Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee
Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ,
Tsalagi) is an
Iroquoian languageThe Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family. The language family, amongst others, includes Mohawk, Huron-Wyandot and Cherokee.Every language in this family has at least one nasal vowel phoneme...
spoken by the
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people from the Southeastern United States...
people which uses a
unique syllabaryThe Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah to write the Cherokee language in 1819. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy in that he could not previously read any script. He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed into a syllabary...
writing system. It is the only Southern Iroquoian language that remains spoken. Cherokee is
polysyntheticPolysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes.Not all languages can be easily classified as being completely polysynthetic...
.
Dialects
Cherokee has three major dialects. The Lower dialect became extinct around 1900. The Middle or Kituhwa dialect is spoken by the
Eastern bandThe Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America. The history of the Eastern Band is synonymous with that of the Qualla Boundary, although the EBCI own, hold, or maintain additional lands in the vicinity, and as far away as 100...
on the
Qualla BoundaryThe Qualla Boundary is the territory where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reside. The Qualla Boundary is located in western North Carolina, just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Qualla Boundary is not a reservation, but rather a "land trust" supervised by the United...
. The Overhill or Western dialect is spoken in Oklahoma. The Overhill dialect has an estimated 9000 speakers. The Lower dialect spoken by the inhabitants of the Lower Towns in the vicinity of the South Carolina-Georgia border had
r as the liquid consonant in its inventory, while both the contemporary Kituhwa or Ani-kituwah dialect spoken in North Carolina and the Overhill dialects contain
l. As such, the word "Cherokee" when spoken in the language is expressed as Tsalagi (pronounced Jah-la-gee, Cha-la-gee, or Cha-la-g or TSA la gi by giduwa dialect speakers) by native speakers.
Phonology
Cherokee only has one
labial consonantLabials are consonants articulated either with both lips or with the lower lip and the upper teeth...
,
m–which is relatively new to the language–unless one counts the Cherokee
w a labial instead of a
velarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
. The language also lacks
p and
b. In the case of
p,
qu is often substituted (as in the name of Cherokee
WikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia...
,
Wi-gi-que-di-ya).
Consonants
The consonant inventory for North Carolina Cherokee is given in the table below. The consonants of all Iroquoian languages pattern so that they may be grouped as (oral) obstruents, sibilants, laryngeals, and resonants (Lounsbury 1978:337). Obstruents are non-distinctively aspirated when they precede
h. There is some variation in how orthographies represent these allophones. The orthography used in the table represents the aspirated allophones as
th,
kh, and
tsh. Another common orthography represents the unaspirated allophones as
d,
g, and
dz and the aspirated allophones as
t,
k, and
ts (Scancarelli 2005:359–62).
North Carolina Cherokee consonants
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Labial Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips or with the lower lip and the upper teeth...
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AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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PalatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
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VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
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GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
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| Stop The word stop has several possible meanings in the English language, but most commonly means to cease moving.Additionally, stop, STOP, or stops may refer to:...
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| Affricate |
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| Fricative |
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| Nasal A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
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| Approximant |
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(y) |
(w) |
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Vowels
There are six short vowels and six long vowels in the Cherokee inventory. As with all Iroquoian languages, this includes a nasalized vowel (Lounsbury 1978:337). In the case of Cherokee, the nasalized vowel is a schwa, which most orthographies represent as
v and is pronounced as "u" in "but." Vowels can be short or long.
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Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called...
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Central A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...
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Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
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| Close A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
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| Mid A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...
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| Open An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in nearly all spoken languages . The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
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Diphthongs
Cherokee has only one diphthong native to the language:
Another exception to the phonology above is the modern Oklahoma use of the loanword "automobile," with the sound and sound of English.
Tone
Cherokee has a robust tonal system in which tones may be combined in various ways, following subtle and complex tonal rules that vary from community to community. While the tonal system is undergoing a gradual simplification in many areas (no doubt, as part of Cherokee often falling victim to second-language status), the tonal system remains extremely important in meaning and is still held strongly by many, especially older speakers. It should be noted that the syllabary does not normally display tone, and that real meaning discrepancies are rare within the native-language Cherokee-speaking community. The same goes for transliterated Cherokee ("osiyo", "dohitsu", etc.), which is rarely written with any tone markers, except in dictionaries. Native speakers can tell the difference between tone-distinguished words by context.
