ABSTRACT
Navajo, also spelt Navaho, belongs to the Apachean sub-group of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dené family. The Navajo call themselves t’ áá diné ‘the people’, and the language is diné bizaad (saad ‘words’: bi. zaad ‘his words’). Navajo is spoken by about 170,000 people in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and South-East Utah. It has the largest number of speakers of any Native American language in the United States and Canada, being widely used in the conduct of affairs in the Navajo Reservation, and in its local media, radio, journalism and some literature. The Navajo Language Academy (Diné Bizaad Naalkaah) in Arizona exists to study and promote the language.
