According to Navajo Word of The Day, Navalish is the combination of English and Navajo, or a type of slang that combines English and Navajo. It is a term used to describe the word nizhóníful, mixing the word nizhóní (beautiful and kind), and beautiful. In linguistic terms, a Creolized variety is emerging from this, and about calling this Creolized variety see our blog entry on neocreolization. I’m also proposing the term Dinagáana Bizaad to name Navajo spoken with English words.
Grammar of English includes adding Navajo particles to English words, as the next occasional examples taken from KNDN, Farmington, 960 kHz AM:
- three thiryigo (=at three thirty)
- Cortezjígo (=In the direction to Cortez)
- Distributioniigíí (=concerning distribution)
- October thirty first goné (=On October thirty first)
- áádóó congratulations! (=so / and then congratulations)
- Sundayjį́ (=the day of Sunday)
Contacts with English are gradually experiencing a shift in how they are perceived by the community. Traditionally forms of code mixing or code switching have been stigmatized by the speakers of Navajo. Recently, however, newer generations are embracing the mixing with more acceptance, as Field (2009, p. 33) quotes in her essay:
- Hai baa a’íínáá’á last weekyę́ę? = Whom did we (you) vote for last week?
- éí t’áá níléí absentee ballotígíí = just that absentee ballot one
- Ha’at’e’ígíí nanidayikidgo? = What in particular did they ask you (on the test)?
- Dikwííshįį questions t’óó ahayoí, seven pages daatsí. = I don’t know how many questions, a lot seven pages maybe.
- Aadoo ashłeehí bich’į show adeeshłííł. = Then I will show her the ones that I will make.
Sometimes the insertion of English words is more consistent and the speaker only maintains grammatical words, as in the following example also quoted by Field (2009):
graphs, dóó, aadoo nda łahdo formulas. Ndi the last oneígíí … two pages multiple choice.
Graphs and, and then but also some formulas. But the last one in particular was two pages of multiple choice.
This example is particularly relevant and it shows a change in progress happening in the Navajo reservation. As Navajo populates its grammar with English words, gradually English becomes a lexifier language with an underlying Navajo grammar. This kind of contact also affects when speakers use Navajo words, as Field (2009, p. 35-36) maintains it, when speakers use English grammar in Navajo, particularly to pluralize nouns using the verbal pluralizer da.
Ha’át’eego shįį at’e ya’ … i’iinííł bich’į holzhishgo, níléí, deeyíjeehidíída, yádałt’ígo t’áá campaignda hashtłíísh yee
why would be with season (towards election time) the ones who start competing, when they are speaking, when they are campaigning, mud is being thrown
- i’iinííł= indef.is.dropped
- holzhishgo=season.being
- deeyíjeehigíída=incept.3+run.rel.pl., the ones who start competing
- ’adeł’įgo=indef.distr.3p.make.sub
- ’adzitłéeh=indef.is.being.thrown
siiké łeh, gohweeh dóó cookies-da níléi náyíídįįhgo.
We (2) usually stay home, enjoying coffee and cookies there.
náyíídįįh=iter.we.enjoy.sub
Łahdi éíya, six months-da nahidéélgo nahasht’a łeh
I usually fly back every six months
- łahdi=there
- nahidéél=iter. I fly (w/wings)
Christmas doodaí Thanksgiving-da éí shimá nayists’íí
Christmas or Thanksgiving I fly (back to) my mom again
nayists’íí=iter. I fly (on an airplane)
A number of TikTok video makers are using Navalish to their humoristic advantage. One comes from the creator Navajo hostile, in a video about the tornado spotted in Navajo territory.
@navajo_hostile, TikTok
The video portrays the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy wakes up in the air. Navajo Hostile then adds voice speaking Navalish, and starts talking with her dog about the tornado she’s witnessing through the window:
Window ąą’at’e na’aneeskaal’á?
Was the window open all night?
Háádi la íí’á, puppy?
Where did we go, ah? Puppy?
She’s spots an old woman, a cow, and two men who she said they are from Chinle.
Hwhere we are?
It looks like we are in Montezuma Creek, pubby
Pubby, ni, we shą́ on the Navajo Nation
(…)
Isn’t that lady from Window Rock fair?
The one who was getting mad about the parking space shą́, pubby?
(Question mark)
She calls her dog “pubby” while using the second person singular ni to address him, and then she adds the interrogative / exclamatory particle shą́ to express surprise in between the English sentence. In other videos entirely spoken in English by Navajo Hostile, also the presence of Navajo Creolized English appears.
Are you tired of being gashii?
Gee shoo! Are you tired of being gashii?
Attention! Are you tired of being attacked by witchcraft?
And then he explains how to avoid the noise of animals especially dogs and owls during the night. He explains that people should leave the front door of the car open and show the motor, in a way that the car appears damaged enough and the person seems like is already broken, so the nocturnal animals believe the job is done.
