álaʼ
/ʔɑ́lɑ̀ʔ/
The Navajo word for hand is álaʼ.
álaʼ refers to the part of the fore limb.
Meaning: part of the fore limb (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
/ʔɑ́lɑ̀ʔ/
Did you know?
- The Navajo word for hand shares a distant linguistic ancestor with the Tlingit word lú, which means 'nose'.
- Navajo belongs to the Athabaskan language family, which means it shares an ancient ancestral link with the Ket language of Siberia.
- Because Navajo is an agglutinative language, a single word can be built by adding prefixes to a root like álaʼ to express who is acting and how.
Example sentences for Navajo are not verified yet.
Example conversation
Michelle and Brandon are washing their hands before dinner.
- MichelleÁlaʼ tʼáá áákeʼééʼ.The hand is very small.
- BrandonÁádaatʼééʼ.It is.
- MichelleShíʼálaʼ tʼáá łéʼéʼąąʼ ditsʼaʼ.My hand is very cold.
- BrandonHólaʼ tʼáá áákeʼééʼ.His hand is very small.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “hand” translations and entries álaʼ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries álaʼ, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wonderful. Thank you for naaki. Hatso is an interesting word which I feel I’ve heard or seen written before thinking about Navajo words. Perhaps it’s a word in other languages as well? I was thinking of how to speak “raise your hands”, in the Navajo word and if there is a similarity to Spanish phrase or Mexican languages.