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]
Chiricahua 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 |
Chiricahua 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.