apachean languages

Apachean, also known as Southern Athabaskan, refers to members of the Apachean language family (including Navajo) which is in turn a member of the larger Athabaskan family. These languages are spoken by various bands of Apache and Navajo peoples. They are spoken in primarily the southwestern part of the United States (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, but also in Colorado & Utah), and formerly spoken in Mexico and Texas. This is unusual because most Athabaskan languages are spoken in the northwest of Canada and Alaska. Western Apaches call their language Nn biyti or Nd biyti. Navajos call their language Din bizaad. The most famous speaker of an Apachean language was Geronimo (Goyaał) who spoke Chiricahua.

Genetic Classification

Southern Athabaskan languages can be divided into 2 groups: (I) Plains Apache and (II) Southwestern Apachean. Plains Apache is the only member of the Plains Apache group. The Southwestern Apachean 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 Apache

Plains Apache

II. Southwestern Apachean

A. Western

B. Eastern

Mescalero and Chiricahua are considered different languages even though they are mutually intelligible (Ethnologue considers them the same language). Western Apache 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. 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 a similar phonology. 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).

Vowels

Apachean languages have four vowels of contrasting tongue dimensions (as written in the "practical" orthography):

align="center"\|	align="center"\| Front	align="center"\| Central	align="center"\| Back
align="left"\| High	align="center"\|
align="left"\| Mid	align="center"\|		align="center"\|
align="left"\| Low		align="center"\|

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). This results in sixteen different vowels:

colspan="2" \|	align="center" \| High-Front	align="center" \| Mid-Front	align="center" \| Mid-Back	align="center" \| Low-Central
rowspan="2" align="center" \| Oral	short	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| long	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
rowspan="2" align="center" \| Nasal	short	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| long	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|

IPA equivalents for oral vowels: = [], = [], = [], = [], = [], = [], = [], = [].

orthography (vowels)

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's 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). Other practices may be used in other Apachean languages.

Tone

Apachean languages are tonal languages. Hoijer and other linguists analyze Apachean languages as having 4 tones (using Americanist transcription system):

high (marked with acute accent ´, Example: )
low (marked with grave accent `, Example: )
rising (marked with hček ˇ, Example: )
falling (marked with circumflex ˆ, Example: ǎ)

Rising and falling tones are less common in the language (often occurring over morpheme boundaries) and almost exclusively 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:

high tone:
low tone: a

So now niziz is written instead of the previous nzz. 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:

rising: a (instead of Americanist: ·)
falling: a (instead of Americanist: ǎ·)

Nasal vowels carry tone as well, resulting in a two diacritics on vowels with high tone: ą́ (presenting problems for computerization). Recently, de Reuse (forthcoming) 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:

chąą 'feces'

chaa 'beaver'

shiban 'my buckskin'

shibn 'my bread'

bikai 'his hip'

bkai 'his stepmother'

hahaał 'you two are going to chew it'

hahał 'you two are chewing it'

Consonants

The consonants of Western Apache written in (IPA):

rowspan="2" colspan="2" \|	align="center" \| Bilabial	colspan="2" align="center" \| Alveolar	align="center" \| Palatal	align="center" \| Velar	align="center" \| Glottal
	align="center" \| central	align="center" \| lateral
rowspan="4" align="center" \| Stop	align="left" \| unaspirated	align="center" \|	align="center" \|			align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| aspirated	align="center" \|	align="center" \|			align="center" \|
align="left" \| ejective		align="center" \|			align="center" \|
align="left" \| prenasalized	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
rowspan="3" align="center" \| Affricate	align="left" \| unaspirated		align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| aspirated		align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| ejective		align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
rowspan="2" align="center" \| Nasal	align="left" \| simple	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| glottalized	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
rowspan="2" align="center" \| Fricative	align="left" \| voiced		align="center" \|		align="center" \|	align="center" \|
align="left" \| voiceless		align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|	align="center" \|
rowspan="2" align="center" \| Approximant				align="center" \|	align="center" \|

orthography (consonants)

The practical orthography corresponds to the pronunciation of the Apachean languages fairly well (as opposed to the writing systems of English, Vietnamese, or French). Below is a table pairing up the phonetic notation with the orthographic symbol:

