Chiricahua 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. Official language(s) None Capital Oklahoma City Largest city Oklahoma City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 20th 181,196 km² 355 km 645 km 1. ... Official language(s) None, English and Spanish de facto Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 5th 315,194 km² 550 km 595 km 0. ... This article is about the year. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... 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. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) refers to members of the Athabaskan language family (including Navajo) spoken in the Northern American Southwest. ... Bands According to Opler (1941) the Chiricahuas consisted of three bands: Chíhéne Red Paint People (a. ... Official language(s) None Capital Oklahoma City Largest city Oklahoma City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 20th 181,196 km² 355 km 645 km 1. ... Official language(s) None, English and Spanish de facto Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 5th 315,194 km² 550 km 595 km 0. ... Categories: Stub | Na-Dené languages | Native American tribes | Native American languages | Apachean languages | Apache tribe | Languages of North America | Athabaskan languages ... Navajo (also Navaho) (in Navajo: 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 in northwest Canada and Alaska). ... 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... Harry Hoijer (1904-1976) was a linguist and anthropologist who worked on primarily Athabaskan languages and culture. ...

Sounds

Consonants

The 31 consonants of Chiricahua:

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... 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. ... Postalveolar (or palato-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue between the alveolar ridge (the place of articulation for alveolar consonants) and the palate (the place of articulation for palatal consonants). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body 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. ...

Vowels

The 16 vowels of Chiricahua:

Chiricahua has phonemic oral, nasal, short, and long vowels. In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ... An oral vowel is a vowel that is produced by air that escapes through the mouth only (as opposed to nasal vowels, in which air also goes out through the nose). ... A nasal vowel is a vowel that produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through the mouth and the nose. ...

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 [The 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 language
• Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
• Ethnologue report

See also

• Southern Athabaskan languages