Citizendia

Navajo
Diné bizaad
Spoken in: USA 
Region: Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado
Total speakers: 178,000 [1]
Language family: Dené-Yeniseian
 Na-Dené
  Athabaskan-Eyak
   Athabaskan
    Southern Athabaskan
     Southwestern Apache
      Western
       Navajo
Language codes
ISO 639-1: nv
ISO 639-2: nav
ISO 639-3: nav 
Navajo language spread in the United States.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family Dené-Yeniseian is a proposed relationship between the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dené languages of northwestern North America Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest (including Arizona ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's
Reading Adahooniłigii — The Navajo Language Monthly
Reading Adahooniłigii — The Navajo Language Monthly

Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). An exonym (from Greek el ἔξω exo = out el ὄνομα onoma = name is a name for a place that is not used within that place by the local Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes) is the name of a large group of closely The Navajo or Diné people (also spelled Navaho) of the Southwestern United States It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken in northwest Canada and Alaska). Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest (including Arizona Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Alaska ( Аляска Alyaska) is a state in the United States of America, in the northwest of the North American continent Navajo claims more speakers than any other Native American or First Nation language north of the U.S.-Mexico border, with more than 100,000 native speakers, and this number has actually increased with time. Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people During World War II, a code based on Navajo was used by code talkers to send secure military messages over radio. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

Contents

Current use

The Navajo language is still widely spoken by Navajos of all ages, with over half of the Navajo population speaking the Navajo language at home. Many parents still pass on the Navajo language to their children as a first language, and because of this, the Navajo are one of the very few Native American tribes that still use the native language of their tribe as a form of everyday communication. However, the language is in decline, especially in urban areas outside of reservations, as more and more younger Navajos have started to shift to the English language. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Even on the reservation, Census data indicate that between 1980 and 1990 the proportion of Navajos aged 5-17 who spoke only English rose from 12% to 28%, and by 2000, the figure reached 43%.

Ethnography of speaking

Regional variation

Sounds

Main article: Navajo phonology

The consonants of Navajo in the standard orthography are listed below, followed by their pronunciation in IPA notation in brackets:

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
central lateral plain labialized
Plosives plain b [p] d [t] g [kɣ] ʼ [ʔ]
aspirated t [tx] k [kx] kw [kxʷ]
ejective tʼ [tʼ] kʼ [kʼ]
Affricates plain dz [ts] dl [tl] j [tʃ]
aspirated ts [tsʰ] tł [tɬʰ] ch [tʃʰ]
ejective tsʼ [tsʼ] tłʼ [tɬʼ] chʼ [tʃʼ]
Continuant voiceless s [s] ł [ɬ] sh [ʃ] h [x] hw [xʷ] h [h]
voiced z [z] l [l] zh [ʒ] gh [ɣ] ghw [ɣʷ]
Nasals m [m] n [n]
Approximants y [j] (w [w])

There are four vowels in Navajo: a, e, i and o. Navajo phonology is intimately connected to its morphology. For example only at the beginning of word stems is the entire range of contrastive consonants found — in stem-final The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A central or medial consonant is a Consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed In Phonetics, ejective consonants are Voiceless Consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the Glottis. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into A continuant is a Sound produced with an incomplete closure of the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Each of these may occur as

  • short, as in a and e,
  • long, as in aa and ee,
  • nasalized, as in ą and ęę,

or with one of four tones:

  • high, as in áá and éé,
  • low, as in aa and ee,
  • rising, as in aá and eé or
  • falling, as in áa and ée.

Various combinations of these features are possible, as in ą́ą́ (long, nasalized, high tone).