align="center" \| IPA	align="center" \| spelling	align="center" \| IPA	align="center" \| spelling	align="center" \| IPA	align="center" \| spelling	align="center" \| IPA	align="center" \| spelling
align="center" \| t	align="center" \| d	align="center" \| tʰ	align="center" \| t	align="center" \| t	align="center" \| t	align="center" \| j	align="center" \| y
align="center" \| k	align="center" \| g	align="center" \| kʰ	align="center" \| k	align="center" \| k	align="center" \| k	align="center" \| h	align="center" \| h
align="center" \| ʦ	align="center" \| dz	align="center" \| ʦʰ	align="center" \| ts	align="center" \| ʦ	align="center" \| ts	align="center" \| ʔ	align="center" \|
align="center" \| ʧ	align="center" \| j	align="center" \| ʧʰ	align="center" \| ch	align="center" \| ʧ	align="center" \| ch	align="center" \| l	align="center" \| l
align="center" \| tɮ	align="center" \| dl	align="center" \| tɬʰ	align="center" \| tł	align="center" \| tɬ	align="center" \| tł	align="center" \| ɬ	align="center" \| ł
align="center" \| p	align="center" \| b	align="center" \| pʰ	align="center" \| p	align="center" \| ^mb	align="center" \| b/m	align="center" \| ⁿd	align="center" \| d/n/nd
align="center" \| s	align="center" \| s	align="center" \| ʃ	align="center" \| sh	align="center" \| m	align="center" \| m	align="center" \| n	align="center" \| n
align="center" \| z	align="center" \| z	align="center" \| ʒ	align="center" \| zh	align="center" \| ʔm	align="center" \| m	align="center" \| ʔn	align="center" \| n
align="center" \| x	align="center" \| h
align="center" \| ɣ	align="center" \| gh

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 is written as hw (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.
As mentioned above, o or oo may be written as u in Western Apache (but never uu).

Grammar

Typological remarks

Typologically, Apachean languages are partly agglutinating, partly fusional, polysynthetic head-marking languages. The canonical word order is SOV, as can be seen in Navajo example below:

Ms tsdii yinł'į́ 'The cat is looking at the bird.'

Subject = ms 'the cat'

Object = tsdii 'the bird'

Verb = yinł'į́ 'it is looking at it'

Apachean words are modified primarily by prefixes, which is unusual for SOV languages (suffixes are expected). The Apachean languages are "verb-heavy" — they have a great ponderance of verbs but relatively few nouns. In addition to verbs and nouns, these languages has other elements such as pronouns, clitics of various functions, demonstratives, numerals, postpositions, adverbs, and conjunctions, among others. Harry Hoijer grouped all of the above into a word class which he called particle. This categorization provides three grammatical categories (i.e. parts of speech):

verbs
nouns
particles

There is nothing that corresponds to what are called adjectives in English. This adjectival notions are provided by verbs.

Verbs

The key element in Apachean languages is the verb, and it is notoriously complex. Some noun meanings are provided by verbs, as in Navajo

Hoozdo 'Phoenix, Arizona' (lit. 'the place is hot') and
ch''tiin 'doorway' (lit. 'something has a path horizontally out').

Many complex nouns are derived from nominalized verbs as well, as in Navajo

n'oolkił 'clock' (lit. 'one that is moved slowly in a circle') and
chid naa'na' bee'eldǫǫhtsoh bik' dah naaznilg 'army tank' (''lit. 'a car that they sit up on top of that crawls around with a big thing with which an explosion is made').

Verbs are composed of an abstract stem to which inflectional and/or derivational prefixes are added. Every verb must have at least one prefix. The prefixes are affixed to the verb in a specified order. The Apachean verb can be sectioned into different morphological components. The verb stem is composed of an abstract root and an often fused suffix. The stem together with a classifier prefix (and sometimes other thematic prefixes) make up the verb theme. The theme is then combined with derivational prefixes which in turn make up the verb base. Finally, inflectional prefixes (which Young & Morgan call "paradigmatic prefixes") are affixed to the base—producing a complete verb. This is represented schematically in the table below:

root
stem	= root + suffix
theme	= stem + classifier (+ thematic prefix(es))
base	= theme + derivational prefix(es)
verb	= base + inflectional prefix(es)

Verb Template

The prefixes that occur on a the verb are added in specified order according to prefix type. This type of morphology is called a position class template (or slot-and-filler template). Below is a table of a recent proposal of the Navajo verb template (Young & Morgan 1987). Edward Sapir and Harry Hoijer were the first to propose an analysis of this type. A given verb will not have a prefix for every position, in fact most Navajo verbs are not as complex as the template would seem to suggest. The Navajo verb has 3 main parts:

align="center"\| disjunct prefixes	align="center"\| conjunct prefixes	align="center"\| STEM

These parts can be subdivided into 11 positions with some of the positions having even further subdivisions:

colspan="8" align="center"\| Disjunct
align="center"\| 0	align="center"\| 1a	align="center"\| 1b	align="center"\| 1c	align="center"\| 1d	align="center"\| 1e	align="center"\| 2	align="center"\| 3
align="center"\| object	align="center"\| null postposition	align="center"\| derivational-thematic	align="center"\| reflexive	align="center"\| reversionary	align="center"\| semeliterative	align="center"\| iterative	align="center"\| distributive plural

align="center"\| STEM
align="center"\| 4	align="center"\| 5	align="center"\| 6a	align="center"\| 6b	align="center"\| 6c	align="center"\| 7	align="center"\| 8	align="center"\| 9	align="center"\| 10
align="center"\| direct object	align="center"\| deictic subject	align="center"\| thematic-derivational-aspect	align="center"\| thematic-derivational-aspect	align="center"\| transitional-semelfactive	align="center"\| modal-aspectual	align="center"\| subject	align="center"\| "classifier"	align="center"\| stem

Although prefixes are generally found in a specific position, some prefixes change order by the process of metathesis. For example, in Navajo prefix 'a- (3i object pronoun) usually occurs before di-, as in

adisbąąs 'I'm starting to drive some kind of wheeled vehicle along' 'a- + di- + sh- + ł + -bąąs.

