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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 Apache s 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 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):
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: # 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): 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: IPA equivalents for Western Apache oral vowels: = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} , = {Link without Title} . 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):
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:
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:
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: Grammar See Southern Athabascan Grammar . External links
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