Navajo language
Navajo | |
---|---|
Diné bizaad | |
Native to | United States |
Region | Navajo (2021) |
Native speakers | 170,000 (2019 census)[1] |
?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | nv |
ISO 639-2 | nav |
ISO 639-3 | nav |
Glottolog | nava1243 |
ELP | Diné Bizaad (Navajo) |
The Navajo Nation, where the language is most spoken | |
Navajo is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Navajo or Navaho (/ˈnævəhoʊ, ˈnɑːvə-/ NAV-ə-hoh, NAH-və-;[2] Navajo: Diné bizaad [tìnépìz̥ɑ̀ːt] or Naabeehó bizaad [nɑ̀ːpèːhópìz̥ɑ̀ːt]) is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America. Navajo is spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States, especially in the Navajo Nation. It is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages and is the most widely spoken north of the Mexico–United States border, with almost 170,000 Americans speaking Navajo at home as of 2011.
The language has struggled to keep a healthy speaker base, although this problem has been alleviated to some extent by extensive education programs in the Navajo Nation. In World War II, speakers of the Navajo language joined the military and developed a code for sending secret messages. These code talkers' messages are widely credited with saving many lives and winning some of the most decisive battles in the war.
Navajo has a fairly large phonemic inventory, including several consonants that are not found in English. Its four basic vowel qualities are distinguished for
The language's
Nomenclature
The word Navajo is an
Classification
Navajo is an Athabaskan language; Navajo and Apache languages make up the southernmost branch of the family. Most of the other Athabaskan languages are located in Alaska, northwestern Canada, and along the North American Pacific coast.
Most languages in the Athabaskan family have
Navajo is most closely related to Western Apache, with which it shares a similar tonal scheme[9] and more than 92 percent of its vocabulary, and to Chiricahua-Mescalero Apache.[10][11] It is estimated that the Apachean linguistic groups separated and became established as distinct societies, of which the Navajo were one, somewhere between 1300 and 1525. Navajo is generally considered mutually intelligible with all other Apachean languages.[12]
History
The Apachean languages of which Navajo is one, are thought to have arrived in the American Southwest from the north by 1500, probably passing through Alberta and Wyoming.[13][14] Archaeological finds considered to be proto-Navajo have been located in the far northern New Mexico around the La Plata, Animas and Pine rivers, dating to around 1500. In 1936, linguist Edward Sapir showed how the arrival of the Navajo people in the new arid climate among the corn agriculturalists of the Pueblo area was reflected in their language by tracing the changing meanings of words from Proto-Athabaskan to Navajo. For example, the word *dè:, which in Proto-Athabaskan meant "horn" and "dipper made from animal horn", in Navajo became a-deeʼ, which meant "gourd" or "dipper made from gourd". Likewise, the Proto-Athabaskan word *ł-yəx̣s "snow lies on the ground" in Navajo became yas "snow". Similarly, the Navajo word for "corn" is naadą́ą́ʼ, derived from two Proto-Athabaskan roots meaning "enemy" and "food", suggesting that the Navajo originally considered corn to be "food of the enemy" when they first arrived among the Pueblo people.[15][16]
During World Wars I and II, the U.S. government employed speakers of the Navajo language as
The code used Navajo words for each letter of the English alphabet. Messages could be encoded and decoded by using a
These Navajo code talkers are widely recognized for their contributions to WWII. Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division Signal Officer stated, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."[20]
Colonization
Navajo lands were initially colonized by the
Robert W. Young and William Morgan, who both worked for the Navajo Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, developed and published a practical orthography in 1937. It helped spread education among Navajo speakers.[24] In 1943 the men collaborated on The Navajo Language, a dictionary organized by the roots of the language.[25] In World War II, the United States military used speakers of Navajo as code talkers—to transmit top-secret military messages over telephone and radio in a code based on Navajo. The language was considered ideal because of its grammar, which differs strongly from that of German and Japanese, and because no published Navajo dictionaries existed at the time.[26]
By the 1960s, Indigenous languages of the United States had been declining in use for some time. Native American language use began to decline more quickly in this decade as paved roads were built and English-language radio was broadcast to tribal areas. Navajo was no exception, although its large speaker pool—larger than that of any other Native language in the United States—gave it more staying power than most.[27] Adding to the language's decline, federal acts passed in the 1950s to increase educational opportunities for Navajo children had resulted in pervasive use of English in their schools.[28]
