Dine Bizaad: Speak, Read, Write Navajo

by Irvy W. Goossen

Dine Bizaad is a first year Navajo language textbook which emphasizes the skills essential for a communicative approach to language learning. Each of the 30 lessons has a cultural or practical... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964418916
• ISBN13: 9780964418912
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Salina Bookshelf
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Best There is!

This is by far the best overall package for learning Dine Bizaad that there is! The dialogs are reasonable and straightforward, the grammar is clearly and plainly set out. Make no mistake about it, Navajo is difficult - for a variety of reasons. The grammar is very much unlike English or any of the romance languages and it takes quite a bit of getting used to just to acquire a feeling for how the language should work! I also agree with the other reviewers, - buy the CDs! Unless you just want to read the language you absolutely have to hear it spoken in order to really learn it! I only wish the CD's were listing along with the book when you do a general search on [...]. I had the book 2 weeks before I found a link to the tape set on this site!!!! And then only by looking at "Other Formats" by accident!!!! Oh well.... Be aware you will have to put out musch effort to master this language. But it is worth it to understand a native "Path of Beauty"!

Excellent and Useful - To accompany Class Training

Goossen's text & tape are welcome supplamental materials to a 2-yr study of Navajo. He provides sound examples on "how Navajo is spoken", vitally important in Navajo. He provides many good examples on how nouns, and verbs, and positional markers are used. I spent 2 years @ 65 hours a week training in Navajo to gain a 'basic' ability to speak to weavers. Gossen's work served as a useful platform in our student search for additional reference material. Both tape & text must be used in conjunction with a grounded study of Navajo - which means "lots of spoken training". Gossen provides good reference material on Navajo dialogue/conversation. Best used in sessions with native speakers. Would recommend it to students who are studying Navajo.

Best There is

The Navajo Language is a fairly difficult language to learn, and there are few books out there that can teach you the Language. In general, cultural practices of the Navajo are seldomly documented and packaged for sale--it's a cultural thing. But this book is the most extensive book out there. Unlike what a previous reviwer claimed, THERE ARE english translations for the Navajo words in the book, including a glossary in the back. YOU WILL NEED THE TAPES to accompany this book!! You just can't read the book and learn the language---the tapes are required. Navajo is a very "throaty" language and it takes a lot of prctice to learn it. Furthermore, I would suggest buying the Navajo-English Dictionary after you have mastered the book.

This book is excellent!

I cannot praise this book too highly. For years I have been searching for a good Dine (Navajo) course and this is by far the best one I have seen. It is clear, concise and user-friendly while also being thorough and grammatically accurate. The lessons are structured around useful, every-day language in the form of dialogues, stories, grammmatical explanations and exercises. The book includes an appendix of Dine verb structure and a two-way vocabulary, Dine/English and English/Dine. I haven't got the tapes yet, but the book is wonderful and definitely a valuable acquisition for anyone interested in learning to speak the Dine language.

What on earth do you expect?

I seriously wonder what the other review-writers imagine language-learning is like; do you actually figure you can simply buy a tape, listen to it a couple of times and then start talking like a living dictionary? No, this book deserves better. Of course you need both the book and the tapes! I'm not done with my studies yet, but so far the book seems well-structured and if you actually want to learn this language (which means "work"), buy this book and get started!