Grammar
Cherokee, like many Native American languages, is polysynthetic, meaning that many morphemes may be linked together to form a single word, which may be of great length. Cherokee verbs, the most important word type, must contain as a minimum a
pronominalIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English...
prefixA prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of Semitic languages, a prefix is called a preformative, as they can alter the form of the words to which they are fixed.Examples of prefixes:...
, a verb root, an
aspectIn linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow in the described event or state...
suffix, and a modal suffix. Consider the following verb:
Verb form ge:ga
| g- |
e: |
-g |
-a |
| PRONOMINAL PREFIX |
VERB ROOT "to go" |
ASPECT SUFFIX |
MODAL SUFFIX |
For example, the verb form
ge:ga, "I am going," has each of these elements. The pronominal prefix is g-, which indicates first person singular. The verb root is -e, "to go." The aspect suffix that this verb employs for the present-tense stem is -g-. The present-tense modal suffix for regular verbs in Cherokee is -a.
The following is a conjugation in the present tense of the verb to be. Please note that there is no separate plural form in the 3rd person. The dual form serves both the dual and plural functions
Full conjugation of Root Verb-e- going
| |
Singular |
Dual incl. |
Dual excl. |
Plural excl. |
Plural incl. |
| 1st |
gega - I'm going |
inega - We're going (you + I) |
osdega - We two are going (not you) |
otsega - We're all going (3+, not you) |
idega we're all going (3+, including you) |
| 2nd |
hega - you're going |
'sdega - you two are going |
- |
- |
itsega - you are all going |
| 3rd |
ega - (s)he/it's going |
- |
anega They (2+) are going |
- |
- |
Notice that translation is the present progressive (at this time I am going). The Cherokee language differentiates more clearly the difference between the progressive and the habitual (I go), more so than
Germanic languagesThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
like English.
The forms
gegoi, hegoi, egoi represent "I often/usually go", "you often/usually go", and "he often/usually goes" (respectively).
Verbs can also have prepronominal prefixes, reflexive prefixes, and derivative suffixes. Given all possible combinations of affixes, each regular verb can have 21,262 inflected forms.
Cherokee does not make gender distinctions, so, for example,
gawoniha can mean either "she is speaking" or "he is speaking."
Word Order
In simple declarative sentences, the word order usually is subject first, followed by the verb with any modifiers or objects at the end. Negative sentences follow different rules about word order. In noun phrases the adjectives typically precede the noun. Demonstratives, such as
nasgi, "that," or
hia, "this", occur at the beginning of noun phrases. Relative clauses follow noun phrases.
Within verb phrases, adverbs precede the verbs that they are modifying. For example, "She's speaking loudly" would be written,
Asdaya (loud)
gawoniha (she's speaking).
Cherokee sentences might not have a verb. Two noun phrases might form a sentence, in which case, word order is flexible. For example,
Na asgaya agidoda means "That man is my father." A noun phrase might be followed by an adjective, such as in the case of,
Agidoga utana or "My father is big."
Writing system
Cherokee is written in an 85-character
syllabaryA syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound.-Languages using syllabaries:...
invented by
SequoyahSequoyah , named in English George Gist or Guess, was a Cherokee silversmith who in 1821 completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible...
(also known as Guest or George Gist). Some symbols resemble
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
letters, but with completely different sound values; Sequoyah had seen English, Hebrew, and Greek writing but did not know how to read them.
Two other writing systems beside the syllabary are a simple
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
transliterationTransliteration is the practice of converting a text from one writing system into another in a systematic way.-Definitions:From an information-theoretical point of view, transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word, or ideally letter by letter...
of the language or a linguistic system with
diacritical marksA diacritic is an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective...
.
Books in Cherokee
- Awi Uniyvsdi Kanohelvdi ᎠᏫ ᎤᏂᏴᏍᏗ ᎧᏃᎮᎸᏗ: The Park Hill Tales. (2006) Sixkiller, Dennis, ed.
- Baptism: The Mode
- Cherokee Almanac (1860)
- "Christmas in those Days"
- Cherokee Driver's Manuel
- Cherokee Elementary Arithmetic (1870)
- "The Cherokee People Today"
- Cherokee Psalms: A Collection of Hymns in the Cherokee Language (1991). Sharpe, J. Ed., ed. and Daniel Scott, trans. ISBN 978-0935741162
- Cherokee Spelling Book (1924). J. D. Wofford
- Cherokee Stories. (1966) Spade & Walker
- Cherokee Vision of Elohi (1981 and 1997). Meredith, Howard, Virginia Sobral, and Wesley Proctor. ISBN 978-0966016406
- The Four Gospels and Selected Psalms in Cherokee: A Companion to the Syllabary New Testament (2004). Holmes, Ruth Bradley. ISBN 978-0806136288.
