Navajo language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Navajo
Diné bizaad
Pronunciation	tìnépìz̥ɑ̀ːt
Native to	United States
Region	Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado
Ethnicity	Navajo
Native speakers	169,359  (2011)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Southern Athabaskan Southwestern Apache Western Navajo
Writing system	Latin (Navajo alphabet) Navajo Braille
The Navajo Nation, where the language is most spoken
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The Navajo language (Navajo: Diné Bizaad) is a language spoken by the Navajo people in the United States. It is part of the Southern Athabaskan language family. Most Navajo speakers live in the Navajo Nation, which covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

Navajo is the most widely spoken Native American language in the US. It is also the most spoken Indigenous language north of the US-Mexico border. In 2011, nearly 170,000 Americans spoke Navajo at home. The Navajo language became famous during World War II when it was used by the Navajo Code Talkers as a secret code.

Navajo has many sounds that are not found in English. It is also a tonal language, like Chinese. This means that the pitch of your voice changes the meaning of words. English is not a tonal language. Because of these differences, many English speakers find Navajo hard to learn.

New words in Navajo are often made by adding small parts (called prefixes and suffixes) to a main word part (called a stem). These additions can change the meaning, like showing who is doing an action or when it happens. Navajo sentences usually put the subject first, then the object, and the verb last. This is different from English. Navajo does not have many words borrowed from other languages. The Navajo language is written using the Latin alphabet, just like English. The alphabet used today was created in the 1930s. Before this, the Navajo people did not have their own writing system.

What is the Navajo Language Called?

The Navajo people do not call themselves or their language "Navajo." The word "Navajo" comes from the Tewa word Navahu. This word means "large field." The Tewa are another group of Native Americans. The Tewa word was later used in Spanish to describe an area in New Mexico. Then, English speakers used this Spanish word to refer to the Navajo people.

The Navajo people call themselves Diné, which means "people." They call their language Diné bizaad, meaning "people's language." They also sometimes call it Naabeehó bizaad, which is based on the word "Navajo."

How is Navajo Classified?

Navajo is part of the Athabaskan language family. A language family is a group of languages that are related. They all came from a common older language. For example, English is part of the Indo-European language family. This is because it shares many similarities with languages from Europe, the Middle East, and India.

Navajo is one of the southernmost Athabaskan languages. Other Athabaskan languages are spoken far north in Alaska and along the Pacific coast. Like many other Athabaskan languages, Navajo uses tones. However, the tones developed differently in each language. For example, a "high" tone in Navajo might be a "low" tone in another Athabaskan language. The Western Apache language is the most similar language to Navajo. They share many tones and words. Navajo is also similar to other Apachean languages.

A Brief History of the Navajo Language

Examples of written Navajo on public signs. Clockwise from top left: Student Services Building, Diné College; cougar exhibit, Navajo Nation Zoo; shopping center near Navajo, New Mexico; notice of reserved parking, Window Rock, Arizona

Experts believe the ancestors of the Navajo came from the northern US and Canada. This is because other Athabaskan languages are spoken there. Archaeologists think the Navajo arrived in the Southwest by the year 1500.

In the 1800s, the Spanish took control of Navajo lands as part of Mexico. Later, the US took over the area after the Mexican-American War. American settlers then started schools to teach the Navajo English and Christianity. They often did not allow Navajo children to speak their language. Children were sometimes forced to wash their mouths with soap if they spoke Navajo. Because of this, many parents became afraid to teach their children the language.

Robert W. Young and William Morgan (who was Navajo) worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They created one standard alphabet for the Navajo language. Before this, many different ways were used to write Navajo.

During World War II, a white American man who lived with the Navajo suggested using the language as a secret code. At that time, there were no Navajo dictionaries. Also, very few non-Navajo people spoke the language. The Navajo language is also very different from German and Japanese, the languages of the enemy countries. The military began to recruit Navajo men to become code talkers. These code talkers sent secret messages in Navajo. They even used special Navajo words for military terms. For example, they used "iron fish" for a submarine. This made it very hard for anyone else to understand the code. The Japanese eventually realized the code talkers were speaking Navajo. A professor who studied Native American languages recognized it. However, they still could not understand the messages. Other Native American languages were also used as codes, but the Navajo Code Talkers were the most famous.

