-GHAAZH

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *ɣ̇ʷa̓ž ~ *ɣ̇ʊš (“to make a bubbling noise”).

Occurs in Navajo in bases of disparate meanings related to “bubbling”, “shouting” and “sleeping”, probably originating in distinct roots that merged in shape.

These meanings are found in parts in other Athabaskan languages too:

• in Ahtna tnelghots (“it is boiling”), telghaas (“fish started swimming (bubbling?)”), delghos (“they are shouting”);
• in Koyukon nilɣos (“melted”), dəlɣʊs (“they are making noise”);
• in Chipewyan nɛ́sɣáz (“my face swole up”), níłxáz (“I boiled it”), dɛlɣus (“it barks”), ɛ’ɛłxus (“he snored”);
• in Mattole ’iłgwóxw (“you snore, are sound asleep”).

Root

-GHAAZH

  1. to bubble, to boil

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
ni + l		S bubbles, boils hanilgháásh (MOM)	S boils O, S spurts (unspec obj) hainiłháásh (MOM) ↳ hadaʼniłháásh naʼniłháásh iiniiłgháásh hadaʼniłhosh (DUR)

  2. to shout

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
(di) + l		S shouts hadilgháásh (MOM) dilwosh (REP) naalghaash (CONT)

  3. to sleep

Theme	Category	Bases	Reflexive / Reversionary (+ d)
a + ł		S sleeps, puts P to sleep iiłháásh (MOM)   yiʼiiłháásh ńdíʼníiłháásh — ałhosh (REP) naʼashhaazh (CONT)	S sleeps náʼiilgháásh (rev.) áhodiilgháásh (refl.) ádiʼiilgháásh (refl.) — adiniilgháásh (?) áhodiilwosh (refl.)

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-gháásh	-ghaazh	-wosh	-wosh	-gháásh
REP	-wosh	-ghaazh	-wosh	-wosh	-gháázh
CONT	-ghaash	-ghaazh	-ghash	-ghash	-ghaash

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Synonyms

to bubble:

• -CHOZH

to boil:

• -BÉÉZH

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -GHAAZH (bubble)

Navajo terms belonging to the root -GHAAZH (shout)

Navajo terms belonging to the root -GHAAZH (sleep)