Five Facts About the Navajo Language

By Sarah-Claire Jordan

The Navajo are the second largest tribe in the U.S. to be recognized by the federal government. In the Four Corners region of the U.S., you can find the Navajo reservation that is governed by the Navajo Nation. Arizona and New Mexico are the two states with the highest Navajo populations. One thing that is key to Navajo identity is the Navajo language, and here are five facts you may not have known about it:

1. The origins of the word “Navajo”
Navajo is not what the Navajo used to refer to themselves. It actually comes from a different indigenous language, Tewa, which includes the word “navahu”, meaning “large field”. This word was borrowed by the Spanish who interacted with the Navajo. The word used by the Navajo refer to themselves is “Diné”, which just means “people”. They call their language “Diné bizaad”, which means “language of the people”.

2. Navajo’s linguistic relatives
The Navajo language, along with the Apachean languages, is an Athabaskan language, most of which are spoken by tribes in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Navajo forms part of the southern branch of this family, along with its close relatives the Apachean languages. The two languages that are the most similar to Navajo are Chiricahua and Mescalero, but Navajo is mutually intelligible with all of the Apachean languages.

3. Navajo is among the best-documented of the native languages
Starting with the development of an orthography in 1937 by the linguist Robert W. Young with the help of William Morgan, a Navajo, the Navajo language began to be documented. In 1943 they published the first Navajo dictionary, and soon a newspaper, called Ádahooníłígíí (“Events” in English) was created and lasted until 1957. Young and Morgan continued to work more, creating a grammar book and other indispensable resources for learning the Navajo language.

4. Navajo was used as a code language in World War II
In the beginning of World War II, a civil engineer raised on a Navajo reservation suggested that Navajo be used as a code language. It made sense at the time, as there were no Navajo dictionaries published yet and the language shared nothing with Japanese or German. The complexity of Navajo grammar also contributed to its usefulness in transmitting information without being decoded by the enemy. Navajo speakers were tested and chosen to be “code talkers” and were very skilled, accurate, and fast at coding and decoding messages.

5. Navajo language education
There is one school run by the Navajo Nation that is a K-8 Navajo immersion school. Thirteen of the teachers teach exclusively in Navajo, while five teachers are English language teachers only. From kindergarten to third grade, all classes are taught in Navajo. Third grade is the year when some English is incorporated, with around ten percent of the classes taught in English. This method has helped to increase the Navajo literacy rate and helped an indigenous group preserve their native language.

Category: Foreign Language