nattikay - Tumblr blog

[nattikay]

haha a conversation on Discord reminded me of this so uh update woo

Re-reading that commentary for the first time in seven years, though, I want to amend my statement that "natural talent" doesn't exist...I don't think I agree with that anymore. I think some people do have a natural aptitude for drawing or other artistic endeavors (or for any number of other things of course but this post is about art), and those people will find learning about art stuff to be more intuitive than people who don't have that aptitude.

BUT!! This natural aptitude is not synonymous with skill, which is the point my past self was trying to make. No one starts out skilled, not even those with natural aptitude or "talent" for it, and even people who lack a natural aptitude can become skilled if they work hard enough. Everyone has to put in work to hone their craft; for some people yes this honing will come more easily than for others, but that doesn't mean there wasn't work involved. I think that's why some artists, such as 2017 me, get frustrated by people calling their skills "natural talent", even if they really do have an artistic aptitude, because while it's intended as a compliment, it can feel like undermining or not recognizing the often years' worth of work they've put in to developing their skills.

That's also why I personally still prefer to call good artists "skilled" rather than "talented". But I'm less bothered by other people calling it "talent" now. Some people do have a natural aptitude for drawing and hey that's really cool, that some people have that gift! And isn't it also cool that some people have natural aptitudes for singing or dancing or cooking or electronics or engineering or math or science or philosophy or sports or any number of other things! Isn't it so cool how we all have unique gifts and yes it takes work and practice and effort to make use of that gift and turn it into skill and yes that is worth acknowledging and respecting...but I no longer think that makes it wrong to also hold some appreciation for "talents" and how cool it is that people have them.

The idea of being just “naturally talented” at drawing is a myth. No one is born knowing how to draw. Now, some people might be more naturally predisposed to want to draw than others, and some may improve faster than others, but the skill itself is always learned.

So if you, a young and/or beginning artist (heck, or an old experienced artist) look at other people’s work and lament because you aren’t as good, pardon my bluntness, but shut up and GO DRAW. As a friend of mine would say, never not do the draw! You WILL improve in time…but only if you practice.

Happy New Year to all, and here’s hoping for some great strides in our art this year.

[nattikay]

doodled my DnD party!

[nattikay]

Hello, thanks for the tag! No, I don’t think it’s required to be a warrior, or even necessarily a hunter. They become one of the People when they complete the Iknimaya and/or Uniltaron rituals, but that’s not necessarily synonymous with becoming a warrior specifically, and what exactly is involved in an “Iknimaya” varies from clan to clan. Obviously the clan does need a lot of hunters, but there are other ways to contribute too. Healing, gathering, weaving, crafting, cooking, washing, etc. And of course I’m sure most Na'vi do several of those things to at least some degree, but it doesn’t mean that everyone has to do everything; like, if there’s an individual who happens to be a poor hunter but really good at crafting, I don’t see why they couldn’t just be primarily an artisan and not really hunt.

That said, no, I don’t think disabled individuals would “never be part of the clan” or be seen as “just a burden”. They might need to contribute differently but that doesn’t mean they can’t contribute at all, and for a culture that values interconnectedness, deep spiritual understanding others, and the sanctity of all life, the idea that they’d see the disabled as nothing more than a burden feels….off 😅

Such things could also vary from clan to clan of course. For example, the Tipani clan emphasizes being fierce warriors, while the Tawkami specialize in botany. So an individual who struggles to hunt or fight would have a tougher time if they were born into the Tipani than the Tawkami.

But on the whole, I think the only disability I could see being a Big Deal socially for a Na'vi would be if there was something wrong with their kuru which prevents them from connecting to Eywa. That biological connection is such a massive part of Na'vi culture and spirituality that I could imagine others being very wary of such an individual, or viewing it as some sort of curse (especially if it takes a toll on their mental stability as it does with the ferals in FoP).

Speaking of disabled Na'vi, an interesting thought I had a while ago is whether a blind Na'vi could have a seeing-eye animal companion through tsaheylu. Like if they had a little bonded creature perched on their shoulders, would the tsaheylu connection allow them to “see” through its eyes?

