14 DAY TRIAL // James Cameron spent at least the past 12 years of his life working on his biggest pet project ever, a film that even he refers to as a massive “ego trip,” the upcoming “Avatar.” Dealing with the story of an alien civilization whose planet is being plundered by humans for its vast natural resources, the film also features the alien tongue the Na’vi, created by Professor Paul Frommer of the University of Southern California.
Speaking with the BBC just recently on how it was like to be asked on board of the most ambitious cinema project in recent years, Frommer admits the task at hand was not easy: but the opportunity was too wonderful to just pass by. He and Cameron, a director famed (or, better said, infamous) for being able to yell different commands to the production staff at the same time, worked for 4 years to develop the Na’vi language, which comes with its own vocabulary and grammar rules.
“Jim Cameron’s production department at Lightstorm Entertainment was looking for a linguist that would be able to help him develop an alien language. At that time, it wasn’t even 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. A week or two later I was called in for a talk,” Prof. Frommer says.
He met with the director and spent a whole hour talking about what he was looking for in the language of the Na’vi, the tall aliens inhabiting planet Pandora. Cameron wanted a language that was both unlike any other and as exotic as possible, so they both started from scratch and created. Those who’ve already seen the film (meaning, movie critics since the worldwide premiere is this Friday, December 18) say the Na’vi tongue has accents of German and Japanese in it, which is completely understandably, Prof. Frommer explains.
“I met with each of the seven principal actors who use the language beforehand. 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 the gym. I gave them quite a challenge. I wish I could speak it fluently,” Prof. Frommer says of Na’vi, which now counts about 1,000 words. “As for who at this point understands the grammar and such, I think probably I’m the only one. I wish that eventually that might not be the case,” he adds, expressing his hope that, one day, the Na’vi will be as popular as Klingon, which even includes a translation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”