Indigenous languages · in preparation

ᏣᎳᎩ — Tsalagi, the Cherokee Language

The language of the Cherokee people — written in a syllabary one of their own made, and carried today by two nations' schools.

In preparation — in partnership with the Cherokee people's own speakers. The goal is the whole collection in ᏣᎳᎩ (Tsalagi): every book to read and to hear, here and in the school. Nothing is published until they have guided and reviewed it.

The language

ᏣᎳᎩ (Tsalagi) is the only Southern Iroquoian language, spoken in two dialects — the Overhill-derived speech of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Kituwah dialect of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. UNESCO counts it definitely endangered: roughly 2,000 fluent speakers remain in Oklahoma and about 200 in the Eastern Band, most of them elders.

Its writing is the Cherokee syllabary — 85 characters created by Sequoyah, who completed it in 1821 after some twelve years of work. Literacy spread through the Nation within months, and in 1828 the Cherokee published the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper. Few languages on earth carry a writing system invented by a single one of their own speakers; this one does.

Their own teachers

The Cherokee Nation's Language Department works from the Durbin Feeling Language Center in Tahlequah, named for the linguist Durbin Feeling, and the Nation invests more than $18 million a year in its language under the Durbin Feeling Language Preservation Act. Its immersion school teaches children from pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 in Cherokee alone. The Eastern Band's New Kituwah Academy immerses its youngest children in the Kituwah dialect, and Northeastern State University offers a Bachelor of Arts in Education in Cherokee Education — believed to be the only four-year degree taught in a Native language.

Learn ᏣᎳᎩ in writing

This room opens first for learning to read and write. Nothing here is ours: the chart is the Cherokee Nation's own, the lessons are the Nation's own teachers, and the practice sheet holds only the chart's characters, for copying by hand.

The writing

The Cherokee syllabary — all 85 characters

As published by the Cherokee Nation Language Department (ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ ᎠᏂᏫᏒᏍᎩ), in the Nation's own syllabary handout, linked below.

	a	e	i	o	u	v
	Ꭰ a	Ꭱ e	Ꭲ i	Ꭳ o	Ꭴ u	Ꭵ v
g · k	Ꭶ ga · Ꭷ ka	Ꭸ ge	Ꭹ gi	Ꭺ go	Ꭻ gu	Ꭼ gv
h	Ꭽ ha	Ꭾ he	Ꭿ hi	Ꮀ ho	Ꮁ hu	Ꮂ hv
l	Ꮃ la	Ꮄ le	Ꮅ li	Ꮆ lo	Ꮇ lu	Ꮈ lv
m	Ꮉ ma	Ꮊ me	Ꮋ mi	Ꮌ mo	Ꮍ mu
n	Ꮎ na · Ꮏ hna · Ꮐ nah	Ꮑ ne	Ꮒ ni	Ꮓ no	Ꮔ nu	Ꮕ nv
qu	Ꮖ qua	Ꮗ que	Ꮘ qui	Ꮙ quo	Ꮚ quu	Ꮛ quv
s	Ꮜ sa	Ꮞ se	Ꮟ si	Ꮠ so	Ꮡ su	Ꮢ sv
d · t	Ꮣ da · Ꮤ ta	Ꮥ de · Ꮦ te	Ꮧ di · Ꮨ ti	Ꮩ do	Ꮪ du	Ꮫ dv
dl · tl	Ꮬ dla · Ꮭ tla	Ꮮ tle	Ꮯ tli	Ꮰ tlo	Ꮱ tlu	Ꮲ tlv
ts	Ꮳ tsa	Ꮴ tse	Ꮵ tsi	Ꮶ tso	Ꮷ tsu	Ꮸ tsv
w	Ꮹ wa	Ꮺ we	Ꮻ wi	Ꮼ wo	Ꮽ wu	Ꮾ wv
y	Ꮿ ya	Ᏸ ye	Ᏹ yi	Ᏺ yo	Ᏻ yu	Ᏼ yv

One more character stands alone: Ꮝ — the sound s by itself, with no vowel after it.

Sequoyah's first chart also carried a character for the syllable mv (Ᏽ). It is not part of the modern 85, and is not in the Nation's chart.

The last column, written v in letters, is a nasal vowel — the sound of u in “but”, breathed through the nose.

Practice the characters

Print the practice sheet and copy the characters by hand. The sheet holds only the characters of the chart above — no words, nothing added. Printable practice sheet — the Cherokee syllabary

Learn from their own teachers

The Nation's syllabary handout (PDF) — Cherokee Nation Language Department — the chart itself, to download and print
Cherokee Nation online language classes — the Nation's own online classes, free to its citizens and learners
Cherokee learning materials — the Language Department's learning and teaching materials, including its See–Say–Write books

The writing is the people's own gift to their learners. The words of the books wait for the partnership.

Hear ᏣᎳᎩ today

These voices are the Cherokee Nation's own, published by their own teachers and stations. The link takes you to their house; nothing of their voice is copied here.

Cherokee Nation Language Hub & Dictionary app — the Language Department's own hub: lessons and recordings — and the entire Cherokee New Testament read aloud, 39 hours, by first-language speaker Russell Feeling
Cherokee Nation Language Department — the Nation's own language office: lessons, audio recordings, books and classroom materials
Cherokee Voices, Cherokee Sounds — the Nation's weekly radio hour, broadcast primarily in Cherokee — music, elder interviews, community news
Cherokee Word of the Week — short spoken-word videos from Visit Cherokee Nation, with syllabary and phonetics

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians — a separate nation, whose dialect is Kituwah — keeps its materials largely within its own school; no public audio library of theirs was found, and their voice is not folded into the Nation’s above.

An open invitation

This door stands open by invitation. If you are a speaker, teacher, or language keeper of ᏣᎳᎩ, or you carry its authority, this programme asks to work with you — to be guided, corrected, and reviewed by the people whose language this is. In this collection the holy names are never invented: what the Creator is called in a language is for its own speakers to give, and the spelling of every text is theirs to settle. Write to the publisher at [email protected].

The Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band are separate nations, with separate dialects and separate schools; each will be approached through its own language authority, and the United Keetoowah Band through the Speakers Consortium the three nations share.

To hear it

When ᏣᎳᎩ opens here, it will be heard as well as read — in its own voice, spoken and recorded by Cherokee speakers. Until then this door is silent in Cherokee on purpose: the first voice heard in it should be the people's own.

The other doors

This doorway carries no advertising.