-DÍÍN

-DÍÍN

See also: diin and díin

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *denʸ (“light shines”). Always occurs with di- thematic "fire" in associated verb bases.

The root -díín is irregular, since *-dį́ would be expected. -díín is invariable in shape (i.e., there are no other forms for different aspects or tenses), although a distinction between imperfective and perfective could be made. According to Young (1992), bases containing prefix yíní- (“directed at”) have neuter imperfective stems, while the rest have neuter perfective.

Root

-DÍÍN

1. light shines

Theme	Category	Bases	Transitive bases (O + ł)
di	operative	light shines (on P) adinídíín ↳ bighádiʼnídíín ↳ bitsʼádiʼnídíín niʼdeezdíín (“fire”) iʼdíídíín ↳ haʼdíídíín	S casts light (on P) adiníłdíín (yíní-, “directed at”) ↳ bighádiʼníłdíín     iʼdííłdíín ↳ haʼdííłdíín ↳ iʼdiníłdíín (yíní-, “directed at”) biʼdiníłdíín (yíní-, “directed at”)				} Stem set Aspect IMP PERF FUT ITER OPT NEUT -díín -díín - - - See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation. Derived terms Navajo terms belonging to the root -DÍÍN (light)