Pronunciation

Vowel Sounds

Cherokee has six main vowels. They are “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”, and “v”.

They are generally pronounced as follows:

• a: as (a) in father.

• e: as (a) in cake. Some speakers shift this letter to sound more like the “e” in “echo”.

• i: as (e) in Pete. Some speakers shift this letter to sound more like the “i” in “pit”.

• o: as (o) in hello.

• u: as (u) in tuba.

• v: as (u) in rung and is always nasalized (sounded through the nose).

Cadence

Each Cherokee vowel is pronounced “long” or “short”. A long vowel is a vowel held for a normal length of time. A short vowel is a vowel spoken for a very brief length of time. Other than for the amount of time a vowel is spoken, the long and short vowels sound the same. Short vowels will be marked in the pronunciation guide with an “underdot”.

☞ Any vowels that are not followed immediately by a number and vowels that appear at the end of words in the pronunciation guide are always short and will not be displayed with an underdot.

Examples (the numbers will be explained shortly):

• nị²ga⁴da
  short “i”, long “a”, short “a”
  This means “all”.

• ạ²hwi
  short “a”, short “i”
  This means “deer”.

• noh²ji
  short “o”, short “i”
  This means “pine” or “pine tree”.

Consonant Sounds

All of the consonants in Cherokee sound the same as their English versions, with the following few exceptions:

• g: Sounds like either the “g” in “gaff” or the “k” in “kite”. When in doubt, use the “g” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using both the “g” and “k”.

• qu: Sounds like the “qu” in “question” or the “gw” in “Gwen”. When in doubt, use the “gw” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using “kw” and “gw”.

• s: Sounds like the “s” in “sight” for Otali Cherokee or the “sh” in “shell” for Kituhwa Cherokee. The pronunciation guide will be using the Otali pronunciation for the “s” sound.

• tl: This non-English sound is made by combining a “t” or “h” with the “l” sound while keeping the tongue’s tip against the lower front teeth then dropping the tongue straight down. Those new to the language will many times think they are hearing the “cl” sound as found in “clack” or “clock”. With a little practice, you will be able to tell the “tl”, “hl”, and “kl” sounds apart. When in doubt, use the “hl” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using “hl” and “tl”.

• ts: Sounds like either the “j” in “John”, the “ch” in “chair”, the “ds” in “best buds”, or the “tz” in “spritzer”. In Otali Cherokee the “j” and “ch” soundings are more common. In Kituwah Cherokee, the “ds” and “tz” soundings are more common. As this material is primarily Otali based, when in doubt, try and use a mixture between the “j” and “ch” sounds. The pronunciation guide will be using “j”, “ch”, “dz”, and “tz”. ☞ Some books and speakers of the language will strictly use the letter combination “ts” and not any of the “j”, “ch”, or other combinations when using the English alphabet.

• You will also see trailing and leading “h” sound indicators. These are not silent like they are in English, they are always sounded out.

Pronunciation Guide

Each new Cherokee word will be presented with its Cherokee Syllabary spelling, an English pronunciation guide in brackets (“[”, “]”), and an English definition.

The following describes the different symbols used in the pronunciation guide.

Vowels

• a, e, i, o, u, v
  - Usually these are long vowels.
  ☞ Remember that when they are not immediately followed by a tone mark or when they appear at the end of a word they are short vowels.

• ạ, ẹ, ị, ọ, ụ, ṿ
  - These are always short vowels.

Pausing

• ɂ
  - A dotless question mark indicates a brief pause in speaking. This is called a glottal stop.
  Examples of this brief pause can be found in the middle of the English words: “uh-oh”, “stoplight”, and “workload”.
  ⚠ Glottal stops are important.

Miscellaneous

• ,
  - This will be used to indicate alternate pronunciations and spellings. Examples:

  • Ꮭ
    [tla, hla] “No” - Here the pronunciation guide shows “Ꮭ” is pronounced as either “tla” or “hla”.

  • ᎪᎱᏍᏗ, ᎪᏍᏗ
    [go²hu⁴sdi, go⁴sdi] “Something. A thing.” - Here the pronunciation guide shows two different ways of spelling and saying the same word.

Tone

In the CED and other source materials you will see references to pitch or tone.

What is pitch or tone? Pitch or tone, when dealing with languages, refers to shifting the tone of the voice up or down. An example of this in English is the shifting of the tone upwards towards the end of a sentence when asking a question. In Cherokee shifts in tone are actually considered parts of words and can also be used to indicate things like “happened in the past” or “let it happen in the future”. ☞ The tones used in words or phrases can change their meaning, sometimes dramatically.

