Navajo language

Navajo is an Apachean language of the Athapaskan language family, belonging to the Na-Dene phylum. It is like the other Apachean languages in that although the majority of the languages in the Na-Dene family are spoken much farther north (Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Canadian Provinces) Navajo is spoken much farther south (in the southwest United States) by the Navajo people. Navajo claims more speakers than any other Native American language north of the Mexican border, with more than 100,000 native speakers, and this number is actually increasing with time. During World War II, a code based on Navajo was used by code talkers to send secure military messages over radio.

Typologically, Navajo is an agglutinative language, but many of its affixes combine into barely recognizable contractions. For this reason, some call it a polysynthetic language. Navajo words are altered primarily by prefixes, with circumfixes playing some part as well. The key element in Navajo is the verb, with even some noun meanings provided by verbs; many complex nouns are derived from verbs as well; for instance, the Navajo word łéé'íí'nííł "cemetery" is actually a verb meaning "they lie in the ground". Navajo has a large variety of noun classes including "animate", "round object", "long, stiff object" and "granular object". Many basic verbs in Navajo may translate into many words in English; for instance, the verb si' means "to cause a hafted [better def.?] object to move" or, more practically, "to practise archery".

There are four phonemic vowels in Navajo: a, e, i and o; each of these may occur long, nasalized, or with one of four tones: high, low, rising or falling. Various combinations of these features are also possible.

The consonants of Navajo are:

Bilabial       b        m  'm
Alveolar       d  t  t' n  'n
Prepalatal     g  k  k' 
  labialised      kw
Palatal                        y      'y
Postpalatal                    gh  x
  labialised                   ghw xw
Sibilant    
  alveolar                     z   s     dz  ts  ts' 
  postalveolar                 j   c     dj  tc  tc' 
Lateral                        l1  lh    dl  tl  tl' 
Glottal           '                h/x

Or, in SAMPA-style notation:

1. The lateral approximant l is treated as part of an overall lateral class in some Navajo grammars; however, it is the only approximant in the class, all other lateral phonemes being based on voiced and voiceless lateral fricatives instead. Some Athabaskan languages, notably Han, have no voiced lateral approximant, distinguishing only a voiced and voiceless lateral fricative.

2. The standard orthography uses English voiced stop symbols for the unaspirated phonemes, as in rapid speech these are frequently heard as voiced. It is also unclear from the orthography whether the affricates use a voicing or aspiration contrast.

3. Note that the first chart fails to clearly distinguish liquids and fricatives; in particular, it is unclear whether lh is a voiceless lateral liquid or a voiceless lateral fricative.

As in many northwestern American languages, Navajo is extremely poor in labial consonants.

See also: Languages in the United States and Apachean languages

Wikipedia in Navajo: here.

References and Recommended Reading/Listening

• Blair, Robert W.; Simmons, Leon; & Witherspoon, Gary. (1969). Navaho Basic Course. BYU Printing Services.
• Faltz, Leonard M. (1998). The Navajo Verb: A Grammar for Students and Scholars. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
• Goossen, Irvy W. (1977). Navajo made easier: A course in conversational Navajo. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press.
• Goossen, Irvy W. (1995). Diné bizaad: Speak, read, write Navajo. Flagstaff, AZ: Salina Bookshelf. ISBN 0964418916.
• Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671106-9. [Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed on Nov. 19th, 2004.]
• Haile, Berard. (1941-1948). Learning Navaho, (Vols. 1-4). St. Michaels, AZ: St. Michael's Mission.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1945). Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11(1), 13-23.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1945). The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11(4), 193-203.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense. International Journal of American Linguistics, 12(1), 1-13.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers. International Journal of American Linguistics, 12(2), 51-59.
• Sapir, Edward, & Hoijer, Harry. (1967). Phonology and morphology of the Navaho language. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Witherspoon, Gary. (1986). Diné Bizaad Bóhoo'aah I: A conversational Navajo text for secondary schools, colleges and adults. Farmington, New Mexico: Navajo Language Institute.
• Witherspoon, Gary. (1985). Diné Bizaad Bóhoo’aah for secondary schools, colleges, and adults. Farmington, NM: Navajo Language Institute.
• Wilson, Alan. (1969). Breakthrough Navajo: An introductory course. Gallup, NM: The University of New Mexico, Gallup Branch.
• Wilson, Alan. (1978). Speak Navajo: An intermediate text in communication. Gallup, NM: University of New Mexico, Gallup Branch.
• Wilson, Garth A. (1995). Conversational Navajo workbook: An introductory course for non-native speakers.. Blanding, UT: Conversational Navajo Publications. ISBN 0-93871754-5.
• Young, Robert W., & Morgan, William, Sr. (1987). The Navajo language: A grammar and colloquial dictionary, (rev. ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1014-1.