-YÉÉL

Navajo

Etymology

Probably from Proto-Athabaskan *ɣ̇etɬ’ (“to become dark; to be quiet, calm”).

Cognate root found in Ahtna naghighaetlʼ (“it got dark”), dezghaetlʼ (“it is calm”). Compare also Navajo hił (“darkness”).

Root

-YÉÉL

  1. dark

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
ł	adjectival	S is dark chahałheeł (NEUT) díníłhéél kʼízdiníłhéél diłhił hodiłhił
ł		S becomes dark, night yiłheeł (MOM) béłheeł chahałheeł chahoʼniiłheeł
yi + ∅	?	S dreams néidiiyeeł (TRANS) neiyeeł (CONT)

  2. calm, quiet

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
di + ł (ho) + di + ∅	adjectival	S is calm déesxéél (NEUT) hodéezyéél
di + ł (ho) + di + ∅		S becomes calm diiłheeł (TRANS) hodiiyeeł	S calms O down yidiiłheeł

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-yeeł	-yéél	-yił	-yił	-yeeł
TRANS /CONT	-yeeł	-yeel	-yił	-yił	-yeeł
NEUT	-yeeł, yił	-yéél	-	-	-

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Synonyms

dark:

• -TŁIIZH
• -ZHĮ́Į́ʼ

calm:

• -ZEEʼ

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -YÉÉL (dark)

Navajo terms belonging to the root -YÉÉL (calm)