In this material, the CED numbering system is being used, where:

• A “²” indicates a tone with a normal pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “normal”, “low”, or “neutral” tone.

• A “³” indicates a tone with a higher pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “high” tone.

Many words have parts with “contour” or “gliding” tones. These will be indicated by combining together the starting and ending pitches:

• A “²³” indicates a tone that starts out at a normal pitch and then is glided higher in pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “rising” tone.

• A “³²” indicates a tone that starts out at a higher pitch and then is glided down to a normal pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “falling” tone.

There are two more tones which will be only marked with single numbers and one special gliding tone that has no marking at all:

• A “¹” indicates a tone that starts with a normal pitch and then is glided downwards. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra low fall” or “low fall” tone.

• A “⁴” indicates a tone that starts out usually at either “normal” or “high”, the closest matching the preceding syllable, and then is glided upwards in pitch to end higher than the “high” tone. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra high rise” or “high rise” tone.

• At the end of every word, unless otherwise indicated, there is always a “⁴³” gliding tone which starts out with an very high pitch and then is glided down very far. Because this is at the end of every word, it is not marked. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra high fall” or “high fall” tone.

Example pronunciation guide entries, including entries that change meaning based on tone:

• ᎠᏓ
  [ạ²da] Wood.

• ᎠᏓ
  [ạ⁴ɂda] Young animal.

• ᎠᎹ
  [ạ²ma] Water.

• ᎠᎹ
  [a³ma] Salt.

• ᎬᏍᎦᎳᏗᎠ
  [gv²sgạ²lạ³dị³ɂa] He is hiding a long object.

• ᎬᏍᎦᎳᏗᎠ
  [gv¹sgạ²lạ³dị³ɂa] I am hiding a long object.

⚠ Stay away from any material that does not indicate proper cadence, tone, or does not supply proper dictionary entries. This especially applies to simple word lists. Only real dictionary entries, such as those found in the CED, will provide you with correct meaning and pronunciation so that you do not end up speaking gibberish or saying very bad things about yourself. Don’t embarrass yourself and don’t propagate false information about the language.

Things of note

Stress

Unlike English, where you stress different syllables in words with loudness you should try and keep all the syllables in your Cherokee words held at an equal volume. As a general rule, one should only stress an ending vowel that has the high fall tone when speaking Cherokee. You will find some material that claims you should stress different parts of Cherokee words and confuse cadence and tone together to create vocabulary entries with stress marks without tone or cadence marks. You should not rely on such materials for pronunciation, you will be led astray. ☞ Speaking with this different way of using stress takes a bit of practice. It is second nature for English speakers to stress certain parts of words without realizing they are doing so.

Nasalization

When speaking Cherokee, the “v” and “ṿ” vowels are always nasalized. (Sending the sound through the nose). Additionally, the ending sound on each word is also nasalized. The English word “huh”, contains an example of a nasalized “v”.

Tongue Placement

Cherokee is spoken with the tip of the tongue against the lower front teeth most of the time. You should be using the middle of your tongue to make the “s”, “d”, and “t” sounds, not the tongue’s tip. Keeping your tongue properly placed takes practice, but is critical for properly emulating native pronunciation. Do not give up.

The Intrusive “H”

Because of the way Cherokee is spoken, you will sometimes see an extra “h” added to the beginning of a syllable in the pronunciation guide, even though the matching syllabary character does not indicate any “h” sounds. This extra sound is called The Intrusive “H”. Except for the special Cherokee letters Ꮏ, “hna”, and Ꮐ, “nah”, this sound is not written. The amount of Intrusive “H” will vary from speaker to speaker, so you will hear the same words spoken with and without it to varying degrees.

Bridging

There is normally an extra sound between spoken words in the same sentence in most languages. Different languages use different sounds. If you listen very carefully, you will notice that most American English speakers use a “y” or “w” sound between many words and between vowels in a word. Here are some American English words and phrases that bridge using the “w” sound. Where these bridges occur have been marked with the “+” symbol.

• heroic, hero₊ic

• “who asked”, “who ₊ asked”

• intuition, intu₊ition

• “go away”, “go ₊ away”

• fluent, flu₊ent

• “do it”, “do ₊ it”

Here are some American English words and phrases that bridge using the “y” sound. Where these bridges occur have been marked with the “+” symbol.

• idea, ide₊a

• “say it”, “say ₊ it”

• react, re₊act

• “day after”, day ₊ after

• science, sci₊ence

• “dry off”, dry ₊ off

Different from American English, Cherokee speakers tend to use an “h” sound. While it would be a good thing to learn to bridge with an “h” sound while speaking Cherokee, it is not required to be understood clearly and correctly. It is this bridging with an “h” sound that causes the existence of the Intrusive “H” and will give your Cherokee a more correct sound.