In more recent years, the number of monolingual Navajo speakers have been in the decline, and most younger Navajo people are bilingual.[29] Near the 1990s, many Navajo children have little to no knowledge in Navajo language, only knowing English.[30]
Revitalization and current status
In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Bilingual Education Act, which provided funds for educating young students who are not native English speakers. The Act had mainly been intended for Spanish-speaking children—particularly Mexican Americans—but it applied to all recognized linguistic minorities. Many Native American tribes seized the chance to establish their own bilingual education programs. However, qualified teachers who were fluent in Native languages were scarce, and these programs were largely unsuccessful.[27]
However, data collected in 1980 showed that 85 percent of Navajo first-graders were bilingual, compared to 62 percent of Navajo of all ages—early evidence of a resurgence of use of their traditional language among younger people.[31] In 1984, to counteract the language's historical decline, the Navajo Nation Council decreed that the Navajo language would be available and comprehensive for students of all grade levels in schools of the Navajo Nation.[27] This effort was aided by the fact that, largely due to the work of Young and Morgan, Navajo is one of the best-documented Native American languages. In 1980 they published a monumental expansion of their work on the language, organized by word (first initial of vowel or consonant) in the pattern of English dictionaries, as requested by Navajo students. The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary also included a 400-page grammar, making it invaluable for both native speakers and students of the language. Particularly in its organization of verbs, it was oriented to Navajo speakers.[32] They expanded this work again in 1987, with several significant additions, and this edition continues to be used as an important text.[25]
The Native American language education movement has been met with adversity, such as by English-only campaigns in some areas in the late 1990s. However, Navajo-immersion programs have cropped up across the Navajo Nation. Statistical evidence shows that Navajo-immersion students generally do better on standardized tests than their counterparts educated only in English. Some educators have remarked that students who know their native languages feel a sense of pride and identity validation.[33] Since 1989, Diné College, a Navajo tribal community college, has offered an associate degree in the subject of Navajo.[34] This program includes language, literature, culture, medical terminology, and teaching courses and produces the highest number of Navajo teachers of any institution in the United States. About 600 students attend per semester.[35] One major university that teaches classes in the Navajo language is Arizona State University.[36] In 1992, Young and Morgan published another major work on Navajo: Analytical Lexicon of Navajo, with the assistance of Sally Midgette (Navajo). This work is organized by root, the basis of Athabaskan languages.[25]
A 1991 survey of 682 preschoolers on the Navajo Reservation
Both original and translated media have been produced in Navajo. The first works tended to be religious texts translated by missionaries, including the Bible. From 1943 to about 1957, the Navajo Agency of the BIA published
On October 5, 2018, an early beta of a Navajo course was released on Duolingo, a popular language learning app.[47]
Education
After many Navajo schools were closed during World War II, a program aiming to provide education to Navajo children was funded in the 1950s, where the number of students quickly doubled in the next decade.[30]
The Navajo Nation operates Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta', a Navajo language immersion school for grades K-8 in
According to the Navajo Nation Education Policies, the Navajo Tribal Council requests that schools teach both English and Navajo so that the children would remain bilingual, though their influence over the school systems was very low.[30] A small number of preschool programs provided the Navajo immersion curriculum, which taught children basic Navajo vocabulary and grammar under the assumption that they have no prior knowledge in the Navajo language.[30]
Phonology
Navajo has a fairly large consonant inventory. Its
