Let’s Go Yiis’tlee’ Lichii
by Texy
2007 November 15 at 3:13 pm
I spoke with William Nakai, a fluent Navajo speaker who put together a list of Navajo colloquial baseball terms for the Navajo Times following Jacoby Ellsbury’s meteoric rise this year– and thought I would share his list of Navajo terms with y’all as well.
- socks red – Yiis’tlee’ Lichii (proper Navajo)
- balls – yii’nilth’nii (he let it go)
- strikes – yii’sih (he missed it)
- one strike – taa’la’i'yii’sih
- second strike – naa’kih’dih’yii’sih
- third strike – taa’dih’yii’sih’dooh’naah’jiih’hal’te’
- hits – yiis’taalth (he hit it with a stick)
- runs – a’heeh’nal’wod (he ran completely around [the bases])
- outs – naah’jiih’hal’te’ (he was taken out)
- change of innings – aalth’na’iil’dee’ or aalth’na’naa’kaih (they switched)
- first base – la’sil’tzooz (first bag)
- second base – naa’kih’goone’sil’tzooz (second place bag)
- third base – taa’goone’sil tzooz (third place bag)
- home base – hogaan’dih’silth’tzooz (”hogan” or home base)
You never know when these might come in handy…
if you go to wikipedia and pull up ellsbury there’s a great ariticle from the gallup independent about ellsbury in the worldseries..how the indian nations were watching him, very proud he’s the first navajo to play in a world series.navajo sounds alot like german in the pronounciation…thanks for the translations…
I can second Kate’s note. My sister teaches at the Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, NM. She notes that her Native American students are watching Jacoby with real interest. But, that could just be the free tacos!