- Na Tsoi Yona Ꮎ ᏦᎢ ᏲᎾ: The Three Bears. (2007) Keeter, Ray D. and Wynema Smith. ISBN 0-9777339-0-4.
- Na Usdi Gigage Agisi Tsitaga Ꮎ ᎤᏍᏗ ᎩᎦᎨ ᎠᎩᏏ: The Little Red Hen. (2007) Smith, Wynema and Ray D. Keeter. ISBN 978-0-9777339-1-0.
Word Creation
Due to the polysynthetic nature of the Cherokee language, new and descriptive words in Cherokee are easily constructed to reflect or express modern concepts. Some good examples are
ditiyohihi (Cherokee:ᏗᏘᏲᎯᎯ) which means "he argues repeatedly and on purpose with a purpose." This is the Cherokee word for "attorney." Another example is
didaniyisgi (Cherokee:ᏗᏓᏂᏱᏍᎩ) which means "the final catcher" or "he catches them finally and conclusively." This is the Cherokee word for "policeman."
Many words, however, have been adopted from the English language – for example,
gasoline, which in Cherokee is
gasoline (Cherokee:ᎦᏐᎵᏁ). Many other words were adopted from the languages of tribes who settled in Oklahoma in the early 1900s. One interesting and humorous example is the name of
Nowata, OklahomaNowata is a city in Nowata County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,971 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Nowata County.-Geography:Nowata is located at ....
. The word "nowata" is a Delaware word for "welcome" (more precisely the Delaware word is "nuwita" which can mean "welcome" or "friend" in the Delaware language). The white settlers of the area used the name "nowata" for the township, and local Cherokees, being unaware the word had its origins in the Delaware language, called the town
Amadikanigvnagvna (Cherokee:ᎠᎹᏗᎧᏂᎬᎾᎬᎾ) which means "the water is all gone gone from here" – i.e. "no water."
Other examples of adopted words are
kawi (Cherokee:ᎧᏫ) for
coffee and
watsi (Cherokee:ᏩᏥ) for
watch (which led to
utana watsi (Cherokee:ᎤᏔᎾ ᏩᏥ) or "big watch" for
clock).
Meaning extension can be illustrated by the words for "warm" and "cold". They also mean "south" and "north" by an obvious extension. Around the time of the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
, they were further extended to US party labels,
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
and
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
, respectively.
Language drift
There are two main dialects of Cherokee spoken by modern speakers. The Giduwa dialect (Eastern Band) and the Otali Dialect (also called the Overhill dialect) spoken in Oklahoma. The Otali dialect has drifted significantly from Sequoyah's syllabary in the past 150 years, and many contracted and borrowed words have been adopted into the language. These noun and verb roots in Cherokee, however, can still be mapped to Sequoyah's syllabary. In modern times, there are more than 85 syllables in use by modern Cherokee speakers. Modern Cherokee speakers who speak Otali employ 122 distinct syllables in Oklahoma.
