Over time, Mr. Salt and I have developed our own unique way of talking and mannerisms. Some words we use are taken from the Rez, the Navajo language, and black slang. I'll start with the word 'john' from my previous post.
'John': Mr. Salt says this means a really bozzie "ghetto" Navajo. Yes, they can be ghetto. More relates to the way they live on the Rez and life itself.
"...aaayyy!" Attached to the end of the sentence, it's how women flirt on the Rez. "That guy was giving you the eye, aaayyy!" RezDog.com has a great shirt with this saying on it. I want one.
"...and everything!" Attached to the end of sentence, it rolls up what could goes on with a person or a situation into one word. "He was drinking with his friends and everything!" "He was running around and everything!" Most people know what the "Everything" is.
"O'er there!" Basically, "over there!" Also point with your lips when you say this to give the right directions. Mr. Salt rubbed off on me because now I say this every time I give out directions.
"Ckys!" Put your tongue at the roof of mouth and make the 'ck' sound. Basically used when you have a "Are you kidding me? No way!" moment.
'ennit': No explanation necessary. Really.
Indianuity: Whenever Mr. Salt figures out how to rig something to make it work or make it work better. Similar to N*gger rigging.
-DineBoo
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Rezzed Out...aaayyy!
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4 comments:
Hey very interesting. I hope for more Navajo vocabulary.
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I just found this blog. Really neat. The discussion on language is fascinating. May seem like a simplistic question, but what is the Navajo language like? Is it called Navajo? Are there a family of languages?
Diva,
Navajo(Dine Bizaad in the native tongue) is part of the Athapaskan branch of languages. It's similar the Apache language, but ittotatlly unique. It's based on tones, so how you say a word changes the meaning.
Mr. Salt says the language is a Cat. 3, up there with Chinese or Japanese, on learning difficulty. This is why it was used in WWII.
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language for more info now. I'll try to make another post about this later.
DineBoo
Thanks so much for the info. I did not realize that it was a tonal language-what about the written form? I will check the wikipedia, but I look forward to reading more first hand info.
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