Navajo language

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    Also known as Diné Bizaad, part of the the Apachean subgroup of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené language family. Diné means “the people” or “children of the holy people,” and so the language is that of the people. The language is unique in its nasalization of some vowels, its use of glottal stops and releases, and its reliance on tone to signify meaning.

    Photo Credit

     
    "Diné t’áá ákogi át éii, a Navajo reader circa 1974." (ZIM CSWR PM 2009 H4). Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.

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    References

     
    Gordon, Raymond G.
         2005   Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: SIL International.

    Kulckhohn, Clyde and Dorothea Leighton
         1946   The Navaho. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Navajo People
         2011   Diné Bizaad - The Navajo Language. Http://navajopeople.org/navajo-language.htm,
             accessed June 10, 2014.