Talk:béésh łichíiʼii

Spelling

nv:WP has the spelling béésh łichíiʼii, but shouldn't it be béésh łichííʼii? 71.66.97.228 06:39, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I think the best spelling is béésh łichíiʼii. —Stephen 23:04, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

This tonal shift is probably related to what Goossen describes in section 1.18 of his book Diné Bizaad: Speak, Read, Write Navajo, describing how the locative enclitic -di alters a word:

When the last syllable of the word to which the enclitic is attached is high in tone and short, the syllable lengthens and drops to the low tone of -di: Ch’íńlį́ + di becomes Ch’íńlį́įdi.

The word łichíiʼii describes a color (all Navajo color words that I'm aware of begin with łi-), and I don't think the ii ending here is an enclitic, but the phonetic dynamics may still be following a similar pattern to Goossen's description here. -- Cheers, Erik Anderson -- 205.166.76.15 16:03, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

OK, I didn't see how it was possible to have a single syllable that had both a high-tone and non-high-tone vowel. 71.66.97.228 23:44, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes. There are four tone variants: aa (low), áá (high), áa (falling), and aá (rising). —Stephen 11:32, 24 January 2010 (UTC)