Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Navajo

I am tired of hearing people evaluate languages as difficult or easy. It really doesn't matter. All it does is to scare people. :-(
So, no, I don't want to know that Navajo is one of the hardest languages to learn for an English speaker. I am not an English speaker. I'm a Finnish speaker. As far as I know, EVERY LANGUAGE (except Estonian and Sami) is "difficult" to learn for a Finnish speaker. I still get articles and prepositions wrong, and will continue doing so for the rest of my life, because... it's just something that has to be grown into. But, I learned more and more. When I die, I will be making fewer mistakes :-D

Anyway, Navajo.
I found the Wind Talkers story fascinating, so I want to learn Navajo.


Navajo language at Omniglot
It's a bit hard knowing that most non-European languages have been written by Europeans (whether they were born in Europe or several generations later somewhere else), with a European mindset, so they were forcing the language to fit their expectations of what language should be and how it should function, but they were ignoring small details because they didn't understand their importance... :-(
But... let's trust two things here. 1) languages are living things - the literature, grammar, and writing systems can change. 2) as long as people speak these languages as their mother tongue, these languages can survive the abuse from white people.

Navajo resources:
http://www.native-languages.org/navajo.htm
https://navajowotd.com/
Navajo at Forvo
Navajo at Wikipedia
Navajo language learners' community on Reddit
Let's Talk Navajo with some lessons
Navajo at Memrise
https://navajonow.com
Talking Navajo before you know it - booklet and course at Memrise
Some Navajo texts
Navajo language apps


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