After World War II, the use of the Navajo language started to decrease. More roads were built into Navajo land, which led to more contact with English. However, things began to change in the 1960s. President Johnson signed a law that allowed children who did not speak English to have bilingual education. This led to the opening of schools that taught in both English and Navajo.

Today, Navajo is considered a language in danger. More and more Navajo people now speak only English. However, many people are working to keep the language alive. They do this by speaking and writing in Navajo and teaching it to others.

How Navajo Grammar Works

In Navajo, new words are often made by adding prefixes to other words. Navajo is called a subject-object-verb (SOV) language. This means the subject comes first, and the verb comes last. For example, "I you love." This is different from English, which is a subject-verb-object (SVO) language, like "I love you."

Verbs: The Most Important Words

Verbs (action words) are the most important part of Navajo grammar. Every sentence needs a verb. Each verb is made of a main part called a root. Other prefixes and suffixes are added to this root to form the complete word.

Nouns: People, Places, and Things

Nouns are words for people, places, and things. They are not as important in Navajo as verbs are. Many nouns are created by adding certain prefixes and suffixes to verbs.

Unlike some other languages, Navajo nouns do not have grammatical gender (like masculine or feminine). They also do not change to show plural (more than one). In English, we usually add an "-s" to make nouns plural. Navajo nouns are grouped as either animate (living things like people, plants, and animals) or inanimate (everything else).

In Navajo, you don't use words like "my" or an apostrophe + "s" to show possession. Instead, prefixes are added to the beginning of words. For example, chidí means 'car', but shichidí means 'my car'.

Adjectives: Describing Words

Navajo does not have adjectives. Instead, verbs are used to describe things.

Numbers in Navajo

The Navajo words for very large numbers, like million (miiltsoh) and billion (binyóón), come from English.

Days of the Week in Navajo

The Navajo people learned about the 7-day week from the Spanish. The first day of the week is Sunday, which is Damóo. This word comes from the Spanish word for Sunday, Domingo.

The Navajo Alphabet

The Navajo language uses the same alphabet as English, the ABCs. Before the 1930s, the Navajo language did not have a standard writing system. Different missionaries and linguists created their own ways to write it. Later, linguists developed a single alphabet that could correctly write all the sounds of Navajo. This alphabet has extra letters and special marks to show all the unique sounds in Navajo.

Below is a chart of all the letters in the Navajo alphabet.

Vowels in Navajo

• a, like the "a" in bra
• e, like the "e" in met
• i, like the "ee" in see
• o, like the "o" in go
• aa (a longer "a" sound)
• ee (a longer "e" sound)
• ii (a longer "i" sound)
• oo (a longer "o" sound)
• ą, ę, į, ǫ (vowels with a hook underneath)
• ąą, ęę, įį, ǫǫ (longer vowels with a hook underneath)

The hooks underneath some letters are called ogoneks. They show that the vowel is a nasal vowel. Nasal vowels are sounds where air comes out of your nose and mouth at the same time. English does not have nasal vowels, but languages like French and Portuguese do. High tones are shown with a mark called an acute accent, like á. Double letters mean the vowel sound is held a bit longer.

Consonants in Navajo

• ', like the short pause in uh-oh
• b, like the "p" in spill
• ch, like the "ch" in child
• ch' (a special "ch" sound)
• d, like the "t" in stay
• dl, like the "tl" in atlas
• dz, like the "ts" in cats
• g, like the "k" in skate
• gh (a sound not found in English)
• h, like the "h" in he
• hw, like blowing out a candle
• j, like the "ch" in teacher
• k, like the "k" in king
• k' (a special "k" sound)
• kw, like the "qu" in liquid
• l, like the "l" in lake
• ł (a sound not found in English)
• m, like the "m" in man
• n, like the "n" in nice
• s, like the "s" in sad
• sh, like the "sh" in shell
• t, like the "t" in tie
• t' (a special "t" sound)
• tł (a special "tl" sound)
• tł' (another special "tl" sound)
• ts, like the "ts" in cats
• ts' (a special "ts" sound)
• w, like the "w" in was
• x, pronounced like "h." It is used after "s" or "h" to avoid confusion with "sh" or "hh."
• y, like the "y" in yellow
• z, like the "s" in was
• zh, like the "ge" in garage

A Sample of Navajo Text

Navajo: 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: 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 ...

Images for kids

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  General Clayton Barney Vogel's recommendation letter for Navajo to be used by code talkers during World War II

See also

In Spanish: Idioma navajo para niños