The language has four vowel qualities: /a/, /e/, /i/, and /o/.[52] Each exists in both oral and nasalized forms, and can be either short or long.[53] Navajo also distinguishes for tone between high and low, with the low tone typically regarded as the default. However, some linguists have suggested that Navajo does not possess true tones, but only a pitch accent system similar to that of Japanese.[54] In general, Navajo speech also has a slower speech tempo than English does.[50]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lateral | fricated
|
plain | lab. | plain | lab. | ||||||
Obstruent | Stop
|
unaspirated | p | t |
tˡ | ts | tʃ | k | ʔ | |||
aspirated
|
tʰ | tɬʰ | tsʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | (kʷʰ) | ||||||
ejective | tʼ |
tɬʼ | tsʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | |||||||
Continuant | fortis | ɬ |
s | ʃ | x | (xʷ) | (h) | (hʷ) | ||||
lenis | l |
z | ʒ | ɣ | (ɣʷ) | |||||||
Sonorant | plain | m | n |
j | (w) | |||||||
glottalized | (mˀ) | (nˀ) | (jˀ) | (wˀ) |
Vowel height | Front | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
oral | nasal | oral | nasal | |
High | ɪ / iː | ɪ̃ / ĩː | ||
Mid | ɛ / eː | ɛ̃ / ẽː | ɔ~ɞ / oː | õ / õː |
Low | ɑ / ɑː | ɑ̃ / ɑ̃ː |
Grammar
Typology
Navajo is difficult to classify in terms of broad morphological typology: it relies heavily on affixes—mainly prefixes—like agglutinative languages,[55] but these affixes are joined in unpredictable, overlapping ways that make them difficult to segment, a trait of fusional languages.[56] In general, Navajo verbs contain more morphemes than nouns do (on average, 11 for verbs compared to 4–5 for nouns), but noun morphology is less transparent.[57] Depending on the source, Navajo is either classified as a fusional[56][58] agglutinative or even polysynthetic language, as it shows mechanisms from all three.[23][59]
In terms of basic
Verbs
In Navajo, verbs are the main elements of their sentences, imparting a large amount of information. The verb is based on a
Navajo does not distinguish strict tense per se; instead, an action's position in time is conveyed through mode, aspect, but also via time adverbials or context. Each verb has an inherent aspect and can be conjugated in up to seven modes.[67]
For any verb, the usitative and iterative modes share the same stem, as do the progressive and future modes; these modes are distinguished with prefixes. However, pairs of modes other than these may also share the same stem,[68] as illustrated in the following example, where the verb "to play" is conjugated into each of the five mode paradigms:
- Imperfective: -né – is playing, was playing, will be playing
- Perfective: -neʼ – played, had played, will have played
- Progressive/future: -neeł – is playing along / will play, will be playing
- Usitative/iterative: -neeh – usually plays, frequently plays, repeatedly plays
- Optative: -neʼ – would play, may play
The basic set of subject prefixes for the imperfective mode, as well as the actual conjugation of the verb into these person and number categories, are as follows.[69]
|
|
The remaining piece of these conjugated verbs—the prefix na-—is called an "outer" or "disjunct" prefix. It is the marker of the Continuative aspect (to play about).[70]
Navajo distinguishes between the first, second, third, and fourth persons in the singular, dual, and plural numbers.[71] The fourth person is similar to the third person, but is generally used for indefinite, theoretical actors rather than defined ones.[72] Despite the potential for extreme verb complexity, only the mode/aspect, subject, classifier, and stem are absolutely necessary.[66] Furthermore, Navajo negates clauses by surrounding the verb with the circumclitic doo= ... =da (e.g. mósí doo nitsaa da 'the cat is not big'). Dooda, as a single word, corresponds to English no.[73]
Nouns
Nouns are not required to form a complete Navajo sentence. Besides the extensive information that can be communicated with a verb, Navajo speakers may alternate between the third and fourth person to distinguish between two already specified actors, similarly to how speakers of languages with grammatical gender may repeatedly use pronouns.[74]
Most nouns are not inflected for number,[73] and plurality is usually encoded directly in the verb through the use of various prefixes or aspects, though this is by no means mandatory. In the following example, the verb on the right is used with the plural prefix da- and switches to the distributive aspect.
Some verbal roots encode number in their lexical definition (see classificatory verbs above). When available, the use of the correct verbal root is mandatory:
Béégashii
cow
sitį́.
3.SUBJ-lie(1).PERF
'The (one) cow lies.'
Béégashii
cow
shitéézh.
3.SUBJ-lie(2).PERF
'The (two) cows lie.'
Béégashii
cow
shijééʼ.
3.SUBJ-lie(3+).PERF
'The (three or more) cows lie.'
Bilasáana
bilasáana
apple
shaa
sh-aa
1-to
niʼaah.
Ø-ni-ʼaah
3.OBJ-2.SUBJ-give(SRO).MOM.PERF
'You give me an apple.'
Bilasáana
bilasáana
apple
shaa
sh-aa
1-to
ninííł.
Ø-ni-nííł
3.OBJ-2.SUBJ-give(PLO1).MOM.PERF
'You give me apples.'
