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)