New software to aid in keeping Navajo language alive

FARMINGTON a ' A group of linguists, editors and native speakers are starting a yearlong project to develop the first software system to teach the Navajo language.

[nick]

about time...

[Ron]

Has there been any progress on the Endangered Language program for Navajo?
Ever since I was a boy I wanted to learn to speak their language.

[Dandapanda]

Ron wrote:

Has there been any progress on the Endangered Language program for Navajo?
Ever since I was a boy I wanted to learn to speak their language.

move out there. The Tribe does all their official biz in navajo. People are happy to teach what they know.

[Abby]

I AGREE W/ RON

[realist]

nick wrote:

about time...

Agreed. The indigenous languages are rapidly dying out. It's the sunset of our culture unless something is done about it.

I know the Navajos can understand me. I am from San Carlos. I went to high school in Santa Fe back in the 1980s.

"Nneeh shliih."

A Navajo would know how to pronounce the above and understand the definition. My grandfather knew the code talkers in the South Pacific. He could understand Navajo. He said he talked to two Navajo code talkers who were scouts with dogs to lead them through Japanese tunnel networks. They died in New Guinea in a cave. My grandfather's brother was a US Marine at Iwo Jima in 1945. There were a lot of "Rez Indians" in WWII at front line battles. I read the book by Leslie Silko and can easily picture Laguna, Acoma, and Ramah in the story narration. It was about a WWII Native American Veteran from New Mexico.

[realist]

nick wrote:

about time...

I learned Apache and English by the age of five. I do not have a problem being bilingual. I studied neuroradiology in graduate school as a biomedical engineer. I learned that the language region of the brain is the inferior parietal lobe. This region of the brain has more gray matter for children who learn multiple languages at a very young age. The brain adapts most efficiently to languages in early childhood. By contrast, an adult who learns a second language does not develop as much gray matter, so the adult may struggle with a foreign language. This explains why 1st generation foreigners may struggle with English while their bilingual children excel in two or more languages. The children were exposed to both English and the foreign language in early childhood while the adult did not learn English until late in life, so the adult never really masters it while the child excels.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.as...

http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/...

Our languages are dying. We must save it.

Apache: "Itsaah kooh."
English: It may die.

[skinwalker]

This is a genius endeavor to keep the heritage of the Navajo existence.....I support this effort entirely....