As for another random topic to chat about, if you want more, here’s something I’ve been wondering: is olo'eyktan actually a hereditary position? The fandom certainly seems to assume so, with how much talk there is about Neteyam being the “future leader of the Omatikaya” and/or Aonung being the “future leader of the Metkayina”, but is there any canon source that actually says they’re in line for those titles? Because while we have at least three canon examples of the role of tsahìk passed from mother to daughter—Mo'at and Sylwanin/Neytiri, Ronal and Tsireya, and Etuwa and her mother—I don’t think we’ve ever officially seen that for olo'eyktan. The past four leaders of the Omatikaya—Eytukan, Tsu'tey, Jake, and Tarsem—have not been related at all (as far as we know; I guess it’s technically possible that Tarsem could be someone’s cousin or smth but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Plus there’s the fact that some clans, such as the Omatikaya, prefer their tsahìk and olo'eyktan to be a mated pair. This is not universal of course—the Zeswa are led by a pair of sisters—but it does mean that in the Omatikaya and other clans with similar traditions, the leaders prooooobably aren’t gonna be a sibling pair. Which means their kids could inherit one of their titles but not both. And since we have several examples of tsahìk being hereditary but none for olo'eyktan, I’m gonna assume that olo'eyktan is not typically hereditary.

…which, yes fanfic writers, means that Neteyam was probably never “future olo'eyktan” to begin with. sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let's chat about avatar

Any topic, I mean any (except for sexual maybe I think there's enough simping in this fandom already lol)

I can start if you want

For example, I always wondered, is it required for a na'vi to be a warrior? Like yeah, they only become one of the people when they become a warrior, or do they? Can you be just a gatherer and just chill, raise kids, weave? If not, it must mean that every na'vi is a warrior, even Mo'at is a warrior, and she has an ikran! And it also mean, that if you were born disabled, you will never be part of the clan, and just a burden for you people.

[nattikay]

NattiKay fursuit 3.0: digitigrade edition is in the works 👀 still in the planning/materials gathering stage atm but hoping to start on the actual work within the next week or so. If all goes according to plan she should be ready in time for AWU in a few months!

NattiKay 1.0 was made in 2017, followed shortly by 2.0 in 2018. I'd wanted a digi suit even back then but I was new to fursuit making and figured digitigrade might be a bit above my level, so I stuck with plantigrade. Welp, since then I've upgraded almost every part of 2.0 at least once (at this point it's probably more like 2.7 or smth lol)...EXCEPT for the wings and bodysuit, which is still that same plantigrade one I made in 2018, so it's been in use for nearly six years now. The most recent upgrade was her current head, which was...I think two years ago?

SOOO...after getting inspired by seeing some of @happyfoxx-art's WIPs, I've decided...it's finally time. No more 2.2, 2.5, 2.8. It's time for 3.0!! Gonna make every single part fresh!! And finally gonna try to upgrade to digi style legs!! Been wanting to for years and now the time is right!!

I'm a little apprehensive because I know it's gonna be a ton of work and I'm wary of getting burnt out (has happened before, usually because of rushing to finish before a con) but I am DETERMINED to pace myself and take my time and do it RIGHT even if that means slow. I'm starting early enough that there should still be plenty of time to get it done before AWU without feeling rushed, and if I'm gonna put in all the time effort to make a whole new suit from scratch instead of just a replacement here and there I want it to look GOOD. Been looking up tons of tips and tutorials and such and definitely hype! I'm trying to temper my expectations because of course my execution is not gonna be pro level BUT there's definitely a lot of potential and it should at least be decent!!

I will admit I'm "cheating" with the head by using a premade base this time though. Found a really adorable expanding-foam-cast one for sale and I'm hoping the fact that it'll be all smooth and symmetrical will help with the furring, especially around where the muzzle connects to the head, which is a spot I've always struggled with sculpting and furring in the past. And I suppose if I end up not liking it for whatever reason I could always go back and sculpt my own anyways. We shall see!

[nattikay]

thank you @beautyofattolia for this adorable mental image, i just HAD to turn it into an image image uwu

[nattikay]

correct, and I am obligated to remind everyone that Jake Sully flew out to an alien planet nearly six light years away, tamed what is essentially a dragon there, and named it after his old cat

It’s National Pet Day so I’m obligated to say that Jake Sully boops Bob’s snoot and gives him belly rubs.

[nattikay]

😅 fek'ui is not a word; this says “I [gibberish] us thanks”.

To say “I see you, thank you” in Na'vi, you would say oel ngati kame, irayo (or you can replace kame with tse'a if you mean see literally/physically rather than see spiritually).

