The World of Words: Vocabulary for College Success ... - eLibrary

262 Chapter 8 Word Elements: Together and ApartIra Hayes, a Navajo,helps to plant a flagcelebrating victory atIwo Jima.Rob Crandall/The Image WorksPhilip Johnston, an army engineer, came up with an idea. Becausehe had lived on a Navajo reservation, he understood some Navajo and recognizedwhat a complex, sophisticated, and precise language it was. Withno written symbols, Navajo was almost impossible for the Japanese enemyto study. He asked the armed forces to gather Navajo enlistees andhave them create a code for their native language.In response, twenty-nine Navajos gathered in San Diego and begana collaborative effort to create the code. Messages could not simply begiven in Navajo, for then a captured Navajo soldier might be forced totranslate them for an enemy. (5) So, the coders synthesized symbols intoa coded language. Some words got symbols, such as bird for airplane andfish for ship. In addition, each letter of the English alphabet was given aNavajo word, so that other words could be spelled. A, for example, wasgiven the Navajo word for ant, which is wol-la-chee. (6) Since symbols forwords were interspersed with symbols for letters, the code could not beunderstood, even by those who spoke Navajo. One had to speak Navajo,speak English, and know the code for a message to be coherent.(7) After composing, the code writers were dispersed into Marinebattalions fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Within a few weeks, theyhad proven their worth. At one point, one American force accidentallyCopyright © Cengage Learning. All Right Reserved.