Code Red

Hartford Courant ^ | June 12 2002 | GREG MORAGO

[2Trievers]

Don't be fooled by the ads for director John Woo's new World War II movie, "Windtalkers." The star of the movie isn't Nicolas Cage or Christian Slater. Or the multi-million-dollar special effects employed for dramatic battle scenes. Or even the flag-waving, feel-good patriotism so coveted by post-9/11 American moviegoers.

No, the star of "Windtalkers," which opens Friday, is an ancient language - gorgeously complex, maddeningly impenetrable to non-native speakers - without which America might not have won the war.

It's Navajo.

[FreedomPoster]

"I think people are simply cautious," Holm said. "The makers of the movie tried to do a great deal to allay people's fears. A lot of people are simply waiting to see for themselves."

No one trusts the media. Surprise, surprise. Let's hope they did these true Americans right; this is a great story.

[Unknown Freeper]

bump

[Arkie2]

without which America might not have won the war

Please! This is a great story and the Windtalkers saved a lot of lives but to say we might not have won the war without them is absolutely ridiculous.

[2banana]

as well as silver medals to each man who later qualified as a code talker.

Please (part II)! Getting medals for learning a language. I think we are getting a little too PC here

[Publius6961]

Please! This is a great story and the Windtalkers saved a lot of lives but to say we might not have won the war without them is absolutely ridiculous.

Perhaps not.
The important point I see is that the language will be useless in any future war.
Is there another obscure native language that we can keep the press away from?
Any Middle Eastern types showing interest in learning Navajo?

[driftless]

Agreed. I caught that howler too. Great thanks to the Navahos who risked their lives, but we would have won anyway, probably with a few more lives lost than we did.

[Free Fire Zone]

Congressional Gold Medals, the nation's highest civilian honor,...

CIVILIAN! The codetalkers were civilian!!?? Why not the military medal they earned?They bloody well weren't civilian when doing their job!!

Free Fire Zone

[LadyDoc]

The code was unbreakable because it was a "double code". The navajo speaker translated words into navajo, but used code words in the messages.

What is little known is that the Japanese had a Navajo POW (probaly a NM National Guard member since these were in the PHilippines, but I'm not sure).

They tortured the POW to translate, and he couldn't, since although he understood the words, they were gibbrish.

The code was not used in major transmissions, since if I remember correctly, there were 2 or 3 German professor linguists who could translate if given enough time.

And other lanugages were used to a lesser degree: Choctow and Commanche, I believe.,

Linguistically, Navajo is "tonal". The vowels have different lengths in different words. There are "glottal stops", and there are several consenants impossible for Europeans to say. Finally, there are many irregular verbs and different tenses.

I only know two phrases in Navajo: Ya'a ta he (hello, or goodbye, literally things are good) and "nez gaish" (where does it hurt?)

[OKSooner]

Yes, Commanche and Choctaw code talkers were used by the Army in the ETO. One of my mom's high skool classmates was a Choctaw code talker.