However, when a- occurs with the prefixes di- and ni-', the a- metathesizes with di-, leading to an order of di- + 'a- + ni-', as in

di'nisbąąs 'I'm in the act of driving some vehicle (into something) & getting stuck' di-'a-ni-sh-ł-bąąs < 'a- + di- + ni- + sh- + ł + -bąąs

instead of the expected adinisbąąs (a-di-ni-sh-ł-bąąs'') (note also that a- is reduced to -'). Metathesis is conditioned by phonological environment (Young & Morgan 1987:39).

Classificatory Verbs

Apachean languages have verb stems that classify a particular object by its shape or other physical characteristics in addition to describing the movement or state of the object. These are known in Athabaskan linguistics as classificatory verb stems. These are usually identified by an acronym label. There are 11 primary classificatory "handling" verbs stems in Navajo (other Apachean languages have slightly different stems) which are listed below (given in the perfective mode):

align="center" \| Label	align="center" \| Explanation	align="center" \| Examples
align="center" \| -'ą́	align="center"\| SRO	Solid Roundish Object	bottle, ball, boot, box, etc.
align="center" \| -yį́	align="center"\| LPB	Load, Pack, Burden	backpack, bundle, sack, saddle, etc.
align="center" \| -ł-jool	align="center"\| NCM	Non-Compact Matter	bunch of hair or grass, cloud, fog, etc.
align="center" \| -l	align="center"\| SFO	Slender Flexible Object	rope, mittens, socks, pile of fried onions, etc.
align="center" \| -tą́	align="center"\| SSO	Slender Stiff Object	arrow, bracelet, skillet, saw, etc.
align="center" \| -ł-tsooz	align="center"\| FFO	Flat Flexible Object	blanket, coat, sack of groceries, etc.
align="center" \| -tł'	align="center"\| MM	Mushy Matter	ice cream, mud, slumped-over drunken person, etc.
align="center" \| -nil	align="center"\| PLO1	Plural Objects 1	eggs, balls, animals, coins, etc.
align="center" \| -jaa'	align="center"\| PLO2	Plural Objects 2	marbles, seeds, sugar, bugs, etc.
align="center" \| -ką́	align="center"\| OC	Open Container	glass of milk, spoonful of food, handful of flour, etc.
align="center" \| -ł-tį́	align="center"\| ANO	Animate Object	microbe, person, corpse, doll, etc.

To compare with English, Navajo has no single verb that corresponds to the English word give. In order to say the equivalent of Give me some hay! the Navajo verb nłjool (NCM) must be used, while for Give me a cigarette! the verb ntįįh (SSO) must be used. The English verb give is expressed by 11 different verbs in Navajo, depending on the characteristics of the given object. In addition to defining the physical properties of the object, primary classificatory verb stems also can distinguish between the manner of movement of the object. The stems can then be grouped into three different categories:

handling

propelling

free flight

Handling includes actions such as carrying, lowering, and taking. Propelling includes tossing, dropping, and throwing. Free flight includes falling, and flying through space. Using an example for the SRO category Navajo has

-'ą́ to handle (a round object),

-ne' to throw (a round object), and

-l-ts'id (a round object) moves independently.

In addition, Apachean languages also have other somewhat similar verb stems that Young & Morgan (1987) call secondary classificatory verbs.

yi-/bi- Alternation (Animacy)

Like most Athabaskan languages, Apachean languages show various levels of animacy in its grammar, with certain nouns taking specific verb forms according to their rank in this animacy hierarchy. For instance, Navajo nouns can be ranked by animacy on a continuum from most animate (a human) to least animate (an abstraction) (Young & Morgan 1987: 65-66): humans/lightning → infants/big animals → med-size animals → small animals → insects → natural forces → inanimate objectes → abstraction Generally, the most animate noun in a sentence must occur first while the noun with lesser animacy occurs second. If both nouns are equal in animacy, then either noun can occur in the first position. So, both example sentences (1) and (2) are correct. The yi- prefix on the verb indicates that the 1st noun is the subject and bi- indicates that the 2nd noun is the subject.

(1)	Ashkii	at'd	yinł'į́.
	boy	girl	yi-look
	'The boy is looking at the girl.'

(2)	At'd	ashkii	binł'į́.
	girl	boy	bi-look
	'The girl is being looked at by the boy.'

But example sentence (3) sounds wrong to most Navajo speakers because the less animate noun occurs before the more animate noun:

(3)	* Tsdii	at'd	yishtąsh.
	bird	girl	yi-pecked
	'The bird pecked the girl.'

In order express this idea, the more animate noun must occur first, as in sentence (4):

(4)	At'd	tsdii	bishtąsh.
	girl	bird	bi-pecked
	'The girl was pecked by the bird.'

Bibliography

For the bibliography, see the subarticle 'Apachean languages/Bibliography'.

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