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Vocabulary
Stem
of the
Language
Navaho
Berard Haile
English - Navaho
Volume Two
1951
St. Michaels Press
St. Michaels, Arizona
tºrcy.
Unº Uc Scnta Cruz 1991
Printed at St. Michaels, Arizona
U.S.A.
Introduction
The Navaho Alphabet
The development of the Navaho alphabet is a matter for the re
cords. Its highlights are about as follows. It is well known that the
writings of Dr. Washington Matthews contain comparatively little
text material. What little there was is transcribed in the Major
Powell alphabet of the Bureau of American Ethnology. For one reason
or another the Franciscans of 1900-10 preferred an alphabet which
would approximate the English alphabet, in appearance at least. In
order to accomplish this they had to adopt a number of digraphs
and trigraphs like ch and ch", ts and ts', sh and zh, gh and wh
and yh, thand fi or tº?.
The compiler of the Vocabulary, in 1912, experienced some diffi
culty in an endeavor to make the Navaho sounds fit into the a-b-c
arrangement of English. It was realized that several Navaho sounds
t
had no counterparts in English. Thus ts, tº tº or th’- are not
sounds, but were listed under t- to save appearances. By doing so
any relationship between sounds had to be ignored. This could only
retard the study of the language.
In 1916 the Smithsonian Institution published Phonetic Tran
scription of Indian Languages. This pamphlet contained many val
uable suggestions for simplifying alphabets already in use. The
suggestions could, no doubt, apply to our Navaho alphabet. After
experimenting with it for several years on text material, phrases and
notes -- A Manual of Navaho Grammar(1926) adopted several changes
in the Navaho alphabet.
Instead of employing two distinct symbols for nasality of vowels,
as had been done in the original apparatus, a subscript hook, right to
left, was adopted as the nasal symbol. Length of vowels was indi
cated by an inverted (the present raised) period. The raised curve
as a symbol for short vowels did not stand the test.
In the consonant group the Slavic 5 for sh, and Ž for zh or French
j
were adopted. Similarly a single symbol was introduced to replace
gh-, yh-, wh-, and shortly, say a year or two later, this symbol de
finitely became our present gamma Y-, Y"-. There was also a tend
ency to keep cognate sounds grouped together, like laterals, sibilants,
gutturals, and to treat such groups as a whole. The Manual at that
time already hinted at the existence of tone in the language. It in
dicated only the raised tone by the acute accent placed over or follow
ing a vowel.
vi Introduction
At the Linguistic Section of the School of Southwestern Anthropology
Dr. Sapir had already definitely established tone for Navaho. There
were two registers, the acute accent signalized a high tone, the
accent grave a low tone. Combined high and low as, 'a was the symbol
of a falling tone. The reverse, low to high, as 'ß was the symbol of
a rising tone. That was in 1929. In the next five years much textual
material was collected and transcribed with accurate tone symbols.
Here was progress by a tremendous leap!
Sapir's Stem List of '32, quoted in the Introduction to this work,
follows this tone system. It also disregarded the English a-b-c
arrangement and followed the Navaho sound system in listing stems.
The plan of the Manual, mentioned above, was followed, but with
due regard for tone. The vowels were treated first 'a, 'e, 'i, o,high
ones, then low and nasal vowels. The consonants were grouped as
labials, dentals, gutturals, sibilants and laterals. Again, ffollowed
i
by high vowels, these were listed first then low and nasal thus dzá,
tsä, ts'é nthe sibilant group.
i
A final impulse in the development ofthe Navaho alphabet was
y
given in1934 bsix linguists ofYale University. Their Some Ortho
graphic Recommendations published nvol. 36 ofthe American Anthro
i
pologist were based on the sound principle that unitary sounds ofa
language should berepresented byasingle phoneme orsound symbol.
Automatically this would simplify analphabet and eliminate digraphs
and trigraphs. At long last we were enabled to standardize our
Navaho alphabet. Its value has been proven nanumber ofpubli
i
cations which have appeared within the last two decades. For con
venience it isrepeated here with an occasional note for clarification.
The Vowels
The four vowels have the value ofcontinental vowel sounds, say as
found n Spanish. They are either open:
i
a as n English art, far;
i
e as inEnglish bet, bear;
i as inEnglish it,eat;
o as n English only, boat.
i
Or the same a-, e-, i-, o-sounds may be nasalized. Part of the
breath stream isallowed topass through the nostrils while the under
lying vowel sound isbeing produced. Nasality, therefore, indicated
by asubscript hook left to right a, e, i, Q, does not alter the vowel
sounds.