Orthography


The consonants of Navajo in the standard orthography are listed below, followed by their pronunciation in IPA notation in brackets:

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
central lateral plain labialized
Plosives plain b [p] d [t] g [kɣ] ʼ [ʔ]
aspirated t [tx] k [kx] kw [kxʷ]
ejective tʼ [tʼ] kʼ [kʼ]
Affricates plain dz [ts] dl [tl] j [tʃ]
aspirated ts [tsʰ] tł [tɬʰ] ch [tʃʰ]
ejective tsʼ [tsʼ] tłʼ [tɬʼ] chʼ [tʃʼ]
Continuant voiceless s [s] ł [ɬ] sh [ʃ] h [x] hw [xʷ] h [h]
voiced z [z] l [l] zh [ʒ] gh [ɣ] ghw [ɣʷ]
Nasals m [m] n [n]
Approximants y [j] (w [w])

In Navajo orthography, the letter h represents two different sounds: it is pronounced [x] when stem initial and [h] when prefixal or stem/word final. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A central or medial consonant is a Consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips ( bilabial articulation or with the lower lip and the upper teeth ( labiodental articulation A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed In Phonetics, ejective consonants are Voiceless Consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the Glottis. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into A continuant is a Sound produced with an incomplete closure of the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants However, when [x] is preceded by s it is always written as x and never as h so that it will not be confused with sh (e. g. násxéés "I'm turning around", but never náshéés). The consonant gh [ɣ] is written as y before front vowels i and e (where it is palatalized [ʝ]), as w before o (where it is labialized [ɣʷ]), and as gh before a. The glottal stop ʼ is not written at the beginning of words.

For /ɣ/ gh, both the palatalization and labialization is represented in the orthography where is it written as y for the palatalized variant and w for the labialized variant. The orthography does not indicate the variants for the other consonants.

Grammar

Typologically, Navajo is an agglutinating, polysynthetic head-marking language, but many of its affixes combine into contractions more like fusional languages. An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together Polysynthetic languages are highly Synthetic languages ie languages in which words are composed of many Morphemes Definition The degree of A head-marking Language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a The canonical word order of Navajo is SOV. In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually Athabaskan words are modified primarily by prefixes, which is unusual for an SOV language (suffixes are expected). An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word

Navajo is a "verb-heavy" language — it has a great preponderance of verbs but relatively few nouns. In addition to verbs and nouns, Navajo has other elements such as pronouns, clitics of various functions, demonstratives, numerals, postpositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, among others. In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Harry Hoijer grouped all of the above into a word-class which he called particles (i. Harry Hoijer ( September 6, 1904 - March 11, 1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages e. , Navajo would then have verbs, nouns, and particles). There is nothing that corresponds to what are called adjectives in English, this adjectival function being provided by verbs. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the

Nouns

Many concepts expressed using nouns in other languages appear as verbs in Navajo. The majority of true nouns are not inflected for number, and there is no case marking. Noun phrases are often not needed to form grammatical sentences due to the informational content of the verb.

There are two main types of nouns in Navajo:

  1. simple nouns and
  2. nouns derived from verbs (called deverbal nouns)

The simple nouns can be distinguished by their ability to be inflected with a possessive prefix, as in

Noun stem Gloss Possessed Noun stem Gloss Morpheme
composition
béézh "knife" bibeezh "her knife" bi- (3rd person) + beezh "knife"
hééł "pack" shiyéél "my pack" shi- (1st person singular) + yéél "pack"

Deverbal nouns are verbs (or verb phrases) that have been nominalized with a nominalizing enclitic or converted into a noun through zero derivation (that is, verbs that are used syntactically as nouns without an added nominalizer). In Linguistics, nominalization refers to the use of a Verb or an Adjective as a Noun, with or without morphological transformation In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. In Linguistics, conversion, also called zero derivation, is a kind of Word formation; specifically it is the creation of a Word An example of a nominalized verb is náʼoolkiłí "clock", which is derived from the verb náʼoolkił "it is moved slowly in a circle" and the enclitic nominalizer =í. Another example is the deverbal noun hataałii "singer" (from verb hataał "he sings" + nominalizing enclitic =ii). Converted deverbal nouns include chʼéʼétiin "exit, doorway" and Hoozdo "Phoenix, Arizona" — when used as verbs chʼéʼétiin may be translated into English as "something has a path horizontally out" and hoozdo as "place/space is hot". Deverbal nouns can potentially be long and complex, such as

chidí naaʼnaʼí beeʼeldǫǫhtsoh bikááʼ dah naaznilígíí   "army tank"

which is composed of

  1. the nominalized noun chidí naaʼnaʼí "caterpillar tractor" (which itself is composed of noun chidí "car", verb naaʼnaʼ "it crawls about", and nominalizer =í)
  2. the noun beeʼeldǫǫhtsoh "cannon" (which, in turn, is composed of verb beeʼdldǫǫh "explosion/boom is made with it" and adjectival enclitic =tsoh "big")
  3. the postposition bikááʼ "on it"
  4. the verb dah naaznil "they sit up"
  5. the nominalizer =ígíí

Possession


Postpositions

Postpositions are morphologically similar to nouns in that they are also inflected with possessive prefixes.