Cherokee is not English

Sex-gender Neutral

Cherokee does not make a distinction between “he”, “she”, or “it”. Whenever you see an English translation of “he”, you can usually substitute “she” or “it”. To save space and typing, only one of the “he”, “she”, or “it” words will be provided depending on context.

Language Precision

As Cherokee is more precise than English when talking about people, the English words “we” and “us” will be avoided. They are too vague. Instead the more precise indications of people such as “he and I” and “they and I” will be used.

Cherokee also makes a clear distinction between “you (one person)”, “you two”, and “you all”. Assume that whenever you see “you” and not “you two” or “you all” it specifically means “you (one person)”.

Animacy

Animacy refers to whether a thing is alive or not. Most alive things are considered animate. Most non-living things are considered inanimate. If something moves about by itself without outside help, some speakers will use the animate form.

Written

Long vs Short

For each of the following identify long vs short vowels as found in the pronunciation guide. The first one has been completed as an example. Compare you answers to the answers in the next section.

1. sọ³hne²³la

   1. short, long, short

2. chạ²ne²³la

3. jọ²ɂi

4. sa²ɂdu

5. tạ²ɂldu

6. sa¹gwu⁴

7. ị²gv²yi⁴ɂi

8. hị²ɂahị²ɂa

9. u¹hna⁴

10. ạ³hạ²ni

11. gahl²gwo²³gi

12. jọ²ɂi²ne⁴ɂi

13. na

14. nvh²gi

15. tạɂ³li

16. nị²ga²ɂdu

17. jọ²ɂga²ɂdu

18. su²³dạ³li²ne⁴ɂi

19. gahl²gwo²³gi²ne⁴ɂi

20. tạɂ²li²ne⁴ɂi

21. nị²hi

22. hị²sgi

23. chụ²ne²³la

24. ạ³hni

25. nvh²gi²ne⁴ɂi

Questions

1. What are the Cherokee vowels?

2. What are the major dialects of Cherokee?

3. Where do Cherokee Language speakers normally place the tip of their tongue?

4. What tone do most Cherokee words end with?

5. What do each of the following pronunciation marks stand for?

   1. ¹

   2. ²

   3. ɂ

   4. ²³

   5. ⁴

6. What Cherokee dialect is being taught in this material?

Answers

1. sọ³hne²³la

   1. short, long, short

2. chạ²ne²³la

   1. short, long, short

3. jọ²ɂi

   1. short, short

4. sa²ɂdu

   1. long, short

5. tạ²ɂldu

   1. short, short

6. sa¹gwu⁴

   1. long, short

7. ị²gv²yi⁴ɂi

   1. short, long, long, short

8. hị²ɂa

   1. short, short

9. u¹hna⁴

   1. long, short

10. ạ³hạ²ni

    1. short, short, short

11. gahl²gwo²³gi

    1. short, long, short

12. jọ²ɂi²ne⁴ɂi

    1. short, long, long, short

13. na

    1. short

14. nvh²gi

    1. short, short

15. tạɂ³li

    1. short, short

16. nị²ga²ɂdu

    1. short, long, short

17. jọ²ɂga²ɂdu

    1. short, long, short

18. su²³dạ³li²ne⁴ɂi

    1. long, short, long, long, short

19. gahl²gwo²³gi²ne⁴ɂi

    1. short, long, long, long, short

20. tạɂ²li²ne⁴ɂi

    1. short, long, long, short

21. nị²hi

    1. short, short

22. hị²sgi

    1. short, short

23. chụ²ne²³la

    1. short, long, short

24. ạ³hni

    1. short, short

25. nvh²gi²ne⁴ɂi

    1. short, long, long, short

1. What are the Cherokee vowels?

   1. a, e, i, o, u, v

2. What are the major dialects of Cherokee?

   1. Elati. Kituhwa. Otali.

3. Where do Cherokee Language speakers normally place the tip of their tongue?

   1. Against the lower front teeth

4. What tone do most Cherokee words end with?

   1. The “high-fall” or ⁴³ tone.

5. What do each of the following pronunciation marks stand for?

   1. ¹ A low tone that falls.

   2. ² A normal even speaking tone.

   3. ɂ A very brief pause in speech.

   4. ²³ A normal speaking tone that rises some in tone.

   5. ⁴ A high and rising tone.

6. What Cherokee dialect is being taught in this material?

   1. Otali.