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1. Form Classes

Chiricahua and Mescalero words may be divided into four principal form classes: pronouns, nouns, verbs, and particles. The criteria for this division are as follows: the structure of the word, its inflection, the nature of its prefixes, and its function in the sentence.

Pronouns are generally composed either of a single free stem or of a bound stem plus an enclitic. The pronominal stem is never inflected and, except for the distributive prefix daa-, takes, takes no prefixes.

Nouns fall into three major groups: the basic or "primitive" nouns, noun compounds, and nouns formed from verbs. Nouns of the first classification are composed of a theme [a stem or a stem plus prefix] which may, in some cases, be inflected for the possessive. Noun compounds vary considerably in complexity from simple combinations of two noun stems to complex constructions involving words of two or more form classes. Nouns formed from verbs may consist either of an unmodified verb functioning as a noun or of a verb form plus relative enclitic. Finally, nouns are characterized by the fact that they may take only one set of prefixes, those denoting the possessive pronoun.

Verbs have a far more complex structure. Verb themes have essentially the same construction as noun themes but differ from the latter in two important respects: first, the verb theme is always a bound morpheme whereas some nouns themes may be free forms, and, secondly, the verb theme, with few exceptions, is inflected for mode and aspect. The verb also differs from the noun in the number and variety of prefixes which may be included in its structure. Two classes of verb prefix, the derivational and paradigmatic prefixes, do not occur with nouns at all, and a third class, the pronominal objects, have a different meaning when combined with noun themes.

The fourth form class, the particle, includes a variety of forms. Some particles have a structure similar to that of the noun, others resemble verb forms. All particles, however, have this characteristic in common: their essential structure is not variable. Particles function as adverbs, numerals, conjunctions, and occasionally as adjectives.

It is clear from what has been said that Apache words are built up of two principal classes of glosseme: prefixes and themes. Prefixes may be classed as possessive and objective pronouns, used with either nouns or verbs; and as derivational and paradigmatic prefixes, which are combined only with verb themes. Themes are structurally of two types. Those composed of a stem alone, and those composed of a prefix plus stem. The latter type occurs only in nouns and verbs; the former in all form classes.

In addition to these two classes of glosseme, however, there is another less important class, the proclitics and enclitics. Proclitics may be distinguished from prefixes by the fact that they always occur before any prefix also included in a word, and because they may occur with words of any form class whereas prefixes are generally confined to words of a single form class. Enclitics always follow the stem, and, like the proclitics, may occur in words of any form class. Proclitics function as adverbial or adjectival modifiers, and enclitics as postpositions, relatives, and tense-modal indicators.