Editing Navajo language (section)

{{Short description|Athabaskan language of Na-Dené stock in the United States}}
{{cleanup lang|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Navajo
| nativename       = {{lang|nv|Diné bizaad}}
| states           = United States
| region           = [[Arizona]]; [[New Mexico]]; [[Utah]]; [[Colorado]]
| ethnicity        = 332,129 [[Navajo people|Navajo]] (2021)
| speakers         = {{sigfig|170,000|2}}
| date             = 2019 census
| ref              = e24
| familycolor      = Na-Dené
| fam1             = [[Dené–Yeniseian languages|Dené–Yeniseian]]?
| fam2             = [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dené]]
| fam3             = [[Athabaskan languages|Athabaskan]]
| fam4             = [[Southern Athabaskan languages|Southern Athabaskan]]
| fam5             = Southwestern Apache
| fam6             = Western
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[Navajo alphabet]])<br />[[Navajo Braille]]
| iso1             = nv
| iso2             = nav
| iso3             = nav
| glotto           = nava1243
| glottorefname    = Navajo
| map              = <!--DineBikeyahBe%27elyaigii.svg-->DineBikeyahBe'elyaigii.svg
| mapcaption       = The [[Navajo Nation]], where the language is most spoken
| notice           = IPA
| nation           = [[Navajo Nation]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/make-navajo-cool-again-din-bizaad-adopted-as-navajo-nations-official-language/article_71d4c05c-c6c6-11ef-af6f-4b5184dbc426.html|title='Make Navajo cool again': Diné Bizaad adopted as Navajo Nation's official language|date=30 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nhonews.com/news/din-bizaad-becomes-the-official-language-of-navajo-nation/article_19b2a7b8-c6c6-11ef-b9a0-8be544e4acd0.html|title=Diné Bizaad becomes the official language of Navajo Nation|date=30 December 2024}}</ref>
}}
{{Infobox ethnonym|person= |people= Diné|language= [[Navajo language|Diné Bizaad]],<br/>[[Plains Indian Sign Language|Diné Yideez]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wall |first1=Leon |last2=Morgan |first2=William |title=Navajo–English Dictionary |date=1958 |page=63 |url=https://digscholarship.unco.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=navajo |access-date=26 March 2025}}</ref><br/>[[Navajo Family Sign|Hak'éí Yideez]]{{sfnp|Wall|Morgan|1958|p=34}}|country=[[Dinétah]]}}


'''Navajo''' or '''Navaho''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|æ|v|ə|h|oʊ|,_|ˈ|n|ɑː|v|ə|-}} {{respell|NAV|ə|hoh|,_|NAH|və|-}};<ref>{{Citation |last=Jones |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Jones (phonetician) |title=English Pronouncing Dictionary |editor=Peter Roach |editor2=James Hartmann |editor3=Jane Setter |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |orig-year=1917 |year=2003 |isbn=3-12-539683-2 }}</ref> Navajo: {{lang|nv|Diné bizaad}} {{IPA|nv|tìnépìz̥ɑ̀ːt|}} or {{lang|nv|Naabeehó bizaad}} {{IPA|nv|nɑ̀ːpèːhópìz̥ɑ̀ːt|}}) is a [[Southern Athabaskan languages|Southern Athabaskan language]] of the [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dené family]], through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of [[North America]]. Navajo is spoken primarily in the [[Southwestern United States]], especially in the [[Navajo Nation]]. It is one of the most widely spoken [[Indigenous languages of the Americas#Northern America|Native American language]]s and is the most widely spoken north of the [[Mexico–United States border]], with almost 170,000 Americans speaking Navajo at home as of 2011.

The language has struggled to keep a healthy speaker base, although this problem has been alleviated to some extent by extensive education programs in the Navajo Nation. In World War II, speakers of the Navajo language joined the military and developed a code for sending secret messages. These [[Code talker#Navajo|code talkers]]' messages are widely credited with saving many lives and winning some of the most decisive battles in the war.

Navajo has a fairly large phonemic inventory, including several consonants that are not found in English. Its four basic vowel qualities are distinguished for [[Nasal vowel|nasality]], [[Vowel length|length]], and [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. Navajo has both [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] and [[fusional language|fusional]] elements: it uses [[affixes]] to modify verbs, and nouns are typically created from multiple morphemes, but in both cases these morphemes are fused irregularly and beyond easy recognition. Basic [[word order]] is [[subject–object–verb]], though it is highly flexible to pragmatic factors. Verbs are conjugated for [[grammatical aspect|aspect]] and [[grammatical mood|mood]], and given affixes for the person and number of both [[subject (grammar)|subjects]] and [[object (grammar)|objects]], as well as a host of other variables.

The language's [[orthography]], which was developed in the late 1930s, is based on the [[Latin script]]. Most Navajo vocabulary is Athabaskan in origin, as the language has been conservative with [[loanwords]] due to its highly complex noun morphology.