Languages apaches

Classification

The languages apaches are seven, which one can divide into two groups: (I) Plains and (II) South-western. The apache of the plains is the only member of the group of the plains. The group of south-west can itself be divided into two sub-groups: (A) Westerner and (B) Eastern. The sub-group Western includes/understands the Western apache, the navajo, the mescalero and the chiricahua. The Eastern group includes/understands the jicarilla and the lipan.

I. Apaches of the plains

1 Apache of the plains

II. Apaches of south-west

A. Occidental

I. Chiricahua-Mescalero

2. Chiricahua

3. Mescalero

4. Navajo

5. Apache Western

B. Eastern

6. Jicarilla

7. Lipan

The mescalero and the chiricahua are regarded as different languages, even if they are mutually understandable (Ethnologist gathers them in the same language). The Western apache and the navajo are closer one to the other than each one of them is to it mescalero/chiricahua. The lipan and the apache of the plains are practically extinct (it makes some could be that the lipan is it already completely). The chiricahua is severely threatened. The mescalero, the jicarilla and the Western apache are also regarded as threatened, but fortunately the children always learn these languages. The navajo is one of the most vigorous languages of North America (however its use among the pupils of the primary education recently dropped by 90 with 30 % (1998 N.Y. Times, April 9, p. A20)).

Phonology

See also: basic Amorce=Articles:, Phonetic, Articulatory phonetics

All the languages apaches have phonological systems more or less similar. Description below will concentrate mainly on the Western apache. One will be able to expect to find variations minor in the other languages compared to this description (cf,).

Consonants

The languages apaches generally have an inventory of consonants similar to the whole of 33 consonants below (based mainly on the Western apache):

Only the navajo and the Western apache have glottalized nasal consonants.

Writing of the consonants

The orthography corresponds rather well to the pronunciation of the languages apaches (contrary to the written forms of French, English or Vietnamese for example). The table below presents each phonetic notation accompanied by the orthographical symbol corresponding:

Some orthographical conventions:

the fricative ones H and X both are written H . (see also 2 below)
the fricative one X usually H is written, but after O she is written hw (which can decide ).
the fricative one ɣ gh is written most of the time, but before I and E she is written there (which can decide ʝ ), and in front of O she is written W (which can decide ɣʷ ).
All the words starting with a vowel decide with a stop glottal (occlusive) ' ʔ . This stop glottal is never written when it is at the beginning of mot.
Some words decide either D , or N , or Nd , according to the dialect of the speaker. This is represented in the table of the consonants above like . It is also true for B and m in some words.
In many words, N can constitute a syllable with him all alone . The orthography does not indicate it.

Vowels

The languages apaches comprise four basic vowels corresponding to distinct lingual positions (as indicated in the practical orthography):

These vowels can also be short or long, oral or nasal. The nasal vowels are indicated by the Diacritique Ogonek (or nasal hook) ˛ (drawn from the Polish orthography) in apache Western, navajo, chiricahua and mescalero, whereas in jicarilla the nasal vowels are indicated by the underlining of the vowel. Sixteen different vowels thus are obtained:

The API equivalents of the oral vowels are the following:

I = ɪ , II = iː , E = ɛ , ee = ɛː , O = O , oo = ʊː , has = ɐ , aa = ɑː .

Writing of the vowels

In apache Western, there exists a practice of writing of the vowels O and oo in the form U in certain contexts. The latter do not include the nasalized vowels, thus never meets one U nasal in the orthography. This practice perdure still today (perhaps in a somewhat illogical way).

However, in the works of Harry Hoijer American and other linguists, all the vowels O are written O . In the same way, the navajo does not use the C-W communication U , and the writing logically O .

In chiricahua and mescalero, this vowel is written U in all the contexts (including the ų nasalized).

One will be able to observe different practices in the other languages apaches.

