Mescalero-Chiricahua language

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.^[3]

NativetoMexico and USA

RegionSonora, Chihuahua, Oklahoma, New Mexico

EthnicityChiricahua, Mescalero

Native speakers

1,500 (2007)^[1]

Quick facts Chiricahua, Native to ...

Chiricahua
Ndee bizaa
Native to	Mexico and USA
Region	Sonora, Chihuahua, Oklahoma, New Mexico
Ethnicity	Chiricahua, Mescalero
Native speakers	1,500 (2007)[1]
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dene Athabaskan Southern Athabaskan Southwestern Apache Western Chiricahua
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Mexico
Regulated by	Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
Language codes
ISO 639-3	apm
Glottolog	mesc1238
ELP	Mescalero-Chiricahua
Mescalero-Chiricahua is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[failed verification]
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Virginia Klinekole, the first female president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, was known for her efforts to preserve the language.^[4]

There is at least one language-immersion school for children in Mescalero.^[5]