Editing Navajo language (section)

==History==
[[File:NavajoSigns.png|thumb|right|upright=1.59|Examples of written Navajo on public signs. Clockwise from top left: Student Services Building, [[Diné College]]; cougar exhibit, [[Navajo Nation Zoological and Botanical Park|Navajo Nation Zoo]]; shopping center near [[Navajo, New Mexico]]; notice of reserved parking, [[Window Rock, Arizona|Window Rock]]]]

The Apachean languages, of which Navajo is one, are thought to have arrived in the American Southwest from the north by 1500, probably passing through Alberta and Wyoming.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Perry |first1=Richard J. |title=The Apachean Transition from the Subarctic to the Southwest |journal=Plains Anthropologist |date=November 1980 |volume=25 |issue=90 |pages=279–296 |doi=10.1080/2052546.1980.11908999 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brugge |first1=D. M. |date=1983 |chapter=Navajo prehistory and history to 1850 |title=[[Handbook of North American Indians]] |volume=10 |pages=489–501 |isbn=978-0-16-004579-0 }}</ref> Archaeological finds considered to be proto-Navajo have been located in the far northern New Mexico around the La Plata, Animas and Pine rivers, dating to around 1500. In 1936, linguist [[Edward Sapir]] showed how the arrival of the Navajo people in the new arid climate among the corn agriculturalists of the Pueblo area was reflected in their language by tracing the changing meanings of words from Proto-Athabaskan to Navajo. For example, the word *''dè:'', which in Proto-Athabaskan meant "horn" and "dipper made from animal horn", in Navajo became a-deeʼ, which meant "gourd" or "dipper made from gourd". Likewise, the Proto-Athabaskan word *''ł-yəx̣s'' "snow lies on the ground" in Navajo became ''yas'' "snow". Similarly, the Navajo word for "corn" is ''naadą́ą́ʼ'', derived from two Proto-Athabaskan roots meaning "enemy" and "food", suggesting that the Navajo originally considered corn to be "food of the enemy" when they first arrived among the Pueblo people.<ref>Sapir, E. (1936). "Internal linguistic evidence suggestive of the northern origin of the Navaho". ''American Anthropologist'', 38(2), 224–235.</ref><ref>Shaul, D. L. (2014). ''A Prehistory of Western North America: The Impact of Uto-Aztecan Languages''. UNM Press. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

===Navajo Code Talkers===
{{main|Code talker#Navajo}}
[[File:Navajo Indian communication men with the Marines on Saipan landed with the first assault waves to his the beach. - NARA - 532526.tif|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Navajo code talkers]], Saipan, June 1944|alt=Navajo code talkers]]
[[File:Navaho-enlistment-letter-page01.jpg|thumb|right|General [[Clayton Barney Vogel]]'s recommendation letter for Navajo to be used by [[code talker]]s during [[World War II]]]]
During  World Wars I and II, the U.S. government employed speakers of the Navajo language as [[Navajo code talkers]]. These Navajo soldiers and sailors used a code based on the Navajo language to relay secret messages. At the end of the war the code remained unbroken.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1942: Navajo Code Talkers |url=https://www.intelligence.gov/index.php/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/453-navajo-code-talkers |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416140447/https://www.intelligence.gov/index.php/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/453-navajo-code-talkers |archive-date=April 16, 2019 |website=[[United States Intelligence Community]]}}</ref>

The code used Navajo words for each letter of the English alphabet. Messages could be encoded and decoded by using a [[simple substitution cipher]] where the [[ciphertext]] was the Navajo word. Type two code was informal and directly translated from English into Navajo. If there was no word in Navajo to describe a military word, code talkers used descriptive words. For example, the Navajo did not have a word for ''submarine'', so they translated it as ''iron fish''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html|title=Code Talking – Native Words Native Warriors|website=americanindian.si.edu|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112040555/https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter4.html|archive-date=January 12, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers|title=American Indian Code Talkers|website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans|language=en|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127101902/https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indian-code-talkers|archive-date=January 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