Numerals

Navajo uses a decimal (base-10) numeral system. The decimal ( base ten or occasionally denary) Numeral system has ten as its base. There are unique words for the cardinal numbers 1-10. This article describes cardinal numbers in mathematics For cardinals in linguistics see Names of numbers in English. The numerals 11-19 are formed by adding an additive "plus 10" suffix -tsʼáadah to the base numerals 1-9. The numerals 20-100 are formed by adding a multiplicative "times 10" suffix -diin to the base numerals 2-10.

base numeral +10 (-tsʼáadah) x10 (-diin)
1 łáaʼii łáʼtsʼáadah (11) –
2 naaki naakitsʼáadah (12) naadiin (20)
3 tááʼ táátsʼáadah (13) tádiin (30)
4 dį́į́ʼ dį́į́ʼtsʼáadah (14) dízdiin (40)
5 ashdlaʼ ashdlaʼáadah (15) ashdladiin (50)
6 hastą́ą́h hastą́ʼáadah (16) hastą́diin (60)
7 tsostsʼid tsostsʼidtsʼáadah (17) tsostsʼidiin (70)
8 tseebíí tseebíítsʼáadah (18) tseebídiin (80)
9 náhástʼéí náhástʼéítsʼáadah (19) náhástʼédiin (90)
10 neeznáá – neeznádiin (100)

In the compound numerals, the combining forms of the base numerals have irregular vowel and consonants changes (such as the loss of ʼ and shortening of the vowel áá in tá-diin "thirty"). The numeral "one" has three forms: łáaʼii (used in counting "one", "two", "three", etc. ), łá (a shortened combining form), tʼááłáʼí (used in larger numbers and with a distributive plural prefix).

For the cardinal numerals higher than 20 between the multiples of 10 (i. e. , 21-29, 31-39, 41-49, etc. ), there are two types of formations. The numerals 21-29 and 41-49 are formed by suffixing the ones digit to the tens digit, as in naadįįnaaki "twenty-two" (< naadiin "twenty" + naaki "two") and dízdįįłaʼ "forty-one" (< dízdiin "forty" + łaʼ "one"). Here the -diin suffix appears in the form -dįį-. The other numerals are formed by placing dóó baʼąą "and in addition to it" between the tens digit and the ones digit, as in tádiin dóó baʼąą tʼááłáʼí "thirty-one" and ashdladiin dóó baʼąą tʼááʼ "fifty-three". The numerals 41-49 may also be formed in this manner: "forty-two dízdiin dóó baʼąą naaki or dízdįįnaaki.

The cardinal numerals 100-900 are formed by adding the multiplicative enclitic =di to the base numerals 1-9 and adding the word for "hundred" neeznádiin, as in tʼááłáhádí neeznádiin "one hundred", naakidi neeznádiin "two hundred", táadi neeznádiin "three hundred".

base numeral x100 (=di + neeznádiin)
1 tʼááłáʼí tʼááłáhádí neeznádiin (100)
2 naaki naakidi neeznádiin (200)
3 tááʼ táadi neeznádiin (300)
4 dį́į́ʼ dį́įʼdi neeznádiin (400)
5 ashdlaʼ ashdladi neeznádiin (500)
6 hastą́ą́h hastą́ądi neeznádiin (600)
7 tsostsʼid tsostsʼidi neeznádiin (700)
8 tseebíí tseebíidi neeznádiin (800)
9 náhástʼéí náhástʼéidi neeznádiin (900)

The base numerals with a high tone in the last syllable change to a falling tone before =di.