Tons

The languages apaches are tonal Langues. Hoijer and other linguists analyze the languages apaches as having 4 tons (according to the system of transcription of the American phonetic alphabet or APA):

high (marked by an acute accent ´ , example: á )
low (marked by a grave accent `, example: with )
amount (marked by a háček ˇ , example: â )
descendant (marked by a circumflex accent ˆ , example: ǎ )

Let us tons amount and descendant are the least frequent and often appear on the long vowels. Let us tons are carried by the vowels, but also can the being by syllabic N (example: ń ).

The practical orthography tried to simplify the system of transcription APA by representing only the high tone by an acute accent, and by leaving the tone low not indicated:

your top: á
your bottom: has

Thus one writes from now on niziz instead of nìzìz like previously.

Moreover, the tone going down on the long vowels is indicated by a first not marked vowel, and an acute accent over the second, and vice versa for the tone going down:

amount: aá (instead of: â• )
descendant: áa (instead of: ǎ• )

The nasal vowels also support tons them, leading to two diacritic on the vowels with your top: ą́ (what presents problems for computerization). Recently, of Reuse (to be appeared) discovered an average tone in the Western apache, indicated by diacritic the ¯ , as in ō or ǭ . In chiricahua, a tone going down can appear on a syllabic N : n̂ .

One will find below some contrasts voyellic bringing into play the nasalisation, the tone and the length, in chiricahua:

chąą “feces”

chaa “beaver”

shiban “my buckskin”

shibán “my bread”

bik' have' “its hips”

bík' have' “his/her mother-in-law”

hah' aał “you two chew”

hah' ał “two be to you chewing”

Comparative phonology

The differences and similarities between the languages apaches can be observed in the following Liste Swadesh modified and shortened:

Grammar

See also: basic Contenu=Articles: ''' [[Grammar]] ''', ''' [[Syntax]] ''' and ''' [[Morphology (linguistic)]], [[Morphology]] '''.

Typology

The languages apaches are for the majority fusional, polysynthetic and personal-accusative . These languages are often regarded as nonconfigurational languages . The normal order of the words is of type Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), which one can note in the following example in navajo:

Mósí tsídii yiníł' į́ “the cat looks at the bird.”

Prone = mósí " chat"

Object = tsídii " oiseau"

Verb = yiníł' į́ " regarde"

The modification of the words in the languages apaches is carried out mainly by Préfixe S, which is unusual in languages SOV, where in fact usually suffixes are used.

The verbs are in proportion raised in the languages apaches, for relatively few names. In addition to the verbs and the nouns, they have Pronom S, Clitique S with the various functions, Démonstratif S, numeral, Adverbe S and conjunction S, among others. Harry Hoijer gathered all these types of words in a single class, under the denomination of particles . This classification provides three grammatical categories thus:

verbs
names Postposition S
particles

It will be noticed that no category corresponds directly to the concept of adjectival . The adjectival concepts are indeed provided by the category of the verbs.

Names

The names are mainly of the one of the following types (with various sub-types):

simple names
made up names
names derived from verbs or verbal expressions (deverbal)

The simple names are composed of a single radical (usually only one syllable), like

Chiricahua: kųų "feu" , and
Navajo: sǫ' " étoile".

The other names are composed of the root and one or more prefixes, like

Navajo: dibé "mouton" (< di- + - Be ; root: - Be )

or of the root and a suffix, like

Chiricahua: dlų́í "dog of prairie" (< dlų́- + - í ; root: dlų́- ).

The added prefixes can be lexical or flexional (for example personal prefixes indicating the possession). There are not many simple names in the languages apaches, but they constitute the oldest part of the lexicon and consequently are essential with the comparisons between the various languages.

Certain made up names can comprise more than one root, like

Chiricahua: kųųbąą "foyer" (< kųų " feu" + bąą " bord"), and
Navajo: tsésǫ' " verre" (< tsé " rocher" + sǫ" étoile").

