Talk:łizhiní
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Adjective?[edit]
Should this not be listed as an adjective, if Navajo doesn't have adjectives? If this is the case, what is the difference with łizhin? 131.123.120.57 22:27, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
- The translation is an adjective. The heading system used in this wiki, with all entries having to be classified according to English parts of speech, is designed for Germanic and Romance languages, and many other languages have words that do not fit. I’ve tried to get a more neutral system but could not. In Navajo, almost every word is a verb or a construction such as bee, which I started to call a pronoun, then changed to postposition, but perhaps particle would be closer...but not really any of these. Lots of people claim that there are core one-syllable words such as tó that are nouns, but in reality they are verbs. tó does not simply mean water, it means "it is water". Some other words may really be nouns, but it is not clear. A header like ===Semantics=== or something similar that works for words that do not fit the English scheme would be better, but since we have to say noun, adjective or verb, it seems necessary to cheat and stretch the truth.
- The way that I have had to handle this mismatch over the years that I have been editing here has been to avoid entering words in languages such as Navajo that do not fit the English pattern, and to avoid entering common Russian words that do not fit, but I only enter words in languages that do fit. If you enter these words, I really have no way to apply English headers to Navajo words. —Stephen 20:57, 15 April 2010 (UTC)
Thank you, this is very interesting. Why not just give a brief usage note in each entry, saying something like, "in Navajo, this really means something like 'it is water' rather than simply 'water'"? 71.66.97.228 03:01, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
- You still have to select one part of speech from the English model, not only for this but for all entries, including compound words made up from different parts of speech. —Stephen 03:26, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
Should łizhin and łizhingo be added as related terms? 71.66.97.228 19:26, 28 November 2010 (UTC)
- Yes, they are related. łizhin is the verb to be black, łizhingo is its adverb, since it is black, or simply black. —Stephen (Talk) 01:14, 30 November 2010 (UTC)