tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 24 11:13:46 2000

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Re: Navajo code-talkers


 I know this is off-topic, so I will only make this one addition to this fascinating topic...

My father's first language was Tsalagi; he was raised by his grandfather who never learned English. Regrettfully, he never spoke it to us as we grew up, and in fact I think he (through lack of use) actually forgot the language (though I have difficulty understanding how this could be). I did learn a few words, but not much.

My mother's side of the family was (like my Dad) Irish and Cherokee, but spoke a non-Iroquoian language called "Ashoke" (3 syllables). One of my sisters and I grew up speaking Ashoke, which we were quite fluent and comfortable with... though I suspect my ancestors would have shaken their heads in dismay at our pronounciations or usage. My mother and grandmother have since passed away, leaving only my sister and I left who speak the language; and one Aunt, who never speaks it anymore.

So what does this have to do with Navajo? (or Klingon for that matter!).... my father used to discuss the Navajo "code talkers" and he he pointed out that many Amerind languages were different, not in just words, but in the thoughts behind those words. For the typical English speaking person, one would say, "I am hungry." Meaning you are experiencing hunger, and hunger would be commonly described as feeling of emptiness, possibly pain, in the area of your stomach. My understanding of Navajo is that one would say something similar to "the spirit of hunger approaches me."  Hunger, from this perspective, is 'outside' of the body and as it gets nearer to you, you are able to perceive it by means of that sensory organ known as the stomach. But the stomach is not just a sensory organ... it can also emit an energy that will repel the spirit of hunger. And of course it requires food to create this energy.

I am sure I have explained this very clumsily, but imagine an entire lanuage built around these ways of thinking! It was not just the complexity of grammer or difficulty of pronouciation... but the entire mental process behind it

In this way... there are some similarities to Klingon. A thought process very alien to what we are used to.

K'Pach (aka Lee)


  forel <[email protected]> wrote: 
Joseph a.k.a nejwI' a.k.a Zhosh a.k.a Buck wrote:

> Navajo (unlike Tsalagi or Inuit) uses a modified roman alphabet;

Only currently it does. One of the reasons they chose the language at the
time was because it was not a written language, and had never been.

-- forel
My oh my, I have not got enough rye.



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