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June 18

Where can I purchase a copy of the rare book "Ndee biyáti' bígoch'il'aah (Learning Apache)"?

Ndee biyáti' bígoch'il'aah (Learning Apache): An introductory textbook in the White Mountain Apache language for non-speakers (de Reuse & Adley-SantaMaria, 1996), I am 7% native American, mostly Western Apache and really want to learn my ancestral language, anyone know where I can get this book or point me in the right direction?99.145.194.98 (talk) 01:36, 18 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any reference to this as a published book. This paper by a coauthor refers to it as an unpublished manuscript; this WP article does too. -- Hoary (talk) 06:30, 18 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) It is cited everywhere as being an unpublished manuscript. Self-publishing being as easy as it is now, I wonder why, although one of the authors (Willem de Reuse) has identified some shortcomings himself in an article.^[1] The best I can think of is asking this author directly for a copy (email: rwd0002(at)unt.edu or WillemDeReuse(at)my.unt.edu). --Lambiam 06:36, 18 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if unpublished means that much for academic works, since they often circulated by mimeograph even when a book publisher wasn't involved. Chomsky's The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory was circulated since the 1950's, it was widely cited, but it wasn't published as a book til sometime in the last few decades (ISBN 030630760X Amazonpage says 1975 edition, but I think it wasn't printed til much later). In math, Bill Thurston's notes on 3-manifolds from the 1980s are another example. He published them as a book decades later, but everyone in the field had been circulating them since the beginning. I don't know if the original circulation of EGA was more formal than that. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 04:50, 20 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you are a well-connected researcher in the field concerned you'll probably have no problem getting your hands on a copy, but for others this may constitute a formidable problem. You won't find it in university libraries or catalogues. In any case, the work the OP is enquiring about is an introductory textbook, which is not what I consider to be an "academic work", even though produced by academics. --Lambiam 09:11, 20 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Well-connected researcher is maybe an overstatement, but yes, for this particular query, emailing the author is the first thing to try. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 19:17, 20 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Really appreciate the info, I will be emailing said individual. Any other leads?99.145.194.98 (talk) 03:27, 21 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'd give the author some time to respond, but after a few weeks you might try here. That program is mentioned in connection with the textbook and I think the book author was at one time associated with it. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 12:11, 22 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Typing "white mountain apache language" into youtube search finds a bunch of videos of people speaking the language, including some tutorials, if that's of any interest. 2602:24A:DE47:BB20:50DE:F402:42A6:A17D (talk) 12:42, 22 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]