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Western Apache language
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. In Mexico, they mainly live in Hermosillo, Sonora, and other native communities in Chihuahua.
Goodwin (1938) claims that Western Apache can be divided into five dialect groupings:
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", only 20% of whom still speak the language fluently.
The geographic locations of events are crucial components to any Western Apache story or narrative. 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. Basso called the practice of focusing on places in the language "speaking with names".
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:
Basso also claims the practice of "speaking with names" can occur only between those with shared "knowledge of the same traditional narratives". 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.
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Western Apache language
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. In Mexico, they mainly live in Hermosillo, Sonora, and other native communities in Chihuahua.
Goodwin (1938) claims that Western Apache can be divided into five dialect groupings:
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", only 20% of whom still speak the language fluently.
The geographic locations of events are crucial components to any Western Apache story or narrative. 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. Basso called the practice of focusing on places in the language "speaking with names".
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:
Basso also claims the practice of "speaking with names" can occur only between those with shared "knowledge of the same traditional narratives". 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.