ONEOFMANYFEATHERS'

The Cherokee Alphabet

An Introduction to the Cherokee Language

a			e		i		o	u	v
ga	ka		ge		gi		go	gu	gv
ha			he		hi		ho	hu	hv
la			le		li		lo	lu	lv
ma			me		mi		mo	mu
na	hna	nah	ne		ni		no	nu	nv
qua			que		qui		quo	quu	quv
sa	s		se		si		so	su	sv
da	ta		de	te	di	ti	do	du	dv
dla	tla		tle		tli		tlo	tlu	tlv
tsa			tse		tsi		tso	tsu	tsv
wa			we		wi		wo	wu	wv
ya			ye		yi		yo	yu	yv

• h, k, l, m, n, q, s, t, w, and y as in English.
• g nearly as in English, but approaching k. Syllables beginning with g except (ga) can have the consonance of k.
• (do), (du), and (dv) are sometimes sounded to, tu, and tv.
• Syllables starting with tl [except (tla)] sometimes vary to dl.

A: a,as a in father,or short as a in rival.
E: e,as a in hate, or short as e in met.
I: i,as i in pique, or short as i in pit
O: o,as o in note, approaching aw in law.
U: u,as oo in fool, or short as u in pull.
V: v,as u in but, nasalized.
The Cherokee Language (Tsalagi) does not use the R or CH sound as they apear in English.

There are about 350,000 Cherokee people today, primarily in Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Missouri.

Cherokee (Tsalagi) is an Iroquoian language with an innovative written syllabary invented by a Cherokee scholar , spoken by around 22,000 people primarily in Oklahoma and North Carolina. All though Cherokee is one of the healthier Indian languages of North America and the one in which the most literature is being published, it is still in imperilled condition because of government policies as late as the fifties which enforced the removal of Cherokee children from Tsalagi-Speaking homes, reducing the number of young Cherokees being raised bilingually from 75% to less than 5% today.

'Cherokee' is Creek for 'people with another language'. Our original name for ourselves was Aniyunwiya, ("The Principle People". Another meaning is akin to "People of Go" in English, but with a probably slightly different interpretation of "God" in the traditional sense.) but Cherokee is fine too (though we say it Tsalagi--there's no R in our language). The word Cherokee or Tsalagi is actually a Choctaw word for "cave-land-people". The Delawares called the tribe the same thing, but their word is "Tallageni".

Cherokee is a meticulous, economical language, with few individual words but a precise system for elaborating each word base. Verbs are short phrases that tell not only what happened, but when and how. Nouns are descriptive; for example, a horse is so qui li, or "he carries heavy things".

The Cherokee language split into two main dialects after the Trail of Tears in 1838 and 1839, when most Cherokee were forced from their land in the southeast to territory in Oklahoma and Texas. A few Cherokee remained hidden in the hills of North Carolina, and today their descendants comprise the eastern branch of the tribe.

Because of a renewed interest in their cultural heritage, more and more Cherokee are learning the language, making it one of the few Native American languages that is spreading.

By the 16th cent., the Cherokee had a settled, advanced culture based on agriculture. Hernando De Soto visited them in 1540. They were frequently at war with the Iroquois tribes of New York but proved generally valuable allies for the British against the French. Soon after 1750, smallpox destroyed almost half the tribe. Formerly friendly with Carolina settlers, they were provoked into war with the colonists in 1760, and two years followed before the Cherokee sued for peace.

In 1820 they adopted a republican form of government, and in 1827 they established themselves as the Cherokee Nation, with their capital at New Echota, in N Georgia, under a constitution providing for an elective principal chief, a senate, and a house of representatives. Literacy was aided by the invention of a Cherokee syllabic alphabet by Sequoyah . Its 85 characters, representing the syllables of the Cherokee language, permitted the keeping of tribal records and, later, the publication of newspapers.

The 1830s discovery of gold in Cherokee territory resulted in pressure by whites to obtain their lands. A treaty was extracted from a small part of the tribe, binding the whole people to move beyond the Mississippi River within three years. Although the Cherokee overwhelmingly repudiated this document and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the nation's autonomy, the state of Georgia secured an order for their removal, which was accomplished by military force. President Andrew Jackson refused to intervene, and in 1838 the tribe was deported to the Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). Thousands died on the march, known as the "Trail of Tears, or from subsequent hardships. Their leader at this time and until 1866 was Chief John Ross.

The Cherokee made their new capital at Tahlequah (Okla.), instituted a public school system, published newspapers, and were the most important of the Five Civilized Tribes. In the U.S. Civil War their allegiance was divided between North and South, large contingents serving on each side. By a new treaty at the close of the war they freed their black slaves and admitted them to tribal citizenship. In 1892, they sold their western territorial extension, known as the Cherokee Strip, and in 1906 they formally disbanded as a tribe, becoming U.S. citizens. However, tribal entities still exist, and many Oklahoma Cherokee live on tribal landholdings. With a 1990 population of about 370,000, the Cherokee, while scattered, are by far the largest Native American group in the United States. Close to 6,000, descendants of the few who successfully resisted removal or returned after the removal, live on the Eastern Cherokee (Qualla) reservation in W North Carolina.

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