Jicarilla language
Encyclopedia
Jicarilla is an Eastern Southern Athabaskan language
spoken by the Jicarilla Apache
.
s:
(Modified from Tuttle & Sandoval 2002, p. 109)
/n/ may occur between /t/, /ʔ/, or /n/ and any stem-initial consonant, but when /n/ occurs alone before a stem-initial consonant, it forms a syllable of its own. When preceded by another prefix consonant, /n/ may or may not be judged to form a syllable by native speakers of Jicarilla.
s:
All vowels may be
The long high front oral vowel is phonetically higher than its nasal and short counterparts ([iː] vs. [ɪ, ɪ̃, ɪ̃ː]). The short back vowel is higher than its long and nasal counterparts ([ʊ] vs. [oː, õ, õː]). The short low vowel is higher than its long and nasal counterparts ([ə] vs. [aː, ã, ãː]).
Nasal vowels are indicated by underlining in the Jicarilla orthography.
High tone is indicated with an acute accent. Low tone is unmarked. Falling tone is indicated by a sequence of acute-accented vowel and an unmarked vowel.
-iid- + classifier [ƚ] → [ƚ]
ex. ‘óoƚkai’(
-iid- + stem initial [ʔ] → [t’]
ex. hit’aaƚ(
-iid- + stem initial [m] → [h]
ex. hiihmas(
-iid- + stem initial [n] → [h]
ex. goohndé (
-iid- + stem initial [y] → [d], [dz]
ex. hiidá (
-iid- + stem initial gh [ɣ] → [g]
ex. hiigá (
-iid- + stem initial [z] → [dz]
ex. naa’iidzii(
-iid- + stem initial [l] → [tƚ]
ex. haatƚee (
-iid- + other consonant → ø (zero)
ex. hiiká (
*Or /l/ as in ‘’béela’’ (from ‘pera’ ‘pear’)
*Or /ʔ/ as in ‘’ga’ée’’ (from ‘café’ ‘coffee’)
*Or /k/ as in ‘’kéesda’’ (from ‘fiesta’ ‘party’)
Words of Spanish origin using /p/ in Jicarilla are the only instances where the /p/ or any other labial obstruent did not descend from a sonorant.
‘’Báayoo’’ (from ‘paño’ ‘scarf’)
‘’Bíił’’ (from ‘automóvil’ ‘automobile’)
‘’Bołdóon’’ (from ‘bulto’ ‘small haystack’)
‘’Gołjóon’’ (from ‘colchón’ ‘mattress’)
(Observations from entries in Pono, et al., p. 9-16)
Southern Athabaskan languages
Southern Athabaskan is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the North American Southwest with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas...
spoken by the Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language...
.
Consonants
Jicarilla has 34 consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s:
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | plain | labial | |||||
| Stop | voiced | d | ||||||
| unaspirated | p | t | k | kʷ | ʔ | |||
| aspirated | tʰ | kʰ | kʷʰ | |||||
| ejective | tʼ | kʼ | ||||||
| Affricate | unaspirated | ts | tɬ | tʃ | ||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | tɬʰ | tʃʰ | |||||
| ejective | tsʼ | tɬʼ | tʃʼ | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | xʷ | h | |
| voiced | z | ʒ | ɣ | ɣʷ | ||||
| Approximant | l | j | ||||||
- What has developed into /d/ in Jicarilla corresponds to /n/ and /ⁿd/ in other Southern Athabaskan languages (e.g. NavajoNavajo languageNavajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
and ChiricahuaChiricahua languageMescalero-Chiricahua is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Mescalero and Chiricahua tribes in Oklahoma and New Mexico. It is related to Navajo and Western Apache. Mescalero-Chiricahua has been described in great detail by the anthropological linguist Harry Hoijer , especially in Hoijer &...
).
Aspirated Stops
The consonant /t ʰ/, occurring in most other Athabaskan languages, only occurs alone in a few forms in Jicarilla and has mostly merged with /k ʰ/. This consequently has made most of the aspirated stops in Jicarilla velar.Fricatives and Approximants
- [w] and [ɰʷ] are allophones of /ɣʷ/.