Drifted Otali Sequoyah Syllabary Mapping
| Otali Syllable |
Sequoyah Syllabary Index |
Sequoyah Syllabary Char |
Sequoyah Syllable |
| nah |
32 |
Ꮐ |
nah |
| hna |
31 |
Ꮏ |
hna |
| qua |
38 |
Ꮖ |
qua |
| que |
39 |
Ꮗ |
que |
| qui |
40 |
Ꮘ |
qui |
| quo |
41 |
Ꮙ |
quo |
| quu |
42 |
Ꮚ |
quu |
| quv |
43 |
Ꮛ |
quv |
| dla |
60 |
Ꮬ |
dla |
| tla |
61 |
Ꮭ |
tla |
| tle |
62 |
Ꮮ |
tle |
| tli |
63 |
Ꮯ |
tli |
| tlo |
64 |
Ꮰ |
tlo |
| tlu |
65 |
Ꮱ |
tlu |
| tlv |
66 |
Ꮲ |
tlv |
| tsa |
67 |
Ꮳ |
tsa |
| tse |
68 |
Ꮴ |
tse |
| tsi |
69 |
Ꮵ |
tsi |
| tso |
70 |
Ꮶ |
tso |
| tsu |
71 |
Ꮷ |
tsu |
| tsv |
72 |
Ꮸ |
tsv |
| hah |
79 |
Ꮿ |
ya |
| gwu |
11 |
Ꭻ |
gu |
| gwi |
40 |
Ꮘ |
qui |
| hla |
61 |
Ꮭ |
tla |
| hwa |
73 |
Ꮹ |
wa |
| gwa |
38 |
Ꮖ |
qua |
| hlv |
66 |
Ꮲ |
tlv |
| guh |
11 |
Ꭻ |
gu |
| gwe |
39 |
Ꮗ |
que |
| wah |
73 |
Ꮹ |
wa |
| hnv |
37 |
Ꮕ |
nv |
| teh |
54 |
Ꮦ |
te |
| qwa |
06 |
Ꭶ |
ga |
| yah |
79 |
Ꮿ |
ya |
| na |
30 |
Ꮎ |
na |
| ne |
33 |
Ꮑ |
ne |
| ni |
34 |
Ꮒ |
ni |
| no |
35 |
Ꮓ |
no |
| nu |
36 |
Ꮔ |
nu |
| nv |
37 |
Ꮕ |
nv |
| ga |
06 |
Ꭶ |
ga |
| ka |
07 |
Ꭷ |
ka |
| ge |
08 |
Ꭸ |
ge |
| gi |
09 |
Ꭹ |
gi |
| go |
10 |
Ꭺ |
go |
| gu |
11 |
Ꭻ |
gu |
| gv |
12 |
Ꭼ |
gv |
| ha |
13 |
Ꭽ |
ha |
| he |
14 |
Ꭾ |
he |
| hi |
15 |
Ꭿ |
hi |
| ho |
16 |
Ꮀ |
ho |
| hu |
17 |
Ꮁ |
hu |
| hv |
18 |
Ꮂ |
hv |
| ma |
25 |
Ꮉ |
ma |
| me |
26 |
Ꮊ |
me |
| mi |
27 |
Ꮋ |
mi |
| mo |
28 |
Ꮌ |
mo |
| mu |
29 |
Ꮍ |
mu |
| da |
51 |
Ꮣ |
da |
| ta |
52 |
Ꮤ |
ta |
| de |
53 |
Ꮥ |
de |
| te |
54 |
Ꮦ |
te |
| di |
55 |
Ꮧ |
di |
| ti |
56 |
Ꮨ |
ti |
| do |
57 |
Ꮩ |
do |
| du |
58 |
Ꮪ |
du |
| dv |
59 |
Ꮫ |
dv |
| la |
19 |
Ꮃ |
la |
| le |
20 |
Ꮄ |
le |
| li |
21 |
Ꮅ |
li |
| lo |
22 |
Ꮆ |
lo |
| lu |
23 |
Ꮇ |
lu |
| lv |
24 |
Ꮈ |
lv |
| sa |
44 |
Ꮜ |
sa |
| se |
46 |
Ꮞ |
se |
| si |
47 |
Ꮟ |
si |
| so |
48 |
Ꮠ |
so |
| su |
49 |
Ꮡ |
su |
| sv |
50 |
Ꮢ |
sv |
| wa |
73 |
Ꮹ |
wa |
| we |
74 |
Ꮺ |
we |
| wi |
75 |
Ꮻ |
wi |
| wo |
76 |
Ꮼ |
wo |
| wu |
77 |
Ꮽ |
wu |
| wv |
78 |
Ꮾ |
wv |
| ya |
79 |
Ꮿ |
ya |
| ye |
80 |
Ᏸ |
ye |
| yi |
81 |
Ᏹ |
yi |
| yo |
82 |
Ᏺ |
yo |
| yu |
83 |
Ᏻ |
yu |
| yv |
84 |
Ᏼ |
yv |
| to |
57 |
Ꮩ |
do |
| tu |
58 |
Ꮪ |
du |
| ko |
10 |
Ꭺ |
go |
| tv |
59 |
Ꮫ |
dv |
| qa |
73 |
Ꮹ |
wa |
| ke |
07 |
Ꭷ |
ka |
| kv |
12 |
Ꭼ |
gv |
| ah |
00 |
Ꭰ |
a |
| qo |
10 |
Ꭺ |
go |
| oh |
03 |
Ꭳ |
o |
| ju |
71 |
Ꮷ |
tsu |
| ji |
69 |
Ꮵ |
tsi |
| ja |
67 |
Ꮳ |
tsa |
| je |
68 |
Ꮴ |
tse |
| jo |
70 |
Ꮶ |
tso |
| jv |
72 |
Ꮸ |
tsv |
| a |
00 |
Ꭰ |
a |
| e |
01 |
Ꭱ |
e |
| i |
02 |
Ꭲ |
i |
| o |
03 |
Ꭳ |
o |
| u |
04 |
Ꭴ |
u |
| v |
05 |
Ꭵ |
v |
| s |
45 |
Ꮝ |
s |
| n |
30 |
Ꮎ |
na |
| l |
02 |
Ꭲ |
i |
| t |
52 |
Ꮤ |
ta |
| d |
55 |
Ꮧ |
di |
| y |
80 |
Ᏸ |
ye |
| k |
06 |
Ꭶ |
ga |
| g |
06 |
Ꭶ |
ga |
Internet usage
For years, many people wrote
transliteratedTransliteration is the practice of converting a text from one writing system into another in a systematic way.-Definitions:From an information-theoretical point of view, transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word, or ideally letter by letter...
