#i know i’ve made a tìftang post before but i see so many kat'nul type names on here I felt the need to make another one 😅

[nattikay]

How to use tìftang (the apostrophe thing) when naming your Na'vi OC

The most important thing to note here is that tìftang is not decorative!! It’s not just there to make words/names look cool! It’s a consonant and represents an actual sound (specifically a “glottal stop”, aka that little catch in the back of your throat when you say “uh-oh”). Adding tìftang to your OC’s name will affect the pronunciation of said name.

When using tìftang in your OC’s name, you want to make sure it’s next to at least one vowel (a, ä, i, ì, e, u, o) or diphthong (ay, aw, ey, ew).

✅ Ka'ul ✅ Ka'nul ✅ Kat'ul

It CANNOT go between two consonants—this is a VERY common mistake!!

🚫 Kat'nul This is not pronounceable! It’s like having a character whose name is meant to be pronounced “Bob” or “Jimmy” but for some reason spelling it “Bokb” or “Jimtmy”.

The reason for this is Na'vi syllable structure. Tìftang can start or end a syllable, but it cannot go in the middle of a syllable, because it cannot cluster with other consonants.

For practical examples of what that means, let’s look back at the previous examples:

Ka'ul can break down into either [ka'][ul] or [ka]['ul], so tìftang is either ends the first syllable, or begins second syllable.

Ka'nul breaks down into [ka'][nul]; tìftang ends the first syllable.

Kat'ul breaks down into [kat]['ul]; tìftang begins the second syllable.

So what about Kat'nul? There are a few ways to break it down, and none of them work. [kat'][nul] and [kat]['nul] are both invalid because, while the tìftang is at the end/beginning of the syllable like in the other examples, it’s clustering with t or n. Remember that tìftang cannot cluster with other consonants!

The other way to break it down—and probably the way most people unfamiliar with Na'vi would be thinking—would be [kat]'[nul], with the intended pronounced syllables just being “kat” and “nul” with the tìftang thrown in to look cool and alien. This doesn’t work because again, tìftang is not decorative! It is a letter with a sound (one that’s not even really physically possible to pronounce properly between a t and n even without the syllable rules), not a punctuation! Kat'nul-pronounced-Katnul the Na'vi is just Jimtmy-pronounced-Jimmy the human. Just spell it Katnul!

Speaking of clustering, here’s another mistake I see sometimes (though a little less commonly):

🚫 K'atnul

This is also not pronounceable, because while yes the tìftang is next to a vowel, within its syllable it’s clustering with k. Remember that tìftang can only begin or end a syllable; it can’t go in the middle of one like [k'at]!!

Now, here’s a quick thing to be aware of. Remember earlier on I mentioned that tìftang must go next to a vowel or diphthong? Let’s talk about diphthongs real quick:

A diphthong is what you get when two vowels merge into a single sound. Na'vi has four of them. They are written ay (a+i), aw (a+u), ey (e+i), and ew (e+u). That said, you could have a names like these:

✅ Kaw'nul ✅ Key'nul

…but not like these:

🚫 Kow'nul 🚫 Kuy'nul

Why does the first set work but not the second? Because in the first set, the w and y are not standalone consonants, but rather part of the aw and ey diphthongs. In the second set, however, ow and uy are not diphthongs, so the w and y are regular consonants, which means Kow'nul and Kuy'nul don’t work for the same reason as Kat'nul: tìftang cannot go between two consonants. (changing the spellings to Kou'nul and Kui'nul would work, however!)

tl;dr - to assess whether you are using tìftang correctly in your OC name, ask yourself three questions:

1.) Is it next to at least one vowel (a, ä, i, ì, e, u, o) or diphthong (ay, aw, ey, ew)? ✅ Ka'ul ✅ Ka'nul ✅ Kat'ul ✅ Kaw'nul 🚫 Kat'nul 🚫 Kow'nul

2.) Does it begin/end its syllable? ✅ [ka'][nul] ✅ [kat]['ul] 🚫 [k'a][nul]

3.) Is it clustering with other consonants? 🚫 [kat'][nul] 🚫 [k'at][nul]

If your answers are yes, yes, and no, in that order, then congrats!! You have used tìftang correctly!

If your answer is no to the first two or yes to the third, you can fix it one of three ways:

Move the tìftang to a valid position: 🚫 K'anul -> ✅ Ka'nul

Remove the tìftang completely: 🚫 Kat'nul -> ✅ Katnul

Add a vowel: 🚫 Kat'nul -> ✅ Kate'nul, ✅ Kat'enul 🚫 K'atnul -> ✅ Kì'atnul 🚫 Kow'nul -> ✅ Kowa'nul

Now go forth and tìftang responsibly! :D

#i know i’ve made a tìftang post before but i see so many kat'nul type names on here I felt the need to make another one 😅 #avatar #na'vi #lì'fya leNa'vi #avatar oc #na'vi oc #oh wait shoot I forgot to mention psuedovowels (rr and ll)…meh well…I don’t see people try to use those in names much anyways #probably not worth adding a whole section here lol #maybe I’ll make a brief addendum later #basically: a syllable that uses a pseudovowel can start with tìftang (example: ✅ ['rr] ✅ ['ll]) #but it CANNOT end with tìftang (or any other consonant for that matter) (example: 🚫[rr'] 🚫[ll'])