On Mon, 15 Jan 2001 10:43:43 -0500, Roger Turk wrote:
> More corrections:
> The Navajo "Code Talkers" were Marines, not Army.
I did not say nor imply that they were Army.
> The Navajo "Code Talkers" spoke in their native language and there was no
> need to further encrypt it. While the Japanese had sent people to American
> Universities and American Language Schools before WW2, none had studied the
> Navajo language and as far as the Japanese were concerned, the radio
> transmissions were in code, which they couldn't break. Since the "Code
> Talkers" were talking in "Plain" Navajo, there was no need to change a "code"
> daily.
According to a recent special presentation on the History Channel on the
subject, the Navajo Code Talkers were taught to use phonetic symbols taken
from their native language, and the phonetic symbols were changed on a daily
basis. In actual practice under fast-moving tactical situations they
probably did talk "Plain Navajo", but such was not "officially" authorized.
Such would never have been "officially" authorized because any plain
language may be easily learned by persons highly talented and educated in
linguistics. The use of "plain language" radio transmissions is sometimes
allowed by field commanders in tactical situations where they are in the
very process of swiftly closing on the enemy. In these situations the
enemy forces are afforded no time to process and analyze the transmissions
at a time when it is most imminently all over for them anyhow, even if they
are monitoring the most ordinary plaintalk. Intelligence that is not timely
is useless.
> What the Navajos had to do was to come up with terms for military specific
> equipment or procedures for which there was no equivalent term in the Navajo
> language, such as "tank," "landing craft," "flame thrower," etc. Some of the
> terms, using only words that were already in the Navajo language, were quite
> convoluted. (Something similar to the border Spanish "trucka" for "truck"
> wouldn't do.)
> Roger Turk
> Tucson, Arizona USA
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