From WikiLang
 Cherokee pages
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| Introduction · Numbers · Pronouns · Plurality · Sounds and Writing · Suffixes · Verbs · Vocabulary · ᏗᎪᏪᎶᏙᏗ |
| Difficulty of Cherokee | |||
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| 5Grammar | 3Lexicon | 5Pronunciation | 3Regularity |
An Introduction to the Language
Cherokee is the only Southern Iroquoian language still spoken. There are two major dialects which are still spoken today, Otali (ᎣᏓᎵ) or Western, and Kituwah (ᎩᏚᏩ) or Eastern. However, there are other dialects as well that vary only slightly between the Otali and Kituwah dialects.
Cherokee being a polysynthetic language, is made up of many prefixes and suffixes, such that a single word can translate to an entire sentence in English having a tense, subject and/or object pronouns, one or more adverbs, and a verb. Also, there are no words for 'a' and 'the', instead one would only say the subject/object in which is being referred.
The language is, also, highly tonal. Having up to 4 different pitch levels, which can rise or fall, be short or long, and change depending on the suffixes and/or prefixes used.
The alphabet which the Cherokee use was created by one man, also an illiterate, by the name of Sequoyah. He had actually gone through three variants before settling for the alphabet which is currently in use.
Family
Iroquoian
- Southern Iroquoian
- Cherokee
Spoken in
Cherokee is spoken in parts of the United States by between 12,000 and 22,000 speakers.
