Little Man's family — J. B. (James Byron) Enochs
B. Enochs. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Little Man's family = Diné yázhí ba'áłchíní : pre-primer Author : J. B. Enochs Illustrator : Gerald Nailor Release date : October 23, 2011 [eBook #37829] Language : English, Navajo Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37829 Credits : Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Fulvia Hughes and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF These include: inconsistent full-stops beginning of sentence starting with small letter DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Douglas McKay, Secretary BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS Glenn L. Emmons, Commissioner BRANCH OF EDUCATION Hildegard Thompson, Chief Single Copy Price 20 cents Phoenix Indian School Print Shop Phoenix, Arizona Third Edition 5,000 copies—September 1953 Little Man's family diné yázhí ba'áłchíní pre-primer by J. B. Enochs illustrated by Gerald Nailor BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS FOREWORD This pre-primer is one of three little books based on material prepared by J. B. Enochs, who once taught in the sanitarium school at Kayenta. It deals entirely with typical life experiences among the Navaho, the largest Indian tribe in the United States, numbering approximately 65,000. Nine out of ten Navahos do not speak English, and the tribe has never had a written language. Missionaries and scientists for many years have had alphabets with which to record this difficult language. But these alphabets have usually included letters not found in English, and have been peppered with diacritical marks to indicate inflection, tonal change and nasalization. Thus they proved too complicated for popular use. Space does not permit mention of many who have worked with the Navaho language. Finally Dr. John Harrington, of the Smithsonian Institution, and Mr. Oliver LaFarge, author and linguist, collaborated to produce a simplified alphabet which might be written with an ordinary typewriter. Mr. Robert W. Young, associate of Dr. Harrington, experimentally recorded a great deal of material in this new alphabet. The Navaho portions of later pamphlets in this bi-lingual series are the joint work of Harrington and Young. Little Man's Family has been expressed in Navaho, using the Harrington-LaFarge alphabet, by Willetto Antonio, a Navaho teacher on the reservation, and Dr. Edward Kennard, formerly a specialist in Indian languages for the Indian Service. Both the recordings and the interpretation in these books have been checked by Chic Sandoval, Howard Gorman, and Adolph Bitanny, Navaho interpreters, and by Robert W. Young. Back pages contain an explanation of the sound values represented by the alphabet, and the indications of tonal change and nasalization which are used. These bi-lingual texts are an attempt to speed up Indian understanding of modern life. Use of native languages to speed up acquisition of English in Federal schools is a new departure in Indian policy, which has proved very successful. The type used for these books has been selected because of its similarity in design to the alphabet used for manuscript writing. In the primers, only proper names and the pronoun I have to be capitalized, so as to further minimize the new learnings often encountered by the primary child when faced with several different alphabets at once. Willard W. Beatty Revised February 1950 I am a Navaho boy. diné 'ashkii nishłį́. my mother shimá my father shizhé'é my baby brother 'awéé' sitsilí our baby's cradle nihe'awéé' bits'áál my big sister shádí my little sister shideezhí our hogan nihighan my father made our hogan shizhé'é nihighan 'áyiilaa. our sweathouse nihitáchééh the soapweed plant tsá'ászi' we wash our hair nihitsii' tanínádeiigis our sheep nihidibé our goats nihitł'ízí our corral nihidibé bighan our horses nihilį́į́' our wagon nihitsinaabąąs my mother's saddle shimá bilį́į́' biyéél my father's saddle shizhé'é bilį́į́' biyéél my little spotted pony shilé'éyázhí łikizh my black dog shilééchąąshzhiin my mother's loom shimá bidah'iistł'ǫ́ my mother cleans the wool. shimá 'aghaa' hasht'eilééh my mother cards the wool. shimá 'aghaa' hanéiniłcha'. my mother spins the wool shimá 'aghaa' hanéiniłdis. my mother weaves a rug. shimá diyogí yitł'ó. my sisters help my mother. shádí dóó shideezhí shimá yíká 'anáhi'nilchééh. we sell the rug. diyogí ninádahiilnih. THE NAVAHO ALPHABET The following information with regard to the Navaho alphabet and its use should prove helpful to one familiar with the English language. VOWELS The vowels have continental values. They are as follows, the first example being a Navaho word, the second the closest approximation to the sound in an English word: a gad (juniper) father e ké (shoe) met i sis (belt) or as in dishááh (I'm starting) sit or as in pique o doo (not) note Vowels may be either long or short in duration, the long vowel being indicated by a doubling of the letter. This never affects the quality of the vowel, except that long i is always pronounced as in pique. sis (belt) is short siziiz (my belt) is long Vowels with a hook beneath the letter are nasalized. That is, some of the breath passes through the nose in their production. After n, all vowels are nasalized and are not marked. tsinaabąąs (wagon) jį́ (day) kǫ́ǫ́ (here) DIPHTHONGS The diphthongs are as follows: ai hai (winter) aisle ei séí (sand) weigh oi 'ayóí (very) Joey The diphthongs oi (as in Joey) will frequently be heard as ui (as in dewy) in certain sections of the reservation. However, since the related word ayóó is always of one value, this spelling has been standardized. In a similar way, the diphthongs ei and ai are not universally distinguished. For example, the word for sand, séí will be pronounced sáí by some Navahos. CONSONANTS The consonants ar