-HAI

Navajo

Etymology

From Proto-Athabaskan *x̣aɣʸ (“winter”).

In Navajo, the initial fricative *x̣ of Proto-Athabaskan didn't sonorize to gh, so in verbal stems and in the nominal stem hai (“winter”) the initial voiceless fricative h is maintained (with the exception of the adverbial derivative díí ghaaí or dííghaaí (“this winter”), which shows a later sonorization). See also -ZHĮ́ (“summer”) for a similar situation.

Root

-HAI

1. a winter, a year passes

Theme	Category	Bases	Reversionary (+ná)
∅	motion	a winter or a year passes yihááh ↳ beehááh chʼéhááh iʼniihááh (iʼnii-, “begin”) — yihah (PROG)	a winter or a year returns náhááh, bináhááh   chʼínáhááh — nináháhááh

Stem set

Aspect	IMP	PERF	FUT	ITER	OPT
MOM	-hááh	-hai	-hah	-hah	-hááh

See also Appendix: Roots and stems derivation.

Antonyms

• -DĄĄD (spring)
• -KʼEED (fall)
• -ZHĮ́ (summer)

Derived terms

Navajo terms belonging to the root -HAI (winter passes)