Lipan () is an Eastern

Southern Athabaskan language Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The languages are spoken in ...

spoken by the

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...

in the states of

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

and Chihuahua in northern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, some reservations of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and parts of southern Texas. Lipan belongs to the

Na-Dene languages Na-Dene ( ; also Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Tlina–Dene) is a family of Native American languages that includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. Haida was formerly included but is now genera ...

family and it is closely related to the

Jicarilla language Jicarilla () is an Eastern Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Jicarilla Apache. History The traditional homelands of the Jicarilla Apache (Tinde) were located in the northeast and eastern regions of New Mexico. The Jicarilla Apache ex ...

, which is also part of the Eastern Southern Athabaskan languages.

History

In 1981, it was reported that in New Mexico there were only 2 or 3 elderly speakers still alive. On March 22, 2023, a speech in Lipan was given in the tribune of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

of Mexico. On July 22, 2023, the

Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas The Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (English: National Indigenous Languages Institute) better known by its acronym INALI, is a Mexican federal public agency, created 13 March 2003 by the enactment of the Ley General de Derechos Lingü� ...

presented and validated an official alphabet for Lipan in the Assembly Hall of

Casas Grandes, Chihuahua Casas Grandes is a town located in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. It serves as the municipal seat A municipal seat (Spanish: ; ) is the administrative center and seat of government of a municipality or civil parish, with other ...

Distribution

In Mexico, Lipan is traditionally spoken in some native communities in the states of

and Chihuahua: In Coahuila it was mainly spoken in Los Lirios and San Antonio de Alanzas in Arteaga Municipality, El Remolino and Zaragoza in Zaragoza Municipality, Sierra de Santa Rosa de Lima and Múzquiz in Múzquiz Municipality and the cities of Sabinas and

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and high ...

. In Chihuahua it is mainly spoken in

Ciudad Juarez Ciudad () is the Spanish word for "city". Ciudad or La Ciudad may also refer to: * La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona * La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico * ''La ciudad'', a novel by Mario Levrero published ...

, the city of Chihuahua and other native towns. Lipan was spoken in New Mexico in the

Mescalero Reservation Mescalero or Mescalero Apache () is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico. In ...

and in Texas near the Mexico-U.S. border.

Phonology

Consonants

There are 30 consonants in Lipan Apache:

Vowels

There are 16 vowels in Lipan Apache:

Tone

Tones are represented as high , low , falling , and rising . Rising and falling tones only occur on long vowels.

Toponymy

The Lipan people preserve their own toponymic names to name important places within their history and culture that are part of the ''Ndé Bikéyaa'' ("Ndé land" in Lipan):

Bibliography

* Breuninger, Evelyn; Hugar, Elbys; Lathan, Ellen Ann; & Rushforth, Scott. (1982). ''Mescalero Apache dictionary''. Mescalero, NM: Mescalero Apache Tribe. * Gatschet, Albert S.

884 __NOTOC__ Year 884 ( DCCCLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * March 1 – Diego Rodríguez Porcelos, count of Castile, founds and repopulates (''repoblación'') Burgos a ...

Lipan words, phrases, and sentences. (Unpublished manuscript No. 81, Bureau of American Ethnology Archives, Smithsonian Institution). * Gatschet, Albert S. 885 Lipan words, clans, and stories. (Unpublished manuscript No. 114, Bureau of American Ethnology Archives, Smithsonian Institution). * Goddard, Pliny E.

906 __NOTOC__ Year 906 ( CMVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * February 27 – Battle of Fritzlar: The Conradines defeat the Babenberg counts, to establish themselves as duke ...

Lipan texts. (Unpublished manuscript in Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington.) * Hoijer, Harry. (n.d.). Lipan texts. (Available from the American Philosophical Society, Chicago.) (Unpublished field notes, includes handwritten transcription and typed versions, 4 texts, one text published as Hoijer 1975). * Hoijer, Harry. (1938). The southern Athapaskan languages. ''American Anthropologist'', ''40'' (1), 75–87. * Hoijer, Harry. (1942). Phonetic and phonemic change in the Athapaskan languages. ''Language'', ''18'' (3), 218–220. * Hoijer, Harry. (1945). The Apachean verb, part I: Verb structure and pronominal prefixes. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''11'' (4), 193–203. * Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part II: The prefixes for mode and tense. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''12'' (1), 1–13. * Hoijer, Harry. (1946). The Apachean verb, part III: The classifiers. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''12'' (2), 51–59. * Hoijer, Harry. (1948). Linguistic and cultural change. ''Language'', ''24'' (4), 335–345. * Hoijer, Harry. (1956). Athapaskan kinship systems. ''American Anthropologist'', ''58'' (2), 309–333. * Hoijer, Harry. (1956)
The chronology of the Athapaskan languages
''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''22'' (4), 219–232. * Hoijer, Harry. (1975). The history and customs of the Lipan, as told by Augustina Zuazua. ''Linguistics: An international review'', ''161'', 5-37. * Jung, Dagmar. (2000). "Word Order in Apache Narratives." In ''The Athabaskan Languages''. (Eds. Fernald, Theodore and Platero, Paul). Oxford: Oxford UP. 92–100. * Opler, Morris E. (1936). ''The kinship systems of the southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes''. ''American Anthropologist'', ''38'', 620–633. * Opler, Morris E. (2001). ''Lipan Apache''. In Raymond J. DeMallie (ed.), Plains, 941-952. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. * Webster, Anthony. (1999). "Lisandro Mendez’s ‘Coyote and Deer’: On narrative structures, reciprocity, and interactions." ''American Indian Quarterly''. 23(1): 1-24.

References

{{Authority control Apache culture Indigenous languages of the Southwestern United States Indigenous languages of the North American Southwest Lipan Apache Southern Athabaskan languages Indigenous languages of Texas Indigenous languages of Mexico Languages of Mexico