New software to aid in keeping Navajo language alive

Group working to develop teaching tool to be released this year

| The Associated Press

1/6/2008 -

FARMINGTON — A group of linguists, editors and native speakers are starting a yearlong project to develop the first software system to teach the Navajo language.

The software will be owned by the Cornville, Ariz.-based organization Navajo Language Renaissance, and will be used to supplement Navajo language classes on and off the reservation.

Lorraine Manavi, a language professor at San Juan College who is helping with the software system, said it will not replace classroom learning of Navajo.

"It will be another avenue to learn, an enhancement of the classroom experience," she said.

Navajo is one of five endangered languages adopted by the Virginia-based Rosetta Stone. The software will not be part of Rosetta Stone's commercial lines.

The biggest hurdle in learning Navajo is rearranging the thought process, Manavi said.

"In English we say 'The bird is sitting on a tree,' " she said. "In Navajo, we say 'The bird, the tree, on it, it sits.' You have to learn to think that way."

Manavi, who teaches Navajo language at San Juan College, is working to meld language and culture for the software.

For example, the traditional Navajo greeting, Yaateeh, requires a handshake, yet the photos supplied by Rosetta Stone depict a person waving.

Another photo shows a boy drinking, but the Navajo translation of drinking implies alcohol use, Manavi said.

"In Navajo we have to say what they are drinking," she said. "But if we do that, we're introducing too much vocabulary at once."

Manavi's efforts are the first in a 12-step process to develop the software.

Editors, linguists and non-native speakers will review the software before its scheduled release date later this year.

The college hopes to use the software to entice more students for the program, said Lisa Wilson, dean of the School of Humanities.

Rosetta Stone launched its Endangered Languages program in 2004 to help revitalize native dialects, said Marion Bittinger, manager of Rosetta Stones Endangered Language program.

The Endangered Language program already has completed basic software programs for Mohawk, Alaskan Inupiac and Labrador, an Eskimo language.