An endangered but fiercely alive Athabaskan language of the American Southwest — built around verbs, spoken on pitch, and famous for the WWII code talkers who made it unbreakable.
Navajo is a tonal language: the same sequence of letters means different things at high vs. low pitch, and vowels can be nasalised (spoken through the nose).
| Written | Sound | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| á (accent) | high tone | tá (three) |
| a (plain) | low tone | tá' (ear) — vs tá = three! |
| ą (hook) | nasal vowel | bąąh (a place around it) |
| ą́ (hook + accent) | nasal + high tone | dį́į́' (four) |
| ' (glottal stop) | catch in the throat | bitin (his road) vs bitin' (his nose) |
| ł | whispered "l" | łééchąą'í (dog) |
English: subject + verb + object. Navajo: everything lives inside the verb. A verb word is a template of positions:
| Slot | Job | Example piece |
|---|---|---|
| subject prefix | who does it | y- (he/they) |
| object prefix | who it happens to | łi- / ni- (you) |
| adverbial | manner, location, number | ha- (out), di- (start) |
| classifier | voice / causation | ł- (make it happen) |
| verb stem | the action | -yá (to go), -ti' (to speak) |
The four verb stems. Actions come in aspect pairs called the "four stem forms": imperfective (ongoing), perfective (done), future, and usitative/iterative (habitual). yishá "I am going", yíyá "I went", deeshááł "I will go".
Humans vs. everything else. There is a grammatical animacy hierarchy: humans, then animals, then forces, then things. The verb changes which order subject and object appear in based on who outranks whom. Ashkii at'ééd yiyiłtsą́ — "The boy saw the girl" — the prefix order is determined by animacy, not word order.
Navajo kinship is matrilineal and the words are built from a person — you cannot name a relative without saying whose relative they are:
| English | Navajo (my ___) |
|---|---|
| mother | shimá |
| father | shitáá' |
| grandmother | shinálí |
| grandfather | shichóó' |
| older brother | shílaí |
| younger sibling | shitsilí (brother) / shideezhí (sister) |
| child | shiyáázh (son) / shich'é'é (daughter) |
| English | Navajo |
|---|---|
| Hello / Greetings | Yá'át'ééh |
| I am well / it is good (reply) | Yá'át'ééh |
| Thank you | Ahéhee' |
| Yes / No | Aoo' / Dooda |
| What is your name? | Háish ííníyé'? / Shí éí ____ yinishyé |
| My name is ___ | ___ yinishyé |
| How are you? | Ha'át'íísh k'ad nízhdínít'į́? |
| I am fine | Shą́ą́ shį́į́ yá'át'ééh |
| I don't understand | Doosh yééhwiisį́į́d da |
| Goodbye (see you again) | Hágoónee' |
| # | Navajo | # | Navajo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | t'ááłá'í | 6 | hastą́ą́ |
| 2 | naaki | 7 | tsosts'id |
| 3 | táá' | 8 | tseebíí |
| 4 | dį́į́' | 9 | náhást'éí |
| 5 | ashdla' | 10 | neeznáá |
20 = naadiin, 100 = neeznádiin. Note the tones on 3 (táá'), 4 (dį́į́') and 6 (hastą́ą́) — saying a number wrong changes the word.
| English | Navajo | Try it in a phrase |
|---|---|---|
| what? | Haʼátʼíí | haʼátʼíísh ... ? — "what ...?" (the -sh hooks the question word) |
| who? | Háí | háísh ... ? — "who ...?" |
| where? | Háadi | háadi ... ? — "where ...?" |
| when? | Hádą́ą́ʼ | hádą́ą́ʼísh ... ? — "when ...?" |
| how? | Haʼátʼéego | haʼátʼéego ... ? — "how ...?" |
| how much / how many? | Haʼátʼíísh ádaatsʼíís? | pattern built on the "what" question word |
| English | Navajo | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| dog | łééchąąʼí | means "it is kept as a pet / tame" — a verb-form noun |
| cat | gídí | borrowed age-old domestic cat word |
| sheep | dibé | central to Navajo pastoral life |
| goat | tłʼízí | often grazes with the sheep herd |
| horse | łį́į́ʼ | "it was carried about long ago" — the tamed one |
| cow | béégashii | the modern herd animal |
| coyote | maʼii | trickster of Navajo stories |
| rabbit / jackrabbit | gah | hunted game, also "March" (Wóózhchʼį́į́d) |
| deer | bįįh | also the word-family for mule/horse deer |
| bear | shash | a powerful ceremonial figure |
| wolf | mąʼiitsoh | literally "coyote + big" |
| bird | tsídii | generic bird |
| fish | łóóʼ | generic fish |
| snake | tłʼiish | snake, also "whipping" in ceremonial usage |
| English | Navajo | Example |
|---|---|---|
| mountain | dzil | appears in countless place names |
| lake | beʼekʼid | water collected in a dish-shaped land |
| river / stream | tooh | flowing water |
| sky | yá | also "spirit realm" in ceremonies |
| sun | shá | shá bitłʼóól — sunbeam |
| night | tłʼééʼ | tłʼééʼ náhásdlį́į́ʼ = night has passed |
| wind / air | níłchʼi | the moving breath between beings |
| water | tó | one syllable — learn the tone! |
| fire | kǫʼ | kǫʼ ałnííʼ — inside the fire |
| pine forest | tsintah | the place of trees |
| rock / stone | tsé | tsékooh = canyon (rock wash) |
| dirt / dust | leezh | the ground underfoot |
| English | Navajo one word | Builds on |
|---|---|---|
| I am going (right now) | yishá | shí- (I) + -yá (walk/go stem, imperfective) |
| I went | yíyá | yí- (already) + -yá (perfective stem) |
| I will go | deeshááł | d- (future) + -yááł (future stem) |
| I speak / converse | yáłtiʼ | speech + conversation stems |
| It is being made well | — | verbs like this carry the sentence alone |
There is no separate "to be." "It is good" is one verb form. Meaning rides on the opening pronominal prefix, the classifier (causation), and the closing stem + its aspect. Same as English "I write → I wrote → I will write" but Navajo packs the whole sentence in.
Navajo has no Google TTS voice, so 🔊 plays an English approximation — still useful for tones and vowel length. This trainer starts you on the most useful core words; mark mastered, then run Quick recall.
Hear the word (English approximation) and type the Navajo orthography. Focus on the glottal stops ʼ and long vowels ą́.