What was unique about the Navajo language?

a. it was a spoken language


b. they invented their own words


c. it was based on phonetics


d. syntax was confusing

What was unique about the Navajo language?
A. The Navajo language is completely unwritten.
Reply:a
Reply:It was a spoken language only, it was never written.
Reply:It was completely unwritten I'm sure you could find it written somewhere now. It was used in WWII to talk so the Germans couldn't understand what the US was saying on the squawk box (walky-talky)
Reply:a. Spoken language. Note that the Navajo code talkers of WW II get a lot of press, but the Choctaws did the same in both world wars, and they're hardly credited at all.
Reply:A. Prior to the 1900's, the Navajo language was an unwritten language. When linguists began visiting the reservation, they developed a phonetic alphabet for the purposing of writing down the Navajo language.





B. The Navajo language is a member of the Southern Athapaskan of languages which is a sub-set of the Na-Dene family of languages. So no, most of our words weren't invented by ourselves. However, many of our words are used together to describe objects thus creating new words; for instance, chidi bitoo' means gasoline, literally it means "car water". Many names of objects are formed in this manner.





C. What language isn't based on phonetics? If the question is referring to the written language, then yes, it is based on phonetics.





D. It's slightly confusing. Some family relations have different words depending on whether the speaker is male or female. For the most part, it follows the standard "noun-adjective" form found in most languages. English tends to be the language that most people have a problem learning because of its "backwardness". :)





To WWD : You're right. The Choctaw did have Code Talkers in WW1 and WW2. It's unfortunate that the US government has chosen to ignore this fact, but when you're Native American you get used to it. Politicians seem more concerned about not looking stupid than actually doing what's right; in their defense, several Code Talkers from different tribes did receive the Medal of Honor, although the majority of the Code Talkers did not receive that honor.





For anyone else interested, there were actually several tribes who used a code language during WW2 in both the European and Pacific Theatre. You can find a list here.





http://petition.codetalkers.info/
Reply:it was used by Americans to confused the Japanese during WWII. The Navajo were really good sports after being chase off their land a century earlier.
Reply:The language was not a written language.





Very few outside of the tribe new it or were taught the language.





This is why the code talkers of WW2 fame were so successful.