Chiricahua (also known as Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache) is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Chiricahua tribe in Oklahoma and New Mexico. It is very closely related to the Mescalero language and more distantly related to Navajo and Western Apache. Chiricahua 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 Viriginia.

Sounds

Consonants

The 31 consonants of Chiricahua:

Vowels

The 16 vowels of Chiricahua:

Chiricahua has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels.

References

• Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). Ethnologue: Languages of the world, (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671106-9. (Online edition: http://www.ethnologue.com/, accessed on Nov. 19th, 2004).
• Hoijer, Harry. (n.d.). Chiricahua Apache stems. (Unpublished manuscript).
• Hoijer, Harry. (1938). The southern Athapaskan languages. American Anthropologist, 40 (1), 75-87.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1939). Chiricahua loan-words from Spanish. Language, 15 (2), 110-115.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1945). Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11 (1), 13-23.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1945). The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11 (4), 193-203.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense. International Journal of American Linguistics, 12 (1), 1-13.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers. International Journal of American Linguistics, 12 (2), 51-59.
• Hoijer, Harry. (1946). Chiricahua Apache. In C. Osgood (Ed.), Linguistic structures in North America. New York: Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research.
• Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. The University of Chicago publications in anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted in 1964 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; in 1970 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & in 1980 under H. Hoijer by New York: AMS Press, ISBN 0-40415783-1).
• Opler, Morris E., & Hoijer, Harry. (1940). The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache. American Anthropologist, 42 (4), 617-634.
• Pinnow, Jürgen. (1988). Die Sprache der Chiricahua-Apachen: Mit Seitenblicken auf das Mescalero language of the Chiricahua Apache: With side glances at the Mescalero. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
• Young, Robert W. (1983). Apachean languages. In A. Ortiz, W. C. Sturtevant (Eds.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest, (Vol. 10), (p. 393-400). Washington: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16004579-7.
• Young, Robert W., & Morgan, William, Sr. (1987). The Navajo language: A grammar and colloquial dictionary, (rev. ed.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1014-1.

External links

• Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
• Ethnologue report

See also

• Southern Athabaskan languages

Southern Athabaskan languages | Chiricahua | Languages of Mexico | Languages of the United States | Endangered languages | Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest

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