Introduction vii
Both open and nasal vowel sounds are either normally short,
meaning that the vowel timber is easily discerned, or glottalized with
fully discernible timber as -a and -a". Or they are essentially long,
indicated by the raised period-comma following a vowel né” or with
out raised comma mi’l a thousand. High tone of syllables is indi
cated by the acute accent mark on the vowel, as in ná", mi-1. Vowels
not accented are considered low in tone 'abe” milk. A combination
of a high to low, yielding a falling tone, is indicated as in até'go;
the opposite rising tone, low to high, as in 'eiš, or this way: śina'i
on the principle that low tones are not indicated.
Superior -" is sounded as u of English “but'. All letters of the Na
vaho alphabet have a name, the 'a--sound, the d"-sound, kº-sound,
and so on. These are not pronounced: the da-sound, ka-sound but
d"-sound, k"-sound.
Theoretically the -i-vowel may be expected in the first, second
and third possessive pronouns si-, ni-, bi-, my, your, his, her, its.
This -i-vowel is somewhat dulled and becomes à"-, nº-, b-- before
the Yº-, g”-, k"-, k"-sounds if and when these sounds are followed
by an -a- or an -o- vowel. If followed by -e- and -i-vowels, the pos
sessive pronoun retains tsproper -i-vowel. For example, š-ka, my
i
arrow; n°gaºn your arm; bºyan his, ts home; but nixiran our
i
home; xaran this one's home; biyi'n ts song; biré'l ts burden.
i i
The same phenomenon ofa dulled vowel occurs also if-b-- and
y y
-ms-sounds are followed b the -a-vowel, perhaps also b the -o
vowel. Thus bºbadi at its edge; n°má your mother. But when
ever superior * isshown it is not to be considered to beapure -a
sound. Its timber salways doubtful.
i
n summary, then, the behavior ofNavaho vowel sounds s uni
I i
form. Vowels are either normally short--enough toallow their timber
to bedistinctly discerned. Or they are lengthened. Ifso, this length
is closed on a final consonant, beita s”-sound, orthe Navaho -,--
sound. Very short vowels are choked orglottalized.
Tone too scommon property of allvowel sounds. High and low,
i
falling and rising tones sing along nany vowel category. Any vowel,
i
too, may be abruptly glottalized.
The Consonants
Cognate sounds ofconsonants are grouped together and are listed
n the sequence here given:
i
viii Introduction
Labials. The wº-, b--, m*-sounds are the only labials found in
the language. wa”, beeweed, bá" war, $*má my mother, are
approximately the same sounds of English w, b, m. The glottalized
-in occurs in some forms of the 1. dpl. and passive, and must be
sounded as a unitary dm on the order of glottalized -h.
The sequence followed for vowels of high and low tones is also
followed with all consonants. First high, then low open; high, then
low nasals ifand when they follow aconsonant thus, bá-, ba-, bá-,
ba-, bé-, be-, bé- orfalling b%ifitoccurs. Then bi- and bé-series.
Dentals. The d"-sound is onthe whole, ahard, firm d as inEnglish
did, done.
The tº"-sound ispeculiar toNavaho. Itisnever pronounced like
English tee in talk, tell, tin, toe. Yes, the tip ofthe tongue touches
the front palate as in English t. But you do more. Your rear palate
allows a passage between itand the base ofyour tongue. Through
this passage you release the breath simultaneously with your tongue
position. That's the Navaho tº"-sound in tºÅ" three, t'é'h water
shed, t"in ice, tº6water.
The f*-sound isalso peculiar toNavaho. No counterpart ofit is
found n English. When you articulate the f*-sound the tip of the
i
tongue touches the front palate for a d-position. Momentarily the
glottal cords are closed to form the glottal stop or "-sound. d"
and "-sounds must be articulated simultaneously and will result
nthe Navaho f"–sound.
i
The n°-sound sarticulated as n- n English no, none. Frequently
i i
the n°-sound becomes syllabic by suppressing the vowel following t.
i
Usually this is low -i and becomes h. If high -í(or other vowel)
is suppressed we get high syllabic fi. A glottalized n°-sound also
occurs. Itisacomposite of-.'*-sound plus n"-sound indicated by the
h"-sound. The articulation sapproximately that ofdn n Dnieper
i i
River.
Gutturals (Palatals). This group s represented by the x*-, h"-,
i
**-, g”-, y”-, k”-, k"-sounds.
For the x*- and Y"-sounds no English equivalents are found. Both
sounds are articulated n the same manner. The back ofthe tongue
i
is narrowed against the rear soft palate, leaving a narrow opening
there. Through this passage the breath sallowed ostream n arti
i t i
culating the two sounds. Pressure is applied to the breath in artic
culating the x*-sound without vocal tone. tstherefore an unvoiced
Ii
spirant. You always “voice’ the Y"-sound, that is, you allow the
breath topass through the opening audibly. It is, therefore avoiced
spirant.
