Western Apache language

Last updated
Western Apache
Ndee biyáti' / Nṉee biyáti'
Native to Mexico and United States
Region Sonora, Chihuahua and south-east Arizona
Ethnicity Western Apache
Native speakers
13,445 (65% of pop.) (2013) [1]
Dené–Yeniseian?
Latin
Official status
Official language in
Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated by Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
Language codes
ISO 639-3 apw
Glottolog west2615
ELP Western Apache
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Western Apache language is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken among the 14,000 Western Apaches in Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua and in east-central Arizona. There are approximately 6,000 speakers living on the San Carlos Reservation and 7,000 living on the Fort Apache Reservation. [2] In Mexico, they mainly live in Hermosillo, Sonora, and other native communities in Chihuahua. [3] Goodwin (1938) claims that Western Apache can be divided into five dialect groupings:

Contents

Other researchers do not find any linguistic evidence for five groups but rather three main varieties with several subgroupings:

Western Apache is most closely related to other Southern Athabaskan languages like Navajo, Chiricahua Apache, Mescalero Apache, Lipan Apache, Plains Apache, and Jicarilla Apache.

In 2011, the San Carlos Apache Tribe's Language Preservation Program in Peridot, Arizona, began its outreach to the "14,000 tribal members residing within the districts of Bylas, Gilson Wash, Peridot and Seven Mile Wash", [4] only 20% of whom still speak the language fluently. [5]

Place names

Many Western Apache place names that are currently in use are believed to be creations of Apache ancestors. [6] Keith Basso, a prominent Western Apache linguist, writes that the ancestors frequently traveled for food, and the need to remember specific places was "facilitated by the invention of hundreds of descriptive placenames that were intended to depict their referents in close and exact detail." [6] Basso also writes that place names provide descriptions of specific locations and also "positions for viewing these locations." [6] The place names are a fundamental aspect of Western Apache communication, allowing for what Basso describes as an appropriation of "mythic significance" for "specialized social ends" via the practice of "speaking with names." [6]

Place names can be descriptive or commemorative or a means of identifying clans. Social groups will often use place names as a way to communicate. For example, they use place names to explain what happened to them: If there is a story linked to the location, they can relate to it or use it as a warning. This use of place names is known in the culture as "shooting with stories," as they shoot one another with stories like arrows of information. [7]

Grammar

Western Apache uses a classificatory verb system comparable to both the Jicarilla and Mescalero Apaches. Basso gives this example: "the stems –tii and –'a are used in the phrases nato sentii and nato sen’a both of which may be translated broadly as "hand (me) the tobacco." The difference in meaning between the two verb forms is signaled by their stems:

In short, the referent of the noun nato ("tobacco") is made more precise according to the stem with which it is coupled." [8]

The use of classificatory verbs is similar to that of nouns: the speaker must select an expression that corresponds to the situation in the world he wishes to refer to. The speaker must place specific objects into categories and use the appropriate verb form in accordance with the particular category. Basso gives these examples of classifications for the Western Apache verb system:

Animal/Non-animal

There are two features on this dimension: "animal" and "non-animal."

Enclosure

There are two features on this dimension.

State

There are three features on this dimension:

"solid" (c1), "plastic" (c2), and "liquid" (c3).

The second feature refers to moist, plastic substances such as mud, wet clay, etc., and might also have been defined as "neither solid nor liquid."

Number

There are three features on this dimension:

"one" (d1), "two" (d2), and "more than two" (d3).

Rigidity

There are two features on this dimension:

"rigid" (e1), and "non-rigid" (e2).

The Apache consider an object to be rigid (nkliz) if, when held at its edge or end, it does not bend.

Length

There are two features on this dimension:

Portability

There are two features on this dimension:

"portable" (g1) and "non-portable" (g2).

Phonology

Consonants

There are 31 consonants in Western Apache:

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain sibilant lateral
Nasal m n
Stop voiced (ⁿd/d)
voiceless p t ts k ʔ
aspirated tsʰ tɬʰ tʃʰ
ejective tsʼ tɬʼ tʃʼ
Fricative voiceless s ɬ ʃ x h
voiced z ʒ ɣ
Approximant l j w

Western Apache utilizes unaffricated stops. Willem de Reuse explains, "Unaffricated stop consonants are produced in three locations: bilabial, alveolar, velar. At the alveolar and velar places of articulation, there are three possibilities: aspirated, ejective, and unaspirated. The voiceless unaspirated alveolars are characteristically realized as taps in intervocalic environments other than stem-initial position. The bilabial stops are more restricted. Ejective bilabial stops do not occur, and aspirated bilabial stops are rarely attested, surfacing primarily, if not exclusively, in borrowed words. The closure for three alveolar stops is voiceless, as indicated by the absence of any energy in the spectrograms during the closure phase." [9]

Vowels

There are 16 vowels in Western Apache:

  Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close oral ɪ    
nasal ɪ̃ĩː    
Open-mid oral ɛɛː  o
nasal ɛ̃ɛ̃ː  õõː
Open oral   a  
nasal   ããː  

An acute accent /á/ represents a high toned accent. Low toned accents are not marked.