Number marking on nouns occurs only for terms of kinship and age-sex groupings. Other prefixes that can be added to nouns include possessive markers (e.g. chidí 'car' – shichidí 'my car') and a few adjectival enclitics. Generally, an upper limit for prefixes on a noun is about four or five.[75]
Nouns are also not marked for case, this traditionally being covered by word order.[76]
Atʼééd
girl
ashkii
boy
yiyiiłtsą́.
3.OBJ-3.SUBJ-saw
'The girl saw the boy.'
Ashkii
boy
atʼééd
girl
yiyiiłtsą́.
3.OBJ-3.SUBJ-saw
'The boy saw the girl.'
Vocabulary
The vast majority of Navajo vocabulary is of Athabaskan origin.
This resistance to word absorption extended to English, at least until the mid-twentieth century. Around this point, the Navajo language began importing some, though still not many, English words, mainly by young schoolchildren exposed to English.[28]
Navajo has expanded its vocabulary to include Western technological and cultural terms through
Only one Navajo word has been fully absorbed into the English language:
Orthography
Early attempts at a Navajo orthography were made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One such attempt was based on the Latin alphabet, particularly the English variety, with some additional letters and diacritics. Anthropologists were frustrated by Navajo's having several sounds that are not found in English and lack of other sounds that are.[83] Finally, the current Navajo orthography was developed between 1935 and 1940[24] by Young and Morgan.
Navajo Orthography | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ʼ ʔ |
a ɑ |
á ɑ́ |
ą ɑ̃ |
ą́ ɑ̃́ |
aa ɑː |
áá ɑ́ː |
ąą ɑ̃ː |
ą́ą́ ɑ̃́ː |
b p |
ch tʃʰ |
chʼ tʃʼ |
d t |
dl tˡ |
dz ts |
e e |
é é |
ę ẽ |
ę́ ẽ́ |
ee eː |
éé éː |
ęę ẽː |
ę́ę́ ẽ́ː |
g k |
gh ɣ |
h h/x |
hw xʷ |
i ɪ |
í ɪ́ |
į ɪ̃ |
į́ ɪ̃́ |
ii ɪː |
íí ɪ́ː |
įį ɪ̃ː |
į́į́ ɪ̃́ː |
j tʃ |
k kʰ/kx |
kʼ kʼ |
kw kʰʷ/kxʷ |
l l |
ł ɬ |
m m |
n n |
o o |
ó ó |
ǫ õ |
ǫ́ ṍ |
oo oː |
óó óː |
ǫǫ õː |
ǫ́ǫ́ ṍː |
s s |
sh ʃ |
t tʰ/tx |
tʼ tʼ |
tł tɬʰ |
tłʼ tɬʼ |
ts tsʰ |
tsʼ tsʼ |
w w/ɣʷ |
x h/x |
y j/ʝ |
z z |
zh ʒ |
An apostrophe (ʼ) is used to mark ejective consonants (e.g. chʼ, tłʼ)[84] as well as mid-word or final glottal stops. However, initial glottal stops are usually not marked.[51]
The voiceless glottal fricative (/h/) is normally written as h, but appears as x after the consonant s (optionally after sh) at syllable boundary (ex: yiyiis-xı̨́), and when it represents the depreciative augment found after stem initial (ex: tsxı̨́įł-go, yi-chxa).[84][85] The voiced velar fricative is written as y before i and e (where it is palatalized /ʝ/), as w before o (where it is labialized /ɣʷ/), and as gh before a.[86]
Navajo represents nasalized vowels with an
The first Navajo-capable typewriter was developed in preparation for a Navajo newspaper and dictionary created in the 1940s. The advent of early computers in the 1960s necessitated special fonts to input Navajo text, and the first Navajo font was created in the 1970s.[87] Navajo virtual keyboards were made available for iOS devices in November 2012 and Android devices in August 2013.[88]
Sample text
This is the first paragraph of a Navajo short story.[89]
Navajo original: Ashiiké tʼóó diigis léiʼ tółikaní łaʼ ádiilnííł dóó nihaa nahidoonih níigo yee hodeezʼą́ jiní. Áko tʼáá ałʼąą chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii kʼiidiilá dóó hááhgóóshį́į́ yinaalnishgo tʼáá áłah chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii néineestʼą́ jiní. Áádóó tółikaní áyiilaago tʼáá bíhígíí tʼáá ałʼąą tłʼízíkágí yiiʼ haidééłbįįd jiní. "Háadida díí tółikaní yígíí doo łaʼ ahaʼdiidził da," níigo ahaʼdeetʼą́ jiníʼ. Áádóó baa nahidoonih biniiyé kintahgóó dah yidiiłjid jiníʼ (...)