- [ɰ] is an allophone of /ɣ/.
Nasals
- /m/ is never found word-finally and its most frequent position is in prefixes.
- /n/: See section on Syllabic /n/.
Syllabic /n/ in Jicarilla
The consonant /n/ can appear as a syllable and bear a high or low tone, but not a falling tone. High-toned /ń/ actually represents an underlying syllable, /nÍ/. There are four possible contours for Vowel-/n/ and /n/-/n/ combinations: Low-high, High-low, High-high, and Low-low. The contours are illustrated in the following table :| Contour | Vowel-/n/ Combination | Gloss | /n/-/n/ Combination | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low-High | ‘’héenkés’’ | ’What time is it?’ | ‘‘Nńde’’ | ’stand up’ |
| High-low | ‘’Ánł’íí’’ | ’You (sg.) are doing something, trying’ | ‘’ńnshé’’ | ’You sheared it’ |
| High-high | ‘‘’igo’áń’’ | ’hole’ | ‘’Ha’ńń’’ | ’whoever’ |
| Low-low | ‘’‘ágonlaa’’ | ’You (sg.) made something’ | ‘’Bił nnzíí’’ | ’You got sleepy’ |
(Modified from Tuttle & Sandoval 2002, p. 109)
/n/ may occur between /t/, /ʔ/, or /n/ and any stem-initial consonant, but when /n/ occurs alone before a stem-initial consonant, it forms a syllable of its own. When preceded by another prefix consonant, /n/ may or may not be judged to form a syllable by native speakers of Jicarilla.
Vowels
Jicarilla has 16 vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s:
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
oral | i (ɪ) | iː | ||||
| nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
ĩ (ɪ̃) | ĩː (ɪ̃ː) | |||||
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
oral | e | eː | o (ʊ) | oː | ||
| nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
ẽ | ẽː | õ | õː | |||
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
oral | a (ə) | aː | ||||
| nasal Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation... |
ã | ãː | |||||
All vowels may be
- oral or nasal
- short or long
The long high front oral vowel is phonetically higher than its nasal and short counterparts ([iː] vs. [ɪ, ɪ̃, ɪ̃ː]). The short back vowel is higher than its long and nasal counterparts ([ʊ] vs. [oː, õ, õː]). The short low vowel is higher than its long and nasal counterparts ([ə] vs. [aː, ã, ãː]).
Nasal vowels are indicated by underlining in the Jicarilla orthography.
- There are oral and nasal versions of each vowel, but not all combinations of vowel quality, nasality, and tone are possible.
Tone
Jicarilla has three different tones: high, low, and falling.High tone is indicated with an acute accent. Low tone is unmarked. Falling tone is indicated by a sequence of acute-accented vowel and an unmarked vowel.
- high tone: tsé (rock), dééh (tea)
- low tone: ts’e 'sagebush', jee 'pitch'
- falling tone: zháal (money), ha’dáonáa (how?)
