""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."
"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.""
Paul Frommer developed the Na'vi language after meeting James Cameron in 2005 and accepting the job following a 90-minute conversation. Cameron required a language that sounded "nice" while remaining learnable by actors without electronic voice manipulation. Frommer constructed the language from linguistic modules, focusing on phonetics and phonology to shape sounds and omissions that give the language its distinct flavor. He incorporated features such as ejective consonants and assumed Na'vi vocal production is essentially equivalent to human vocal abilities so Na'vi speakers could produce sounds found in human languages.
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