For the thousands, the word mííl (from Spanish mil) is used in conjunction with =di: tʼááłáhádí mííl "one thousand", naakidi mííl "two thousand", etc. The word for "million" is formed by adding the stem -tsoh "big" to mííl: mííltsoh "million" as in tʼááłáhádí mííltsoh "one million", naakidi mííltsoh "two million", etc.

Verbs

The key element in Navajo is the verb, which is notoriously complex. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. Verbs are composed of an abstract stem to which inflectional and/or derivational prefixes are added. In Linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice In Linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from Every verb must have at least one prefix. The prefixes are affixed to the verb in a specified order.

The Navajo verb can be sectioned into different components. The verb stem is composed of an abstract root and an often fused suffix. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents The stem together with a "classifier" prefix (and sometimes other thematic prefixes) make up the verb theme. The thematic prefixes are prefixes that are non-productive, have limited derivational function, and no longer have a clearly defined meaning. In Linguistics, productivity is the degree to which Native speakers use a particular grammatical process especially in Word formation. Examples of thematic prefixes, include the archaic yá- prefix, which only occurs on the verb stem -tééh/-tiʼ meaning "to talk" as in yáłtiʼ "he's talking". The theme is then combined with derivational prefixes which in turn make up the verb base. Finally, inflectional prefixes (which Young & Morgan call "paradigmatic prefixes") are affixed to the base — producing a complete Navajo verb.

Verb Template

The prefixes that occur on a Navajo verb are added in specified more or less rigid order according to prefix type. This type of morphology is called a position class template (or slot-and-filler template). Below is a table of a recent proposal of the Navajo verb template (Young & Morgan 1987). Edward Sapir and Harry Hoijer were the first to propose an analysis of this type. Edward Sapir (səˈpɪər ( January 26 1884 &ndash February 4 1939) was a Jewish German - American A given verb will not have a prefix for every position. In fact, most Navajo verbs are not as complex as the template would seem to suggest: the maximum number of prefixes is around eight.

The Navajo verb is composed of a verb stem and a set of prefixes. The prefixes can be divided into a conjunct prefix set and disjunct prefix set. The disjunct prefixes occur on the outer left edge of the verb. The conjunct prefixes occur after the disjunct prefixes, closer to the verb stem. Two types of prefixes can be distinguished by their different phonological behavior.

disjunct prefixes conjunct prefixes stem

The prefix complex may be subdivided into 11 positions, with some of the positions having even further subdivisions:

disjunct prefixes conjunct prefixes stem
0 1a 1b 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
postposition
object		 "null
postposition"		 adverbial-
thematic		 iterative plural direct object deictic adverbial-
thematic		 mode-
aspect		 subject classifier stem

Although prefixes are generally found in a specific position, some prefixes change order by the process of metathesis. Metathesis (məˈtæθəsɨs is a Sound change that alters the order of Phonemes in a Word. For example, prefix ʼa- (3i object pronoun) usually occurs before di-, as in

adisbąąs "I'm starting to drive some kind of wheeled vehicle along" [ < ʼa- + di- + sh- + ł + -bąąs].

However, when ʼa- occurs with the prefixes di- and ni-, the ʼa- metathesizes with di-, leading to an order of di- + ʼa- + ni-, as in

diʼnisbąąs "I'm in the act of driving some vehicle (into something) & getting stuck" [ < di-ʼa-ni-sh-ł-bąąs < ʼa- + di- + ni- + sh- + ł + -bąąs]

instead of the expected adinisbąąs (ʼa-di-ni-sh-ł-bąąs) (note also that ʼa- is reduced to ʼ-).

Although the verb template model of analysis has been traditionally used to describe the Navajo verb, other analyses have been proposed by Athabascanists.

