Transcript: Thomas H. Begay & Nonobah Begay
A Navajo Code Talker offers examples of Navajo code words
- [Lindberg:]
- You had to invent a way to say things like machine gun, too, didn’t you?
- [Begay:]
- Yeah.
- [Lindberg:]
- How do you say—do you remember how to say that?
- [Begay:]
- Which one?
- [Lindberg:]
- Machine gun.
- [Begay:]
- Oh, [in Navajo language]. That means “rapid fire.” You know, like artillery, they call it [in Navajo language] “lots of guns.” The big guns, different—
- [Lindberg:]
- How about airplane?
- [Begay:]
- They call two or three of them— they’ve got dive bomber, they call it [in Native language] “chicken hawk.”