  This pre-primer is one of three little books based on material prepared by J. B. Enochs, who once taught in the sanitarium school at Kayenta. It deals entirely with typical life experiences among the Navaho, the largest Indian tribe in the United States, numbering approximately 65,000. Nine out of ten Navahos do not speak English, and the tribe has never had a written language. Missionaries and scientists for many years have had alphabets with which to record this difficult language. But these alphabets have usually included letters not found in English, and have been peppered with diacritical marks to indicate inflection, tonal change and nasalization. Thus they proved too complicated for popular use. Space does not permit mention of many who have worked with the Navaho language. Finally Dr. John Harrington, of the Smithsonian Institution, and Mr. Oliver LaFarge, author and linguist, collaborated to produce a simplified alphabet which might be written with an ordinary typewriter. Mr. Robert W. Young, associate of Dr. Harrington, experimentally recorded a great deal of material in this new alphabet. The Navaho portions of later pamphlets in this bi-lingual series are the joint work of Harrington and Young. Little Man's Family has been expressed in Navaho, using the Harrington-LaFarge alphabet, by Willetto Antonio, a Navaho teacher on the reservation, and Dr. Edward Kennard, formerly a specialist in Indian languages for the Indian Service. Both the recordings and the interpretation in these books have been checked by Chic Sandoval, Howard Gorman, and Adolph Bitanny, Navaho interpreters, and by Robert W. Young. Back pages contain an explanation of the sound values represented by the alphabet, and the indications of tonal change and nasalization which are used. These bi-lingual texts are an attempt to speed up Indian understanding of modern life. Use of native languages to speed up acquisition of English in Federal schools is a new departure in Indian policy, which has proved very successful. The type used for these books has been selected because of its similarity in design to the alphabet used for manuscript writing. In the primers, only proper names and the pronoun I have to be capitalized, so as to further minimize the new learnings often encountered by the primary child when faced with several different alphabets at once. Willard W. Beatty Revised February 1950 Navaho boy I am a Navaho boy. dinÉ 'ashkii nishlÍ?. mother my mother shimÁ father my father shizhÉ'É baby brother my baby brother 'awÉÉ' sitsilÍ baby's cradle our baby's cradle nihe'awÉÉ' bits'ÁÁl big sister my big sister shÁdÍ little sister my little sister shideezhÍ hogan our hogan nihighan making hogan my father made our hogan shizhÉ'É nihighan 'Áyiilaa. sweathouse our sweathouse nihitÁchÉÉh soapweed plant the soapweed plant tsÁ'Ászi' washing hair we wash our hair nihitsii' tanÍnÁdeiigis sheep our sheep nihidibÉ goats our goats nihitl'ÍzÍ corral our corral nihidibÉ bighan horses our horses nihilÍ?Í?' wagon our wagon nihitsinaabaas mother's saddle my mother's saddle shimÁ bilÍ?Í?' biyÉÉl father's saddle my father's saddle shizhÉ'É bilÍ?Í?' biyÉÉl spotted pony my little spotted pony shilÉ'ÉyÁzhÍ likizh black dog my black dog shilÉÉchaashzhiin loom my mother's loom shimÁ bidah'iistl'Ó? cleaning the wool my mother cleans the wool. shimÁ 'aghaa' hasht'eilÉÉh carding the wool my mother cards the wool. shimÁ 'aghaa' hanÉinilcha'. spinning the wool my mother spins the wool shimÁ 'aghaa' hanÉinildis. weaving a rug my mother weaves a rug. shimÁ diyogÍ yitl'Ó. sisters help mother my sisters help my mother. shÁdÍ dÓÓ shideezhÍ shimÁ yÍkÁ 'anÁhi'nilchÉÉh. selling the rug we sell the rug. diyogÍ ninÁdahiilnih. |
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