Maia

Learn Navajo.

Din Bizaad

Learn Din Bizaad (Navajo) with a course designed for its extraordinary verb system, tonal distinctions, and the classificatory verb stems that encode how the world is shaped.

Start your Navajo course

Why Navajo

Navajo (Din Bizaad) is the most widely spoken Native American language in the United States, with approximately 170,000 speakers. It's the language of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American territory in the US.

Navajo's grammar is profoundly different from English -- its verb system is one of the most complex of any language, encoding not just action but the shape and nature of the objects involved. Learning Navajo is a genuine intellectual challenge and a deeply rewarding cultural experience.

What makes Navajo challenging — and how Maia helps

The verb system

Navajo verbs are the core of the language, carrying information about subject, object, tense, mode, aspect, and the physical nature of what's being acted upon. Maia introduces verb templates gradually, building complexity layer by layer.

Classificatory verb stems

Navajo uses different verb stems depending on the shape of the object: round, long-rigid, flat-flexible, etc. "Hand me the ball" and "hand me the stick" use different verbs. Maia teaches these categories with concrete examples.

Tone and nasalization

Navajo distinguishes between high and low tones, and between oral and nasal vowels. Maia uses careful phonetic notation and targeted exercises to build these distinctions.

What your course includes

  • •Conversational lessons building verb complexity gradually
  • •AI podcast episodes mixing Navajo and English
  • •Verb template, vocabulary, and grammar exercises
  • •Spaced repetition for vocabulary and verb patterns
  • •Adaptive curriculum based on your progress

Sample lesson topics

  1. 1.Sounds of Navajo: consonants, vowels, tone, and nasalization
  2. 2.Greetings: ya'at'eeh and basic social phrases
  3. 3.Pronouns and basic verb structure
  4. 4.Classificatory verbs: how shape determines the verb
  5. 5.Numbers and counting in Navajo
  6. 6.Describing the world: colors, directions, and the landscape
Start learning Navajo

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