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Navajo or Navaho (/ ˈ n æ v ə h oʊ, ˈ n ɑː v ə-/ NAV-ə-hoh, NAH-və-; [4] Navajo: Diné bizaad [tìnépìz̥ɑ̀ːt] or Naabeehó bizaad [nɑ̀ːpèːhópìz̥ɑ̀ːt]) is a Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America.
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.
Most words of Native American/First Nations language origin are the common names for indigenous flora and fauna, or describe items of Native American or First Nations life and culture. Some few are names applied in honor of Native Americans or First Nations peoples or due to a vague similarity to the original object of the word.
The language comprises two geographic, mutually intelligible dialects. It is closely related to the languages of the Apache; the Navajo and Apache are believed to have migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, where the majority of Athabaskan speakers reside. [8] Additionally, some Navajo know Navajo Sign Language, which is either a ...
The language, known as Diné (which means Navajo) even has its own “tom-AY-to / to-MAH-to” discrepancies, as well as differences in spelling, despite authoritative language books.
Na-Dene (/ ˌ n ɑː d ɪ ˈ n eɪ / NAH-dih-NAY; also Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Tlina–Dene) is a family of Native American languages that includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. Haida was formerly included but is now considered doubtful.
In the early 1940s Young joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he worked in the Southwest at the Navajo Agency in Window Rock, Arizona.Morgan also joined the BIA, and the two worked together for decades on the Navajo language, making it the most documented indigenous language in the United States.
The European colonizing nations and their successor states had widely varying attitudes towards Native American languages. In Brazil, friars learned and promoted the Tupi language . [ 9 ] In many Spanish colonies, Spanish missionaries often learned local languages and culture in order to preach to the natives in their own tongue and relate the ...