揭秘《阿凡達》納美人外星語言誕生之謎
科幻大片《阿凡達》已經在1月4日正式引進中國大陸，隨之而來的觀影熱潮前所未有，影片中外星人的語言相信大家必定很好奇，導演詹姆斯卡梅隆為提升《阿凡達》故事真實性，找到語言學家，專為納美人創造了一種自己的語言。南加州大學的語言學教授Paul Frommer就是那個創造納美語的人。
The linguistics expert from the University of Southern California isthe brains behind the language used by James Cameron\'s 10-foot-tallalien tribe in the much-anticipated science fiction epic, Avatar。
"Jim Cameron\'s production department at Lightstorm Entertainment was looking for a linguist that would be able to help him develop an alienlanguage," explains Professor Frommer。
"At that time, it wasn\'teven called Avatar - it was project 880 - but the e-mail was forwarded to me and I saw it and jumped on it. I was very excited about it. Aweek or two later I was called in for a talk." The language enthusiast managed to persuade Cameron that he was the man to create afunctioning language for a story the director had dreamt up a decadeearlier. "I spent a wonderful 90-minutes with Jim and at the end of it he shook my hand and said \'welcome aboard,\'" says Professor Frommer。
《泰坦尼克號》大導演詹姆斯卡梅隆新作《AVATAR》(阿凡達/化身)中的主角便是潘多拉星球上的納美外星人。為提升故事真實性，詹姆斯卡梅隆甚至找到語言學家，專為納美人創造了一種自己的語言。
南加州大學的語言學教授PaulFrommer就是那個創造納美語的人。據稱，當時他收到了卡梅隆Lightstorm工作室的郵件，稱一個名叫“Project880”的電影計劃正在尋找語言學家幫助開發一種外星人語言。前去應征的他和導演本人暢談了90分鐘后，卡梅隆與他握手說到：“歡迎加入。”
The pair worked together for four years to develop the Na\'vi language。
The director had already come up with about thirty words, for the characters\' names and body parts. But he was looking to the professor to give the language an authentic but exotic feel。
Crucially, it had to be a language that could be articulated。
"This is an alien language but obviously it has to be spoken by human actors," explains Professor Frommer。
"It has to be sounds that human beings are comfortable producing."
It is a unique language, with its own syntactic and grammatical rules。
It screator says some of Cameron\'s original words had "a vaguely Polynesianfeel". Others have suggested that it sounds like German or Japanese。
此后，Frommer教授和卡梅隆花了四年時間，一起創造了納美語。導演在創意之初，腦中就已經有了大約三十個納美語單詞的設想，Frommer將其擴展出一套完整的語言，聽起來即有異星球情調，又有真實感，還有可讀可記。Frommer教授表示：“這雖然是一種外星語言，但仍然需要人類演員來演繹，因此必須要容易發音。”納美語有自己的語法、句法，最初的那些單詞聽起來有夏威夷波利尼西亞語的感覺，也有人覺得它們聽起來像德語或日語。
As well as creating the language, Professor Frommer taught the actors how to speak it。
"I met with each of the seven principal actors who use the language before hand. I helped them with the pronunciation, we broke things down。
"I also created some sound files, MP3 files. I guess some of them downloaded them onto their iPods so they could listen to them at thegym."
在影片拍攝的過程中，Frommer一直在攝制組中，教導扮演外星人的7位主要演員講納美語。他還將發音錄成MP3，讓演員們可以在閑暇時邊聽邊學。
The language currently runs to about a thousand words. It does not have ahuge vocabulary, but Professor Frommer is still working at it. He isalso still trying to master his own language。
"I wish I could speak it fluently," he says. "As for who atthis point understands the grammar and such, I think probably I\'m theonly one. I wish that eventually that might not be the case." In fact, one day, Professor Frommer hopes Na\'vi will match Klingon, as the "gold standard" alien language. "There\'s a translation of Hamlet into Klingon," says Professor Frommer. "There are Klingon clubs that meet all over the world. There are a very dedicated group of people who meet and try to speak it. "If anything happened like this with Na\'vi I\'d be delighted."
