-ʼEEZH

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *ʼe̓ž (“to string fish or beads”).

Cognate root found in Ahtna *inezʼaes (“he strung them”).

Evolved in Navajo to mean “lead 2+ objects”, in contrast with -LÓÓZ, “lead a single object”.

Root

-ʼEEZH

 1. to lead plural object

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
O + ∅	motion	S leads O yiʼéésh (∅-MOM) iiʼéésh yidiʼéésh yidiiʼéésh haiʼéésh táidiʼéésh yisdéíʼéésh yíʼéésh (ni-MOM) chʼííʼéésh niyíʼéésh neiʼeesh (CONT) yooʼish (PROG)
O + ł	adjectival	S is a leader, is in charge of O yishʼeezh (NEUT) ashʼeezh

  2. to string beads

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
O + ∅	conversive	S strings beads yiʼeesh (CONCL)

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-ʼéésh	-ʼeezh	-ʼish	-ʼish	-ʼéésh
CONT / CONCL	-ʼeesh	-ʼeezh	-ʼish	-ʼish	-ʼeesh

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Synonyms

to lead:

• -LÓÓZ (single O)

 

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -ʼEEZH (lead)