Southern Athabascan languages

Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Sonora) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. These languages are spoken by various groups of Apache and Navajo peoples.

Western Apaches call their language Nnee biyáti’ or Ndee biyáti’. Navajos call their language Diné bizaad.

The most famous speaker of a Southern Athabaskan language was Geronimo (Goyaałé) who spoke Chiricahua.

Family division

The seven Southern Athabaskan languages can be divided into 2 groups according to the classification of Harry Hoijer: (I) Plains and (II) Southwestern. Plains Apache is the only member of the Plains Apache group. The Southwestern group can be further divided into two subgroups (A) Western and (B) Eastern. The Western subgroup consists of Western Apache, Navajo, Mescalero, and Chiricahua. The Eastern subgroup consists of Jicarilla and Lipan.

I. Plains

1 Plains Apache (a.k.a. Kiowa-Apache)

II. Southwestern

A. Western

i. Chiricahua-Mescalero

2. Chiricahua

a. Chiricahua proper

b. Warm Springs

3. Mescalero

4. Navajo

5. Western Apache (a.k.a. Coyotero Apache)

a. Dilzhe’e (a.k.a. Tonto, Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto)

b. White Mountain

c. San Carlos

B. Eastern

6. Jicarilla

7. Lipan

Hoijer's classification is based primarily on the differences of the pronunciation of the initial consonant of noun and verb stems. His earlier 1938 classification had only two branches with Plains Apache grouped together with the other Eastern languages (i.e. with Jicarilla and Lipan).

Mescalero and Chiricahua are considered different languages even though they are mutually intelligible (Ethnologue considers them the same language). Western Apache (especially the Dilzhe'e variety) and Navajo are closer to each other than either is to Mescalero/Chiricahua. Lipan Apache and Plains Apache are nearly extinct (in fact Lipan may already be extinct). Chiricahua is severely endangered. Mescalero, Jicarilla, and Western Apache are considered endangered as well, but fortunately children are still learning the languages although the number of child speakers continues to decline. Navajo is one of the most vigorous North American languages, but use among first-graders has declined from 90% to 30% in (1998 N.Y. Times, April 9, p. A20).

Sounds (Phonology)

All Southern Athabaskan languages have somewhat similar phonologies. The description below will concentrate mostly on Western Apache. You can expect minor variations of this description in other related languages (e.g., cf. Navajo, Jicarilla, Chiricahua).

Consonants

Southern Athabaskan languages generally have a consonant inventory similar to the set of 33 consonants below (based mostly on Western Apache):

		Labial	Alveolar	Alveolar	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
		Labial	Alveolar	(affricate series)			Velar	Glottal
Stop	unaspirated	p	t	ʦ	tɬ	ʧ	k (kʷ)
	aspirated		tʰ	ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ	kʰ (kʷʰ)
	glottalized		t’	ʦ’	tɬ’	ʧ’	k’	ʔ
	prenasalized/ voiced	(^mb)	(ⁿd/d/n)
Nasal	simple	m	n
Nasal	glottalized	(ˀm)	(ˀn)
Fricative	voiceless			s	ɬ	ʃ	x	h
Fricative	voiced	(v)		z	l	ʒ	ɣ (ɣʷ)
Approximant						j	(w)

Only Navajo and Western Apache have glottalized nasals.

orthography (consonants)

The practical orthography corresponds to the pronunciation of the Southern Athabaskan languages fairly well (as opposed to the writing systems of English or Vietnamese). Below is a table pairing up the phonetic notation with the orthographic symbol:

IPA	spelling	IPA	spelling	IPA	spelling	IPA	spelling
^*	d	^*	t	^*	t’	^*	y
^*	g	^*	k	^*	k’	^*	h
^*	dz	^*	ts	^*	ts’	^*	’
^*	j	^*	ch	^*	ch’	^*	l
^*	dl	^*	tł	^*	tł’	^*	ł
^*	b	^*	p	^*	b/m	^*	d/n/nd
^*	s	^*	sh	^*	m	^*	n
^*	z	^*	zh	^*	’m	^*	’n
^*	h
^*	gh

Some spelling conventions:

Fricatives and are both written as h. (see also #2 below)
The fricative is usually written as h, but after o it may be written as hw, especially in Western Apache (may be pronounced as ).
The fricative is written gh the majority of the time, but before i and e it is written as y (& may be pronounced as ), and before o it is written as w (& may be pronounced as ).
All words that begin with a vowel are pronounced with a glottal stop ’ . This glottal stop is never written at the beginning of a word.
Some words are pronounced either as d or n or nd, depending on the dialect of the speaker. This is represented in the consonant table above as . The same is true with b and m in a few words.
In many words n can occur in a syllable by itself in which case it is a syllabic . This is not indicated in the spelling.

Vowels

Southern Athabaskan languages have four vowels of contrasting tongue dimensions (as written in a general "practical" orthography):

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low

These vowels may also be short or long and oral (non-nasal) or nasal. Nasal vowels are indicated by an ogonek (or nasal hook) diacritic ˛ (borrowed from Polish orthography) in Western Apache, Navajo, and Mescalero, while in Jicarilla the nasal vowels are indicated by underlining the vowel and in Fort Sill Chiricahua nasal vowels are indicated with a cedilla. This results in sixteen different vowels:

		High-Front	Mid-Front	Mid-Back	Low-Central
Oral	short
Oral	long
Nasal	short
Nasal	long

IPA equivalents for Western Apache oral vowels:

= ^*, = ^*, = ^*, = ^*, = ^*, = ^*, = ^*, = ^*.

