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Lots of hype recently about Avatar, but without a doubt one of the coolest things is the fact that Cameron commissioned the creation of a language for the inhabitants of his planet.

Here, LangaugeLog takes a look at how it was constructed. Fascinating and a little surreal.

Phonetics and Phonology

Na’vi has 20 consonants, 7 vowels, 4 diphthongs, and 2 syllabic “pseudovowels,” rr and ll.

1. Consonants

The consonants are (in the “official” Na’vi transcription):

Ejectives: px tx kx
Voiceless Stops: p t k ’
Affricate: ts
Voiceless fricatives: f s h
Voiced fricatives: v z
Nasals: m n ng
Liquids: r, l
Glides: w y
Note the following:

The red consonants can occur as the first element of a syllable-initial consonant cluster.
The blue consonants can occur in syllable-final position.