Posted on 10/10/2017 12:38:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
They also developed a three-deep code for the phonetic alphabet. For each Roman letter, they chose an English word, like A=Armadillo. Then they used the Navajo word for “armadillo” to represent A. They made three versions of this. Then they chose code words to indicate which version was in play in a certain transmission, and sometimes they’d change mid-message.
It wasn’t just that the Navajo language was unwritten, unknown, and incredibly difficult: they also put some serious work into making a real code. In the European theater, some Native American soldiers used their tribal languages on a more ad-hoc basis. A Comanche Code Talker from the 45th Infantry spoke to our homeschool group in Norman, OK, back in the late 90s.
That post was VERY informative-——and amazed me.
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There’s a detailed discussion of the code in a book we have, but I can’t find it right now. (A kid broke a bookcase, so we have books in piles ;-)
This page has a good description, very similar to what’s in the book. It might even be the same report:
Thanks,I will check that out-—a fascinating subject.
(I won’t even ask how a kid could break a bookcase.)
:-)
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The shelves are held up by little pegs attached to the side walls. The kid (quite a hefty kid, too) was climbing up the shelves to get at some Lego his brother had put on top of the bookcase.
Oh Lordy,thank heaven he wasn’t hurt.
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If the case had fallen down, it would have hit a lizard cage before it crushed Frank (who is 8, and probably can’t be crushed by anything short of a garbage truck. Of course, there would have been glass and blood everywhere ...
He cut his finger in the kitchen the other day, and it looked like we’d butchered a chicken. The treatment was two minutes of direct pressure and a half-inch bandaid.
Is your son a bleeder? {I forget the medical name.)
A couple of my grandkids are,but no problems, and they are young adults now.
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Hemophiliac? No, he’s had plenty of injuries with no dangerous bleeding. I don’t know how he managed to spatter the whole kitchen ... just luck, I guess. By the time a brother brought a bandaid, Frank had forgotten about being frightened and was impressed with the mess he’d made.
Boys are something ...
No,not hemophilia—— I texted my daughter——it is called von Willebrand’s didease,and not that rare.
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Haven’t heard of that. His various injuries have always clotted quickly, and he doesn’t get nosebleeds like some of his siblings, so I don’t think he has blood issues.
No, definitely not. Wikipedia says it’s a clotting disorder, making it hard to stop bleeding, and we don’t have that.
The Navajos are an interesting people. I’ve been to a few Navajo rodeos in Chinle, Tuba City, and Granado, which always begin with a salute to the flag and the National Anthem, leaving me impressed by their patriotism.
My grandfather (who worked at Santa Fe Indian School from about 1928 to 1960) knew a lot of the 'code talkers', and was good friends with one of the first of them, Dooley Shorty. I have a couple of pieces of jewelery Dooley made in his later career.
It was Tuba City where I picked Harry up.
When I dropped him off, he asked if I had a bottle of water. I replied that I only had beer or Gatorade.
He asked if he could have a beer. I said sure, have two.
And off to Sedona I continued on my west coast trip this last spring with my two Husqvarna dirt bikes...
In Tuba City the boundary between the Navajo and Hopi reservations runs down the center of town. Hopis observe daylight savings time, while Navajos do not, making you either an hour late or an hour early for most occasions.
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