Pronominal inflection

Navajo verbs have pronominal (i. In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or e. pronoun) prefixes that mark both subjects and objects. According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. The prefixes can vary in certain modes, particularly the perfective mode (See Mode and Aspect section below for a discussion of modes). Navajo or Navaho ( native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock spoken in the southwest United States by The prefixes are inflected according to person and number. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" The basic subject prefixes (and their abbreviations as used by Young & Morgan) are listed in the table below:

Number Subject Prefixes Object Prefixes
Singular Dual-Plural Singular Dual-Plural
First (1) -sh- -iid- shi- nihi-
Second (2) ni- -oh- ni-
Third (3) -Ø- bi-
Third (3o) yi-
Fourth (3a) ji- ha- ~ ho-
Indefinite (3i) ʼa- ʼa-
Space (3s) ha- ~ ho- ha- ~ ho-
Reflexive – (ʼá)-di-
Reciprocal – ʼahi-

The subject prefixes occur in two different positions. The first and second subject prefixes (-sh-, -iid-, ni-, -oh-) occur in position 8 directly before the classifier prefixes. The fourth, indefinite, and "space" subject prefixes (ji-, ʼa-, ha-~ho-) are known as "deictic subject pronouns" and occur in position 5. The third person subject is marked by the absence of a prefix, which is usually indicated with a zero prefix -Ø- in position 8. The object prefixes can occur in position 4 as direct objects, in position 1a as "null postpositions", or in position 0 as the object of postpositions that have been incorporated into the verb complex.

The fourth person subject prefix ji- is a kind of obviative third person. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others It refers primarily to persons or personified animals (unlike the regular third person). It has a number of uses including:

When used as an impersonal, it may be translated into English as "one" as in béésh bee njinéego hálaʼ da jiigish "one can cut one's hand playing with knives". In Sociolinguistics, a T-V distinction describes the situation wherein a Language has second-person Pronouns that distinguish varying levels of The "space" prefix can be translated as "area, place, space, impersonal it" as in halgai "the area/place is white" and nahałtin "it is raining". The prefix has two forms: ha- and ho- with ho- having derived forms such as hw- and hwi-.

An example paradigm for "to freeze" (imperfective mode) showing the subject prefixes:

Singular Dual-Plural
First yishtin "I freeze" yiitin "we (2+) freeze"
Second nitin "you freeze" wohtin "you (2+) freeze"
Third yitin "she/he/it/they freeze"
Fourth (3a) jitin "she/he/they freeze"
Indefinite (3i) atin "someone/something freezes"

Classifiers (transitivity prefixes)

The "classifiers" are prefixes of position 9 (the closest to the verb stem) that affect the transitivity of the verb, in that they are valence and voice markers. In Syntax, a transitive verb is a Verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs In Linguistics, verb valency or valence refers to the number of arguments controlled by a verbal predicate. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified In spite of their misnomered name, they do not classify anything and are not related to the classificatory verb stems (which actually do classify nouns, see classificatory verbs below). Navajo or Navaho ( native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock spoken in the southwest United States by There are four classifiers: -Ø-, -ł-, -d-, -l-. The -Ø- classifier is the absence of a prefix, which is usually indicated by a zero morpheme.

The -ł- classifier is a causative-transitivizing prefix of active verbs. A causative form in Linguistics, is an expression of an agent causing or forcing a patient to perform an action (or to be in a certain condition It often can transitivize an intransitive -Ø- verb: yibéézh "it's boiling" (yi-Ø-béézh), yiłbéézh "he's boiling it (yi-ł-béézh); naʼniyęęsh "somethings flows about in a meandering fashion" (naʼni-Ø-yęęsh), naʼniłhęęsh "he's making it flow about in a meandering fashion" (naʼni-ł-yęęsh).

The -d- classifier occurs in most passive, mediopassive, reflexive, and reciprocal verbs that are derived from verbs with a -Ø- classifier: yizéés "he's singeing it" (yi-Ø-zéés), yidéés "it's being singed" (yi-d-zéés).

The -l- occurs in most passive, mediopassive, reflexive, and reciprocal verbs that are derived from verbs with a -ł- classifier: néíłtsááh "he's drying it" (ná-yi-ł-tsááh), náltsááh it's being dried" (ná-l-tsááh).

Some verbs can occur with all four classifier prefixes:

In other verbs, the classifiers do not mark transitivity and are considered thematic prefixes that simply are required to occur with certain verb stems.

