Albuquerque – Linguist Robert Young, whose work with a Navajo linguist resulted in dictionaries of the native language, died Feb. 20. He was 94.
He became an adjunct linguistics professor at the University of New Mexico when he retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1971. He taught Navajo language classes and was co-director of the Navajo Reading Study.
Young is known for his Navajo dictionary and lexicon work, including “The Navajo Language: A Grammar and Colloquial Dictionary,” published in 1980; “Analytical Lexicon of Navajo,” 1990; and “The Navajo Verb System – An Overview,” 2000.
Young’s dictionary work came from a long collaboration with William Morgan, a Navajo linguist with whom he began working in the 1930s.
Young, who learned Spanish and Nahuatl at an early age by speaking with Mexican immigrant railroad workers, earned a liberal-arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1935. He then studied anthropology at UNM.
His daughter, Linda Young, said he served in the Marine Corps during World War II and that the Marines used his abilities to help in the testing and selection of Navajo Code Talkers.