These Navajo code talkers are widely recognized for their contributions to WWII. Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division Signal Officer stated, "Were it not for the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.avantpage.com/blog/language-spotlight-navajo/|title=Language Spotlight: Navajo|date=25 September 2013 }}</ref>

===Colonization===

Navajo lands were initially colonized by the [[Spain|Spanish]] in the early seventeenth century, shortly after this area was annexed as part of the Spanish viceroyalty of [[New Spain]]. When the United States annexed these territories in 1848 following the [[Mexican–American War]],<ref name="Minahan 2013 261"/> the English-speaking settlers allowed{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} Navajo children to attend their schools. In some cases, the United States established separate schools for Navajo and other Native American children. In the late 19th century, it founded boarding schools, often operated by religious missionary groups. In efforts to [[acculturate]] the children, school authorities insisted that they learn to speak English and practice Christianity. Students routinely had their mouths washed out with lye soap as a punishment if they did speak Navajo.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/the-warrior-tradition-fkaz4h/|title=The Warrior Tradition &#124; The Warrior Tradition|via=www.pbs.org|access-date=2020-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115052715/https://www.pbs.org/video/the-warrior-tradition-fkaz4h/|archive-date=2019-11-15|url-status=live}}</ref> Consequently, when these students grew up and had children of their own, they often did not teach them Navajo, in order to prevent them from being punished.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 421"/>

[[Robert W. Young]] and [[William Morgan (Navajo scholar)|William Morgan]], who both worked for the Navajo Agency of the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]], developed and published a practical orthography in 1937. It helped spread education among Navajo speakers.<ref name="Minahan 2013 262">{{Harvnb|Minahan|2013|p=262}}</ref> In 1943 the men collaborated on ''The Navajo Language'', a dictionary organized by the roots of the language.<ref name="hargus"/> In [[World War II]], the United States military used speakers of Navajo as [[code talker]]s—to transmit top-secret military messages over telephone and radio in a code based on Navajo. The language was considered ideal because of its grammar, which differs strongly from that of [[German language|German]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]], and because no published Navajo dictionaries existed at the time.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=Chester Nez, 93, Dies; Navajo Words Washed From Mouth Helped Win War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/chester-nez-dies-at-93-his-native-tongue-helped-to-win-a-war-of-words.html |work=The New York Times |date=6 June 2014 }}</ref>

By the 1960s, Indigenous languages of the United States had been declining in use for some time. Native American language use began to decline more quickly in this decade as paved roads were built and English-language radio was broadcast to tribal areas. Navajo was no exception, although its large speaker pool—larger than that of any other Native language in the United States—gave it more staying power than most.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 422">{{Harvnb|Johansen|Ritzker|2007|p=422}}</ref> Adding to the language's decline, federal acts passed in the 1950s to increase educational opportunities for Navajo children had resulted in pervasive use of English in their schools.<ref name="Kroskrity Field 2009 38"/>

In more recent years, the number of monolingual Navajo speakers have been in the decline, and most younger Navajo people are bilingual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LEE |first=LLOYD L. |id={{Project MUSE|75750|type=book}} |jstor=j.ctv11sn6g4 |title=Diné Identity in a Twenty-First-Century World |date=2020 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11sn6g4 |isbn=978-0-8165-4068-6 |s2cid=219444542 }}{{page needed|date=January 2023}}</ref> Near the 1990s, many Navajo children have little to no knowledge in Navajo language, only knowing English.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Spolsky |first1=Bernard |title=Prospects for the Survival of the Navajo Language: A Reconsideration |journal=Anthropology and Education Quarterly |date=June 2002 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=139–162 |id={{ProQuest|218107198}} |doi=10.1525/aeq.2002.33.2.139 }}</ref>

