☞ The Ꮒ- prefix can indicate “next to the speaker’s point of reference in a lateral position”.
In the “Cherokee-English Dictionary”, this point of reference is called “the speaker’s position”.
In the “A Reference Grammar of Oklahoma Cherokee”, this point of reference is called “the deictic center”.
In many cases the prefix “nị-” is used to indicate “beside” or “next to”.
Assume the point of reference is in relation to the speaker unless context indicates otherwise.
If you want to indicate something is “less” or “least” it is common to use the words “ᎦᏲᏟᎨᎢ” (smaller) and “ᏫᎦᏲᏢᎢ” (smallest).
By adding both the prefix “yị-” and the word ᎡᎵᏊ [e²li⁴gwu] “It’s possible” to the Recent Past form you create the new meaning of “Might be about to”, “Could do.”, or “May do.”.
There are several different ways in Cherokee to express the idea of “more” and “most” when talking about attributes like color or size. Here are some of these ways:
Related to the idea of “more” and “most” is the idea of “more than usual”. In English this can be expressed by phrases like “really loud”, “extra hard”, “really bad”, “especially good”, and so forth.