A repository for Indigenous American language material for quantum engineering topics from the Diné/Navaho/Navajo tribe. Collected and written by Onri Jay Benally, an Indigenous American quantum hardware engineer born and raised on the Navaho tribe (Diné Bikeyah). This is a life-long project. In January of 2024, this open-access repository became part of an approved proposal funded by the Arizona State University (ASU) Quantum Collaborative network.
- Onri's translation for "quantum computer" (in Navaho/ Navajo): Béésh tʼáá 'aníí 'á'ádaatʼéhígíí nitsékeesí. Literal meaning in English: "Metal or piece of metal that thinks at a truly fundamental level"
| Plans for this repository (in no particular order): |
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| ✅ Generate a table of Navaho characters in Unicode. |
| ✅ "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" example in Navaho. |
| ✅ Chart formation blueprint. |
| ✅ Cyrillic example for "blue" and "bee" in Navaho. |
| ✅ Generate a table of words and phrases by Onri that need to be converted into digital text. |
| 🔳 Label dilution refrigerator in Navaho. |
| ✅ Label tunnel junctions & physical qubit components in Navaho, may include original electron micrographs & renderings in Blender. Generate device 3D models intended for comparison with micrographs. |
| 🔳 Qubit spectroscopy and benchmarking terms in Navaho. |
| 🔳 Incorporation of hybrid qubit terms, able to support quantum hardware publication. |
| 🔳 Potential descriptions of fractal geometry. |
| 🔳 Potential contributions to Qiskit/ Qiskit Metal documentation in Navaho (from paper to GitHub pull requests). |
| ✅ Explore draw-to-text features for Navaho characters referencing Unicode. |
| Private Link for Onri's Quantum Team to Translation Table Elements |
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| Navaho Translation Table - Onri's Quantum Hardware Team @UMN |
Note: Unicode is mentioned here due to its convenience of character generation when one desires to correctly spell Navaho words. This form of character generation may provide a robust sequence of protocols for practical language usage in digital form, further strengthening any future initiatives to automate Navaho translation. Another interesting thing is that there are Navaho medical documentation on instrumentation that may be helpful in translating hardware-related topics. This includes microscopes and other advanced spectroscopy techniques in Navaho that we can borrow ideas from for this project.
As of summer 2024, the thought of exploring Navajo/ Navaho Braille together with Nemeth (Braille mathematics) came to mind. Although advanced mathematics topics are covered using Nemeth, it would be interesting to see it combined with Navaho/ Navajo Braille to express terms used in quantum mechanics and quantum computing.
| Full Immersion by Sight, Auditory, and Tactile Means |
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| Sight = Animation & 3D models |
| Auditory = Harmonics |
| Tactility = Braille-mathematics-inspired learning |
To access the full PDF booklet, click here.
Sample of Navaho/ Navajo Character to UTF-8 Encoding by Onri Jay Benally. Full table available here as a PDF.
| Navaho Character | [UTF-8] "U+" Notation | [UTF-8] "\u" Notation |
|---|---|---|
| A | U+0041 | \u0041 |
| B | U+0042 | \u0042 |
| Ch | U+0043 U+0068 | \u0043\u0068 |
| Ch' | U+0043 U+0068 U+0027 | \u0043\u0068\u0027 |
| Tł' | U+0054 U+0142 U+0027 | \u0054\u0142\u0027 |
| óó | U+00F3 U+00F3 | \u00F3\u00F3 |
| ǫ́ǫ́ | U+01EB U+0301 U+01EB U+0301 | \u01EB\u0301\u01EB\u0301 |
| ǫ́ǫ | U+01EB U+0301 U+01EB | \u01EB\u0301\u01EB |
Click here to download Onri's Navaho/ Navajo Character to UTF-8 Encoding Excel file.
Click here to view or download the Python script version.
| A few examples of my contributions to English-Navaho dictionary on Glosbe: |
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| Electron spin |
| Intervals |
| His/her brain |
| Oak |
(There is a longer list of the translations I made, which will soon be uploaded in the folders above).
Note: I made sources available in this repository to be generally open access, while others are "copyrighted unless used for educational purposes". This repository intends to produce educational material in the same light. See http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ for more details on the permissions allowed by those respective authors.
Bio in Navaho: 'Aoo', yá'át'ééh. T'aa iyisi baa 'axhééhnisin. Hastiin Biłééhóziní Binalí 'akót'áó shi zhi', kótʼéego. 'Ako shik'a'i dii shi zhi' łaʼ sheiníʼą́ dikwii naahai yęę dą́ą́. T'aadoo shi ei Táchii'nii nishłį, Naakaii Dine'é báshishchíín, Bit'ahnii dashicheii, Kinłichíi'nii dashináli, Ta'neeszahnii dashicheii 'alááhgo, dóó 'Áshįįhí dashinaakidi nácheii. 'Áádóó, Tsé Chʼil Yaa Tó go ei naashá. 'Akót'áó Diné nishłį. 'Axhéhee'.
(Bik'idadi'diitį́į́ł = We will understand it) -Onri