The following types constitute other types of composition, many other combinations being possible:

nominal root + postposition
nominal root + verbal root
nominal root + postposition + nominal root

The type of the most common name is the name Déverbal (i.e. derived from a verb). Such names are formed for the majority by adding a nominalizing Enclitique, like - í in apache Western or - í in navajo, at the end of the verbal expression. The word navajo according to provides an example of it:

ná' oolkiłí " horloge" ( reads. " a thing is driven slowly in a cercle")

Many of these names can be rather complex, like the example following in navajo:

chidí naa' Na' í bee' eldǫǫhtsoh bikáá' dah naaznilígíí " tank of assaut" ( reads. " a vehicle on the top of which they sit down, which crawls, and which has a large appendix of which leave the explosions")

Other deverbal names do not have the enclitique one nominalizing, like the following examples in navajo:

Hoozdo "Phoenix, Arizona" ( reads. " the place is chaud")
CH' E' étiin " porche" ( reads. " a thing has a way horizontally dehors")

Inflection of the names

Possessive

The majority of the names can be inflected to show the Possession. The simple names, composed names, and some deverbal names are inflected by addition of a personal prefix in the name of base, as in the following possessive names in chiricahua:

shibán "my pain" ( shi- first nobody of the singular + bán " pain")
nibán "your pain" ( nor second sea-green. sg.)
bibán " its pain" ( bi- third sea-green. sg.)
ibán " bread of quelqu'un" ( indefinite I )

One can build longer possessive expressions, such as the following expressions navajo:

Jean bibááh " bread of Jean" ( bi- third sea-green. sg., bááh " pain")
shimá bibááh "bread of my mère" ( shi- first sea-green. sg., - má " mère")
bimá bibááh "bread of its mère"
Jean bimá bibááh " bread of the mother of Jean"

Postpositions

Verbs

The basic element in the languages apaches is the Verbe, and it is manifestly complex. The verbs are composed of one root to which prefixes Flexionnel S are attached and/or Dérivationnel S. Any verb must have at least a prefix. The prefixes are attached to the verb in a precise order.

The verb apache can be cut out in various morphological components. The verbal root is made up of an abstract root and a suffix having often amalgamated with it. The verbal root combined with a classifying prefix (and sometimes with other prefixes sets of themes ) constitutes the verbal topic . The topic is then combined with prefixes dérivationnels which in their turn form the bases verb. Lastly, of the inflectional prefixes (that Young and Morgan call " prefixes paradigmatiques") are attached to the base, thus producing a complete verb. One can represent schematically this process in the table below:

Verbal models

The prefixes which intervene in the construction of a verb are added in a precise order which is function of the type of prefix. This type of morphology is called a model of class of positions (or model slot-and-filler ). The table below presents a recent proposal concerning the model of verb navajo (Young and Morgan 1987). Edward Sapir and Harry Hoijer was the first to propose an analysis of this type. A given verb will be able not to have of prefix in all the possible positions; in fact the majority of the verbs navajo are not as complex as the model would seem to suggest it.

The verb navajo is composed of three principal parts:

These three parts can be subdivided in 11 positions, some of them being able in their turn to have additional subdivisions:

Although the prefixes are generally in a specific position, their order can change by the process of Métathèse. For example, the prefix navajo ' has (pronoun 3i object) precedes usually di- , as in

adisbąąs “I start to lead a kind of vehicle provided with wheels” < ''' has '' + '' di- '' + '' HS '' + '' ł '' + '' - bąąs ''.

However, when ' has is accompanied by the prefixes di- and nor , the ' has métathèse with di- , leading to an order di- + ' has + nor , as in

di' nisbąąs “I am driving a vehicle (implied “while directing me towards something”) and to find me wedged” < '' di-' have-nor-HS-ł-bąąs '' < ''' has '' + '' di- '' + '' nor '' + '' HS '' + '' ł '' + '' - bąąs ''

instead of the adinisbąąs (' have-di-nor-HS-ł-bąąs ) awaited (to also note that ' has reduces to ' - ). The métathèse is conditioned by the phonological environment (Young and Morgan 1987:39).

