Yes/No Questions
These are questions that have ’yes’ or ’no’ as an answer. There are four general ways of forming them in Navajo.
1. Da’ at the beginning
One is to place da’ at the beginning of a statement:
Dibé | nee | hólǫ́. |
sheep | 2-with | exist.NI |
You have sheep. |
Da’ | dibé | nee | hólǫ́? |
Q | sheep | 2-with | exist.NI |
Do you have sheep? |
It is ungrammatical for da’ to appear in any other position [Note that we use * to indicate that the sentence is ungrammatical]:
*Dibé | da’ | nee | hólǫ́? |
sheep | Q | 2-with | exist.NI |
*Dibé | nee | da’ | hólǫ́? |
sheep | 2-with | Q | exist.NI |
*Dibé | nee | hólǫ́ | da’? |
sheep | 2-with | exist.NI | Q |
2. The enclitic -ísh
A second way of forming a yes/no question attaching the enclitic -ísh to one of the words in the statement:
Dibéésh | nee | hólǫ́? |
sheep-Q | 2-with | exist.NI |
Do you have sheep? |
In this example, the vowel in the enclitic has assimilated to match the final vowel in dibé.
Can we put the enclitic on the postposition?
?Dibé | neésh | hólǫ́? |
sheep | 2-with-Q | exist.NI |
Do you have sheep? |
If the postposition nee is the first word in the sentence, however, -ísh can appear there:
Neésh | hólǫ́? |
2-with-Q | exist.NI |
Do you have any? |
How about the verb?
?Dibé | nee | hólǫ́nísh? |
sheep | 2-with | exist.NI-Q |
Do you have sheep? |
The enclitic -ísh can appear only once in a question:
*Dibéésh | nee | hólǫ́nísh? |
sheep-Q | 2-with | exist.NI-Q |
In more complicated questions, the enclitic -ísh focuses attention on a particular part of the question. Placing it on the first phrase results in a neutral question with no particular focus. The first example below does not include the enclitic. It is a question because it begins with da’.
Da’ | [shizhé’é | tł’óół | yizhbizhę́ę] | bee | dibé | siníloh? |
Q | 1-father | rope | 3-3-braid.P-past | 3-with | sheep | 3-2-rope.SP |
Did you rope the sheep with the rope my father braided? |
The first syntactic constituent in this sentence (after da’) is the bracketed phrase shizhé’é tł’óół yizhbizhę́ (the rope that my father braided). If we put the enclitic -ísh on it, two interpretations are possible. A neutral interpretation results if the enclitic is understood as applying to the whole phrase, as in (10a). However, it can also be understood as applying just to the verb yizhbizhę́ (braided), as shown in (10b).
Da’ | [shizhé’é | tł’óół | yizhbizhę́]ę́sh | bee | dibé | síníloh? |
Q | 1-father | rope | 3-3-braid.P-past | 3-with | sheep | 3-2-rope.SP |
Did you rope the sheep with the rope my father braided? |
Da’ | shizhé’é | tł’óół | yizhbizhę́ę́sh | bee | dibé | síníloh? |
Q | 1-father | rope | 3-3-braid.P-past | 3-with | sheep | 3-2-rope.SP |
Did you rope the sheep with the rope my father braided? |
In that case, the verb has a special focus. We indicate this by underlining the focused element in the gloss. To illustrate this focusing capability further, here are two more examples, with the enclitic in two different places:
Da’ | [shizhé’éésh | tł’óół | yizhbizhę́ę] | bee | dibé | síníloh? |
Q | 1-father-Q | rope | 3-3-braid.P-past | 3-with | sheep | 3-2-rope.SP |
Did you rope the sheep with the rope my father braided? |
Da’ | [shizhé’é | tł’óół | yizhbizhę́ę] | bee | dibéésh | síníloh? |
Q | 1-father | rope | 3-3-braid.P-past | 3-with | sheep-Q | 3-2-rope.SP |
Did you rope the sheep with the rope my father braided? |
When the enclitic is not attached to the first phrase of the sentence, the phrase it is attached to is focused.
3. Both da’ and -ísh
Da’ and -ísh can be used together:
Da’ | shééhonísinísh? |
Q | 1-2-know.NI-Q |
Do you know me? |
Note that the enclitic -ísh cannot appear on the particle da’:
*Da’ísh | shééhonísin? |
Q-Q | 1-2-know.NI |
(Do you know me?) |
4. Tag questions
To form a tag question, ya’ is added at the end of the sentence:
Shééhonísin | ya’? |
1-2-know.NI | right |
You know me, don’t you? |
Dibé | nee | hólǫ́, | ya’? |
sheep | 2-with | 3-exist.NI | right |
You have sheep, don’t you? |
Questions like these have ’yes’ or ’no’ as an answer, but the answer is assumed to be know by the person asking.