===Revitalization and current status===
In 1968, U.S. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] signed the [[Bilingual Education Act]], which provided funds for educating young students who are not native English speakers. The Act had mainly been intended for Spanish-speaking children—particularly [[Mexican Americans]]—but it applied to all recognized linguistic minorities. Many Native American tribes seized the chance to establish their own bilingual education programs. However, qualified teachers who were fluent in Native languages were scarce, and these programs were largely unsuccessful.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 422"/>

However, data collected in 1980 showed that 85 percent of Navajo first-graders were bilingual, compared to 62 percent of Navajo of all ages—early evidence of a resurgence of use of their traditional language among younger people.<ref>{{Harvnb|Koenig|2005|p=8}}</ref> In 1984, to counteract the language's historical decline, the [[Navajo Nation Council]] decreed that the Navajo language would be available and comprehensive for students of all grade levels in schools of the [[Navajo Nation]].<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 422"/> This effort was aided by the fact that, largely due to the work of Young and Morgan, Navajo is one of the best-documented Native American languages. In 1980 they published a monumental expansion of their work on the language, organized by word (first initial of vowel or consonant) in the pattern of English dictionaries, as requested by Navajo students. ''The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary'' also included a 400-page grammar, making it invaluable for both native speakers and students of the language. Particularly in its organization of verbs, it was oriented to Navajo speakers.<ref name="kari">{{cite journal |last1=Kari |first1=James |last2=Leer |first2=Jeff |title=Review of The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1984 |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=124–130 |doi=10.1086/465821 |jstor=1265203 }}</ref> They expanded this work again in 1987, with several significant additions, and this edition continues to be used as an important text.<ref name="hargus"/>

The Native American language education movement has been met with adversity, such as by English-only campaigns in some areas in the late 1990s. However, Navajo-immersion programs have cropped up across the Navajo Nation. Statistical evidence shows that Navajo-immersion students generally do better on [[standardized test]]s than their counterparts educated only in English. Some educators have remarked that students who know their native languages feel a sense of pride and identity validation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Johansen|Ritzker|2007|pp=423–424}}</ref> Since 1989, [[Diné College]], a Navajo tribal [[community college]], has offered an [[associate degree]] in the subject of Navajo.<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|Elinek|1996|p=376}}</ref> This program includes language, literature, culture, medical terminology, and teaching courses and produces the highest number of Navajo teachers of any institution in the United States. About 600 students attend per semester.<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|Elinek|1996|pp=377–385}}</ref> One major university that teaches classes in the Navajo language is [[Arizona State University]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/03/learning-navajo-helps-students-connect-their-culture-154613?page=0%2C0|publisher=Indian Country (Today Media Network)|title=Learning Navajo Helps Students Connect to Their Culture|date=May 3, 2014|author=Arizona State University News|access-date=August 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520221150/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/05/03/learning-navajo-helps-students-connect-their-culture-154613?page=0%2C0|archive-date=May 20, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1992, Young and Morgan published another major work on Navajo: ''Analytical Lexicon of Navajo'', with the assistance of Sally Midgette (Navajo). This work is organized by [[root (linguistics)|root]], the basis of Athabaskan languages.<ref name="hargus"/>