English translation: Some crazy boys decided to make some wine to sell, so they each planted grapevines and, working hard on them, they raised them to maturity. Then, having made wine, they each filled a goatskin with it. They agreed that at no time would they give each other a drink of it, and they then set out for town lugging the goatskins on their backs (...)
See also
Citations
- ^ Navajo at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
- ISBN 3-12-539683-2
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "Navajo". Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
- ^ Bahr 2004, p. xxxv
- ^ Minahan 2013, p. 260
- ^ Hargus & Rice 2005, p. 139
- ^ Hargus & Rice 2005, p. 138
- ^ Johansen & Ritzker 2007, p. 333
- ^ Hargus & Rice 2005, p. 209
- ^ Levy 1998, p. 25
- ^ Johansen & Ritzker 2007, p. 334
- ^ Koenig 2005, p. 9
- .
- ISBN 978-0-16-004579-0.
- ^ Sapir, E. (1936). "Internal linguistic evidence suggestive of the northern origin of the Navaho". American Anthropologist, 38(2), 224–235.
- ^ Shaul, D. L. (2014). A Prehistory of Western North America: The Impact of Uto-Aztecan Languages. UNM Press. [ISBN missing]
- ^ "1942: Navajo Code Talkers".
- ^ "Code Talking – Native Words Native Warriors". americanindian.si.edu. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
- ^ "American Indian Code Talkers". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
- ^ "Language Spotlight: Navajo". 25 September 2013.
- ^ a b Minahan 2013, p. 261
- ^ "The Warrior Tradition | The Warrior Tradition". Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2020-03-13 – via www.pbs.org.
- ^ a b Johansen & Ritzker 2007, p. 421
- ^ a b Minahan 2013, p. 262
- ^ JSTOR 30028936.
- ^ Fox, Margalit (6 June 2014). "Chester Nez, 93, Dies; Navajo Words Washed From Mouth Helped Win War". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c Johansen & Ritzker 2007, p. 422
- ^ a b Kroskrity & Field 2009, p. 38
- Project MUSE book 75750.[page needed]
- ^ ProQuest 218107198.
- ^ Koenig 2005, p. 8
- JSTOR 1265203.
- ^ Johansen & Ritzker 2007, pp. 423–424
- ^ Young & Elinek 1996, p. 376
- ^ Young & Elinek 1996, pp. 377–385
- ^ Arizona State University News (May 3, 2014). "Learning Navajo Helps Students Connect to Their Culture". Indian Country (Today Media Network). Archived from the original on May 20, 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
- ^ Platero & Hinton 2001, pp. 87–97
- ^ Ryan, Camille (August 2013). "Language Use" (PDF). Census.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 5, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ^ "Navajo in the Language Cloud". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on July 9, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
- The Houston Chronicle. Archivedfrom the original on September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-135-65158-9. Archivedfrom the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- ^ "Raiders vs Lions to be Broadcast in Navajo". Raiders.com. December 14, 2011. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- ^ Kane, Jenny (January 28, 2013). "Watching the ancient Navajo language develop in a modern culture". Carlsbad Current-Argus. Carlsbad, New Mexico. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- ^ "Super Bowl carried in Navajo language". The Post and Courier: 3B. January 19, 1996.
- ^ Trudeau, Christine (June 20, 2013). "Translated Into Navajo, 'Star Wars' Will Be". NPR. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
- ^ Silversmith, Shondiin (July 4, 2013). "Navajo Star Wars a crowd pleaser". Navajo Times. Archived from the original on July 10, 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
- ^ "Duolingo". www.duolingo.com. Archived from the original on 2018-10-06. Retrieved 2018-10-06.
- ^ "Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'óta' Navaho Immersion School". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ McDonough 2003, p. 3
- ^ a b Kozak 2013, p. 162
- ^ a b Faltz 1998, p. 3
- ^ a b McDonough 2003, p. 5
- ^ McDonough 2003, pp. 6–7
- ^ Yip 2002, p. 239
- ^ Young & Morgan 1992, p. 841
- ^ a b Mithun 2001, p. 323
- ^ Bowerman & Levinson 2001, p. 239
- ^ Sloane 2001, p. 442
- ^ Bowerman & Levinson 2001, p. 238
- ^ "Datapoint Navajo / Order of Subject, Object and Verb". WALS. Archived from the original on August 26, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- ^ Tomlin, Russell S. (2014). "Basic Word Order: Functional Principles". Routledge Library Editions Linguistics B: Grammar: 115.
