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. 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.
Virginia Klinekole, the first female president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, was known for her efforts to preserve the language.
There is at least one language-immersion school for children in Mescalero.
Phonology
Consonants
Chiricahua has 31 consonants:
Vowels
Chiricahua has 16 vowels:
Chiricahua has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels.
References
Sources
External links
- 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.
