This is one of those rare and endangered languages. I happy to give it a home in the The Lexicon.
Resources online are scant here. That means AI isn't very helpful for the translation. I'm relying on a mix of old guides and the few YouTube videos that exist to understand the cadence of it.
Resources
Daybreak Warrior
This YouTube channel is very good.
Navajo Word of the Day (Course)
The most difficult part of learning Navajo is finding reliable native speaker audio. This course is great for that.
Navajo · Diné Bizaad
Shoo, níł'į́! Na'iini' bá hooghan ákǫ́ǫ́ si'ą́…
›
Shoo, níł'į́! Na'iini' bá hooghan ákǫ́ǫ́ si'ą́…
Shoo, níł'į́! Na'iini' bá hooghan ákǫ́ǫ́ si'ą́. Atiin ntsaaígíí bits'ą́ą́dóó ch'ídadiikah shį́į́.
Ooh look! There's a mall over there. It looks like we have to exit off the highway.
- Shoo, níł'į́! — exclamation like "Ooh" or "Listen/Look here," with níł'į́ meaning "look at it."
- Na'iini' bá hooghan — descriptive term for a store or mall; literally "a building/home for buying."
- ákǫ́ǫ́ si'ą́ — "It sits over there." Navajo verbs vary by object shape; si'ą́ is for a solid, bulky object.
- Atiin ntsaaígíí — the highway (literally "the big road").
- bits'ą́ą́dóó ch'ídadiikah shį́į́ — "away from it, we (3+) exit out, it seems," capturing "looks like you have to."
Shoo /ʃoʊ/ — like "show" ›
sh as in "she"; oo as the long 'o' in "go." Rhymes with go or no.
Used as an exclamation meaning "check this out" or "look here." Compare anił'į́ shoo ("look at this").
níł'į́ nih-lhuh, high nasal tone ›
ní- like "ni" in Nick, held with high tone. -ł- voiceless lateral fricative — tongue in L position, blow air around the sides without voicing. -į́ nasalized "ee" with high tone.
Sometimes transcribed nh chee lh. The hook under į marks nasalization (like French "Jean"); accents mark high pitch.
Na'iini' Nah-ee-nih-ih ›
Na- short "a" as in father. ' glottal stop, like the catch in "uh-oh." ii long "ee" held twice as long. n nasal — adjacent vowels are produced through the nose. i' short "ih" + glottal stop.
Translates to "the buyer" or "buying." Glottal stops are essential to meaning in Navajo.
bá "bah" with high tone ›
b like English 'b' (sometimes between b and p). á the 'a' in father; the acute mark indicates high tone, so pitch rises on this syllable.
Means "for him/her/it." Note: bááh (double vowel) means "bread" with a lengthened sound.
hooghan /hoʊˈɣɑːn/ — ho-GHAN ›
Hoo- "hoh" with long 'o.' -ghan "ghun" or "gahn" with a guttural, throaty 'gh' (voiced velar fricative — similar to a French 'r' or gargling).
Translates to "home" or "house." Anglicized as "hogan." Traditional hooghans are built with the door facing east to greet the sun.
ákǫ́ǫ́ AH-kohng-ohng ›
á sharp high "ah." kǫ́ǫ́ two nasalized 'o' sounds, both high pitch — sounds like "ohng-ohng," with the second held slightly longer.
Often appears in tʼáá ákǫ́ǫ́ ("right there," "okay," "fine"). Also: Ákǫ́ǫ́ dílyeed! ("Run there!").
ntsaaígíí n-tsah-EE-ghee ›
n- a simple "n" sound; tsah with "ts" like the end of "cats" and "aa" as a long, low-toned "ah"; EE high-toned and long "ee"; ghee a soft "gh" — a voiced velar fricative, like a French "r" or a soft gargle — followed by a long, high-toned "ee."
Means "big," "large," or "it is big." Built on the root -TSAA ("big"); ntsaaí (sometimes nitsaaí) is the verbal form, and the -í ending is a nominalizer that turns it into "the thing that is large." Appears in phrases like Atiin ntsaaígíí — "the big road" or "the highway."
shį́į́ shee-ee, high nasal tone ›
sh as in "she"; į́ a nasalized "ee" (like in "see") held with a high tone; į́į́ the doubled vowel elongates the sound while keeping it high and nasal. Roughly shee-ee with a high, sharp pitch — not flat or falling.
Means "perhaps," "possibly," or "probably." Often appears at the end of words or phrases that signal uncertainty — e.g., díkwíí shį́į́ ("however many").
