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. Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Pre-contact distribution of Na-Dené languages (in red) Na-Dené (also Na-Dene, Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit) is a Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit. ... Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... Essa-queta, Plains Apache chief The Plains Apache (also Kiowa-Apache, Naʼisha, Naisha) are a Southern Athabaskan group that lived primarily on the plains of North America along the Kiowa. ... Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of distantly related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, and of their language family. ... Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Official language(s) English Capital Phoenix Largest city Phoenix Area  Ranked 6th  - Total 113,998 sq mi (295,254 km²)  - Width 310 miles (500 km)  - Length 400 miles (645 km)  - % water 0. ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  Ranked 5th  - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 km²)  - Width 342 miles (550 km)  - Length 370 miles (595 km)  - % water 0. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... Official language(s) English Capital Salt Lake City Largest city Salt Lake City Area  Ranked 13th  - Total 84,876 sq mi (219,887 km²)  - Width 270 miles (435 km)  - Length 350 miles (565 km)  - % water 3. ... Sonora is a state in northwestern Mexico, bordering the states of Chihuahua to the east, Sinaloa to the south, and Baja California to the northwest. ... Official language(s) None Capital Oklahoma City Largest city Oklahoma City Area  Ranked 20th  - Total 69,960 sq mi (181,196 km²)  - Width 230 miles (370 km)  - Length 298 miles (480 km)  - % water 1. ... Official language(s) No Official Language See languages of Texas Capital Austin Largest city Houston Area  Ranked 2nd  - Total 261,797 sq mi (678,051 km²)  - Width 773 miles (1,244 km)  - Length 790 miles (1,270 km)  - % water 2. ... It has been suggested that Traditional Apache scout be merged into this article or section. ... The Navajo Nation (Dineé in Navajo language) is a Native American sovereignty. ...

Western Apaches call their language Nnee biyáti’ or Ndee biyáti’. Navajos call their language Diné bizaad. Links Western Apache-English Dictionary (White Mountain) White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) White Mountain Apache Tribe White Mountain Apache photographs map of Fort Apache...

There are several well known historical people whose first language was Southern Athabaskan. Geronimo (Goyaałé) who spoke Chiricahua was a famous raid and war leader. Manuelito who spoke Navajo is famous for his pre and post Long walk of the Navajos leadership. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Apachean tribes ca. ... Manuelito, Navajo chief Manuelito (1818-1893) was one of the principle war chiefs of the Navajo people before, during and after the Long Walk Period. ... Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken...

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. Harry Hoijer Harry Hoijer (September 6, 1904 - March 11, 1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture. ... Essa-queta, Plains Apache chief The Plains Apache (also Kiowa-Apache, Naʼisha, Naisha) are a Southern Athabaskan group that lived primarily on the plains of North America along the Kiowa. ... Links Western Apache-English Dictionary (White Mountain) White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) White Mountain Apache Tribe White Mountain Apache photographs map of Fort Apache... Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken... Gorgonia, Mescalero Medicine Man This article is about the Native American tribe; for other uses of the word see Mescalero (disambiguation). ... Apachean tribes ca. ... Jicarilla Apache refers to an Apache people currently living in New Mexico and to the Southern Athabaskan language they speak. ... Lipan Apache are also known as Nde buffalo hunters, called by anthropologists and historians for many years as Eastern Apache, Apache de los Llanos, Lipan, Ipande, and other names. ...

I. Plains

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

II. Southwestern Essa-queta, Plains Apache chief The Plains Apache (also Kiowa-Apache, Naʼisha, Naisha) are a Southern Athabaskan group that lived primarily on the plains of North America along the Kiowa. ...

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). Chiricahua is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Chiricahua tribe in Oklahoma and New Mexico. ... Mescalero is a Southern Athabaskan language that is spoken in New Mexico. ... Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken... Links Western Apache-English Dictionary (White Mountain) White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) White Mountain Apache Tribe White Mountain Apache photographs map of Fort Apache... White Mountain has several meanings: White Mountain Apache, a group of Western Apache Native Americans living in Arizona. ... The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1871, and is home to a conglomeration of Apache tribes relocated there from traditional Apache homelands in Arizona and New Mexico. ... Jicarilla Apache refers to an Apache people currently living in New Mexico and to the Southern Athabaskan language they speak. ... Lipan Apache are also known as Nde buffalo hunters, called by anthropologists and historians for many years as Eastern Apache, Apache de los Llanos, Lipan, Ipande, and other names. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

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). A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ...

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). Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... Links Western Apache-English Dictionary (White Mountain) White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) White Mountain Apache Tribe White Mountain Apache photographs map of Fort Apache... Reading Adahooniigii — The Navajo Language Monthly Navajo or Navaho (native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock) spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people (Diné). It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages (the majority of Athabaskan languages are spoken... Jicarilla Apache refers to an Apache people currently living in New Mexico and to the Southern Athabaskan language they speak. ... Apachean tribes ca. ...

Consonants

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

• Only Navajo and Western Apache have glottalized nasals.

Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... See also Glottalic consonant Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ...

