-ZO

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *zʊɣ̇ (“to scrape”).

Cognate root found in Ahtna ighizogh (“he scraped it”), Carrier təszoh (“to rake it”).

In Southern Athabaskan, the root evolved to mean “to mark”, “to draw a line or a border”. In Navajo, it is also found in bases related to the four operations.

Root

-ZO

  1. to mark, to draw, to write

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
O + ∅	successive	S marks hoodzo (+d passive) naʼazo (CONT) yoozoh (PROG) yiyiizoh (SEM)

  2. to add, to subtract, to multiply

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
O + ∅	?	S adds... yíizóóh (+) ↳ ahíizóóh yiidizóóh (-) néízóóh (×) ałtsʼéízóóh (÷)

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-zóóh	-zo	-zoh	-zoh	-zóóh
CONT	-zo	-zo	-zoh	-zoh	-zo
SEM	-zoh	-zoh	-zoh	-zoh	-zoh

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Synonyms

to write:

• -CHĮ́

to draw:

• -CHʼĄĄʼ

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -ZO (mark)