Navajo Language - Grammar - Verbs - Verb Template

Verb Template

The prefixes that occur on a Navajo verb are added in specified more or less rigid order according to prefix type. This type of morphology is called a position class template (or slot-and-filler template). Below is a table of a recent proposal of the Navajo verb template (Young & Morgan 1987). Edward Sapir and Harry Hoijer were the first to propose an analysis of this type. A given verb will not have a prefix for every position. In fact, most Navajo verbs are not as complex as the template would seem to suggest: the maximum number of prefixes is around eight.

The Navajo verb is composed of a verb stem and a set of prefixes. The prefixes can be divided into a conjunct prefix set and disjunct prefix set. The disjunct prefixes occur on the outer left edge of the verb. The conjunct prefixes occur after the disjunct prefixes, closer to the verb stem. Two types of prefixes can be distinguished by their different phonological behavior.

disjunct prefixes

conjunct prefixes

stem

The prefix complex may be subdivided into 11 positions, with some of the positions having even further subdivisions:

Although prefixes are generally found in a specific position, some prefixes change order by the process of metathesis. For example, prefix ʼa- (3i object pronoun) usually occurs before di-, as in

adisbąąs "I'm starting to drive some kind of wheeled vehicle along" .

However, when ʼa- occurs with the prefixes di- and ni-, the ʼa- metathesizes with di-, leading to an order of di- + ʼa- + ni-, as in

diʼnisbąąs "I'm in the act of driving some vehicle (into something) & getting stuck"

instead of the expected adinisbąąs (ʼa-di-ni-sh-ł-bąąs) (note also that ʼa- is reduced to ʼ-).

Although the verb template model of analysis has been traditionally used to describe the Navajo verb, other analyses have been proposed by Athabascanists.