Cherokee Language Lessons

espeak-ng and CED phonetics

2020-06-29 Michael Conrad  14 minute read

(Audio updated 2020-06-29)

I've been working on adding Cherokee support to the espeak-ng speech synthesizer. While more work definitely needs done, I think this is a good start.

I have chosen to use the Cherokee-English Dictionary phonetics, as this is the only written form that indicates both tone and cadence that is in common use. Hopefully the results will be good enough at a future date to be able to add pronunciations for all the C.E.D. and Raven Rock entries at the Cherokee Dictionary Project

I have posted here the espeak-ng output for 100 of the conjugated challenges from the Bound Pronouns app for review by those interested.

Here is why I'm so keen on getting espeak-ng speaking Cherokee...

2020-06-11 Michael Conrad  2 minute read

As a student of the Cherokee language, and not having any first language or second language speakers near by presents a challenge when working on learning the basic pitch tones of the language and the cadence of words.

Fortunately the Cherokee-English Dictionary has fully annotated pronunciation entries available.

The following examples demonstrate why creating these audio files is so important:

A list of glottal stop stems in the Cherokee English Dictionary (CED)

2020-04-13 Cherokee English Dictionary  15 minute read

Ꭴ

  • ᎤᏩᎫᎴᎦ
    [u¹wa²ku²³le³²ga] {ɂ} (vi) “he’s belching, burping”

    • ᎠᎩᎫᎴᎦ
      [a¹gi²ku²³le³²ga]

    • ᎤᏩᎫᎴᏨᎢ
      [u¹wa²ku²³le³²jv²³ɂi]

    • ᎤᏩᎫᎴᎪᎢ
      [u¹wa²ku²³le³²go³ɂi]

    • ᏣᎫᎴᎩ
      [ja²ku²le¹gi]

    • ᎤᏩᎫᎴᎢᏍᏗ
      [ụ²wa²ku²³lẹ³ɂị²sdi]