Cherokee:Pronouns

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ᏣᎳᎩ Cherokee
Family	Sub-family	Language of	Script
Iroquoian	Southern Iroquoian	ᎣᏔᎵ (Otali Cherokee)	Unicode Cherokee

Cherokee being a polysynthetic language has many pronoun prefixes, but only two pronoun words. nihi (you, singular, dual, or plural), and ayv (I, me, us, we). The organization of the pronoun prefixes, however, follows a specific pattern, plural act/secondary object - plural animate object - pronoun.

Pronoun Sets A and B

The sets of pronouns used, Set A and Set B, are used intermittently based on any one of several factors.

1. The verb uses Set A in the present tense.

A. May use Set B in the past tense or infinitive.

B. May only use Set A pronouns for all tenses.

2. The verb uses Set B in the present tense.

A. Will only use Set B for all tenses.

Examples:

ᎪᎵᎦ, goliga, I understand (Set A + Present tense)
ᎪᎵᎪᎢ, goligoi, I always understand (Set A + Habitual tense)
ᎠᏉᎵᏨᎢ, agwohltsvi. I understood (Set B + Past tense)

ᎠᎩᎭ. agiha. I have it (Set B + Present tense)
ᎠᎩᎰᎢ. agihoi. I always have it (Set B + Habitual tense)
ᎠᎩᎲᎢ. agihvi. I had it (Set B + Past tense)

ᎦᎢ. gai. I am walking (Set A + Present tense)
ᎦᎢᏍᎪᎢ. gaisgoi. I always walk (Set A + Habitual tense)
ᎦᎢᏒᎢ. gaisvi. I walked (Set A + Past tense)

	Set A	Set B
1s	g, tsi	agw, agi
2s	h, hi	ts, tsa
3s	g, ga, a	uw, u

1di	in, ini	gin, gini
2d	sd, sdi	sd, sdi
1de	osd, osdi	ogin, ogini

1pe	ots, otsi	og, ogi
2p	its, itsi	its, itsi
3p	an, ani	un, uni

1pi	id, idi	ig, igi

Figure 1.1 Basic pronoun prefixes.

Note: There are times when the pronoun sets are reversed. What this means is that the word agigohv can mean either "He saw me" or "I saw him", as well as various changes can occur to a verb which can change the roles of the subject and object of a pronoun. agigohv or agigo'v "I saw him" or "He saw me", and the reverse as well, tsigohv or tsigo'v "I saw him" or "He saw me".

Transitive Pronouns

animate object transitive prefixes
Set A prefixes
	1s	2s	3s	1di	2d	1de	1pe	2p	3pa	3pn	1pi
1s	gada[d]	gv[y]	tsi[y]		sdv[y]			itsv[y]	gatsi[y]	detsi[y]
2s	sgi[y]	hada[d]	hi[y]			sgin, sgini[y]	isgi[y]		gahi[y]	dehi[y]
3s	agi[y]	tsa[y]	g, ga, a	gini[y]	sdi[y]	ogini[y]	ogi[y]	itsi[y]		d/da	igi[y]

1di			ini[y]	inada[d]					geni[y]	deni[y]
2d	sgini[y]		sdi[y]		sdada[d]	sgini[y]	isgi[y]		gesdi[y]	desdi[y]
1de		sdv[y]	osdi[y]		sdv[y]	osdada[d]		itsv[y]	gosdi[y]	dosdi[y]

1pe		itsv[y]	otsi[y]		itsv[y]		otsada[d]	itsv[y]	gotsi[y]	dotsi[y]
2p	isgi[y]		itsi[y]			isgi[y]	isgi[y]	itsada[d]	getsi[y]	detsi[y]
3pa	gvgi[y]	gatsa[y]	ani, an	gegini[y]	gesdi[y]	gogini[y]	gogi[y]	getsi[y]		dani, dan	gegi[y]
3pn	dagi[y]	detsa[y]	ani, an	degini[y]	desdi[y]	dogini[y]	dogi[y]	detsi[y]		dani, dan	degi[y]

