chʼil łitsooí díkʼǫ́zhígíí

chʼil łitsooí díkʼǫ́zhígíí = lemon in Navajo

Diné bizaad (or Navajo as we know it) is a fascinating Athabaskan language that never fails to amaze me with its creativity and logic.

I am not a linguist so I divide languages unprofessionally into three groups:
1) one-idea-one-word group – languages like  English, Finnish, Irish
2) many-ideas-one-word group – languages like Greenlandic
3) one-idea-many-words – languages like Navajo

So the idea called “lemon” is described in many words:
chʼil łitsooí díkʼǫ́zhígíí = a plant that is yellow and that is sour
chʼil = plant
łitso = it is yellow
díkʼǫ́ǫ́zh = it is sour

So how do you say “lime”? You just replace “łitso” (it is yellow) with “dootłʼizh” (it is green).
chʼil dootłʼizhí díkʼǫ́zhígíí” = a plant that is green and that is sour

What about “orange”? Think about the colour.
łitsxo = it is orange (about colour)
chʼil łitsxooí = a plant that is orange

And “grapefruit”? Simply add “nitsxaa” (it is really big) to the “orange”
chʼil łitsxooí nitsxaaígíí = a plant that is orange and that is really big

Photo by @lukaszdaciuk (Instagram)

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