Program

Research Programs: Dynamic Language Infrastructure-Documenting Endangered Languages - Fellowships

Period of Performance

8/1/2016 - 7/31/2017

Funding Totals

$50,400.00 (approved)
$50,400.00 (awarded)


Documentation of the Dilzhe'e Variety of Western Apache

FAIN: FN-249640-16

Willem J. de Reuse
University of North Texas (Denton, TX 76203-5017)

Fieldwork and research to create a lexical database, compilation of texts, and sketch grammar of Dilzhe’e, an endangered variety of Western Apache belonging to the Southern Athabaskan language family.

This is a proposal to complete community-driven comprehensive documentation of the critically endangered and poorly documented Dilzhe’e variety of Western Apache, a language of the Southern Athabaskan branch of the Athabaskan language family (Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit or Na-Dene phylum). The Dilzhe’e variety (formerly called Tonto) is spoken by fewer than 30 members of the Yavapai-Apache Nation and the Tonto Apache Tribe, in Arizona. The goal of the proposal is to improve on and systematize the documentation of Dilzhe’e, with a focus on its dialectal, phonetic, phonological, morphological and lexical features. Project activities will include the creation of a lexical database, a compilation of texts, and a grammatical sketch. These resources will aid in the study of intra-Dilzhe’e variation and contact-induced change potentially due to Yavapai influence. The resulting documentation will be archived at the Alaska Native Languages Archive, Fairbanks, and ultimately at the Yavapai-Apache Nation as well. (Edited by staff)





Associated Products

Loanwords in Apachean from Indigenous Languages of the Southwest (Article)
Title: Loanwords in Apachean from Indigenous Languages of the Southwest
Author: Willem J. de Reuse
Abstract: Studies in Language Companion Series, vol. 185
Year: 2017
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond, chapt. 14
Publisher: John Benjamins

Western Apache (Athabaskan) (Book Section)
Title: Western Apache (Athabaskan)
Author: Willem J. de Reuse
Abstract: xx
Year: 2017
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Book Title: Handbook of Polysynthesis, chapt. 25