"The cow has a face."
Translation:Béégashii aniiʼ bee hólǫ́.
20 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
2105
Dear Moderators and Course contributors, I know sometimes you guys are on the boards. Please Address the "bee" question. Its been two years and still unclear why the monkey who has a face does not have "bee" but the cow who also has a face has "bee". thank you in advance.
1506
Paraphrasing from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language , "bee" is a marker sort of like English passive vs active voice. If I understand correctly, it's there to tell you whether the first noun of the sentence or the second is the one doing the action of the verb. Necessary because word order in Diné bizaad changes according to hierarchy of animacy: the more animate noun comes first, even if it's the object of the verb.
But yeah, given that, I don't get why the goat's cheek doesn't need "bee" if the cow's face does. Is it something to do with the properties of face and cheek?
269
Both the monkey has a face and the cow has a face. Bee was used only in the cow has a face. We are all just wondering why?
534
Because of plenty of course faults! As I've just read in another thread by an expert/native, for things like body parts and another inalienable possessions, the possessive marker is mandatory, therefore:
Béégashii binii' hólǫ́
Tł'ízí biniitsį' hólǫ
Mágí binii' hólǫ́
...and so on are the only really correct answers for those.
(I really hope I didn't misunderstand anything...)