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Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache Language

Home / Collections and Research / Native American Languages / Map of Oklahoma Languages / Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache Language

The territory of the Chiricahua Apache once spread across large areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. In 1913, a third of the Chiricahua, known later as the Fort Sill Apache, accepted allotments in Oklahoma. The Mescalero-Chiricahua language is a member of the Apachean Branch of the Athabaskan language family. Closely related languages include Navajo (Dine) and Western Apache. More distantly related languages include Plains Apache, Jicarilla and Hupa.

Selected Language Information

Hoijer, Harry. 1945. Classificatory Verb Stems in the Apachean Languages. International Journal of American Linguistics Vol. 11:1. 13-23.

Hoijer, Harry. 1946. Chiricahua Apache. In Linguistic Structures of North America. New York: Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology. 55-84.

Hoijer, Harry; & Morris E. Opler. 1938. Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts. The University of Chicago publications in Anthropology: Linguistic Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Young, Robert W. 1983. Apachean Languages. In Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10). William. C. Sturtevant (eds.) Washington: Smithsonian Institution. 393-400.

Sample Archival Materials in the Native American Languages Collection

Bittle, William E. (research participant), William Davidson (research participant), Faye Edgerton (research participant), L. W. Elford (research participant), Harry Hoijer (author), Philip G. Howard (research participant), Janet Joēl (research participant), Murray Richardson (research participant). 1963. Studies in the Athapaskan Languages. Akira and Kimiko Yamamoto Collection. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History Department of Native American Languages. Media: manuscript. Catalog Number: AKY-486.

—–. 1975. Wi Okhuwa-ee. Caryl McHarney Collection. Department of Native American Languages, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Media: book. Catalog Number: CMC-269.

—–. 1975. Joe-ń Bi Lhi. Caryl McHarney Collection. Department of Native American Languages, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Media: book. Catalog Number: CMC-270.

Links

Apache Language

Texts

Catalogue of Endangered Languages

Glottolog

OLAC

Ethnologue