- ^ Young & Morgan 1992, pp. 902–903
- ^ Young & Morgan 1987, pp. 85–86
- ^ Fernald & Platero 2000, pp. 252–287
- ^
Eddington, David; Lachler, Jordan (2010). "A computational analysis of Navajo verb stems" (PDF). In Rice, Sally; Newman, John (eds.). Empirical and Experimental Methods in Cognitive/functional Research. CSLI Publications/Center for the Study of Language and Information. ISBN 978-1-57586-612-3.
- ^ a b McDonough 2003, pp. 21–22
- ^ Young & Morgan 1992, p. 868
- ^ Faltz 1998, p. 18
- ^ Faltz 1998, pp. 21–22
- ^ Faltz 1998, pp. 12–13
- ^ Faltz 1998, p. 21
- S2CID 143473426.
- ^ a b Young & Morgan 1992, p. 882
- ^ Kozak 2013, p. 161
- ^ a b Mueller-Gathercole 2008, p. 12
- ^ Speas 1990, p. 203
- ^ a b Wurm, Mühlhäusler & Tyron 1996, p. 1134
- ^ Kroskrity & Field 2009, p. 39
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "hogan". Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
- ^ Cutler 2000, p. 165
- ^ Cutler 2000, p. 211
- ^ Cutler 2000, p. 110
- ^ Bahr 2004, pp. 33–34
- ^ a b Faltz 1998, p. 5
- ^ McDonough 2003, p. 85
- ^ McDonough 2003, p. 160
- ^ a b Spolsky 2009, p. 86
- ^ "Navajo Keyboard Now Available on Android Devices!". Indian Country (Today Media Network). September 12, 2013. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
- ^ Young & Morgan 1987, pp. 205a–205b
General and cited references
- Bahr, Howard M. (2004). The Navajo as Seen by the Franciscans, 1898–1921: A Sourcebook. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4962-4.
- Beck, David (2006). Aspects of the Theory of Morphology. Vol. 10. Walter De Gruyter.
- Bowerman, Melissa; Levinson, Stephen (2001). Language Acquisition and Conceptual Development. ISBN 978-0-521-59659-6.
- Christiansen, Morten H. (2009). Language Universals. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-30543-2.
- Cutler, Charles L. (2000). O Brave New Words: Native American Loanwords in Current English. ISBN 978-0-8061-3246-4.
- Faltz, Leonard M. (1998). The Navajo Verb: A Grammar for Students and Scholars. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1902-9.
- Fernald, Theodore; Platero, Paul (2000). The Athabaskan Languages: Perspectives on a Native American Language Family. ISBN 978-0195119473.
- Mueller-Gathercole, Virginia C. (2008). Routes to Language: Studies in Honor of Melissa Bowerman. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-841-69716-1.
- Hargus, Sharon; Rice, Keren (2005). Athabaskan Prosody. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-4783-4.
- Johansen, Bruce; Ritzker, Barry (2007). Encyclopedia of American Indian History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-817-0.
- Koenig, Harriet (2005). Acculturation in the Navajo Eden: New Mexico, 1550–1750: Archaeology, Language, Religion of the Peoples of the Southwest. YBK Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-0-9764359-1-4.
- Luraghi, Silvia; Parodi, Claudia (2013). The Bloomsbury Companion to Syntax. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-441-12460-9.
- Kroskrity, Paul V.; Field, Margaret C. (2009). Native American Language Ideologies: Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country. ISBN 978-0-8165-2916-2.
- Levy, Jerrold E. (1998). In the Beginning: The Navajo Genesis. ISBN 978-0-520-21277-0.
- McDonough, J.M. (2003). The Navajo Sound System. ISBN 978-1-4020-1351-5.
- Kozak, David L. (2013). Inside Dazzling Mountains: Southwest Native Verbal Arts. ISBN 978-0-8032-1575-7.
- Minahan, James (2013). Ethnic Groups of the Americas: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-163-5.
- Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North America. ISBN 978-0-521-29875-9.
