#Young linguist academy code#

The 1987 edition of TNL is the primary reference grammar of Navajo. In 19, they published The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary ( TNL), representing 'a huge increase in descriptive coverage' of the language. He continued his work with Morgan, until Morgan's death. Upon his retirement from the BIA in 1971, Young became an adjunct professor of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico. They also published Navajo Historical Selections (1954), Phoenix: Bureau of Indian Affairs. They published The Function and Significance of Certain Navajo Particles (1948) and A Vocabulary of Colloquial Navajo (1951), which was an English to Navajo dictionary. Returning to the BIA, Young continued to work with Morgan and other Navajo. Navajo-speaking soldiers were recruited for such communications of intelligence, and no enemy was ever able to break this code.

#Young linguist academy code#

They developed a code based on the Navajo language for high-level communications.

Young served a stint in the Marine Corps and during this period, he worked on the Navajo Code Talker project. Their work was interrupted by World War II. The newspaper Ádahooníłígíí was published through the late 1950s. It was the second newspaper to be published in a Native American language, after the Cherokee Phoenix, which was founded in 1828 and published through 1834 (it was revived intermittently and began regular publication again in the late 20th century, including online). In 1943 Young and Morgan became editors of the first Navajo-language newspaper, Ádahooníłígíí, published by the Navajo Agency. From the 1940s through the 1950s, they produced a variety of reading materials in Navajo, and three 'important works on lexicon and grammar.' The first was a dictionary, The Navajo Language (1943), organized by root, as one of the principal elements in the verbs of the Athabaskan languages. He collaborated with Navajo scholar William Morgan on all his major projects. Morgan also joined the BIA, and the two worked together for decades on the Navajo language, making it the most documented indigenous language in the United States.Īs a linguist, Young worked primarily on programs related to analyzing and expanding documentation of the Navajo language, encouraging its written use, and education in the language. In the early 1940s Young joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where he worked in the Southwest at the Navajo Agency in Window Rock, Arizona. Together in 1937 they published a practical orthography of Navajo. While working at the Southwestern Range and Sheepbreeding Laboratory in Fort Wingate, New Mexico, he became acquainted with William Morgan, a Navajo fellow worker and native of the city. He enrolled in graduate school in anthropology at the University of New Mexico and began his study of Navajo. After earning a liberal arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1935, he moved to New Mexico for Native American studies. He became interested in Native American languages, learning both the Spanish language and Nahuatl, an indigenous language, from Mexican immigrant railroad workers. Robert Young was born in 1912 in Chicago, Illinois. Young, Morgan and Sally Midgette also produced the Analytical Lexicon of Navajo (1992), which re-organizes the lexicon by root, one of the principle elements in verbs and nouns of Athabaskan languages. It established itself as the major reference grammar of the Navajo language. The 1987 edition included new appendices and grammar sections. The men continued their work of analysis and documentation of Navajo in 1980, 1987 they published The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary, representing 'a huge increase in descriptive coverage' of the language.

Its publication contributed to standardization of Navajo orthography. That year Young and Morgan served as editors and began publication of Ádahooníłígíí, the first newspaper written in Navajo and the second Native American-language newspaper in the United States, after the Cherokee Phoenix of 1828–1834. From the late 1930s, Young cooperated with the Navajo linguist and scholar William Morgan, publishing a 'practical orthography' in 1937.įrom the 1940s through the 1950s, they published three major works, including The Navajo Language (1943), a compiled dictionary. Young (– February 20, 2007), professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of New Mexico, was an American linguist known for his work on the Navajo language. For other people named Robert Young, see Robert Young (disambiguation).