Cradle of culture: How do children learn Navajo?
November 21, 2023 - Trinity Moody
A child’s first word is a milestone built upon months or years of constant interactions with friends, family, and community. Even a consistent “hello” at the grocery store from beaming cashiers is the kind of interaction that fosters language development in many infants, but in the case of Diné Bizaad, also known as the Navajo language, there is a prominently sized gap in such a significant turning point for young children.
Little to no published work on how children develop their words and speech exist in association with Diné Bizaad. To sustain such pivotal tools like child language is to develop language-teaching tools, sustain vibrant speaking groups, and even better understand the human brain.
In this episode of It's (Probably) Not Rocket Science, explore research by one of the world's only child linguistics scholars in the Navajo language at the University of New Mexico and Saad K’idilyé, an Albuquerque-based nonprofit focused on raising a new generation of Diné Bizaad speakers.
View full story at UNM Newsroom
