I haven’t been to see Avatar and I don’t suppose I shall, but I have just learnt how to say ‘Hello’ to a Na’vi in his own language. It is Kaltxì. The difficult bit is the consonant spelled tx, which is an ejective.
I don’t want to go on about phonetics, because it is fearfully confusing without hearing the sounds. The much-derided Wikipedia has useful little recordings of the sound made by an ejective p, t, k, q and s. Anyway, ejective consonants, pronounced with a closed glottis, are not to be confused with clicks or indeed implosives.
In learning a new language, sounds such as these are jolly well the ones to learn first, or you’ll never get them, and you will remain lamely like an Englishman who cannot pronounce the Spanish jota (as in Juan, which is not ‘Wan’, whatever the radio sports reporters suggest).
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