Phonetic Semantic signs are divided into two sub-parts: a logographs [10] (donate only one word) and phraseographs (donate one or more words).

Writing system

Partial image of one of the pictographs on the cover of Basso's Western Apache language and culture. SilasJohn@KeithBasso.png
Partial image of one of the pictographs on the cover of Basso's Western Apache language and culture.

The only writing system native to Western Apache is a system of symbols created in 1904 by Silas John Edwards to record 62 prayers that he believed came to him from heaven. [11] A Silas John prayer-text is a set of graphic symbols written on buckskin or paper. The symbols are arranged in horizontal lines which are read from left to right in descending order. Symbols are separated by a space, and each symbol corresponds to a single line of prayer, which may consist of a word, a phrase, or one or more sentences. [11] An interesting feature of this writing system is that it includes symbols for nonverbal actions as well as verbal speech. [11]

Symbols can either be "compound" or "non-compound". Compound symbols consist of two symbols being combined in order to form a new symbol. Non-compound symbols are symbols that are not combination of two separate symbols. [11] The "names" of non-compound symbols are the same as the line of text that the symbols elicit. Because of this, the linguistic referent of a non-compound symbol is always the same as the meaning of the element that forms it and can be learned in a single operation. [11]

Alphabet and pronunciation

Western Apache uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet:

LetterExample
orthographyIPA equivalentorthographyIPAmeaning
ʼʔoʼiʼánoʔɪʔánhole
Aaachaatʃʔaax
Bpbéshpɛ́ʃknife
Chtʃʰchizhtʃʰɪʒwood
Chʼtʃʔchʼahtʃʼaxhat
Dtdǫ́ʼtṍʔfly
Dldlǫ́ʼtɬṍʔbird
Dztsdziłtsɪɬmountain
Eɛeʼilzaaɛʔɪlzaːpicture
Gkgaagékaːkɛ́crow
Ghɣighálɪɣálbells
Hxhashbidíxaʃpɪtɪ́quail
Iɪizeeɪzɛːmedicine
Jjaasíláhádʒaːsɪ́láxáearrings
Kkeekʰɛːshoe
kʼaakʼaːbullets
Llilohɪloxthread
Łɬłógɬókfish
Mmmbámpácoyote
Nnnadą́ʼnatã́corn
Oooyeełojɛːɬcarry
Ppiishipʰɪːʃɪswallow
Sssilaadasɪlaːtasoldier
Shʃshashʃaʃbear
Ttústʰúsjug
itʼohɪtʼoxnest
tɬʰtłád / ikʼahtɬʰát / ɪkʰʔaxoil
Tłʼtɬʔtłʼohtɬʼoxplants
Tstsʰtséétsʰɛ́ːrock
Tsʼtsʔtsʼaałtsʼaːɬcradleboard
Uutʰúwater
Wwiwooɪwoːteeth
Yjyoojoːbeads
Zzzaszassnow
Zhʒzhaaliʒaːlɪmoney
aa
ąã
áá
ą́ã́
ąąãː
éɛ́
ęɛ̃
ę́ɛ̃́
ęęɛ̃ː
íɪ́
įɪ̃
į́ɪ̃́
įįɪ̃ː
óó
ǫõ
ǫǫõː
ǫ́
úú

Usage

The geographic locations of events are crucial components to any Western Apache story or narrative. [6] All Western Apache narratives are spatially anchored to points upon the land, with precise depictions of specific locations, which is characteristic of many Native American languages. [10] [6] Basso called the practice of focusing on places in the language "speaking with names." [6]

According to Basso, the Western Apache practice of "speaking with names" expresses functional range and versatility. Basso claims that "a description of a place may be understood to accomplish all of the following actions:

  1. produce a mental image of a particular geographical location;
  2. evoke prior texts, such as historical tales and sagas;
  3. affirm the value and validity of traditional moral precepts (i.e., ancestral wisdom);
  4. display tactful and courteous attention to aspects of both positive and negative face;
  5. convey sentiments of charitable concern and personal support;
  6. offer practical advice for dealing with disturbing personal circumstances (i.e., apply ancestral wisdom);
  7. transform distressing thoughts caused by excessive worry into more agreeable ones marked by optimism and hopefulness;
  8. heal wounded spirits." [6]