- Platero, Paul; Hinton, Leanne (2001). The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. Academic Press. ISBN 978-90-04-25449-7.
- Sloane, Thomas O. (2001). Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. ISBN 978-0-19-512595-5.
- Speas, Margaret (1990). Phrase Structure in Natural Language. Springer. ISBN 978-0-792-30755-6.
- Spolsky, Bernard (2009). Language Management. ISBN 978-0-521-73597-1.
- Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tyron, Darrell T. (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-013417-9.
- Yip, Moira (2002). Tone. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77445-1.
- Young, Robert; Morgan, William Sr. (1987). The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1014-9.
- Young, Robert; Morgan, William Sr. (1992). Analytical Lexicon of Navajo. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-1356-0.
- Young, Robert M.; Elinek, Eloise (1996). Athabaskan Language Studies (in English and Navajo). ISBN 978-0-8263-1705-6.
Further reading
Educational
- Blair, Robert W.; Simmons, Leon; Witherspoon, Gary (1969). Navaho Basic Course. Brigham Young University Printing Services.
- "E-books for children with narration in Navajo". Unite for Literacy library. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
- Goossen, Irvy W. (1967). Navajo made easier: A course in conversational Navajo. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press.
- Goossen, Irvy W. (1995). Diné bizaad: Speak, read, write Navajo. Flagstaff, AZ: ISBN 0-9644189-1-6.
- Goossen, Irvy W. (1997). Diné bizaad: Sprechen, Lesen und Schreiben Sie Navajo. Translated by Loder, P. B. Flagstaff, AZ: Salina Bookshelf.
- Haile, Berard. (1941–1948). Learning Navaho, (Vols. 1–4). St. Michaels, AZ: St. Michael's Mission.
- Platero, Paul R. (1986). Diné bizaad bee naadzo: A conversational Navajo text for secondary schools, colleges and adults. Farmington, NM: Navajo Preparatory School.
- Platero, Paul R.; Legah, Lorene; Platero, Linda S. (1985). Diné bizaad bee naʼadzo: A Navajo language literacy and grammar text. Farmington, NM: Navajo Language Institute.
- ISBN 0-689-80316-8.
- Witherspoon, Gary (1985). Diné Bizaad Bóhooʼaah for secondary schools, colleges, and adults. Farmington, NM: Navajo Language Institute.
- Witherspoon, Gary (1986). Diné Bizaad Bóhooʼaah I: A conversational Navajo text for secondary schools, colleges and adults. Farmington, NM: Navajo Language Institute.
- Wilson, Alan (1969). Breakthrough Navajo: An introductory course. Gallup, NM: University of New Mexico.
- Wilson, Alan (1970). Laughter, the Navajo way. Gallup, NM: University of New Mexico.
- Wilson, Alan (1978). Speak Navajo: An intermediate text in communication. Gallup, NM: University of New Mexico.
- Wilson, Garth A. (1995). Conversational Navajo workbook: An introductory course for non-native speakers. Blanding, UT: Conversational Navajo Publications. ISBN 0-938717-54-5.
- ISBN 978-1-893354-73-9.
- Yazzie, Sheldon A. (2005). Navajo for Beginners and Elementary Students. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Linguistics and other reference
- Frishberg, Nancy. (1972). Navajo object markers and the great chain of being. In J. Kimball (Ed.), Syntax and semantics (Vol. 1, p. 259–266). New York: Seminar Press.
- Hale, Kenneth L. (1973). A note on subject–object inversion in Navajo. In B. B. Kachru, R. B. Lees, Y. Malkiel, A. Pietrangeli, & S. Saporta (Eds.), Issues in linguistics: Papers in honor of Henry and Renée Kahane (p. 300–309). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Hardy, Frank. (1979). Navajo Aspectual Verb Stem Variation. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
- Hoijer, Harry. (1945). Navaho phonology. University of New Mexico publications in anthropology, (No. 1).
- Hoijer, Harry (1945). "Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (1): 13–23. S2CID 144468739.
- Hoijer, Harry (1945). "The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (4): 193–203. S2CID 143582901.
- Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (1): 1–13. S2CID 143035135.
- Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (2): 51–59. S2CID 144657113.
- Hoijer, Harry (1948). "The Apachean verb, part IV: Major form classes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 14 (4): 247–259. S2CID 144801708.
