Now there is another language other then Klingon to learn these days. Na’vian. From the Na’vi tribe in Avatar. Something you will not catch me doing. But then again if someone tics you off in Walmart and you curse back at them in Klingonese or in the tongue of Na’vi it could be fun watching their expression on their faces as they try to undersand what the heck you just said.
The Na’vi language was conceived by director of the Center for Management Communication at USC and the co-author of a linguistics textbook Paul Frommer, who Cameron recruited for this project. He offered a couple of ideas of base languages like Chinese and Mayan or Native American which Cameron chose the Native American tone. Frommer said that ;

The overall effect has been called “Afro-Polynesian-Native American.” That description might suggest that the language parallels the enviro-panentheisticphilosophy expressed by the Na’vi – just as the guttural tones of Klingon parallel that culture’s martial bent.

There was a whole building process that had to be done and the actors had to learn the new language. It was really interesting to learn how it was done and what went into it. You can read the full MNBC article (see the clip below for the link) for more on how that was done.

How to Speak Avatar

(Complete Story at MNBC/Cosmiclog)

Ayftozä lefpom ayngaru nìwotx! That’s “Happy Holidays to You All” in Na’vi, the language that was created for the sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar.” The professor who made up that phrase as well as all the alien dialogue in the movie hopes Na’vi does as well as Klingon, another fictional alien tongue that has taken on a life of its own. But for now, that’s out of his hands.

“I have an in-box that’s amazingly full,” linguist Paul Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, told me today. “They’re all asking the same thing: ‘Where can I learn this language?’ I’m getting messages from all over the globe. The thing is, I don’t own the rights to the language.”