Jicarilla language

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Jicarilla (called Abáachii miizaa in Jicarilla) is an Eastern Southern Athabaskan language.

Contents 1 Sounds 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 1.3 Tone 2 Grammar 3 Example text

[edit] Sounds

[edit] Consonants

Jicarilla has 34 consonants:

		Bilabial	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			central	lateral		plain	labial
Stop	voiced		d
	unaspirated	p	t			k	kʷ	ʔ
	aspirated		tʰ			kʰ	kʷʰ
	ejective		t’			k’
Affricate	unaspirated		ʦ	tɬ	ʧ
	aspirated		ʦʰ	tɬʰ	ʧʰ
	ejective		ʦ’	tɬ’	ʧ’
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. Navajo and Chiricahua).

[edit] Vowels

Jicarilla has 16 vowels:

		Front		Central		Back
		short	long	short	long	short	long
High	oral	i (ɪ)	iː
	nasal	ĩ (ɪ̃)	ĩː (ɪ̃ː)
(Upper-)Mid	oral	e	eː			o (ʊ)	oː
	nasal	ẽ	ẽː			õ	õː
Low	oral			a (ə)	aː
	nasal			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.

[edit] Tone

Jicarilla has three different tones:

• high
• low
• 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?'

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Example text

Below is a (partial) text from Wilson & Martine (1996: 125-126).

Abáchii miizaa:

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....

English translation:

My name is Rita. I was born and grew up in Dulce. 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....

Interlinear text: