The Navajo Verb System: An Overview

Abstract

In his latest study of the Navajo language, Professor Robert W Young tackles what strikes both the learner and the native speaker as an insurmountable obstacle that Navajo appears to be a verb-centred language in which all the verbs are 'irregular'. In the book Professor Young reveals both its structure and its inflection as entirely 'regular' and based on definite rules of order. A leading authority on Navajo verb morphology, Young brings to this study over sixty years of experience. This latest volume, which he calls a handbook, not only details the features of verb structure and inflection but also reflects the grammatical processes that generate a wealth of concrete lexical derivatives from a relatively small number of abstract verbal roots. This volume, together with Professor Young's earlier books, will be a basic reference invaluable to advanced students, linguists, and native speakers of Navajo.

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