-ʼAAL

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *ʼa̓tɬʼ (“to chew, to bite”).

Cognate root found in Ahtna cʼeʼaał (“he is chewing sth”), yizʼał (“he bit it once”), Gwich'in iiʼàal (“I ate it”), Chipewyan ɣɛsʼaíł (“Iʼm chewing it”)

Found in Navajo in bases related to the eating of hard or crispy food like peanut, candy, celery, bacon.

Root

-ʼAAL

1. to eat hard object

Theme	Category	Bases	+ Unspec object
Ø	operative	S eats O yiʼniiʼaał (MOM) niyíʼaał néineestʼaal (+d rev.) néidínítʼaał (+d rev.) yiʼaał (DUR) ↳ áde yitʼaał (+d refl.)	S eats iʼniiʼaał (MOM) — náʼneestʼaal — aʼaał (DUR) ↳ áde atʼaał

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-ʼaał	-ʼaal	-ʼał	-ʼał	-ʼaał
DUR	-ʼaał	-ʼaal	-ʼał	-ʼał	-ʼaał

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Synonyms

to eat:

• -CHOZH (leafy O)
• -DÉÉL (plural O)
• -DLĄ́Ą́ʼ (liquid O)
• -GHAL (meat)
• -KID (chunky O)
• -TSʼEEʼ (mushy O)
• -YĄ́Ą́ʼ
• -MAL

to chew, to bite:

• -GHÁÁZH
• -GHAZH

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -ʼAAL (eat hard)