The word “Cherokee” is actually derived from a Creek Indian word meaning “people of another language.” White settlers learned the word in their dealings with Creek and mistakenly attached it to the people of Aniyunwiya, or Tsalagi. The words “Cherokee” and “Tsalagi” are used interchangeably today.
Cherokee (Tsalagi) belongs to the Iroquoian language family. Today, the Iroquois are a group of six ethnic groups or tribes living in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The form Cherokee comes from the East, while the Tsalagi form comes from the Western dialect. Today, all Cherokee people call themselves tsa-la-gi.
Cherokee speakers formed the seventh largest group of native speakers of northern Mexico. It is spoken by 15,000 to 22,500 people from east and northeast of Oklahoma, Cherokee Reservation; Big Smoke Mountains; and western North Carolina (Ethnologue). Linguists believe that Cherokee peoples migrated southeast from the Great Lakes region around three thousand years ago.
Cherokee language combines morphemes, or linguistic units, into new combinations and chains to create meaning. Unlike proper English Cherokee sentences it usually starts with an object, followed by a subject, and then an action. Some seniors suggest that this is because Cherokee focuses on external objects first and internal objects last.
Cherokee is very different from European languages. Many European languages — French, Spanish, and Italian — for example, are related to one another, but Cherokee has no relationship to these languages at all.
Although Cherokee is not related to European languages, linguists (people who study languages and how they work) have observed that it seems to be related to other American Indian languages. Far from being the same, the American Indian languages can be grouped into families, or related language groups but not to other groups.
Cherokee Words and Phrases in English
Let us now work on the Cherokee words translated to English language:
| English | Cherokee |
| my friend | Oginalii |
| hello | O’siyo |
| how are you | Do hi tsu |
| I am well | Tsunela well |
| mother | E tsi |
| father | E do da |
| little | Usdi |
| wolf | Wahya |
| bear | Ho nv |
| wildcat | Ka he |
| bird | Tsi s qua |
| welcome | si-yo, o-si-yo |
| Goodbye | do-na-da-`go-v-i |
| Thank you | wa-do |
| Please | u-do-hi-yu-i |
| Yes | v-v |
| No | Tla |
| Man | a-s-ga-yv |
| Woman | a-ge-yv |
| three | Tso’i |
| four | Nvgi |
| five | Hisgi |
| man | Asgaya |
| woman | Agehya |
| dog | Gihli |
| sun | Nvda |
| moon | Nvda |
| water | Ama |
| white | Unega |
| yellow | Dalonige |
| red | Gigage |
| black | Gvhnige |
| eat | Agi’a |
| see | Agowatiha |
| hear | Atvgi’a |
| one | Sagwu |
| two | Ta’li |
| young woman | ah-ge-hyv |
| young man | as-ka-ya |
| come in | Ti-ya-ha-ga |
| ass | u-ka |
| alone | U-wa-s-ha |
| safety | Nunayehisdvna |
| sag | Unoyvtsv |
| said | Nuwesvgi |
| sail | Aisv |
| saint | Nasganvnva |
| sake | Nasgi igvnisisgi |
| salad | Agvhaluyv agisdi |
| salaries | Anadatlosgv |
Despite the relatively healthy size of the nation, Cherokee is an endangered language. However, the growing number of Cherokee descendants rekindled interest in the culture, history, and language of their ancestors. In some communities east of Oklahoma and west of North Carolina, Cherokee is now used by speakers of all ages.
At the time of European communication, there were three Cherokee dialects: Lower, Middle, and Overhill. The vernacular, the dominant language of the South Carolina-Georgia border, has been extinct for over 200 years. Of the remaining two vernacular languages, the middle vernacular (Kituwah) is spoken by the Eastern band in the Qualla Boundary. Overhill or Western vernacular is spoken by about 9,000 people in Oklahoma.
Western dialects are spoken and written more widely than Eastern ones. Both dialects have been influenced by English, while Western dialects reflect the Spanish influence.
Cherokee has a small inventory of phonemes. Cherokee has 6 vowels that can be short or long. Vowel length separates the meaning of words. In writing, the length of the vowel is represented by a colon after the vowel. Language has one unique vowel: schwa / ə̃ / e nasalized represented by writing the letter v. But there is only one diphthong, namely / ai /.
There are 10 consonants in the North Carolina Cherokee. Like other Iroquoian languages, Cherokee does not have labial / p /, / b /, / f /, / v / sounds. The only labial sound is / m / from a few native words and loan terms from English.
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