In Western Apache, there is a practice where orthographic vowels o and oo are written as u in certain contexts. These contexts do not include nasalized vowels, so nasal u never occurs in the orthography. This practice continues into the present (perhaps somewhat inconsistently).

However, in Harry Hoijer and other American linguists' work all o-vowels are written as o. Similarly, Navajo does not use orthographic u, consistently writing this vowel as o.

In Chiricahua and Mescalero, this vowel is written as u in all contexts (including nasalized ų/u̧).

Other practices may be used in other Apachean languages.

Tone

Southern Athabaskan languages are tonal languages. Hoijer and other linguists analyze Southern Athabaskan languages as having 4 tones (using Americanist transcription system):

high (marked with acute accent ´, Example: á)
low (marked with grave accent `, Example: à)
rising (marked with háček ˇ, Example: ǎ)
falling (marked with circumflex ˆ, Example: â)

Rising and falling tones are less common in the language (often occurring over morpheme boundaries) and often occur on long vowels. Vowels can carry tone as well as syllabic n (Example: ń).

The practical orthography has tried to simplify the Americanist transcription system by representing only high tone with an acute accent while leaving low tone unmarked:

high tone: á
low tone: a

So now niziz is written instead of the previous nìzìz.

Additionally, rising tone on long vowels is indicated by an unmarked first vowel and an acute accent on the second, and vice versa for falling tone:

rising: aá (instead of Americanist: ǎ·)
falling: áa (instead of Americanist: â·)

Nasal vowels carry tone as well, resulting in a two diacritics on vowels with high tone: ą́ (presenting problems for computerization). Recently, de Reuse (2006) has found that Western Apache also has a mid tone, which he indicates with a macron diacritic ¯, as in ō, ǭ. In Chiricahua, a falling tone can occur on a syllabic n: n̂.

Here are some vowel contrasts involving nasalization, tone, and length from Chiricahua Apache:

cha̧a̧ 'feces'

chaa 'beaver'

shiban 'my buckskin'

shibán 'my bread'

bik’ai’ 'his hip'

bík’ai’ 'his stepmother'

hah’aał 'you two are going to chew it'

hah’ał 'you two are chewing it'

Comparative phonology

The differences and similarities among the Southern Athabaskan languages can be observed in the following modified and abbreviated Swadesh list:

	Navajo	Chiricahua	Western Apache (San Carlos)	Jicarilla	Lipan
I	shí	shí	shíí	shí	shí
thou	ni	ⁿdí	ⁿdi	ni	ⁿdí
we	nihí	náhí	nohwíí	nahí	nahí
many	łą́	łą́	łą́ą́	łá	łą́
one	ła’	ła’	ła’-	ła’	ła’-
two	naaki	naaki	naaki	naaki	naaki
big	-tso	-tso	-tso	-tso	-tso
long	-neez	-neez	-neez	-ⁿdees	-ⁿdiis
small	-yáázh	-zą́ą́yé	-zhaazh	-zhááh	-zhą́ą́yí
woman	’asdzání	’isdzáń	’isdzánhń	’isdzání	’isdzání
man	diné	nⁿdé	nnéé	diⁿdé	diⁿdí
fish	łóó’	łóí’	łóg	łógee	łǫ́’
dog	łééchą́ą́’í	kéjaa	łį́į́chaayáné	łį́’chaa’á	nii’łį́
louse	yaa’	yaa	yaa’	yaa’	yaa
tree	tsin	tsin	ch’il	nooshchíí	chish
leaf	-t’ąą’	-t’ąą	-t’ąą’	-t’ąą’	-t’ąą’
meat	-tsį’	-tsįį	-tsį’	-tsį	-tsįį
blood	dił	dił	dił	dił	dił
bone	ts’in	ts’į’	ts’in	-ts’in	-ts’įh
grease	-k’ah	k’ah	k’ah	xéh	xáí
egg	-ghęęzhii	-gheezhe	-ghęęzh	-gheezhi	-ghaish
horn	-dee’	-dee’	-dee’	-dee’	-dii’
tail	-tsee’	-tsee’	-tsee’	-tsee’	-dzistsii’
feather	-t’a’	-t’a’	-t’a’	-t’a’	-t’a’
hair	-ghaa’	-ghaa	-ghaa	-ghaa’	-ghaa
head	-tsii’	-tsii	-tsii	-tsii	-tsii’
ear	-zhaa’	-zhaa	-jaa	-jaa	-jaa
eye	-náá’	-ⁿdáa	-náá	-ⁿdáá	-ⁿdáa
nose	-´-chį́į́h	-´-chį́	-chį́h	-chį́sh	-´-chį́sh
mouth	-zéé’	-zé	-zé’	-zé’	-zí’
tooth	-ghoo’	-ghoo	-ghoo’	-ghoo	-ghoo
tongue	-tsoo’	-zaade	-zaad	-zaadi	-zaadi
claw	-s-gaan	-s-gan	-gan	-s-gan	-s-gąą
foot	-kee’	-kee	-kee’	-kee	-kii
knee	-god	-go’	-god	-go’	-goh
hand	-´-la’	-laa	-la’	-la’	-laa’

Grammar

See Southern Athabascan grammar.

External links

Bibliography

For the bibliography, see the subarticle Southern Athabaskan languages/Bibliography.

Southern Athabaskan languages | Apache tribes

Yezhoù atabaskek ar su | Apache (Sprache) | Langues apaches | 阿帕切语

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