Hello to everybody.
My name is Rich, and I have a confession to make: I am addicted... to languages. There. I've said it.
I started with the easy ones, like French and Afrikaans, and then moved onto the more exotic ones, like Ancient Greek, Japanese and Biblical Hebrew. But now only the hardest sort will hit the spot, and the Native American languages I have examined have such an unparalleled complexity and profound beauty that... well, preaching to the converted? I apologise for that and my rambling.
My access to Native American languages is somewhat hampered by my geography (England) and my budget (more or less in a state of nullibiety). I have therefore elected to focus on Cree (Moose) and Navajo, and this post concerns the latter.
It is my intention to work through the basic books I have (below) and then build up my grammatical and lexical capabilities. Hence, I am looking for recommendations on more formal grammars (especially those analysing the deliciously complex verb) and a decent dictionary.
So far I have managed to acquire Breakthrough Navajo, Navajo Made Easier (rather splendid and most accessible), Colloquial Navaho (sic) A Dictionary, the Hippocrene Navajo-English Dictionary, and The Navajo Verb System (somewhat intimidating until my level increases). I am strongly considering incurring the financial wrath of my wife by ordering Faltz's book on the Navajo Verb, as it seems to be highly recommended. I should love to acquire Goossen's Diné Bizaad, but the price for this in England is only marginally less than the cost of a hit-man, the services of whom my wife would undoubtedly retain were I to purchase the book.
I should be most grateful if anyone who has experience with any of the following would do me the kindness of briefly describing the nature and qualities of each:
The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary - Young & Neundorf
Analytical Lexicon of Navajo - Young & Morgan
Diné Bizaad Binahoo'aah - Evangeline Parsons Yazzie
And just for the sake of it, has anyone given a serious look at the aforementioned The Navajo Verb System by Robert Young? With my current appreciation of the Navajo language (embarrassingly basic: think of your average kangaroo being asked to prove the General Theory of Relativity through the medium of ballet) it looks as if Young's work seeks to strip the verb down into its semi-theoretical nuts-and-bolts.
The other dictionary I am considering has an enormously helpful preview, courtesy of Google books... http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/A ... edir_esc=y
As I am disabled, my need is for physical books; I cannot sit at a computer poring over pdf versions for very long, and I simply cannot afford the luxury of a Kindle or similar. Besides, I am definitely kinaesthetic, relishing the tactile experience of a paper-laden peregrination through philological fancy and linguistic legerdemain.
Many thanks in advance.
Rich