a wealth of online resources for those who are interested in the language.

“I’m not going to tell you it’s thousands of people, but it’s a fairly decent-sized community,” says Frommer. The two countries with the strongest interest in Na’vi are the United States and Germany, he adds.

To find out what motivated these people to devote so much time and effort into learning the constructed language, a Canadian linguistic anthropologist, Christine Schreyer, researched the community of Na’vi learners.

She found that some of them are obsessed with the movie; they perhaps even wish they could visit Pandora, the films’ fictional planet. Learning the language spoken there is their way of connecting to that world.

Fans find connection to the film by learning Na’vi. Seen here are Lo’ak (left) played by Britain Dalton and Tsireya played by Bailey Bass – Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney/AP Photo/picture alliance

Some are motivated by the linguistics aspect of Na’vi, since it’s an absolutely new and unusual language to learn.

Another motivational factor is that it’s comparatively easy to become one of the world’s top experts in the language.

And then, there are others who just want to use it to express their creativity.

Like so many other niche hobbies, those who learn Na’vi have created “a place where they can get together and meet other like-minded people.” Frommer is grateful for all the connections and deep friendships he has developed through this ongoing project.

Or to quote a classic Na’vi sentence, people in this community can say to each other: “Oel ngati kameie.” That means “I see you” — or more specifically, “I understand you deeply.”

(DW.com/NAN 27-12-25)

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