A 1991 survey of 682 preschoolers on the Navajo Reservation [[Head Start program]] found that 54 percent were monolingual English speakers, 28 percent were bilingual in English and Navajo, and 18 percent spoke only Navajo. This study noted that while the preschool staff knew both languages, they spoke English to the children most of the time. In addition, most of the children's parents spoke to the children in English more often than in Navajo. The study concluded that the preschoolers were in "almost total immersion in English".<ref>{{Harvnb|Platero|Hinton|2001|pp=87–97}}</ref> An [[American Community Survey]] taken in 2011 found that 169,369 Americans spoke Navajo at home—0.3 percent of Americans whose primary home language was not English. Of primary Navajo speakers, 78.8 percent reported they spoke English "very well", a fairly high percentage overall but less than among other Americans speaking a different Native American language (85.4 percent). Navajo was the only Native American language afforded its own category in the survey; domestic Navajo speakers represented 46.4 percent of all domestic Native language speakers (only 195,407 Americans have a different home Native language).<ref name="census">{{cite web|title=Language Use|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf|publisher=Census.gov|date=August 2013|last=Ryan|first=Camille|access-date=August 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205101044/http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf|archive-date=February 5, 2016|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> As of July 2014, [[Ethnologue]] classes Navajo as "6b" (In Trouble), signifying that few, but some, parents teach the language to their offspring and that concerted efforts at revitalization could easily protect the language. Navajo had a high population for a language in this category.<ref>{{cite web|url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709015814/http://www.ethnologue.com/cloud/nav| url=http://www.ethnologue.com/cloud/nav|archive-date=July 9, 2014|access-date=August 7, 2014|title=Navajo in the Language Cloud|publisher=[[Ethnologue]]}}</ref> About half of all Navajo people live on Navajo Nation land, an area spanning parts of [[Arizona]], [[New Mexico]], and [[Utah]]; others are dispersed throughout the United States.<ref name="Minahan 2013 261">{{Harvnb|Minahan|2013|p=261}}</ref> Under tribal law, fluency in Navajo is mandatory for candidates to the office of the [[President of the Navajo Nation]].<ref>{{cite news|url = http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Language-factors-into-race-for-Navajo-president-5747493.php|title = Language factors into race for Navajo president|last = Fonseca|first = Felicia|date = September 11, 2014|newspaper = [[The Houston Chronicle]]|access-date = September 29, 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140911172142/http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Language-factors-into-race-for-Navajo-president-5747493.php|archive-date = September 11, 2014|url-status = live}}</ref>

Both original and translated media have been produced in Navajo. The first works tended to be religious texts translated by missionaries, including the Bible. From 1943 to about 1957, the Navajo Agency of the BIA published ''[[Ádahooníłígíí]]'' ("Events"<ref name="McCarty2002">{{cite book|author=Teresa L. McCarty|title=A Place to Be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for Self-Determination in Indigenous Schooling|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXmRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-65158-9|pages=51–|access-date=20 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624092859/https://books.google.com/books?id=lXmRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|archive-date=24 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>), the first newspaper in Navajo and the only one to be written entirely in Navajo. It was edited by [[Robert W. Young]] and William Morgan, Sr. (Navajo). They had collaborated on ''The Navajo Language'', a major language dictionary published that same year, and continued to work on studying and documenting the language in major works for the next few decades.<ref name="hargus">{{cite journal |last1=Hargus |first1=Sharon |last2=Morgan |first2=William |title=Review of Analytical Lexicon of Navajo, William Morgan Sr. |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |date=1996 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=366–370 |jstor=30028936 }}</ref> Today an [[medium wave|AM]] radio station, [[KTNN]], broadcasts in Navajo and English, with programming including music and [[NFL]] games;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.raiders.com/news/article-1/Raiders-vs-Lions-to-Be-Broadcast-in-Navajo/13181f15-456f-4e9f-bd12-e407cf95f0ed|publisher=[[Oakland Raiders|Raiders.com]]|title=Raiders vs Lions to be Broadcast in Navajo|date=December 14, 2011|access-date=August 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171024211221/http://www.raiders.com/news/article-1/Raiders-vs-Lions-to-Be-Broadcast-in-Navajo/13181f15-456f-4e9f-bd12-e407cf95f0ed|archive-date=October 24, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> AM station [[KNDN (AM)|KNDN]] broadcasts only in Navajo.<ref name="CarlsbadCurrentArgus">{{cite web |last=Kane |first=Jenny |date=January 28, 2013 |title=Watching the ancient Navajo language develop in a modern culture |url=http://www.currentargus.com/ci_22462945 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713115618/http://www.currentargus.com/ci_22462945 |archive-date=July 13, 2014 |work=[[Carlsbad Current-Argus]] |location=Carlsbad, New Mexico |access-date=August 13, 2014}}</ref> When [[Super Bowl XXX]] was broadcast in Navajo in 1996, it was the first time a [[Super Bowl]] had been carried in a Native American language.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Super Bowl carried in Navajo language|journal=[[The Post and Courier]]|date=January 19, 1996|page=3B}}</ref> In 2013, the 1977 film ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' was translated into Navajo. It was the first major motion picture translated into any Native American language.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2013/06/20/193496493/translated-into-navajo-star-wars-will-be|title=Translated Into Navajo, 'Star Wars' Will Be|publisher=[[NPR]]|date=June 20, 2013|last=Trudeau|first=Christine|access-date=August 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128053645/https://www.npr.org/2013/06/20/193496493/translated-into-navajo-star-wars-will-be|archive-date=November 28, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://navajotimes.com/news/2013/0713/070413starwars.php|title=Navajo Star Wars a crowd pleaser|work=[[Navajo Times]]|date=July 4, 2013|access-date=August 14, 2014|last=Silversmith|first=Shondiin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140710050821/http://navajotimes.com/news/2013/0713/070413starwars.php|archive-date=July 10, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Riley |first1=Kiera |title=Dubbing 'Star Wars: A New Hope' into Navajo language |url=https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2021/09/17/preserving-the-force-of-navajo-language-dubbing-star-wars-a-new-hope/ |access-date=20 March 2025 |work=Cronkite News}}</ref>