If you’re looking for the words she was actually saying in this scene, it was oeru txoa livu, ma oeyä tsmukan (“forgive me, my brother”)

“Oe fek’ui ayoeng irayo. (I see you, thank you.)” x2

[nattikay]

pardon the spam i was going absolutely bonkers badonkers with photo mode today

[nattikay]

pulled an RDA beeper out of this fella and now we are best friends :)

[nattikay]

two small things!

One, ma is what's called a vocative marker: it's a particle used when addressing someone directly. Think of it kinda like a verbal @. So if you were talking directly to Teylan, you might say, "hello ma Teylan, how are you today?" But if you were talking about Teylan to someone else, you would not use ma. So it's a little odd to use it to label a photo 😅

I assume you were going for "my beloved friend"? The word for "my" is actually oeyä 🙂

Two, when attaching adjectives to nouns, you append an a to the adjective to "point at" the noun it's describing! So "beloved friend" would be either yawnea 'eylan or 'eylan ayawne (it doesn't matter which order they go in; whichever one sounds nicer to you) 🙂

Instant photo of Teylan (⁠｡⁠♡⁠‿⁠♡⁠｡⁠)

[nattikay]

As a woman who does martial arts in a class of mostly men, OP is correct. While I am equal to the men in my class in terms of skill and technique, and even outclass most of them in flexibility, in terms of raw strength any of them could out-muscle me easily, including the teenagers, the elderly, and the beginners (I’m a black belt). Does this mean I’m totally screwed and have no hope of ever defending myself in a real-world situation? No, but it does put me at a disadvantage.

I don’t say this to disparage myself or other women, I say it simply because it’s true. Acknowledging truth is not sexist, but dismissing it can be dangerous.

Deeply concerned by the number of people (especially women) who genuinely believe that women and men have the same capacity for physical strength

and who think you’re being sexist if you point out that they don’t

ma’am the only one equating physical strength with innate value here is you

it’s concerning that you think strength has anything to do with value

and if the men in your life ever stop being decent you are setting yourself up to be in so much more danger

[nattikay]

What a cool shot! Love how the leaves frame it to make her look hidden 😄

although, tìfnu is a noun, not an adjective! In fact, Na'vi doesn't actually have an adjective for "quiet" (at least, not one that can be used people). So to say "quiet hunter" you'd probably want to use the verb fnu, which means to be quiet: taronyu a fnu ("hunter who is quiet") 🙂

Tìnfu Taryonu - quiet hunter

[nattikay]

game: how many feathers u want?

me: yes

[nattikay]

they all look so incredibly unimpressed by his story lol

also tfw u try to help with camp guard duty but the other guards are just judging u so hard 😩

...anyways, camp at night

[nattikay]

oh yeah and here's what the monster word sounds like lol

so in my previous post the other day I mentioned in the tags that I recently saw an OC name that was a string of five consonants followed by a single vowel and was baffled on how it was meant to be pronounced. I’m not going to say what the name was because I don’t want the person to feel called out—this post is not meant to be a criticism nor tutorial/lesson nor rant—just pure autistic rambling about this silly little interest of mine.

anyways, that name got me thinking: how many consonants could you put next to each other in a Na'vi word/name while still being phonetically valid? Well, I guess that depends on whether you’re counting by phonemes or letters.

First let’s go very briefly over basic Na'vi syllable structure: every syllable must contain one vowel or diphthong or pseudovowel. The syllable may optionally start and/or end with a consonant. Up to two consonants can cluster at the beginning of the syllable (there are some more specific rules for this but we’ll save that for later), but not at the end. Here’s some examples (remember that tìftang (') is considered a consonant):

taron - [ta][ron] ikran - [ik][ran] 'itan - ['i][tan] oare - [o][a][re] snafpìlfya - [sna][fpìl][fya]

Based on these rules, under the right conditions (a syllable that ends in a consonant followed by a syllable that begins with a cluster) you can string up to three consonants together and still be valid (note that you need at least two syllables to do this! The string of lfy in snafpìlfya works because the l and the fy belong to separate syllables! You would not be able to have all three together like that in a single syllable.)

BUT! What if instead of counting by phoneme, we count by letter? Let’s talk about something called digraphs. A digraph is when two letters are used to represent a single phoneme. For example, in English, th is a digraph: it’s not a t-sound and an h-sound right next to each other, but rather its own unique sound.

