Like endangered species, languages are dying across the planet. By one estimate, one language vanishes every 14 days. Of the roughly 70 Native languages still spoken in the region, Navajo is by far the healthiest, with more than 170,000 speakers. Many languages, however, are down to their last speakers.

Spanish was the first European language spoken in the territory that is now the United States.

English

Five Native American Languages that Became Extinct in the 21st Century

• Serrano.
• Unami.
• Klamath-Modoc.
• Osage.
• Eyak.

What’s Left Today In spite of everything, there are still approximately 150 Native North American languages spoken in the United States today by more than 350,000 people, according to American Community Survey data collected from 2009 to 2013. That’s out of 350 total spoken languages in the country.

Many aspects make the Navajo language especially difficult for English speakers. One of them being that sentences are Subject-Object-Verb which can be irregular and contradictory to English sentence structures. Languages with these structures are typically more difficult for English speakers to learn.

Navajo – Not only is Navajo a complicated language to learn, but there are no written grammatical rules or published dictionary of Navajo words. This unique aspect of the language led to it being adopted by the US military for intelligence communications during the Second World War.

Now, fewer than 5% of Navajo children are fluent, according to the nonprofit’s website. “These parents are eager to have access to a proven program to help their children learn Navajo at home and at school. Rosetta Stone Navajo will be the medium to bridge generations and revitalize the Navajo language.”

The one unbreakable code turned out to be a natural language whose phonetic and grammatical structure was so different from the languages familiar to the enemy that it was almost impossible to transcribe much less translate. The unbreakable code was coded Navajo spoken by native speakers of Navajo.

The Japanese cracked every American combat code until an elite team of Marines joined the fight. One veteran tells the story of creating the Navajo code and proving its worth on Guadalcanal. It was our second day at Camp Elliott, near San Diego, our home for the next 13 weeks.

The Navajo Code was never used in a written form. If it had been, it could have been subjected to the same methods of code breaking that the world was using on operational and strategic codes like Enigma. The Navajo code was far less complex than Enigma and would not have held up well to such attacks.

The Navajo Code Talkers were successful because they provided a fast, secure and error-free line of communication by telephone and radio during World War II in the Pacific. The 29 initial recruits developed an unbreakable code, and they were successfully trained to transmit the code under intense conditions.

More than 400 Navajo men were recruited as Code Talkers. Only four are still alive — Thomas H. Begay, John Kinsel Jr., Samuel Sandoval and Peter MacDonald Sr.

Of the roughly 400 code talkers who served during World War II, 13 were killed in action.

Navajo language

Beginning in 1940, the army recruited Comanche, Meskwaki, Chippewa, Oneida, and later, Hopi, people to transmit messages in code during World War II. Then in 1941 and 1942, the Marine Corps recruited Navajo Code Talkers.

five

In particular, there were approximately 400 to 500 Native Americans in the United States Marine Corps whose primary job was to transmit secret tactical messages.

Choctaw Indians

Today, America honors 21 Native Americans who, in a desperate hour, gave their country a service only they could give. In war, using their native language, they relayed secret messages that turned the course of battle.

The MAI’s research also showed that during World War II, when the total American Indian population was less than 350,000, an estimated 44,000 American Indian men and women served. Some estimates show that as many as 40 Cherokees may have been called upon to act as code talkers during the two wars.

33 different tribes

The Cherokee “code talkers” were the first known use of Native Americans in the American military to transmit messages under fire, and they continued to serve in this unique capacity for rest of World War I. Their success was part of the inspiration for the better-known use of Navajo code talkers during World War II.

As you may know, there is no word for “goodbye” in our Cherokee language so “donadagohvi” or “until we meet again.” There is no word for “goodbye” in Cherokee. Instead, we say “donadagohvi” which means, “’til we meet again.”