Syllable Structure
Syllables may be constructed as CV, CVC, or CV:C (C – Consonant; V – Vowel) depending on the morphology of a sequence. Onset may be any consonant, but coda consonants are limited to /ʔ/, /l/, /ɬ/, /ʃ/, /h/, /s/and /n/.Syllable Duration
A study of the durational effects of Jicarilla Apache show that morphology and prosody both affect and determine the durational realization of consonants and syllables. It was found that in a recording of a passage read by native speakers stem, suffix, and particle syllables were found to be longer than prefix syllables, but there is not enough a distinction to see difference in duration. Syllables at the end of phrases were lengthened differently than syllables lengthened because of stress; this is in regards to a ratio of onset lengthening to rhyme lengthening. This study was only a beginning to analysis of Apachean language prosody.Morphophonology
The Athabaskan morphophonological process known as the "d-effect" occurs when 1st pl/dual iid- is prefixed to a verb stem. The following examples are taken from Phone, Olson and Martinez 2007: 39:-iid- + classifier [ƚ] → [ƚ]
ex. ‘óoƚkai’(
-iid- + stem initial [ʔ] → [t’]
ex. hit’aaƚ(
-iid- + stem initial [m] → [h]
ex. hiihmas(
-iid- + stem initial [n] → [h]
ex. goohndé (
-iid- + stem initial [y] → [d], [dz]
ex. hiidá (
-iid- + stem initial gh [ɣ] → [g]
ex. hiigá (
-iid- + stem initial [z] → [dz]
ex. naa’iidzii(
-iid- + stem initial [l] → [tƚ]
ex. haatƚee (
-iid- + other consonant → ø (zero)
ex. hiiká (
Sample text
| Abáchii miizaa | English Translation |
|---|---|
| Shíí Rita shíízhii. Lósii’yé shii’deeshchíí shíí á’ee néésai. Shiika’éé na’iizii’íí nahiikéyaa’íí miiná’iisdzo’íí éí yaa shishíí. Shii’máá éí gé koghá’yé sidá nahaa daashishíí. Shiidádéé naakii. Dáłaa’é éí édii. Dáłaa’é éí dá aada’é miigha. Shiishdázha dáłánéé. Ałtso nada’iizii. Łe’ dá á’ee Lósii’ee daamigha. Isgwéela’yé naséyá, éí Lósii’ee naséyá dá áństs’íísédá. Łe’gó Santa Fe’yé dáłaa’é hai shee goslíí á’ee. Łe’gó Ináaso’yé éí kái’ii hai shee goslíí.... | My name is Rita. I was born and grew up in Dulce Dulce, New Mexico Dulce is a census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,623 at the 2000 census, almost entirely Native American... . My father worked to take care of our land. My mother stayed home and took care of all of us. I had two sisters. One of them is deceased. The other lives far from here. I have many younger sisters. They all work. Some of them live in Dulce. When I was a youngster, I went to school in Dulce. Then I lived for a year in Santa Fe. Later I lived three years in Ignacio.... |
Jicarilla Words of Spanish Origin
The Jicarilla people have been in contact with Spanish-speaking and English-speaking peoples for a long time and have over time adopted loanwords that have influenced Jicarilla phonology. Most of the sounds used to take in a loanword from Spanish are sounds in Jicarilla. Some sounds not occurring in Jicarilla phonology are changed into Jicarilla as follows:- /r/ → /l/ or /lal/ as in ‘’alalóos’’ (from Spanish ‘arroz’ ‘rice’); ‘’goléelo’’ (from ‘correo’ ‘mail’)
- /ɾ/ → /ɬ/ as in ‘’déełbidi’’ (from ‘intérprete’ ‘interpreter’)
*Or /l/ as in ‘’béela’’ (from ‘pera’ ‘pear’)
- /f/ → /h/ as in ‘’as’dóoha’’ (from ‘estufa’ ‘stove’)
*Or /ʔ/ as in ‘’ga’ée’’ (from ‘café’ ‘coffee’)
*Or /k/ as in ‘’kéesda’’ (from ‘fiesta’ ‘party’)
- /gu/ → /ɣʷo:/ as in ‘’awóoha’’ (from ‘aguja’ ‘needle’)
- /b/ → /p/ as in ‘’báaso’’ (from ‘vaso’ ‘drinking glass’)
Words of Spanish origin using /p/ in Jicarilla are the only instances where the /p/ or any other labial obstruent did not descend from a sonorant.
- /ɲ/ → /j/ with nasalization of following corresponding vowel
‘’Báayoo’’ (from ‘paño’ ‘scarf’)
- Syllable final /l/ turns into /ɬ/ in words of Spanish origin in Jicarilla even though /l/ is a possible coda in Jicarilla. See:
‘’Bíił’’ (from ‘automóvil’ ‘automobile’)
‘’Bołdóon’’ (from ‘bulto’ ‘small haystack’)
‘’Gołjóon’’ (from ‘colchón’ ‘mattress’)
(Observations from entries in Pono, et al., p. 9-16)