Cherokee is a Southern Iroquoian language now spoken by around 22,500 people in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. In 2005, the Cherokee Preservation Foundation funded a survey whose results indicated that only 460 fluent speakers were then living in Eastern Cherokee communities, with 72 percent of them over the age of 50 and elder speakers dying far more quickly than new speakers were emerging. By 2015 that number was down to 215.
Today the syllabary is still used; efforts are being made to revive both the Cherokee language and Syllabary. The process of revitalizing the language is complex. While it has been spoken for hundreds of years, there is little in written form that can be used for instruction and few people are trained in teaching it.
The 1st Edition of this phrasebook contains over 2,700 terms and phrases in English and Cherokee with their Cherokee transliteration and pronunciation. The 2nd edition contains 30% more pages and over 3,500 terms.
We also publish a Cherokee / English Dictionary and a Spanish / Cherokee Dictionary.
Contents
Introduction
A Guide to the Cherokee Language Character order Cherokee Syllabary Pronunciation Key Vowel Sounds Modifiers Cherokee Pronouns What are the Cherokee Pronouns? Numerals Cherokee Verbs Transliteration Issues
