Mescalero-Chiricahua (also known as Chiricahua Apache) is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Chiricahua and Mescalero people in Chihuahua and Sonora, México and in Oklahoma and New Mexico.[2] It is related to Navajo and Western Apache and has been described in great detail by the anthropological linguist Harry Hoijer (1904–1976), especially in Hoijer & Opler (1938) and Hoijer (1946). Hoijer & Opler's Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts, including a grammatical sketch and traditional religious and secular stories, has been converted into an online "book" available from the University of Virginia.
| Chiricahua | |
|---|---|
| Ndee bizaa | |
| Native to | Mexico and USA |
| Region | Sonora, Chihuahua, Oklahoma, New Mexico |
| Ethnicity | Chiricahua, Mescalero |
Native speakers | 1,500 (2007)[1] |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | apm |
| Glottolog | mesc1238 |
| ELP | Mescalero-Chiricahua |
 Mescalero-Chiricahua is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Virginia Klinekole, the first female president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, was known for her efforts to preserve the language.[3]
There is at least one language-immersion school for children in Mescalero.[4]
Phonology
editConsonants
editChiricahua has 31 consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | |||||||
| Nasal | simple | m | n | ||||||
| post-stopped | (mᵇ) | nᵈ | |||||||
| Plosive | plain | p | t | ts | tˡ~tɬ | tʃ | k | ʔ | |
| aspirated | tʰ | tsʰ | tɬʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | ||||
| ejective | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | kʼ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | h | |||
| voiced | z | ɮ | ʒ | ʝ | ɣ | ||||
Vowels
editChiricahua has 16 vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| High | oral | i | iː | ||||
| nasal | ĩ | ĩː | |||||
| Mid | oral | ɛ | ɛː | o | oː | ||
| nasal | ɛ̃ | ɛ̃ː | õ | õː | |||
| Low | oral | a | aː | ||||
| nasal | ã | ãː | |||||
Chiricahua has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels.
References
edit- ^ Chiricahua at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Historia de la lengua y cultura n'dee/n'nee/ndé".
- ^ "Former tribal leader dies : Past Mescalero president, council member, writer remembered". Alamogordo Daily News. 2011-03-15. Archived from the original on 2014-05-25. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ "Udall visits Mescalero Apache Schools to talk language preservation - Alamogordo Daily News". Archived from the original on 2014-05-25. Retrieved 2015-08-16.
Sources
edit- Hoijer, Harry. (n.d.). Chiricahua Apache stems. (Unpublished manuscript).
- Hoijer, Harry (1938). "The southern Athapaskan languages". American Anthropologist. 40 (1): 75–87. doi:10.1525/aa.1938.40.1.02a00080.
- Hoijer, Harry (1939). "Chiricahua loan-words from Spanish". Language. 15 (2): 110–115. doi:10.2307/408729. JSTOR 408729.
- Hoijer, Harry (1945). "Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (1): 13–23. doi:10.1086/463846.
- Hoijer, Harry (1945). "The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (4): 193–203. doi:10.1086/463871.
- Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1086/463881.
- Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (2): 51–59. doi:10.1086/463889.
- Hoijer, Harry (1946). "Chiricahua Apache". In Osgood, C. (ed.). Linguistic structures in North America. New York: Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research.
- Hoijer, Harry; Opler, Morris E. (1980) [1938, University of Chicago Press; 1964, University of Chicago Press; 1970, University of Chicago Press]. Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-15783-1.
- Opler, Morris E.; Hoijer, Harry (1940). "The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache". American Anthropologist. 42 (4): 617–634. doi:10.1525/aa.1940.42.4.02a00070.
- Pinnow, Jürgen (1988). Die Sprache der Chiricahua-Apachen: Mit Seitenblicken auf das Mescalero [The language of the Chiricahua Apache: With side glances at the Mescalero] (in German). Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
- Webster, Anthony K. (2006). "On Speaking to Him (Coyote): The Discourse Functions of the yi-/bi- Alternation in Some Chiricahua Apache Narratives". Southwest Journal of Linguistics. 25 (2): 143–160.
- Young, Robert W. (1983). "Apachean languages". In Ortiz, A. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 10: Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 393–400. ISBN 0-16-004579-7.
External links
edit- Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
- OLAC resources in and about the Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache language
- Goddard, Pliny Earle (1919). San Carlos Apache texts. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
- Rene Romo (2011-11-11). "Apaches work to save language". Alamogordo Daily News. Archived from the original on 2011-11-16. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
- Harold Oakes (2012-08-29). "Udall visits Mescalero Apache Schools to talk language preservation". Alamogordo Daily News. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2012-09-02.