Cherokee:Sounds and Writing

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

Cherokee Phonology

a --- ah as in father
e --- ay as in day (Sometimes a cross between ay and eh)
i --- ee in beet
o --- in note
u --- oo in boo
v --- Nasalized u in bunk or hunt.

d, g, k, l, m, n, t, w, y : Not much different than English.

h --- before a vowel, similar to English, before a consonant or the end of a syllable (intrusive h) pronounced through the nose.

Intrusive h + C
hd, which is a more precise spelling for the sound t.
hg, is a more precise spelling for the sound k.

These two sounds, which are preceded with an intrusive h (Hence the absence of k/q and t with the Cherokee letters Ꭸge, Ꭹgi, Ꭺgo, Ꭻgu, Ꭼgv, Ꮖgwa, Ꮗgwe, Ꮘgwi, Ꮙgwo, Ꮚgwu, Ꮛgwv, Ꮩdo, Ꮪdu, Ꮫdv).
It should be mentioned that these two forms are not the only ones like this, dl- and ts- are examples.

kw, gw

Similar to English qu in quit.

ts, dz, dj, ch, j, z

All spelled with the 6 letters Ꮳtsa, Ꮴtse, Ꮵtsi, Ꮶtso, Ꮷtsu, Ꮸtsv. Only in speech can one tell the difference between these letters.

tl, dl Pronounced as one letter, not two.

Glottal stop^[1]
There is always a glottal stop, either soft or hard, between two vowels. There is only one diphthong "ai" that is usually spelled -ay-, or the glottal stop can be an -h- when between two vowels.

The glottal stop can sometimes interchange with an -h- or a -t-.

Examples:

ᎠᏗᎭadiha: ᎠᏗᎠadi'a
ᎦᎷᎩᎭgaluhgiha / galu'giha: ᎦᎷᎩᎠgaluhgi'a / galu'gi'a

Dialectual differences

These are differences that should be noted, since the spellings that are shown here are written more towards how the writer speaks.

tl is more often hl. Ꮭ ᏯᏆᏅᏔ (Spelling - tla yagwanvta : Pronunciation - tla yagwanta), thus in another dialect would be pronounced "hla yagwanta".

^[1]: The apostrophe represents the glottal stop.

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