A white American man who lived with the Navajo recommended that the language be used as a code language during World War II. Back then, there were no Navajo dictionaries and very few non-Navajo spoke the language. Also, the Navajo language is very different from German and Japanese, the languages of the enemies at the time. The military started to recruit Navajo men to become code talkers. These code talkers sent code messages in Navajo. The code talkers used very specific words for military words (such as "iron fish" for submarine) so that even other Navajo would have a hard time understanding if they didn't learn the meanings of those terms. The Japanese found out they were speaking Navajo because a professor who studied Native American languages recognized it, but they could not understand the words of the code. There were other code talkers in other Native American and non-Native American languages, but the Navajo Code Talkers were the most famous.
After World War II, the Navajo language began to decline. More roads were built into Navajo land, which exposed them more to English. However, things began to change in the 1960s. President Johnson signed a law that said that kids who don't speak English are allowed to have bilingual education. That was when the Navajo began to open up schools that taught in both English and Navajo.
Today, Navajo is considered to be a language in trouble because more and more of the Navajo now speak English only. However, people are working to change it by speaking and writing in Navajo and teaching the language to other people.
In Navajo, new words are created by putting prefixes in front of other words.
Navajo is called a subject-object-verb language. This means that the subject is first and the verb is last ("I you love"). This is different from English, which is a subject-verb-object language ("I love you").
Verbs (action words) are the most important part of Navajo grammar. Every sentence needs a verb. Each verb is composed of a root, with additional prefixes and suffixes attached to form a word.
Nouns are people, places, and things. They are not as important in Navajo. Many nouns are created by adding certain prefixes and suffixes to verbs.
Unlike in some other languages, Navajo nouns do not have grammatical gender. They also do not change in the plural (unlike English, which usually adds the suffix -s to indicate plural nouns).
Navajo nouns are organized as animate (people, plants, and animals) or inanimate (everything else).
In the Navajo language, possession is not indicated by 's or words such as my. Instead, prefixes are added to the beginning of words. (Example: chidí 'car' - shichidí 'my car')
Navajo does not have adjectives. Verbs play the role of adjectives.
The Navajo words for million (miiltsoh), billion (binyóón), and other large numbers are based on English.
The Navajo borrowed the 7-day week from the Spanish. The first day of the week is Sunday, which is "Damóo". This comes from the Spanish word for Sunday, "Domingo".
The Navajo language uses the ABCs, just like English. Before, the Navajo language had no writing system. As missionaries came, they made up their own alphabets. However, some linguists came up with a single alphabet that represented the sounds of Navajo well. This alphabet has lots of extra letters and marks so that all the sounds of the Navajo language can be written correctly.
Below is a chart of all the Navajo letters.
The hooks underneath the letters are called ogoneks and represent nasal vowels. Nasal vowels are not found in English, but they are found in languages like French and Portuguese.
High tones are represented with a mark called an acute accent, such as á.
Double letters lengthen the vowels so that they are said a bit longer than just one letter.
Navajo: "Ashiiké tʼóó diigis léiʼ tółikaní łaʼ ádiilnííł dóó nihaa nahidoonih níigo yee hodeezʼą́ jiní. Áko tʼáá ałʼąą chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii kʼiidiilá dóó hááhgóóshį́į́ yinaalnishgo tʼáá áłah chʼil naʼatłʼoʼii néineestʼą́ jiní. Áádóó tółikaní áyiilaago tʼáá bíhígíí tʼáá ałʼąą tłʼízíkágí yiiʼ haidééłbįįd jiní. "Háadida díí tółikaní yígíí doo łaʼ ahaʼdiidził da," níigo ahaʼdeetʼą́ jiníʼ. Áádóó baa nahidoonih biniiyé kintahgóó dah yidiiłjid jiníʼ ..."
English: Some crazy boys decided to make some wine to sell, so they each planted grapevines and, working hard on them, they raised them to maturity. Then, having made wine, they each filled a goatskin with it. They agreed that at no time would they give each other a drink of it, and they then set out for town lugging the goatskins on their backs ...
Chuck E. Cheese (character)
Charles Entertainment "Chuck E." Cheese is the anthropomorphic rat mascot of the Chuck E. Cheese chain of family entertainment centers. In 2012, the rat mascot was rebranded into a mouse.
The character was first created as the mascot for a restaurant made by Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari) in 1977. Bushnell went to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) conference in Orlando and saw walk-around character costumes being sold. In them, Bushnell found one that looked like a coyote, so he bought it for his planned Coyote Pizza restaurant. When the costume arrived at Atari, the costume was actually a rat, with a long pink rat tail. Bushnell decided to change the restaurant's name to Rick Rat's Pizza. However, Bushnell's planning group thought that a rat for the name of a restaurant would not be appropriate. Finally, Bushnell's group decided on the name Chuck E. Cheese for the mascot and changed the restaurant's name to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. The first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in San Jose, California, in the same year Chuck E. Cheese was made, 1977.
In 1995, the mascot was given a more child-friendly makeover, with wider cheeks, a less pointy, shorter snout, longer eyes and smaller ears. This one was added to the restaurants in 2001.
In July 2012, the mascot was changed into a much smaller kind of the character, who played electric guitar. Voice actor Duncan Brannan, who for 19 years had made Chuck E. Cheese a wise-cracking mouse from New Jersey, was replaced with Jaret Reddick, the frontman and guitarist for the pop punk band Bowling for Soup.
Lucien Petit-Breton
Lucien Georges Mazan (18 October 1882 – 20 December 1917) is a French cyclist who is well-known for winning Tour de France two times in 1907 and 1908.
Edward N. Lorenz
Edward Norton Lorenz (May 23, 1917 – April 16, 2008) was an American mathematician and meteorologist. He was one of the first to work in the field of Chaos theory. He was the first to use the term Butterfly effect for dynamic systems that are very sensitive to starting conditions. In the 1960s, he used a simple model for weather prediction, which he simialated on a computer. With this setup, he discovered that only a slight change of the values he used for the model could lead to totally different results. This is known as Butterfly effect. In numerical weather predicion, values are often rounded, so that in each step, a small error is added.
He also discovered and developed the mathematical foundations. For his simulations he used a system of equations, which is now named after him.
Brian Shaw (strongman)
Brian Shaw (born February 26, 1982) is an American professional strongman. He is winner of the 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016 competitions. In 2011, he became the first man to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World's Strongest Man contest in the same calendar year. He achieved this again in 2015. Shaw also uploads videos on his YouTube channel SHAWSTRENGTH.
Shaw was born in Fort Lupton, Colorado. He is married and has two children.
Love Thy Neighbour