- They’re gonna not [negation starts at the core part of the sentence] botter you anymore.
- You just go like this [do this] to your car and make it look broke down. And then they’re gonna tink that they won, all those bad ch’itee [shity, cheating, chidi=car] people (howls, dogs).
- Áádóó when they drive by [go by, run along] and look, and they’re gonna tink that aw man, I did that.
- Biiga? [Ok?] Ok, gee shoo [pay attention] try it out!
Discursive markers are consistently taken from Navajo such as saying áádóó (=and so), biighaah (=Ok), gee shoo (=pay attention). English phrasing mirrors Navajo grammatical structure by using the verb to go instead of to do, as the verb naaghá (=go around) is often used to imply just do something. Verbs of movement often interchange within each other as happens in drive by [go by, run along], because the Navajo verb meaning yilwoł “to run” is also used to express driving.
The creator also creates a number of humoristic effects with the sounds of words in both English and Navajo. He pronounces the word áádóó as in English, which results in the tapping of intervocalic d, then it sounds as “auto”. It connects to the fact that he’s talking about a car. In addition, he uses shitty making it sound like the Navajo word for car=chidí. It makes the glottal stop to make sound more like a ch.
In the 2024’s film Rez Ball, one notable example is using the singular verb when referring to two people because in Navajo the third person present singular and dual is the same. At the beginning of the film, one boy is telling how he was kissing a girl that turned out to be of a related clan to his family, and she rejected him because of that:
He found out they was [two people, the couple] related.
This is possible because “was” is referring to two people, the couple, triggering the usage of the singular. Someone might argue that this is due to the action of Universals. A number of examples are also found in the movie which may be attributed to this connection, especially with regards to the omission of articles:
- Hard part was after instead of the hard part was after.
- Job is yours instead of the job is yours.
And the omission of copula:
- What time we getting back? instead of What time are we getting back?
The later may connected to influence of African American Vernacular English due to hip-hop, which is popular in the reservation, as in the usage of finna instead of going to:
- Naataanii finna leave us out to dry? instead of Naatanii is going to leave us out to dry?
In terms of communicational styles, in Navajo there is not direct translation for “I’m sorry”. This connects to the fact that apologies in Navajo are rare. When Jimmy arrives late to job, the exchange is as follows:
Krista: You’re late. Again.
Jimmy: Yeah, well, it won’t happen again.
This would be an occasion where an apology might be expected as a response to a reprimand. Instead, the speaker responds with a promise to not do it again, and the promise repairs the wrongdoing.
Finally, as the film can be viewed with Navajo subtitles, whenever the speaker says “I’m sorry” in English, the Navajo subtitles use the loan phrase “I’m sorry”. One example among many happens when the coach comes to a restaurant to talk to the cook, who turns out being a former coach that she asks for help. The subtitles say:
I’m sorry ná naanéhę́ę́ ákódzaa. = I’m sorry for the lost of your player.
This shows that saying “I’m sorry” is a foreign concept to the Navajo culture, and this influences many aspects of social interaction even in communicative events happening in English only. This may also yield cross-cultural communication with English speakers, where Navajo speakers may appear as rude by not apologizing, but they are just following conversational patterns of their native cultures.
TikTok creator KrossYourPath2 creates humor stemming from the direct, straightforward communication style in Navajo where there is no small talk. One particular exchange happens between two young men, where one of them will be asking the other for a ride.
KrossYourPath2
Man 1: Dwikwii, how much?
Man 2: Ten
Man 1: Hesperus or Peabody?
Man 2: Mancos.
Man 1: Biigha.
In the exchange, Man 1 asks Man 2 how much he offers for the ride. They just decide where they are going, and then Man 1 says biighah=that’s fine, signaling with the hand to the other to get on the car. There are no fillers in the exchange, and for the purpose of negotiating a ride, the words just say what is needed and nothing else.
References:
Baird, S. (Director). (2024). Rez Ball [Film]. Netflix.
Field, M. (2009). Changing Navajo language ideologies and practices. In P. V. Kroskrity & M. Field (Eds.), Native American language ideologies: Beliefs, practices, and struggles in Indian Country (pp. 31–47). University of Arizona Press.
KNDN Radio. (n.d.). 960 AM broadcasts. Farmington, NM.
KrossYourPath2. Natives be like https://www.tiktok.com/@krossyourpath2/video/7545264583682919694
Navajo Hostile. (2024). Are you tired of being gashii? [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@navajo_hostile/video/7527107185617243406
Navajo Hostile. (2024). Tornado spotted in Navajo territory [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@navajo_hostile/video/7549923349628046606
Navajo Word of the Day. (n.d.). Home. https://navajowotd.com/
Speech Of my Land. (2025). Neo-creolization in today’s colonial times. https://speechofmyland.com/neo-creolization-in-todays-colonial-times/