When talking about multiple animate things, the prefix ᎠᏂ- is added if the word doesn’t start with Ꭴ:
ᎠᏂᏤᎢ
[ạ²ni²je⁴ɂi] “Green of fruit or vegetable.”
ᎠᏂᏤᎢᏳᏍᏗ
[ạ²ni²je³ɂị²yu⁴sdi] “Green colored.”
ᎠᏂᎩᎦᎨᎢ
[ạ²ni²gi²³gạ³ge⁴ɂi] “Red.”
☞ Remember that it is through the exercises in the lesson material that you will learn how to understand and speak Cherokee, not by memorizing rules and word parts.
As demonstrated by your exercises in previous chapters, many Cherokee words for animals, plants, places and things do not change form when used in a plural sense. They work like the English words “deer” or “buffalo”.
However, most Cherokee words used to describe things do change form to indicate plurality and animacy. Such words include those which indicate color, size, shape, texture, and so on.
☞ Remember that it is through the exercises in the lesson material that you will learn how to understand and speak Cherokee, not by memorizing rules and word parts.
Each of the action words that you have learned so far are composed of two main parts. A base word which indicates “an action” and one or more prefixes which are used to indicate “who and whom”. The following list shows this information for the forms of ᎠᎪᏩᏘᎭ you have been using.
☞ Reminder: Cherokee does not differentiate based on sexual gender. Where you see “he” or “him” in the following you can substitute “she” or “her”.
☞ Remember that it is through the exercises in the lesson material that you will learn how to understand and speak Cherokee, not by memorizing rules and word parts.
You were previously introduced to the special combination of Ꮭ/ᏱᎩ to indicate “isn’t”.
When you use the Cherokee word “ᎥᏝ” and combine it with the special prefix “Ᏹ-” you create a negative sentence.
☞ Remember that it is through the exercises in the lesson material that you will learn how to understand and speak Cherokee, not by memorizing rules and word parts.
The following two new bound pronouns are used in this lesson.
They … me.
They … you.