Mode and aspect

Navajo has a large number of aspectual, modal, and tense distinctions that are indicated by verb stem alternations (involving vowel and tonal ablaut and suffixation) often in combination with a range of prefixes. In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word These are divided into seven "modes" and approximately twelve aspects and ten subaspects. (Although the term mode is traditionally used, most of the distinctions provided by the modes are in fact aspectual. ) Each Navajo verb generally can occur in a number of mode and aspect category combinations.

Modes

Navajo has the following verb modes:

The modes above have five distinct verb stem forms. For example, the verb meaning "to play, tease" has the following five stem forms for the seven modes:

Mode Stem Form
Imperfective -né
Perfective -neʼ
Progressive/Future -neeł
Usitative/Iterative -neeh
Optative -né

The progressive and future modes share the same stem form as do the usitative and iterative modes. The optative mode usually has the same verb stem as the imperfective mode, although for some verbs the stem forms differ (in the example "to play, tease" above, the imperfective and the optative stems are the same).

The imperfective indicates an event/action that has begun but remains incomplete. The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal Although this mode does not refer to tense, it is usually translated into English as a present tense form: yishááh "I'm (in the act of) going/coming", yishą́ "I'm (in the act of) eating (something)". Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs With the additional of adverbials, the imperfective can be used for events/actions in the past, present, or future. The mode is used in the second person for immediate imperatives. The imperfective mode has a distinct imperfective stem form and four different mode-aspect prefix paradigms: (1) with a ni- terminative prefix in position 7 as in nishááh "I'm in the act of arriving", (2) with a si- stative prefix in position 7 as in shishʼaah "I'm in the act of placing a SRO" in dah shishʼaah "I'm in the act of placing a SRO up" (dah "up"), (3) with no prefix in position 7, usually identified as a Ø- prefix, as in yishcha "I'm crying", (4) with either a yi- transitional or yi- semelfactive prefix in position 6 (and no prefix in position 7).

The perfective indicates an event/action that has been completed and usually corresponds to English past tense: yíyáʼ "I went/came/arrived", yíyą́ą́ʼ "I ate (something)". In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages However, since the perfective mode is not a tense, it can be used to refer non-past actions, such as the future (where it may be translated as English "will have" + VERB). The perfective mode has a distinct perfective stem form and four different prefix paradigms: (1) with a yí- perfective prefix with a high tone in position 7 as in yíchʼid "I scratched it", (2) with a ní- terminative prefix with a high tone in position 7 as in níyá "I arrived", (3) with a sí- stative prefix with high tone in position 7 as in sélį́į́ʼ "I roasted it", (4) with a yi- transitional prefix in position 6 (and Ø- in position 7) as in yiizįʼ "I stood up".

The progressive indicates an incomplete event/action that is ongoing without reference to the beginning or end of the event/action. The continuous and progressive aspects are Grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time they are non-habitual imperfective This mode may be translated into English as BE + VERB-ing + "along": yishááł "I'm going/walking along", yishtééł "I'm carrying it along". The future mode is primarily a future tense — indicating a prospective event/action: deeshááł "I'll go/come", deeshį́į́ł "I'll eat (something)". In Grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet but expected to happen in the future (in an Absolute tense The progressive mode has a yi- progressive prefix (in position 7), the future has a di- inceptive prefix (in position 6) and the yi- progressive prefix.

The usitative indicates a repetitive event/action that takes place customarily: yishááh "I usually go", yishdlį́į́h "I always drink (something)". The iterative is a frequentative indicating a recurrent event/action that takes place repeatedly and customarily: chʼínáshdááh "repeatedly go out" as in ahbínígo tłʼóóʼgóó chʼínáshdááh "I always (repeatedly) go outdoors in the morning" (ahbínígo "in the morning", tłʼóóʼgóó "outdoors"), náshdlį́į́h "drink (something) repeatedly" as in nínádiishʼnahgo gohwééh náshdlį́į́h "I drink coffee when I get up" (nínádiishʼnahgo "when I get up", gohwééh "coffee"). In Grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action The iterative is distinguished from the usitative by a ná- repetitive prefix (in position 2) and also sometimes by a -d- or -ł- classifier prefix (in position 9).

