Editing Navajo language (section)

===Colonization===

Navajo lands were initially colonized by the [[Spain|Spanish]] in the early seventeenth century, shortly after this area was annexed as part of the Spanish viceroyalty of [[New Spain]]. When the United States annexed these territories in 1848 following the [[Mexican–American War]],<ref name="Minahan 2013 261"/> the English-speaking settlers allowed{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} Navajo children to attend their schools. In some cases, the United States established separate schools for Navajo and other Native American children. In the late 19th century, it founded boarding schools, often operated by religious missionary groups. In efforts to [[acculturate]] the children, school authorities insisted that they learn to speak English and practice Christianity. Students routinely had their mouths washed out with lye soap as a punishment if they did speak Navajo.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/video/the-warrior-tradition-fkaz4h/|title=The Warrior Tradition &#124; The Warrior Tradition|via=www.pbs.org|access-date=2020-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115052715/https://www.pbs.org/video/the-warrior-tradition-fkaz4h/|archive-date=2019-11-15|url-status=live}}</ref> Consequently, when these students grew up and had children of their own, they often did not teach them Navajo, in order to prevent them from being punished.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 421"/>

[[Robert W. Young]] and [[William Morgan (Navajo scholar)|William Morgan]], who both worked for the Navajo Agency of the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]], developed and published a practical orthography in 1937. It helped spread education among Navajo speakers.<ref name="Minahan 2013 262">{{Harvnb|Minahan|2013|p=262}}</ref> In 1943 the men collaborated on ''The Navajo Language'', a dictionary organized by the roots of the language.<ref name="hargus"/> In [[World War II]], the United States military used speakers of Navajo as [[code talker]]s—to transmit top-secret military messages over telephone and radio in a code based on Navajo. The language was considered ideal because of its grammar, which differs strongly from that of [[German language|German]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]], and because no published Navajo dictionaries existed at the time.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=Chester Nez, 93, Dies; Navajo Words Washed From Mouth Helped Win War |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/us/chester-nez-dies-at-93-his-native-tongue-helped-to-win-a-war-of-words.html |work=The New York Times |date=6 June 2014 }}</ref>

By the 1960s, Indigenous languages of the United States had been declining in use for some time. Native American language use began to decline more quickly in this decade as paved roads were built and English-language radio was broadcast to tribal areas. Navajo was no exception, although its large speaker pool—larger than that of any other Native language in the United States—gave it more staying power than most.<ref name="Johansen Ritzker 422">{{Harvnb|Johansen|Ritzker|2007|p=422}}</ref> Adding to the language's decline, federal acts passed in the 1950s to increase educational opportunities for Navajo children had resulted in pervasive use of English in their schools.<ref name="Kroskrity Field 2009 38"/>

In more recent years, the number of monolingual Navajo speakers have been in the decline, and most younger Navajo people are bilingual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LEE |first=LLOYD L. |id={{Project MUSE|75750|type=book}} |jstor=j.ctv11sn6g4 |title=Diné Identity in a Twenty-First-Century World |date=2020 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv11sn6g4 |isbn=978-0-8165-4068-6 |s2cid=219444542 }}{{page needed|date=January 2023}}</ref> Near the 1990s, many Navajo children have little to no knowledge in Navajo language, only knowing English.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Spolsky |first1=Bernard |title=Prospects for the Survival of the Navajo Language: A Reconsideration |journal=Anthropology and Education Quarterly |date=June 2002 |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=139–162 |id={{ProQuest|218107198}} |doi=10.1525/aeq.2002.33.2.139 }}</ref>