- Hoijer, Harry (1949). "The Apachean verb, part V: The theme and prefix complex". International Journal of American Linguistics. 15 (1): 12–22. S2CID 143799617.
- Hoijer, Harry. (1970). A Navajo lexicon. University of California Publications in Linguistics (No. 78). Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Kari, James (1975). "The disjunct boundary in the Navajo and Tanaina verb prefix complexes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 41 (4): 330–345. S2CID 144924113.
- Kari, James. (1976). Navajo verb prefix phonology. Garland Publishing Co.
- Reichard, Gladys A. (1951). Navaho grammar. Publications of the American Ethnological Society (Vol. 21). New York: J. J. Augustin.
- Sapir, Edward (1932). "Two Navaho puns". Language. 8 (3): 217–220. JSTOR 409655.
- Sapir, Edward, & Hoijer, Harry. (1942). Navaho texts. William Dwight Whitney series, Linguistic Society of America.
- Sapir, Edward, & Hoijer, Harry. (1967). Phonology and morphology of the Navaho language. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Speas, Margaret. (1990). Phrase structure in natural language. Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-0755-0
- The Franciscan Fathers (1910). An ethnologic dictionary of the Navaho language. Saint Michaels, Ariz.: Franciscan Fathers.
- Wall, C. Leon, & Morgan, William. (1994). Navajo-English dictionary. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-7818-0247-4. (Originally published [1958] by U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Branch of Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs).
- Webster, Anthony K (2004). "Coyote Poems: Navajo Poetry, Intertextuality, and Language Choice". American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 28 (4): 69–91. .
- Webster, Anthony K (2006). "ALk'idaa' Ma'ii Jooldlosh, Jini": Poetic Devices in Navajo Oral and Written Poetry". Anthropological Linguistics. 48 (3): 233–265.
- Webster, Anthony K. (2009). Explorations in Navajo Poetry and Poetics. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
- Witherspoon, Gary (1971). "Navajo Categories of Objects at Rest". American Anthropologist. 73: 110–127. .
- Witherspoon, Gary. (1977). Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. Ann Arbor: ISBN 0-472-08965-X
- Young, Robert W. (2000). The Navajo Verb System: An Overview. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-2176-3(pbk)
External links
- Hózhǫ́ Náhásdlį́į́ʼ – Language of the Holy People (Navajo web site with flash and audio, helps with learning Navajo), gomyson.com
- Navajo Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
- Contrasts between Navajo consonants (sound files from Peter Ladefoged). ucla.edu
- Navajo Language & Bilingual Links (from San Juan school district). sanjuan.k12.ut.us
- Navajo Language Academy, navajolanguageacademy.org
- Tuning in to Navajo: The Role of Radio in Native Language Maintenance, jan.ucc.nau.edu
- An Initial Exploration of the Navajo Nation's Language and Culture Initiative, jan.ucc.nau.edu
- Languagegeek Unicode fonts and Navajo keyboard layouts, languagegeek.com
- Navajo fonts, dinecollege.edu
- The Navajo Language, library.thinkquest.org
- Reflections on Navajo Poetry, ou.edu
- How to count in Navajo, languagesandnumbers.com
- Digital Public Library of America. Navajo-language items, various dates.
- iPad keyboard app[permanent dead link]
- Android keyboard app
- Android dictionary app
Linguistics
- Navajo reflections of a general theory of lexical argument structure (Ken Hale & Paul Platero), museunacional.ufrj.br
- Remarks on the syntax of the Navajo verb part I: Preliminary observations on the structure of the verb (Ken Hale), museunacional.ufrj.br
- The Navajo Prolongative and Lexical Structure (Carlota Smith), cc.utexas.edu
- A Computational Analysis of Navajo Verb Stems (David Eddington & Jordan Lachler), linguistics.byu.edu
- Grammaticization of Tense in Navajo: The Evolution of nt'éé (Chee, Ashworth, Buescher & Kubacki), linguistics.ucsb.edu
- A methodology for the investigation of speaker's knowledge of structure in Athabaskan (Joyce McDonough & Rachel Sussman), urresearch.rochester.edu
- How to use Young and Morgan's The Navajo Language (Joyce McDonough), bcs.rochester.edu
- Time in Navajo: Direct and Indirect Interpretation (Carlota S. Smith, Ellavina T. Perkins, Theodore B. Fernald), cc.utexas.edu
- OLAC Resources in and about the Navajo language