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What is a native and a foreign language?
The first language (L1) is defined to be the chronologically first acquired language, with “second language” meaning a language acquired after the L1 (see Dewaele, 2010). A foreign language is a language acquired primarily via classroom learning, and not a language spoken in the learners’ community.
Where is the Navajo language from?
Arizona
Navajo language, North American Indian language of the Athabascan family, spoken by the Navajo people of Arizona and New Mexico and closely related to Apache.
Why does the United States speak English?
The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization of the Americas. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Why is the Navajo language unique?
Similar to Hindi and related languages, the Navajo language has a particular sentence construction of Subject-Object-Verb. There are four vowels that can be short, long, or nasalized. Nasalization means that air escapes from the nose when a sound leaves your mouth and this can completely change the meaning of the word.
Why the Spanish language is not foreign in the United States?
Spanish especially is a language with deep roots in the United States. The Southwest was originally part of Mexico. When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848, it also granted the remaining Mexican settlers citizenship. The treaty did not require that they learn English.
What languages are spoken in the New Mexico region?
The main languages spoken in the region include Spanish, English and Navajo. There is also a new range of speakers who speak a new dialect of New Mexican Spanish and are believed to be decedents of Spanish colonists from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
However, Spanish is recognised and public education can be delivered in either Spanish or English. The main languages spoken in the region include Spanish, English and Navajo.
How closely related is Navajo to other Native American languages?
Proto-Athabaskan diverged fully into separate languages circa 500 BC. Navajo is most closely related to Western Apache, with which it shares a similar tonal scheme and more than 92 percent of its vocabulary.
However, data collected in 1980 showed that 85 percent of Navajo first-graders were bilingual, compared to 62 percent of Navajo of all ages—early evidence of a resurgence of use of their traditional language among younger people.