Derivation of the verbs, mode and aspect

The shape of the verbal roots varies with the Aspect and the Temps. The phenomenon of alternation (Ablaut) implies mainly the vowels (change of vowel, length of vowel, or nasality) and the tone, but sometimes relates to the Suffixation of a final consonant. The verbal roots chiricahua presented below have five different forms which correspond to mode:

Each mode can also meet under different aspects , such as temporary, continuatif, repetitive, semelfactif, etc For example, a verbal root can be temporarily imperfective, temporarily optative, etc the conjugation (partial) presented below illustrates the verbal root navajo -' aah / -' ą́ " to handle a solid object arrondi" under various aspects of the same mode:

This same verbal root -' aah / -' ą́ " to handle a solid object arrondi" have a total of 26 combinations of 5 modes and 6 aspects:

Although there are 26 combinations for this verb, the degree of homophony is raised, so that there exist only 7 different forms for the verbal root ( -' aah , -' ááh , -' aał , -' ááł , -' has' , - á , -' ą́ ). To complicate the things, of the different verbs models different of homophony have: certain verbs have the only one shape of verbal root for all the combinations mode-aspect, others have five, etc of them, and all the verbal roots do not meet in the same combinations mode-aspect. Moreover, the various shapes of verbal roots of the various verbs are formed differently.

Classifier

Prone prefixes and objects

Classifying verbs

The languages apaches have verbal roots which classify a particular object according to its form or other physical characteristics, in addition to describing its movement or its state. They are known in linguistics athapascane like classifying verbal roots . They are generally identified by a acronymic label. One distinguishes in navajo 11 principal verbal roots managing the classification, whose list is presented below (in the perfective mode). The other languages apaches have a whole of slightly different roots.

Contrary to French, the navajo does not have a simple verb corresponding to the action to give . For example, the expression Gives me hay! is expressed in navajo by the verb níłjool (NCM), whereas for Donne me a cigarette! , one employs the verb nítįįh (SSO). The action to give will be able to be expressed in navajo by 11 different verbs, according to the characteristics of the object considered.

In addition to the definition of the physical properties of the object, the principal classifying verbal roots also make it possible to distinguish the mode from displacement of the object. One can then gather the verbal roots in three categories:

# taken

# propulsion

# coasting flight

The taken includes the actions such as carrying, lowering and to take. The propulsion includes the actions of launching, releasing and to throw. The coasting flight includes the falls and the flight strictly speaking.

An example for the category navajo SRO gives

# - 'ą́ to handle (a round object) ,

# - to throw (a round object) , and

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

The languages apaches also have verbal roots similar so that Young and Morgan (1987) call secondary classifying verbs .

Alternation yi- / bi- (animation)

Like the majority of the languages athapascanes, the languages apaches use several degrees in the animated character of the grammatical objects, certain names taking of the particular forms according to their row in the hierarchy of animation. For example, the names in navajo can be classified according to a continuous scale which goes from more animated (an human being or a flash) at least animated (an abstract idea) (Young and Morgan 1987:65 - 66):

human/flashes → babies/large animal animals → of intermediate size → small animals → insects → natural phenomena → inanimate objects/plants → abstract ideas

In general, the name more animated of a sentence must appear in first, and the least animated in second. If the two names have the same row in the hierarchy, then the order is free. Thus, the two sentences examples (1) and (2) are correct. The prefix yi- on the verb indicates that the first name is the subject, and bi- prefixes it indicates that the second is the subject.

But the sentence example (3) seems incorrect with the majority of the speakers navajo because the name less animated is placed before more animated:

To obtain a correct sentence, the name moreover animated must be placed in first, as in the sentence (4):

See too

External bonds

How Different edge Languages Be?: Grammatical The mosaic off Navajo
Simplified Apache Pronunciation
Chiricahua and Mescalero Texts
Grammatical Sketch off Chiricahua/Mescalero
Other Apache Ethnographical Sources
Apache texts
Goddard' S Jicarilla Texts (translation only)
Resulting in Language Textbook Development: The Puts off Western Apache
White Mountain Apache Language: Exits in Language Shift, Textbook Development, and Native Announcer-University Collaboration
Apachean Languages one Ethnologist site
Phonetic Structures off Western Apache (318 KB pdf: technical work one acoustic phonetics)
sample off Apache bible translation

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