New Navajo language app on the market

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | November 12, 2020 | Anthony Jackson

[CedarDave]

Saving a language … is there an app for that?

There is now, thanks to a project by Rosetta Stone and the Navajo Language Renaissance to help users learn Diné, the Navajo language, according to a news release.

“We’re trying to share with those that don’t know their Navajo language or for those that have an interest in learning a language,” said Clayton Long, director and president of the Navajo Language Renaissance board.

As of 2011, Navajo is the most spoken Native American language, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, fewer than 170,000 people speak it, earning it status as an “endangered language.”

More than 100 Navajo people, over a 15-year period, contributed to this language preservation project around the tri-state area of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, with audio recordings, cultural support, photos and language expertise.bright spot

Clayton said he hopes the app will be used in Navajo Nation schools, homes and chapter houses to combat language decline. Clayton said a shift in point of view from the elders helped spur the idea of using an app as the main teaching vessel for learning Navajo.

[CedarDave]

The Japanese would have loved to have this 75 years ago.

There are two radio stations in the Gallup area of northwest New Mexico that broadcast in the Navajo language (but the music is old time or recent country-western in English). Anyone driving on I-40 can pick them up to hear the language.

[dfwgator]

The Japanese would have loved to have this 75 years ago.

LOL, so true.

[rktman]

Damn dude. We think too much alike. LOL! THAT was my first thought.

[CedarDave]

Link to one of them:
https://radio.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/KGAK

Ignore the blatantly partisan CNN scroll at the bottom of the home page.

[Flick Lives]

The Japanese would have loved to have this 75 years ago.

—

I thought what made the Navajo code-talkers code so unbreakable was a combination of the rarity of Navajo speakers coupled with the use of idiomatic expressions, such that even a direct translation of the words would make little sense. Like using bird names for types of aircraft.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Bring back the Tower of Babel!

[Tallguy]

There was a Navajo soldier captured among the US troops when Manila fell in 1942. The Japanese figured that what they were hearing was a native American language. They eventually played recordings for this particular POW, but he couldn’t make any sense out of it.

[the_Watchman]

I was a high school chess coach in Arizona in the late 1990’s. One of the state finals was held in Tuba City, Arizona in the Navajo high school. We always began the tournaments with a prayer. The invocation was delivered in Navajo by one of the few remaining living code talkers from WWII. One of the younger men translated for us.

[CedarDave]

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[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Yes, be sure that the Japanese can't get a copy of this software or we're doomed.

Rumor has it they have Nicolas Cage managing security.

[laplata]

This is good to see and should have been done years ago.

[null and void]

They eventually played recordings for this particular POW, but he couldn’t make any sense out of it.

That's what I would have told them too...

[Redcitizen]

You can hear Navajo language on a daily basis via KTNN am 660 or KNDN am 960 around San Juan county. I once picked up 960 kndn in Rio Rancho near the landfill when the atmospheric conditions were right.

[Tallguy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Kieyoomia

[null and void]

Wow!

[Tallguy]

I had a business trip to Gallup, NM several years back to commission some machinery that we had sold. Working with the employees of a jewelry supply company that serviced the native American craft jewelry industry. Needless to say all the employees were Navajo. Like every other plant I’ve been to each employee had his personal radios tuned to the local stations. You don’t hear Top-40, country or album rock. Instead you hear... if this is the correct term... Navajo chants.

[Redcitizen]

KNDN and KTNN play a variety of music including pow wow music and peyote songs. Keep listening long enough and you’ll hear country, rock music and church music. Im a navajo so i get to understand all that. :)