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:

Some spelling conventions:

1. Fricatives [h] and [x] are both written as h. (see also #2 below)
2. The fricative [x] is usually written as h, but after o it may be written as hw, especially in Western Apache (may be pronounced as [xʷ]).
3. The fricative [ɣ] is written gh the majority of the time, but before i and e it is written as y (& may be pronounced as [ʝ]), and before o it is written as w (& may be pronounced as [ɣʷ]).
4. All words that begin with a vowel are pronounced with a glottal stop ’ [ʔ]. This glottal stop is never written at the beginning of a word.
5. 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 [ⁿd]. The same is true with b and m in a few words.
6. In many words n can occur in a syllable by itself in which case it is a syllabic [n̩]. 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):

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 ˛ 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: Ogonek (Polish for little tail, the diminutive of ogon; the Lithuanian equivalent is nosinÄ— which literally means nasal) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in Polish (letters Ä…, Ä™), Lithuanian (Ä…, Ä™, į, ų), Creek, Navajo and Western Apache (Ä…, Ä…Ä…, Ä™, ęę, į, įį, , ), Chiricahua and Mescalero (Ä…, Ä…Ä…, Ä™, ęę, į, įį, ų, ųų), Tutchone and... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

IPA equivalents for Western Apache oral vowels:

i = [ɪ], ii = [iː], e = [ɛ], ee = [ɛː], o = [o], oo = [ʊː], a = [ɐ], aa = [ɑː].

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). Links Western Apache-English Dictionary (White Mountain) White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council) Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council) White Mountain Apache Tribe White Mountain Apache photographs map of Fort Apache...

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. Harry Hoijer Harry Hoijer (September 6, 1904 - March 11, 1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture. ...

In Chiricahua and Mescalero, this vowel is written as u in all contexts (including nasalized ų/u̧). Apachean tribes ca. ... Gorgonia, Mescalero Medicine Man This article is about the Native American tribe; for other uses of the word see Mescalero (disambiguation). ...

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): It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ...

• 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: Americanist phonetic notation (also Americanist Phonetic Alphabet, American Phonetic Alphabet, sometimes abbreviated APA) is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and Euro-American anthropologists and language scientists (former Neo-grammarians) for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of Native American and European languages. ...

• 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. Apachean tribes ca. ...

Here are some vowel contrasts involving nasalization, tone, and length from Chiricahua Apache: Apachean tribes ca. ...

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 Southern Athabascan branch was defined by Harry Hoijer primarily according to its merger of stem-initial consonants of the Proto-Athabascan series *k̯ and *c into *c (in addition to the widespread merger of *č and *čʷ into *č also found in many Northern Athabascan languages). Harry Hoijer Harry Hoijer (September 6, 1904 - March 11, 1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture. ... Sound change or phonetic change is a historical process of language change consisting in the replacement of one speech sound or, more generally, one phonetic feature by another in a given phonological environment. ... In-Silico Modeling and Conformational Mobility of String Pointer Reduction System (SPRS) Based on DNA Computers ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska and the Yukon. ...

Hoijer (1938) divided the Apachean sub-family into an Eastern branch consisting of Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache and a Western branch consisting of Navajo, Western Apache (San Carlos), Chiricahua, and Mescalero based on the merger of Proto-Apachean *t and *k to k in the Eastern branch. Thus, as can be seen in the example below, when the Western languages have noun or verb stems that start with t, the related forms in the Eastern languages will start with a k:

	Western				Eastern
	Navajo	Western Apache	Chiricahua	Mescalero	Jicarilla	Lipan	Plains Apache
"water"	tó	tū	tú	tú	kó	kó	kóó
"fire"	kǫʼ	kǫʼ	kųų	kų	ko̱ʼ	kǫǫʼ	kǫʼ

He later revised his proposal in 1971 when he found that Plains Apache did not participate in the *k̯/*c merger to consider Plains Apache as a language equi-distant from the other languages, now called Southwestern Apachean. Thus, some stems that originally started with *k̯ in Proto-Athabascan start with ch in Plains Apache while the other languages start with ts.

Proto- Athabascan		Navajo	Chiricahua	Mescalero	Jicarilla	Plains Apache
*k̯aʔx̣ʷ	"big"	-tsaa	-tsaa	-tsaa	-tsaa	-cha

Morris Opler (1975) has suggested that Hoijer's original formulation that Jicarilla and Lipan in an Eastern branch was more in agreement with the cultural similarities between these two and the differences from the other Western Apachean groups. Other linguists, particularly Michael Krauss (1973), have noted that a classification based only on the initial consonants of noun and verb stems is arbitrary and when other sound correspondences are considered the relationships between the languages appear to be more complex. Additionally, it has been pointed out by Martin Huld (1983) that since Plains Apache does not merge Proto-Athabascan *k̯/*c, Plains Apache cannot be considered an Apachean language as defined by Hoijer. Michael E. Krauss is a linguist who has worked extensively on the Na-Dené language family, especially on proto-Athabaskan, pre-proto-Athabaskan, and the Eyak language. ... The comparative method (in linguistics) is a method used to detect genetic relationships between languages and to establish a consistent relationship hypothesis by reconstructing: the common ancestor of the languages in question, a plausible sequence of regular changes by which the historically known languages can be derived from that common...

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

Grammar

See Southern Athabascan grammar.

External links

• How Different can Languages be?: The grammatical mosaic of Navajo
• Simplified Apache Pronunciation
• Chiricahua and Mescalero Texts
• Grammatical Sketch of Chiricahua/Mescalero
• Other Apache Ethnographical Sources
• Apache texts
• Goddard's Jicarilla Texts (translation only)
• Issues in Language Textbook Development: The Case of Western Apache
• White Mountain Apache Language: Issues in Language Shift, Textbook Development, and Native Speaker-University Collaboration
• Apachean Languages on Ethnologue site
• Phonetic Structures of Western Apache (318 kb PDF: technical work on acoustic phonetics)
• sample of Apache bible translation
• Wikipedia in Navajo

Bibliography

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