Language Lessons

ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎬᎢ ᎠᎦᏔᎲᎢ (Grammar)

☞ 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 Cherokee words for “is”, “was”, and “will be” work a little differently than they do in English. The words have special forms to indicate just now, now and on going, usually, a while ago, first hand knowledge, and second hand knowledge.

The special first hand and second hand knowledge forms will be indicated by references to “with personal knowledge” and “without personal knowledge”. “With personal knowledge” indicates being a first hand witness. “Without personal knowledge” indicates being told something by someone else making your information second hand.

☞ In some materials you will see these words grouped together as one and referred to as “the copula”.

ᎦᏬᏂᏍᎬᎢ ᎠᎦᏔᎲᎢ (Grammar)

☞ 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.

Cherokee word ordering works differently than English word ordering. In simple sentences the subject of the sentence comes first, followed by the object and its modifiers, and finally by the verb and its modifiers. This results in what is called a “subject-object-verb” word order. This can be seen in the following example:

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

• Ꭷ
  [ka] “Hey now! Enough already! Hey!” ☞ Also used as a greeting to indicate a “Hey!” kind of “Hi!”.

• ᏄᎳ
  [nu⁴la] “Hurry.”

• ᎢᏯᏂ
  [ị²yạ³ni] “Count of animate.”

• ᎢᎦ
  [i²³ga⁴] “Count of inanimate.”

• ᎦᏍᎩᎸᎢ
  [ga²sgị²lv⁴ɂi] “On a chair or on a table.”

• ᏂᎦᏓ, ᏂᎦᏛ
  [nị²ga⁴da, nị²ga⁴dv] “All. Everyone.”

• ᎤᎵᏑᏫᏓ
  [ul²su²³hwị²da] “Color.”

  • ᎤᎾᎵᏑᏫᏓ
    [u²nal²su²³hwị²da] “Color (them-animate).”

  • ᏧᎵᏑᏫᏓ
    [jul²su²³hwị²da] “Color (them-inanimate).”

The Leitner system is a widely used method to efficiently use flashcards that was proposed by the German science journalist Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s. It is a simple implementation of the principle of spaced repetition, where cards are reviewed at increasing interval.

Your Name in Cherokee: Tips for Transliteration: Translation - by Knave from Raleigh, North Carolina

There are many sites and books out there that have overused the consonant Q as a default replacement for any foreign consonant that has no direct analogue with the Cherokee syllabary. The references out there were somewhat misinformed and apparently forgot about the plethora of already-transliterated names in the Bible which used several different letter combinations to replicate English sounds, instead of relying only on the Q.