Little Man's family = Diné yázhí ba'áłchíní : pre-primer

Little Man's family = Diné yázhí ba'áłchíní : pre-primer

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. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 37829
Author: Enochs, J. B. (James Byron)
Release Date: Oct 23, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: Navajo

Contributors

Illustrator: Nailor, Gerald, 1917-1952