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This fascinating and complex language currently has between 120,000 and 170,000 speakers. For this reason, the number of Navajo speakers is decreasing, and the language has an endangered status. Navajo officials are working to promote and preserve this language.
While the Navajo language has 7,600 Navajo-only speakers and over 171,000 fluent speakers worldwide, according to “Ethonologue: Languages of the World,” it’s considered at risk.
Why is the Navajo language so difficult?
It is resplendent with exploding sounds and breath checks, usually called glottal stops, that are difficult for us to make, or even hear. And the complex formation and meaning of words defies the best efforts of most outsiders to acquire even the simplest rudiments of spoken Navajo.
What is the #1 language?
Which Languages Have the Most Speakers?
| Rank | Language | Total Speakers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | 1,132 million |
| 2 | Mandarin Chinese | 1,117 million |
| 3 | Hindi | 615 million |
| 4 | Spanish | 534 million |
Yá’át’ééh, ahéhee’, and nizhóní are common Navajo expressions you will hear amongst our Diné people. The most popular expression is yá’át’ééh and you will always hear a response back, “Yá’át’ééh!” There are several scenarios to use yá’át’ééh, but the most common is as a greeting.
What is the hardest Native American language to learn?
The Native American languages that are the hardest to learn — are the ones that are extinct. Navajo, closely related to Apache, is in the Athabaskan language family, which includes 44 languages spoken in the U.S. and Canada.
What’s the rarest language?
Kaixana
What is the rarest language to speak? Kaixana is the rarest language to speak because it only has one speaker left today. Kaixana has never been very popular. But it had 200 speakers in the past.