O mescalero-chiricahua é unha lingua apacheana falada polos pobos mescalero e chiricahua en Oklahoma e Novo México. Está relacionada co navagho e co apache occidental e foi descrita en gran detalle polo antropólogo lingüista Harry Hoijer (1904–1976), especialmente en Hoijer & Opler (1938) e Hoijer (1946). A obra Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts de Hoijer e Opler, inclúe unha introdución gramatical e historias relixiosas e seculares, que foron convertidos nun "libro" en liña dispoñible pola Universidade de Virxinia.
Virginia Klinekole, a primeira presidenta muller da tribo apache mescalero, foi coñecida polos seus esforzos por preservar a lingua.[1]
Existe cando menos unha escola de inmersión lingüística para nenos en Mescalero.[2] O mescalero-chiricahua está clasificado como definitivamente en perigo polo Libro Vermello das Linguas Ameazadas da UNESCO.[3]
Hoijer, Harry. (1945). Classificatory verb stems in the Apachean languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 11 (1), 13-23.
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. (1946). Chiricahua Apache. In C. Osgood (Ed.), Linguistic structures in North America. Nova York: Wenner-Green Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache texts. The University of Chicago publications in anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted in 1964 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; in 1970 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & in 1980 under H. Hoijer by Nova York: AMS Press, ISBN0-404-15783-1).
Opler, Morris E., & Hoijer, Harry. (1940). The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache. American Anthropologist, 42 (4), 617-634.
Pinnow, Jürgen. (1988). Die Sprache der Chiricahua-Apachen: Mit Seitenblicken auf das Mescalero [The language of the Chiricahua Apache: With side glances at the Mescalero]. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
Webster, Anthony K. (2006). On Speaking to Him (Coyote): The Discourse Functions of the yi-/bi- Alternation in Some Chiricahua Apache Narratives. Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 25(2), 143-160.
Young, Robert W. (1983). Apachean languages. In A. Ortiz, W. C. Sturtevant (Eds.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest, (Vol. 10), (p.393-400). Washington: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN0-16-004579-7.