The optative indicates a positive or negative desire or wish. The optative mood is a Grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope The mode is used with the addition of adverbial particles that follow the verb, such as laanaa and lágo: nahółtą́ą́ʼ laanaa "I wish it would rain", nahółtą́ą́ʼ lágo "I hope it doesn't rain". In Linguistics, the term particle is a word lacking a strict definition but has the function of changing the relation of the parts of the sentence to one another and is therefore With punctual verbs, the optative mode can be used to form a negative imperative: shinóółʼį́į́ʼ (lágo) "don't look at me!". In certain adverbial frames, the optative indicates positive or negative potential.

Aspects and subaspects

The Primary aspects:

The subaspects:

Navajo modes co-occur with various aspects. For example, the verb "rain falls" can occur in the perfective mode with the momentaneous and distributive aspects: -tsąąʼ (perfective momentaneous), -tsįʼ (perfective distributive). As with the modes, different aspects have different stem forms even when in the same mode, as seen with the previous "rain falls" perfective stems. Thus, a given verb will have set of stem forms that can be classified into both a mode and an aspect category. Verb stem paradigms of mode and aspect are given below for two different verbs:

"to curl, shrivel, contract into distorted shape"
Imperfective Perfective Progressive-
Future		 Usitative-
Iterative		 Optative
Momentaneous -chʼííł -chʼil -chʼił -chʼił -chʼííł
Transitional -chʼííł -chʼiil -chʼił -chʼił -chʼííł
Continuative,
Conclusive		 -chʼil -chʼil -chʼił -chʼił -chʼil
Semelfactive -chʼił -chʼił -chʼił -chʼił -chʼił
Repetitive -chʼił – – – –
Conative -chʼiił -chʼil -chʼił -chʼił -chʼiił
"to smell, have an odor, stink"
Imperfective Perfective Progressive-
Future		 Usitative-
Iterative		 Optative
Momentaneous,
Diversative,
Distributive		 -chįįh -chą́ą́ʼ -chįįł -chįįh -chą́ą́ʼ
Continuative -chą́ą́ʼ -chą́ą́ʼ -chį́į́ł -chį́į́h -chą́ą́ʼ
Conclusive -chin -chą́ą́ʼ -chį́į́ł -chįįh -chą́ą́ʼ
Semelfactive -chįh -chįh -chįh -chįh -chįh
Repetitive -chą́ą́ʼ – – – –
Conative -chį́į́h – – – –
Cursive – – -chį́į́ł/-chį́į́h – –

As can be seen above, some aspect and mode combinations do not occur depending mostly upon the semantics of the particular verb. Additionally, some aspects do not occur at all with a particular verb. The patterns of verb stem alternations are very complex although there is a significant amount of homophony. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning A particularly important investigation into this area of the Navajo verb is Hardy (1979).

Classificatory Verbs

Navajo has verb stems that classify a particular object by its shape or other physical characteristics in addition to describing the movement or state of the object. These are known in Athabaskan linguistics as classificatory verb stems. These are usually identified by an acronym label. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name There are eleven primary classificatory "handling" verbs stems, which are listed below (given in the perfective mode):

Classifier+Stem   Label   Explanation Examples
-ʼą́ SRO Solid Roundish Object bottle, ball, boot, box, etc.
-yį́ LPB Load, Pack, Burden backpack, bundle, sack, saddle, etc.
-ł-jool NCM Non-Compact Matter bunch of hair or grass, cloud, fog, etc.
-lá SFO Slender Flexible Object rope, mittens, socks, pile of fried onions, etc.
-tį' SSO Slender Stiff Object arrow, bracelet, skillet, saw, etc.
-ł-tsooz FFO Flat Flexible Object blanket, coat, sack of groceries, etc.
-tłééʼ MM Mushy Matter ice cream, mud, slumped-over drunken person, etc.
-nil PLO1 Plural Objects 1 eggs, balls, animals, coins, etc.
-jaaʼ PLO2 Plural Objects 2 marbles, seeds, sugar, bugs, etc.
-ką́ OC Open Container glass of milk, spoonful of food, handful of flour, etc.
-ł-tį́ ANO Animate Object microbe, person, corpse, doll, etc.

