Language Family
Navajo belongs to the Athabascan/Na-Dene language family (depending on source) 47 distinct languages
3 branches: Athabascan (Apachean), Tlingit (Northern), and Haida (Pacific Coast) Inclusion of Haida still controversial, Tlingit viewed by some as
isolate
Language Family
Navajo belongs to Apachean subgroup Native to Western US and Canada
Largest living language of Na-Dene family
Spoken ~ 175,000 people
Athabaskan Family Tree
Language Family
“Navajo” is an exonym originating from Tewa word “navahu” = “large field”
“Navajo” known as “Dine Bizaad (people - language)” = “People’s language” Navajos also call themselves Dine (“The People”)
Language Family
Athabascan most widely distributed Native American family 3 geographic divisions
Northern
Pacific
Southern
Athabascan tribes have the tendency to adopt practices/influences from nearby peoples (Pueblos in South, Inuit in North)
Language Family
Difficult to distinguish one clear “Athabascan culture,” if any, but basic characteristics: Tribes subdivided into loose bands/ family groups
Patriarchal society
Nomadic peoples
absence of an article indicates definiteness
No grammatical gender, even in third person!
Significant Grammatical Features
Noun classes based on animacy: supernatural beings > humans > large animals > small animals > inanimate objects These classes greatly affect the syntax: en entity of a
“lower” class cannot syntactically act upon an entity of a higher class
If one wants to say in Navajo “A dog bit the man,” where in English the dog can be the grammatical subject, the dog cannot be the grammatical subject - the higher entity only can be the subject, so the wording would be something like “The man let the dog bite him.”
Significant Grammatical Features
Classificatory system for verb stems: the stem that is used is dependent on the physical properties of the object (of verb), movement of object, and state of object. For instance, the verb “give” in Navajo has 11 different
forms depending on the object (and its characteristics) that is undergoing the action (giving)
Naming Conventions
“Mother, father, son, daughter” used to address each other instead
Given name only used during ceremonies
Old Navajo saying: “Nijaa' doogáá, nidí'nóodah!”
(If you say your name) “Your ears will dry up and fall off!”
Naming Conventions
Generally based on gender, features of the baby, nature, and totem creatures (spirit animals invoked in times of need, protection, vary from tribe to tribe)
Female: Yanaha = Brave
Gaagii = Raven
Niyol = Wind
Naming Conventions
Today, it is not taboo to ask for one’s name, especially as many Navajo now have Christian/Western names, but Navajo names still seriously cherished
Writing System
writing systems, no standard
linguist Robert Young and Navajo William Morgan
Young & Morgan, subsequent works
Writing System 48 characters total Long vowels are written with
double letters, e.g., ee represents long /e/.
áá = high tone; aa = low tone; áa = rising tone; aá = falling tone.
Nasal vowels are marked with an ogonek, e.g., represents nasal /a/.
An apostrophe is used to mark ejective consonants
Writing System
Standard orthography at first unpopular and suspect among Navajos due to previous Chirstianization/Westernization pushes for literacy
With revival of interest in language and creation of standard computer font, revived interest in learning orthography (especially among youth)
Standard Navajo keyboard (top)
Fun Facts
One of the only Native American languages actually still GAINING new speakers!
There are institutes, community colleges, and technical universities with classes conducted in Navajo! (and likely the only Native American language to do so)
Fun Facts Navajo’s language family, Na-Dene, is
hypothesized to be related to the Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia
Based on grammatical evidence especially of the Ket language and Proto-Yeniseian, and advances in reconstruction of Proto-Na-Dene, systematic parallels (such as possessive morphology) were found and highly accepted by Historical linguists (by linguist Edward Vajda)
Fun Facts