Navajo
The Navajo language is part of the Apachean subgroup of the Athabaskan branch
of the Na-Dené language family, a large, spread-out family with member
languages ranging all across the western United States and Canada. The first
Athabaskans, travelling south from Alaska, probably arrived in the Southwest
approximately 1000 years ago and the Navajo and other Apachean groups separated
from each other after this date. Thus, Navajo is most closely related to the
other Apachean languages spoken in the Southwestern United States, including
Jicarilla, Mescalero-Chiricahua and Western Apache. The term 'Navajo' is most
likely derived from an early Spanish appellation 'Apaches de Nabajó',
where 'Nabajó' appears to be borrowed in turn from Tewa meaning 'field'
+ 'wide valley'. The Navajo themselves refer to their language and people as
Diné ( the Navajo word for 'people').
Today, with a population of a little over 200,000, the Navajo are the second
largest native American tribe living in the United States (after the Cherokee).
However, the Navajo language, spoken by about 150,000 people, is the most widely
used Native American language in the United States.
Source:
The
Rosetta Project
Columbia Encyclopedia
Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:
Other Local Resources:
Mingei museum of folk art
SDSU American Indian
Studies
Native American
Nations