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Language code: nv

Technical information about ISO 639 language code nv

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Navajo language, designated by the nv code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

nv

Name

Official

Navajo

Native

Diné bizaad

Family
Athabaskan
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Western NavajoNorthern (Chinle) NavajoEastern Navajo
Related languages
Western ApacheMescalero-ChiricahuaJicarilla ApacheLipan Apache
Key facts
It has four phonemic tones—high, low, rising and fallingVerbs are highly polysynthetic, often encoding an entire English sentenceNavajo Code Talkers famously used the language to create an unbreakable military code during World War IIThe typical word order is subject–object–verbIts Latin-based alphabet uses diacritics and apostrophes to mark tone, nasalization and glottal stops
Sample phrase

Yá'átʼééh, haash yiníłį́?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Navajo, also known as Navaho, is part of the Athabaskan subgroup of the Na-Dene languages. It is predominantly spoken in the Southwestern United States, particularly within the Navajo Nation which spans parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Navajo is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages and is written using the Latin script (Navajo alphabet). It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

United States

171K

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Navajo speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

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