On October 5, 2018, an early beta of a Navajo course was released on [[Duolingo]], a popular language learning app.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.duolingo.com/course/nv/en/Learn-Navajo-Online|title=Duolingo|website=www.duolingo.com|access-date=2018-10-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006195217/https://www.duolingo.com/course/nv/en/Learn-Navajo-Online|archive-date=2018-10-06|url-status=live}}</ref>

On December 30, 2024, Navajo Nation President [[Buu Nygren]], made Navajo language, the official language of [[Navajo Nation]] by signing legislation. He said “One of my priorities coming in as President has always been to make sure that we make Navajo cool again.” This is in order to promote the intergenerational preservation of the Navajo language within the Navajo Nation and intending to work in conjunction with the Diné Language Teachers Association to foster the utilization of the Navajo language.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Native News Online |date=2024-12-30 |title=Diné Bizaad Becomes the Official Language of Navajo Nation |url=https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/dine-bizaad-becomes-the-official-language-of-navajo-nation |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=Native News Online |language=en-GB}}</ref>

===Education===
The Navajo Nation operates Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta', a Navajo language immersion school for grades K-8 in [[Fort Defiance, Arizona]]. Located on the Arizona-New Mexico border in the southeastern quarter of the [[Navajo Reservation]], the school strives to revitalize Navajo among children of the [[Window Rock Unified School District]]. Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'ólta' has thirteen Navajo language teachers who instruct only in the Navajo language, and no English, while five English language teachers instruct in the English language. Kindergarten and first grade are taught completely in the Navajo language, while English is incorporated into the program during third grade, when it is used for about 10% of instruction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tséhootsooí Diné Bi'óta' Navaho Immersion School|url=http://ourmothertongues.org/language/Navajo/8|access-date=15 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905223432/http://ourmothertongues.org/language/Navajo/8|archive-date=5 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 2020s, the language nest Saad K’ildyé was established near Albuquerque through a non-profit Diné-led organization. The school also offers classes to parents and family activities revolving around Diné culture.

After many Navajo schools were closed during World War II, a program aiming to provide education to Navajo children was funded in the 1950s, where the number of students quickly doubled in the next decade.<ref name=":0" /> According to the Navajo Nation Education Policies, the Navajo Tribal Council requests that schools teach both English and Navajo so that the children would remain bilingual, though their influence over the school systems was very low.<ref name=":0" /> A small number of preschool programs provide a Navajo-language immersion curriculum, which teaches children basic Navajo vocabulary and grammar under the assumption that they have no prior knowledge in the Navajo language.<ref name=":0" />