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:

(1)
Dibé nee hólǫ́.
sheep 2-with exist.NI
You have sheep.
(2)
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]:

(3a)
*Dibé da’ nee hólǫ́?
sheep Q 2-with exist.NI
(3b)
*Dibé nee da’ hólǫ́?
sheep 2-with Q exist.NI
(3c)
*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:

(4)
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?

(5)
?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:

(6)
Neésh hólǫ́?
2-with-Q exist.NI
Do you have any?

How about the verb?

(7)
?Dibé nee hólǫ́nísh?
sheep 2-with exist.NI-Q
Do you have sheep?

The enclitic -ísh can appear only once in a question:

(8)
*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’.

(9)
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).

(10a)
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?
(10b)
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:

(11a)
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?
(11b)
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:

(12)
Da’ shééhonísinísh?
Q 1-2-know.NI-Q
Do you know me?

Note that the enclitic -ísh cannot appear on the particle da’:

(13)
*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:

(14)
Shééhonísin ya’?
1-2-know.NI right
You know me, don’t you?
(15)
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.