Authors: michael conrad

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.

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”.

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.

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.

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

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.”

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

The following color names are used when talking about single inanimate things:

• ᎢᏤᎢ
  [ị¹je⁴ɂi] “Green of fruit or vegetable.”

• ᎢᏤᎢᏳᏍᏗ
  [ị²je³ɂị²yu⁴sdi] “Green colored.”

• ᎤᏁᎦ
  [u²ne⁴ga] “White.”

• ᎤᏍᎪᎸᎢ
  [u¹sgo²³lv⁴ɂi] “Dim. Faded.”

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

• Ꮟ
  [si] “Wait! All the same (still). Even now (or then) as was formerly (still).”

  • ᏝᏏ, ᎥᏝᏏ
    [hlạ³si, vhlạ³si] “Not all the same (not still). Not now as was formerly (no longer still).”

• ᎪᎱᏍᏗ, ᎪᏍᏗ
  [go²hu⁴sdi, go⁴sdi] “Something. A thing. Things.”

  • Ꮭ ᎪᎱᏍᏗ
    [hla go²hu⁴sdi] “Not anything. Nothing. No things.”

ᎤᏬᎵᏗ ᎪᏪᎵ (Funny Paper)

Read the following comic aloud. ☞ If you have partners, have one person read aloud all the ᏕᏫᏗ ᏥᏍᏚ and ᏲᎾ ᎠᏍᎦᏯ parts and another the ᏥᏍᏚ ᎠᎨᏳᏣ and ᏲᎾ ᎠᎨᏯ parts. Each person should read aloud both roles at least once.

Cherokee is a language of relationship. Most words and sentences describe the relationship between things on a continuous basis. For example, to talk about someone being a friend, requires that you indicate with whom they are friends. While Cherokee has a word that can be translated as “friendship”, there is no word that directly translates to “a friend” without indicating with whom the friendship resides. It is always “his friend”, “my friend”, “your friend”, “their friend”. A person who is not in relationship to anyone, has no friends, therefore can not be called “a friend”, no matter how friendly they may be.

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

• ᎠᎨᏳᏣ
  [ạ²ge²hyu⁴ja] “A girl.”

  • ᎠᏂᎨᏳᏣ
    [ạ²ni²ge²hyu⁴ja] “Girls.”

• ᎠᏧᏣ
  [ạ²chu⁴ja] “A boy.”

  • ᎠᏂᏧᏣ
    [ạ²ni²chu⁴ja] “Boys.”

• ᎦᏙ ᎠᏛᏁᎭ
  [gạ²do² a¹dv³nẹ²ha] “What is he doing?”

  • ᎦᏙ ᎠᎾᏛᏁᎭ
    [gạ²do² a¹na²dv³nẹ²ha] “What are they doing?”

ᏘᎪᎵᏯ (Read them)

• ᎠᏂᎠᏫ
  [a¹ni²ɂạ²hwi] “The deer people.”

• ᎠᏂᎩᏟ
  [a¹ni²gi²hli] “The dog people.”

• ᎠᏂᏥᏍᏚ
  [a¹ni²ji²sdu] “The rabbit people.”

• ᎠᏂᏩᎭᏯ
  [a¹ni²wạ²hạ²ya] “The wolf people.”

• ᎠᏂᏪᏌ
  [a¹ni²we²³sa] “The cat people.”