Na'vi uses a total of 11 digraphs: the consonants kx, px, tx, ts, and ng; the diphthongs ay, aw, ey, and ew; and the pseudovowels rr and ll. Sometimes the letters used in these digraphs can also be used separately (for example, with ts, both t and s are valid on their own), but sometimes they can’t—x is NEVER used outside of kx/px/tx, and g is never used outside of ng in the forest dialect (it can stand on its own in the reef dialect though, as long as it’s at the beginning of a syllable).

Let’s look at some more examples, but this time with words that use digraphs:

nantang - [nan][tang] tskxekeng - [tskxe][keng] flrrtsawl - [flrr][tsawl]

More specifically, let’s compare the words fnan and skxawng. Both these words have the same number of phonemes: f-n-a-n and s-kx-aw-ng, but because skxawng uses almost nothing by digraphs, it has nearly twice the letters! The only way to make it longer would be to replace that first s with a ts, thus giving you the longest possible syllable in terms of letters (tskxawng).

Why specifically ts instead of one of the other digraphs? Well, I mentioned briefly before that there are rules on how consonants are allowed to cluster, so let’s go over those real quick:

If you want to start your syllable with a single consonant, you can use any consonant you want. But if you want to start your syllable with a cluster, the first phoneme MUST be f, s, or ts (yes only those three), and the second phoneme MUST be l, k, kx, m, n, ng, p, px, t, tx, w, or y. The second phoneme cannot be f, h, s, ts, v, z, or tìftang. So for example:

fmi works, but not pmi tskxe works, but not ngkxe stawm works, but not ktawm flrr works, but not fvrr fngap works, but not ftsap syaw works, but not s'aw

Now, while any single consonant can start a syllable, only certain consonants are allowed to end one (and remember, clustering can only happen at the start, not the end).

The consonants that can end a syllable are: k, kx, l, m, n, ng, p, px, r, t, tx, and tìftang.

The consonants that cannot end a syllable are: f, s, ts, h, v, w, y, and z. So for example:

Tul works, but not tuz Kin works, but not kif Zup works, but not zuh Srung works, but not sruts Pam works, but not pas

Now, remember that this is for individual syllables. A word can have multiple syllables. Sruts is not a valid syllable, but something srutsen could still be a valid word because it is two syllables: [sru][tsen]

You might also see syllables like maw or pay that look like they end in w or y, but these still work because remember that the w and y in these words are not standalone consonants but part of the diphthong digraphs; the phoneme breakdown is not m-a-w but rather m-aw. So, maw works but not mow, pay works but not puy, etc.

There are also some special rules for pseudovowels. If you use a vowel or diphthong, starting and/or ending your syllable with a consonant is optional: a, ma, mak, ak, ey, mey, meyk, and eyk are all valid syllables.

But if you use a pseudovowel instead, the syllable MUST start with a consonant (remember that tìftang counts as a consonant) but CANNOT end with one. So 'rr, mrr, wll, etc. are valid, but not rr, srrk, plln, etc.

SO! With all that in mind! How are we gonna create our consonant monster word? We know that it’s gonna be impossible to have more than three consonant phonemes strung together, but we can mess around to get a whole lot more individual letters.

We’re gonna want to use as many digraphs as we can, so we’ll want to use either diphthongs or peusdovowels in the vowel slots. Syllables with pseudovowels can’t end in additional consonants so let’s use a diphthong for the first syllable, but diphthongs are spelled with a vowel first so let’s use a pseudovowel for the second syllable.

We’ll want a cluster at the beginning of the second syllable, and let’s use ts as the first phoneme since that’s the only digraph allowed in that position.

The beginning of the first syllable doesn’t really matter because there’ll be a vowel breaking up the chain anyways, but let’s digraph-cluster that one too just for the heck of it to make the word even more cursed. Let’s go ahead and tack a third syllable on the end as well, a short single-vowel one, because why not.

That leaves us with something like:

Tskxayngtsngrra

string of y-n-g-t-s-n-g-r-r, nine “consonant” letters in a row!! (albeit still only three consonant phonemes: ng-ts-ng). Syllable breakdown is [tskxayng][tsngrr][a].

absolute hot mess, but still technically valid! 🙃 lol

[nattikay]

Sure, here's what they sound like!

small note: I chose the stresses randomly; since these are names you're making up, you'd be welcome to switch the stress to the other syllable (for example, POsä instead of poSÄ) if you think it sounds better; it's entirely up to you! 🙂

This question has come up a lot so I decided to make a post about it :)