Basso also claims the practice of "speaking with names" can occur only between those with shared "knowledge of the same traditional narratives." [6] He notes that though many elders in Western Apache communities, such as Cibecue, share this knowledge, younger generations of Western Apache "are ignorant of both placenames and traditional narratives in increasing numbers," which makes engaging in the practice of "speaking with names" incredibly difficult. [6]

Examples

Revitalization efforts

Western Apache is an endangered language, and there are efforts to increase the number of speakers. [12] One method of teaching Western Apache is the Total Physical Response (TPR) Method, [12] which focuses, especially in early instruction, on commands. [12] That method is best for teaching the straightforward aspects of grammar, such as yes-and-no questions, and can be enhanced with further grammatical exercises. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiricahua</span> Band of Apache Native Americans

Chiricahua is a band of Apache Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globe, Arizona</span> City in Arizona, United States

Globe is a city in Gila County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,249. The city is the county seat of Gila County. Globe was founded c. 1875 as a mining camp. Mining, tourism, government and retirees are most important in the present-day Globe economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peridot, Arizona</span> CDP in Arizona, US

Peridot is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Gila and Graham counties in the U.S. state of Arizona. The population was 1,350 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Carlos, Arizona</span> CDP in Gila County, Arizona

San Carlos is a census-designated place (CDP) in Gila County, Arizona, United States. The population was 4,038 at the 2010 census, up from 3,716 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Safford, Arizona</span> City in Arizona, United States

Safford is a city in Graham County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the population of the city is 10,129. The city is the county seat of Graham County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cibecue, Arizona</span> Fort Apache Indian Reservation community

Cibecue is a census-designated place (CDP) in Navajo County, Arizona, United States, on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The population was 1,713 in the 2010 United States Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athabaskan languages</span> Group of indigenous languages of North America

Athabaskan is a large family of Indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Coast and Southern. Kari and Potter (2010:10) place the total territory of the 53 Athabaskan languages at 4,022,000 square kilometres (1,553,000 sq mi).

The Apache are several Southern Athabaskan language–speaking peoples of the Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north into the Southwest between 1000 and 1500 CE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Apache people</span> Native American ethnic group

The Western Apache live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States and north of Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation are home to the majority of Western Apache and are the bases of their federally recognized tribes. In addition, there are numerous bands. The Western Apache bands call themselves Ndee (Indé). Because of dialectical differences, the Pinaleño/Pinal and Arivaipa/Aravaipa bands of the San Carlos Apache pronounce the word as Innee or Nnēē:.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yavapai–Apache Nation</span> Federally recognized Indian nation in Arizona

The Yavapai–Apache Nation is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the Verde Valley of Arizona. Tribal members share two culturally distinct backgrounds and speak two indigenous languages, the Yavapai language and the Western Apache language. The Yavapai–Apache Nation Indian Reservation, at 34°37′10″N111°53′46″W, consists of five non-contiguous parcels of land located in three separate communities in eastern Yavapai County. The two largest sections, 576 acres (233 ha) together – almost 90 percent of the reservation's territory, are in the town of Camp Verde. Smaller sections are located in the town of Clarkdale 60.17 acres (24.35 ha), and the unincorporated community of Lake Montezuma. The reservation's total land area is 642 acres (260 ha). The total resident population of the reservation was 743 persons as of the 2000 census. The 2010 Census reported 1,615 people on the reservation. Of these, 512 lived in Camp Verde, 218 in Clarkdale, and only 13 in Lake Montezuma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonto Apache</span> Western Apache Indigenous people

The Tonto Apache is one of the groups of Western Apache people and a federally recognized tribe, the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith H. Basso</span> American cultural and linguistic anthropologist (1940-2013)

Keith Hamilton Basso was a cultural and linguistic anthropologist noted for his study of the Western Apaches, specifically those from the community of Cibecue, Arizona. Basso was professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of New Mexico and earlier taught at the University of Arizona and Yale University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation in Arizona, United States

The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed from their original homelands under a strategy devised by General George Crook of setting the various Apache tribes against one another. Once nicknamed "Hell's Forty Acres" during the late 19th century due to poor health and environmental conditions, today's San Carlos Apaches successfully operate a Chamber of Commerce, the Apache Gold and Apache Sky Casinos, a Language Preservation program, a Culture Center, and a Tribal College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Apache Indian Reservation</span> Native American nation in Arizona

The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe. It has a land area of 1.6 million acres and a population of 12,429 people as of the 2000 census. The largest community is in Whiteriver.

