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Diné Bizaad (Navajo Language)

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Diné Bizaad (or the Navajo Language) has the largest number of speakers of any Native language north of Mexico. Navajo territory is north-eastern Arizona, north-western New Mexico, and south-eastern Utah. The orthography follows the Athapaskan tradition, with the lateral fricative ł, nasal ą, and high tone marked by an acúte accent. Note that the letters b d j g represent a voiceless sound, not voiced as in English.

Note: There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation. On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.
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The United States Census counts 142,886 speakers of Diné Bizaad.

 

Roman Orthography: Consonants
  bilabial alveolar alveolar affricate lateral palato-alveolar palatal velar velar rounded glottal
voiceless stop b d dz dl j   g    
aspirated stop   t ts tł ch   k kw  
ejective stop   t’ ts’ tł’ ch’   k’    
voiced fricative     z ł zh   gh    
voiceless fricative     s   sh   x   h
nasal m n              
resonant       l   y   w  
voiceless resonant               hw  

Roman Orthography: Vowels
  front central back
high i – ii    
mid e – ee   o – oo
low   a – aa  

Notes:

Home Previous Page Last Update: June 13, 2005