Cherokee on the internet or used poorly compatible fonts to type out the syllabary. However, since the fairly recent addition of the Cherokee syllables to
UnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, the Cherokee language is experiencing a renaissance in its use on the Internet. For example, the entire New Testament is online in Cherokee Syllabary, and there is a Cherokee language Wikipedia featuring over 200 articles.
Cherokee language in popular culture
The theme song "I Will Find You" from the 1992 film
The Last of the MohicansThe Last of the Mohicans is a 1992 historical epic film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. It was directed by Michael Mann and based on James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel, although it owes more to George B. Seitz's 1936 film adaptation than the source novel...
by the band
ClannadClannad are a Grammy Award-winning Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age...
features Máire Brennan singing in Cherokee as well as
MohicanThe Mahicans are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe, originally settling in the Hudson River Valley , many then moving to Stockbridge, Massachusetts after 1780, before the remaining descendants moved to northeastern Wisconsin during the 1820s and 1830s.The tribe's name for itself was...
. Cherokee rapper
LitefootGary Paul Davis , better known by his stage name Litefoot, is a Native-American rapper and the founder of the Red Vinyl record label.-Personal life:...
incorporates Cherokee into songs, as do
Rita CoolidgeRita Coolidge is a mulitiple Grammy Award winning American vocalist. During the '70s and '80s, she charted hits on Billboard's Pop, Country, Adult Contemporary and Jazz charts. She is of Scottish and Cherokee Native American ancestry.-Personal life:She graduated from Andrew Jackson Senior High in...
's band
WalelaWalela is a Native American trio of singers. The group was founded in 1997 by sisters Rita Coolidge, Priscilla Coolidge and Priscilla's daughter Laura Satterfield.-Biography:...
and the intertribal drum group, Feather River Singers.
See also
- Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people from the Southeastern United States...
(people)
- Cherokee syllabary
The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah to write the Cherokee language in 1819. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy in that he could not previously read any script. He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed into a syllabary...
- Iroquoian languages
The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native American language family. The language family, amongst others, includes Mohawk, Huron-Wyandot and Cherokee.Every language in this family has at least one nasal vowel phoneme...
- Native American Languages
- Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound.-Languages using syllabaries:...
Further reading
- Bruchac, Joseph. Aniyunwiya/Real Human Beings: An Anthology of Contemporary Cherokee Prose. Greenfield Center, N.Y.: Greenfield Review Press, 1995. ISBN 0912678925
- Cook, William Hinton (1979). A Grammar of North Carolina Cherokee. Ph.D. diss., Yale University. OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing the rate of rise of library costs". It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College...
7562394.
- King, Duane H. (1975). A Grammar and Dictionary of the Cherokee Language. Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia. OCLC 6203735.
- Lounsbury, Floyd G. (1978). "Iroquoian Languages". in Bruce G. Trigger (ed.). Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15: Northeast. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 334–343. OCLC 12682465.
- Munro, Pamela (ed.) (1996). Cherokee Papers from UCLA. UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics, no. 16. OCLC 36854333.
- Pulte, William, and Durbin Feeling. 2001. "Cherokee". In: Garry, Jane, and Carl Rubino (eds.) Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages: Past and Present. New York: H. W. Wilson. (Viewed at the Rosetta Project)
- Scancarelli, Janine (1987). Grammatical Relations and Verb Agreement in Cherokee. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles. OCLC 40812890.
- Scancarelli, Janine. "Cherokee Writing." The World's Writing Systems. 1998: Section 53. (Viewed at the Rosetta Project)
External links