Mescalero-Chiricahua (also known as Chiricahua Apache) is a
Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the
Chiricahua and
Mescalero people in
Chihuahua and
Sonora,
México and in
Oklahoma and
New Mexico.[2] It is related to
Navajo and
Western Apache and 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 Virginia.
Virginia Klinekole, the first female president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, was known for her efforts to preserve the language.[3]
There is at least one language-immersion school for children in Mescalero.[4]
Hoijer, Harry (1938). "The southern Athapaskan languages". American Anthropologist. 40 (1): 75–87.
doi:
10.1525/aa.1938.40.1.02a00080.
Hoijer, Harry (1939). "Chiricahua loan-words from Spanish". Language. 15 (2): 110–115.
doi:
10.2307/408729.
JSTOR408729.
Hoijer, Harry (1945). "Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (1): 13–23.
doi:
10.1086/463846.
Hoijer, Harry (1945). "The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 11 (4): 193–203.
doi:
10.1086/463871.
Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (1): 1–13.
doi:
10.1086/463881.
Hoijer, Harry (1946). "The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers". International Journal of American Linguistics. 12 (2): 51–59.
doi:
10.1086/463889.
Hoijer, Harry (1946). "Chiricahua Apache". In Osgood, C. (ed.). Linguistic structures in North America. New York: Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Hoijer, Harry; Opler, Morris E. (1980) [1938, University of Chicago Press; 1964, University of Chicago Press; 1970, University of Chicago Press]. Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. New York: AMS Press.
ISBN0-404-15783-1.
Opler, Morris E.; Hoijer, Harry (1940). "The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache". American Anthropologist. 42 (4): 617–634.
doi:
10.1525/aa.1940.42.4.02a00070.
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] (in German). Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
Webster, Anthony K. (2006). "On Speaking to Him (Coyote): The Discourse Functions of the yi-/bi- Alternation in Some Chiricahua Apache Narratives". Southwest Journal of Linguistics. 25 (2): 143–160.
Young, Robert W. (1983). "Apachean languages". In Ortiz, A. (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 10: Southwest. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 393–400.
ISBN0-16-004579-7.