1pi			idi[y]						gedi[y]	dedi[y]	idada[d]

Set B prefixes
1s	agwada[d]	gv[y]	agi[y]		sdv[y]			itsv[y]	gvgi[y]	dagi[y]
2s	sgw, sgi[y]	tsada[d]	tsa[y]			sgin, sgini[y]	isgw, isgi[y]		gatsa[y]	detsa[y]
3s	tsi[y]	hi[y]	u[w]	ini[y]	sdi[y]	osdi[y]	otsi[y]	itsi[y]		du[w]	idi[y]

1di			gini[y]	ginada[d]					gegini[y]	degini[y]
2d	sgini[y]		sdi[y]		sdada[d]	sgini[y]	isgi[y]		gesdi[y]	desdi[y]
1de		sdv[y]	ogini[y]		sdv[y]	oginada[d]		itsv[y]	gogini[y]	dogini[y]

1pe		itsv[y]	ogi[y]		itsv[y]		ogada[d]	itsv[y]	gogi[y]	dogi[y]
2p	isgi[y]		itsi[y]			isgi[y]	isgi[y]	itsada[d]	getsi[y]	detsi[y]
3pa	gatsi[y]	gahi[y]	uni, un	geni[y]	gesdi[y]	gosdi[y]	gotsi[y]	getsi[y]		duni, dun	gedi[y]
3pn	datsi[y]	dehi[y]	uni, un	deni[y]	desdi[y]	dosdi[y]	dotsi[y]	detsi[y]		duni, dun	dedi[y]

1pi			igi[y]						gegi[y]	degi[y]	igada[d]

Examples:

ᏆᎳ ᏣᏂ ᎤᏬᏎᎸ. Quala Jani uwoselv. Paul told John.
ᏆᎳ ᏣᏂ ᎪᏎᎠ. Quala Jani gosea. Paul is telling John.

The pronoun prefixes isgi and sgi can sometimes be changed to isgw and sgw when preceding vowels. However, this is very rare.
Examples:

ᏒᎾᎴᏍ ᏓᏍᏉᏎᎵ? Svnales dasgwoseli? Will you tell me tomarrow?
ᎢᏍᏉᏏ! isgwosi! Tell me?
ᏍᏉᏏ! sgwosi! Tell me?

Passive Pronouns

Subject - Object
3s - 1s	vgw, vgi
3s - 2s	ets, etsi
3s - 3s	ats, atsi
3s - 1di	egin, egini
3s - 2d	esd, esdi
3s - 2p	ets, etsi
3s - 3pa	gets, getsi
3s - 1pi	eg, egi

Examples:

Ꮎ ᏗᏁᎶᏙᏗ ᎠᏥᏁᎸ ᎠᎦᏴᎵᎨ. Na dinelododi atsinelv agayvlige. The old woman was given that doll.
Ꮎ ᎠᎦᏴᎵᎨ ᎠᎪᎵᏨ ᎩᎶ. Na agayvlige agohltsv kilo. That old woman was known by someone.

To read the pronoun tables.

Columns are the objects, rows are the subjects.

Letter between brackets is used when the prefix precedes a vowel.

1- First person pronoun

2- Second person

3- Third person

s- Singular

d- Dual

p- Plural

i- Inclusive

e- Exclusive

n- Inanimate or neutral (Either inanimate or animate)

a- Animate

References

Wikipedia

Cherokee Language

Cherokee Sylabary

ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Sequoia (Inventor of the Cherokee alphabet).

CNO (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma).

A small Lexicon of Cherokee words with sounds.

Cherokee pages
Introduction · Numbers · Pronouns · Plurality · Sounds and Writing · Suffixes · Verbs · Vocabulary · ᏗᎪᏪᎶᏙᏗ

From WikiLang

Contents

Pronoun Sets A and B

Transitive Pronouns

Passive Pronouns

References