Grenville Goodwin, born Greenville Goodwin (1907–1940), is best known for his participant-observer ethnology work among the Western Apache in the 1930s in the American Southwest. Largely self-taught as an anthropologist, he lived among the Apache for nearly a decade, and learned their stories and rituals. His monograph The Social Organization of the Western Apache was considered a major contribution to American ethnology. It was published in 1941 after his death at age 32, when his promising career was cut short.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yavapai</span> Ethnic Group

The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, independent peoples: the Ɖulv G’paaya, or Western Yavapai; the Yaavpe', or Northwestern Yavapai; the Gwev G’paaya, or Southeastern Yavapai; and the Wiipukpaa, or Northeastern Yavapai – Verde Valley Yavapai.

Pliny Earle Goddard was an American linguist and ethnologist noted for his extensive documentation of the languages and cultures of the Athabaskan peoples of western North America. His early research, carried out under the auspices of the University of California, Berkeley, focused on the Hupa and adjacent Athabaskan groups in northwestern California. After moving to New York in 1909 at the invitation of Franz Boas his scope expanded to include the Athabaskans of the Southwest, Canada, and Alaska. During the 1910s and 1920s. as Boas's junior colleague at the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University, Goddard played a major role in creating the academic infrastructure for American Indian linguistics and anthropology in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bylas, Arizona</span> CDP in Graham County, Arizona

Bylas is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Graham County, Arizona, United States, located within the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. As of the 2010 census, its population was 1,962. The community has a medical clinic, a police substation, and a market. Bylas is an Apache settlement divided into two communities, one of the White Mountain Apache, the other of San Carlos and Southern Tonto Apache. It is named for Bylas a chief of the Eastern White Mountain Apache band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Athabaskan languages</span> Subfamily of Athabaskan languages

Southern Athabaskan is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The languages are spoken in the northern Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila and to a much lesser degree in Durango and Nuevo León. Those languages are spoken by various groups of Apache and Navajo peoples. Elsewhere, Athabaskan is spoken by many indigenous groups of peoples in Alaska, Canada, Oregon and northern California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Rope</span> White Mountain Apache clan leader and Apache scout

John Rope (circa 1855/1863 – 8 August 1944, born Tlodilhil was a White Mountain Apache clan leader and Apache scout who received a medal of honor. Rope was born somewhere between Old Summit and Black River, Arizona, but says his earliest memories are from his time near Cedar Creek, which is just west of Fort Apache. Rope's father was Nayundiie, a White Mountain Apache clan leader. He was foster brother to Mickey Free.

References

  1. "Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English".
  2. "Western Apache". Endangered Languages. Archived from the original on Oct 7, 2017. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
  3. "Conversatorio "Historia de la lengua y cultura n'dee/n'nee/ndé; hacia el registro en el Catalogo de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales (CLIN)"". Contigo en la distancia. Archived from the original on Oct 22, 2022.
  4. Rambler, Sandra (2011-11-09). "Arizona Silver Belt Tribe focuses on preservation of Apache language". Arizona Silver Belt. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  5. 'Testimony of Mary Kim Titla:Reclaiming our Image and Identity for the next Seven Generations,' Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,' November 29, 2012.[ dead link ]
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Basso, Keith H. (1 January 1988). ""Speaking with Names": Language and Landscape among the Western Apache". Cultural Anthropology. 3 (2): 99–130. doi:10.1525/can.1988.3.2.02a00010. JSTOR   656347.
  7. Basso, Keith H. (1996). Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 46–48.
  8. 1 2 Basso, Keith H. (1 January 1968). "The Western Apache Classificatory Verb System: A Formal Analysis". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 24 (3): 252–266. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.24.3.3629347. JSTOR   3629347. S2CID   61552001.
  9. Gordon, Matthew; Potter, Brian; Dawson, John; de Reuse, Willem; Ladefoged, Peter (2001). "Phonetic Structures of Western Apache". International Journal of American Linguistics. 67 (4): 415–448. doi:10.1086/466470. ISSN   0020-7071. JSTOR   1265755. S2CID   143550122.
  10. 1 2 Basso, KH; Anderson, N (1973). "A Western apache writing system: the symbols of silas john". Science. 180 (4090): 1013–22. Bibcode:1973Sci...180.1013B. doi:10.1126/science.180.4090.1013. PMID   17806568. S2CID   144517844.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Basso, Keith H.; Anderson, Ned (1973-01-01). "A Western Apache Writing System: The Symbols of Silas John". Science. 180 (4090): 1013–1022. Bibcode:1973Sci...180.1013B. doi:10.1126/science.180.4090.1013. JSTOR   1736310. PMID   17806568. S2CID   144517844.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 J., de Reuse, Willem (1997). "Issues in Language Textbook Development: The Case of Western Apache".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

Language pedagogy

Literature and dictionaries