To compare with English, Navajo has no single verb that corresponds to the English word give. In order to say the equivalent of Give me some hay!, the Navajo verb níłjool (NCM) must be used, while for Give me a cigarette! the verb nítįįh (SSO) must be used. The English verb give is expressed by eleven different verbs in Navajo, depending on the characteristics of the given object.

In addition to defining the physical properties of the object, primary classificatory verb stems also can distinguish between the manner of movement of the object. The stems may then be grouped into three different categories:

  1. handling
  2. propelling
  3. free flight

Handling includes actions such as carrying, lowering, and taking. Propelling includes tossing, dropping, and throwing. Free flight includes falling, and flying through space.

Using an example for the SRO category, Navajo has

  1. -ʼą́ "to handle (a round object)",
  2. -neʼ "to throw (a round object)", and
  3. -l-tsʼid "(a round object) moves independently".

yi-/bi- alternation (animacy)

Like most Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan languages show various levels of animacy in its grammar, with certain nouns taking specific verb forms according to their rank in this animacy hierarchy. Animacy is a grammatical and/or Semantic category of Nouns based on how Sentient or alive the Referent of the noun is For instance, Navajo nouns can be ranked by animacy on a continuum from most animate (a human or lightning) to least animate (an abstraction) (Young & Morgan 1987: 65-66):

humans/lightning → infants/big animals → med-size animals → small animals → insects → natural forces → inanimate objects/plants → abstractions

Generally, the most animate noun in a sentence must occur first while the noun with lesser animacy occurs second. If both nouns are equal in animacy, then either noun can occur in the first position. So, both example sentences (1) and (2) are correct. The yi- prefix on the verb indicates that the 1st noun is the subject and bi- indicates that the 2nd noun is the subject.

    (1)   Ashkii at'ééd yiníł'į́.
  boy girl yi-look
  'The boy is looking at the girl. '
    (2)   At'ééd ashkii biníł'į́.
  girl boy bi-look
  'The girl is being looked at by the boy. '

But example sentence (3) sounds wrong to most Navajo speakers because the less animate noun occurs before the more animate noun:

    (3)   * Tsídii at'ééd yishtąsh.
    bird girl yi-pecked
    'The bird pecked the girl. '

In order to express this idea, the more animate noun must occur first, as in sentence (4):

    (4)   At'ééd tsídii bishtąsh.
  girl bird bi-pecked
  'The girl was pecked by the bird. '

Note that although sentence (4) is translated into English with a passive verb, in Navajo it is not passive. Passive verbs are formed by certain classifier prefixes (i. e. , transitivity prefixes) that occur directly before the verb stem in position 9. The yi-/bi- prefixes do not mark sentences as active or passive, but as direct or inverse. A direct-inverse language is a language where clauses with transitive verbs can be expressed either using a direct or an inverse construction

Text example

Here is the first paragraph of a very short story in Young & Morgan (1987: 205a–205b).

Diné bizaad:

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. . . .

Free 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. . . .

Interlinear text:

Ashiiké tʼóó diigis léiʼ tółikaní łaʼ ádiilnííł
boys foolish certain wine some we'll make
dóó nihaa nahidoonih níigo yee hodeezʼą́ jiní.
and from us it will be bought they saying with it they planned it is said
Áko tʼáá ałʼąą chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii kʼiidiilá
so then separately grapevines they planted them
dóó hááhgóóshį́į́ yinaalnishgo tʼáá áłah chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii néineestʼą́ jiní.
and diligently they working on them they both grapevines they raised them it is said
Áádóó tółikaní áyiilaago
and then wine they having made it
tʼáá bíhígíí tʼáá ałʼąą tłʼízíkágí yiiʼ haidééłbįįd jiní.
each their own separately goatskins in them they filled it it is said.
"Háadida díí tółikaní yígíí doo łaʼ ahaʼdiidził da," níigo
"any time this wine particular not some/any we'll give each other not," they saying
ahaʼdeetʼą́ jiníʼ.
they agreed it is said.
Áádóó baa nahidoonih biniiyé kintahgóó dah yidiiłjid jiníʼ.
and then from then it will be bought its purpose to town off they started back-packing it it is said

Notes

See also

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Bibliography

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