Plains Apache language

The Plains Apache language (or Kiowa Apache) is a Southern Athabaskan language spoken by the Plains Apache peoples living primarily in central Oklahoma.

Plains Apache is most closely related to other Southern Athabaskan languages like Navajo, Chiricahua Apache, Mescalero Apache, Lipan Apache, Western Apache, and Jicarilla Apache. Plains Apache is the most divergent member of the subfamily. The language is extremely endangered with perhaps only one or two native speaking elders. Alfred Chalepah, Jr., who might have been the last native speaker, died in 2008.

See also

• Apache
• Southern Athabaskan languages
• Kiowa

Notes

References

• Bittle, William E. (n.d.). Plains Apache field notes. (Unpublished manuscript).
• Bittle, William E. (1956). The position of Kiowa-Apache in the Apachean group. (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles).
• Bittle, William E. (1963). Kiowa-Apache. In H. Hoijer (Ed.), Studies in Athabaskan languages (pp. 76–101). University of California publications in linguistics (No. 29). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Languages of Oklahoma Indigenous Alabama* Arapaho Caddo Cayuga Cherokee Cheyenne Chickasaw Chiwere (Iowa and Otoe) Choctaw Comanche Delaware Hitchiti-Mikasuki Kansa Koasati Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache Mesquakie (Fox, Kickapoo, and Sauk) Muscogee Osage Ottawa Pawnee Plains Apache Ponca Potawatomi Quapaw Seneca Shawnee Tonkawa Wichita Wyandot Yuchi Sign languages American Sign Language Black American Sign Language Plains Sign Talk Non-Indigenous English German Spanish Vietnamese Italics indicate extinct languages * indicates extinct language in Oklahoma but still spoken elsewhere