截至目前，納美語共有大約1000個單詞，全球能夠掌握其語法的人只有Frommer一人，而且就算他本人也仍然在學習如何更流暢的說納美語。不過，他并不打算就此結束，而是要繼續鉆研下去，爭取借電影上映的東風讓這種語言發揚光大，目標是比拼“克林貢語”(《星際迷航》中的外星語言，也是除了世界語之外最完善的人造語言，甚至Google搜索都有克林貢語版本。)
Frommer教授稱：“你可以找到克林貢語譯本的哈姆雷特，全球也有大量的克林貢語俱樂部。如果納美語也能發展到這樣的地步，我肯定會非常高興。”
科幻大片《阿凡達》已經在1月4日正式引進中國大陸，隨之而來的觀影熱潮前所未有，影片中外星人的語言相信大家必定很好奇，導演詹姆斯卡梅隆為提升《阿凡達》故事真實性，找到語言學家，專為納美人創造了一種自己的語言。南加州大學的語言學教授Paul Frommer就是那個創造納美語的人。
The linguistics expert from the University of Southern California isthe brains behind the language used by James Cameron\'s 10-foot-tallalien tribe in the much-anticipated science fiction epic, Avatar。
"Jim Cameron\'s production department at Lightstorm Entertainment was looking for a linguist that would be able to help him develop an alienlanguage," explains Professor Frommer。
"At that time, it wasn\'teven called Avatar - it was project 880 - but the e-mail was forwarded to me and I saw it and jumped on it. I was very excited about it. Aweek or two later I was called in for a talk." The language enthusiast managed to persuade Cameron that he was the man to create afunctioning language for a story the director had dreamt up a decadeearlier. "I spent a wonderful 90-minutes with Jim and at the end of it he shook my hand and said \'welcome aboard,\'" says Professor Frommer。
《泰坦尼克號》大導演詹姆斯卡梅隆新作《AVATAR》(阿凡達/化身)中的主角便是潘多拉星球上的納美外星人。為提升故事真實性，詹姆斯卡梅隆甚至找到語言學家，專為納美人創造了一種自己的語言。
南加州大學的語言學教授PaulFrommer就是那個創造納美語的人。據稱，當時他收到了卡梅隆Lightstorm工作室的郵件，稱一個名叫“Project880”的電影計劃正在尋找語言學家幫助開發一種外星人語言。前去應征的他和導演本人暢談了90分鐘后，卡梅隆與他握手說到：“歡迎加入。”
The pair worked together for four years to develop the Na\'vi language。
The director had already come up with about thirty words, for the characters\' names and body parts. But he was looking to the professor to give the language an authentic but exotic feel。
Crucially, it had to be a language that could be articulated。
"This is an alien language but obviously it has to be spoken by human actors," explains Professor Frommer。
"It has to be sounds that human beings are comfortable producing."
It is a unique language, with its own syntactic and grammatical rules。
It screator says some of Cameron\'s original words had "a vaguely Polynesianfeel". Others have suggested that it sounds like German or Japanese。
此后，Frommer教授和卡梅隆花了四年時間，一起創造了納美語。導演在創意之初，腦中就已經有了大約三十個納美語單詞的設想，Frommer將其擴展出一套完整的語言，聽起來即有異星球情調，又有真實感，還有可讀可記。Frommer教授表示：“這雖然是一種外星語言，但仍然需要人類演員來演繹，因此必須要容易發音。”納美語有自己的語法、句法，最初的那些單詞聽起來有夏威夷波利尼西亞語的感覺，也有人覺得它們聽起來像德語或日語。
As well as creating the language, Professor Frommer taught the actors how to speak it。
"I met with each of the seven principal actors who use the language before hand. I helped them with the pronunciation, we broke things down。
"I also created some sound files, MP3 files. I guess some of them downloaded them onto their iPods so they could listen to them at thegym."
在影片拍攝的過程中，Frommer一直在攝制組中，教導扮演外星人的7位主要演員講納美語。他還將發音錄成MP3，讓演員們可以在閑暇時邊聽邊學。
The language currently runs to about a thousand words. It does not have ahuge vocabulary, but Professor Frommer is still working at it. He isalso still trying to master his own language。
"I wish I could speak it fluently," he says. "As for who atthis point understands the grammar and such, I think probably I\'m theonly one. I wish that eventually that might not be the case." In fact, one day, Professor Frommer hopes Na\'vi will match Klingon, as the "gold standard" alien language. "There\'s a translation of Hamlet into Klingon," says Professor Frommer. "There are Klingon clubs that meet all over the world. There are a very dedicated group of people who meet and try to speak it. "If anything happened like this with Na\'vi I\'d be delighted."
截至目前，納美語共有大約1000個單詞，全球能夠掌握其語法的人只有Frommer一人，而且就算他本人也仍然在學習如何更流暢的說納美語。不過，他并不打算就此結束，而是要繼續鉆研下去，爭取借電影上映的東風讓這種語言發揚光大，目標是比拼“克林貢語”(《星際迷航》中的外星語言，也是除了世界語之外最完善的人造語言，甚至Google搜索都有克林貢語版本。)
Frommer教授稱：“你可以找到克林貢語譯本的哈姆雷特，全球也有大量的克林貢語俱樂部。如果納美語也能發展到這樣的地步，我肯定會非常高興。”
