My grant proposal for the class Languages of the World seeks to understand the relationship between the Navajo vowel system and music.

Marc Vucovich
Course: Languages of the World (Ling 1010)
Advisor: GPTI Evan Coles-Harris, TA Chu Paing
LURA 2018

I specifically chose this language because my class had talked about the rich history of the Navajo language, including its use as a code-talker language in World War II, and about how unique its vowel system is. Below is a summary of what I would like to research. Enjoy!

The Navajo language, sometimes referred to as Navaho, is a member of the Eyak-Athabaskan family. It is currently spoken in the United States of America around the four corners of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado with a majority of the speakers in Arizona and New Mexico. Although Ethnologue considers Navajo a threatened language, there are many efforts to revitalize and preserve this very special language.

Navajo has many extraordinary attributes, but one of the most interesting and best studied is its vowel system. In a fieldwork study done by professors from the University of California Los Angeles, it was documented that the Navajo language has four vowel qualities, but the language also differentiates between short versus long vowels and nasal versus oral vowels (McDonough, Ladefoged, & George, 1992). Therefore, the Navajo language can use these four characteristics on each of the four vowels creating a system that has sixteen distinct vowels. In addition, the Navajo language is a tonal language, which means that the Navajo speakers are more acclimated to listening to pitches in their conversations.

Although there has already been an abundance of research concerning the Navajo vowel system, I want to research the relation between the contrasting vowel sounds and the way Navajo speakers feel after listening to a variety of instrumental songs compared to English speakers. Due to the fact that Navajo speakers are more accustomed to listening to the pitch and length of vowels in their language than native English speakers, I want to see if Navajo speakers have a more consistent interpretation of the meaning of a song across participants than do English Speakers.

In this study, the songs will be instrumental to avoid the listeners gathering information from the lyrics. With this in mind, imagine a song has a low pitch note that is held for four beats. Since the Navajo language is highly synthetic, one morpheme can have a lot of meaning. This could mean that when a Navajo speaker hears a low pitch note drawn out for four beats, it could resemble a morpheme that has a sad connotation. In turn, the Navajo speaker would consider the song to be sad.

Now for the English speaker, who does not tend to use a lot of tone or variations in vowel length, that same note could give them a completely different perspective on the same song as the Navajo speaker. I hypothesize that the English speakers will have more varied opinions on the meaning of the song, but the Navajo speakers will more consistently agree upon the meaning of the song.

This research will give us a deeper understanding of the connection between music, thought, and language. If my hypothesis is correct, the Navajo language would be an example of how music can be interpreted as a language, and in turn, how music can be used to communicate cross-linguistically. Future research could go on to study the specific tribal songs the Navajo people play at certain celebrations to see if the interpretation of the song matches the overall mood of the celebration. For example, would the mood of the Navajo Shoe games match the mood of this Navajo Shoe game song?

Navajo Shoe Game Song

This would show how communities could communicate with each other through the art of music. With all of this in mind, we could innovate the way we interact and communicate, as the power of music can open an unprecedented outlook upon language.