There are two different styles of pronunciation markings which show tone and cadence used when teaching Cherokee:
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The Cherokee-English Dictionary Standard (CEDS).
- This standard uses a combination of underdots and superscripted numbers to indicate pronunciation.
- It is easy to miss the underdot for short vowel markings and the superscripted numbers for the tones don't help one visualize the pitch and tone of a vowel.
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The Modified Community Orthography (MCO).
- This one uses standard diactrics and has a clear vowel length marker to indicate cadence.
- The diactrics chosen, by their shape, help one visualize the pitch and tone of a vowel.
- Other styles, such as ones preferred by linguists, are usually very similar to this style.
Cherokee has six main vowels. They are “a”, “e”, “i”, “o”, “u”, and “v”.
They are generally pronounced as follows:
- a - as (ā) in fāther.
- e - as (ā) in cāke. Some speakers shift this letter to sound more like the “ē” in “ēcho”.
- i - as (ē) in Pēte. Some speakers shift this letter to sound more like the “ī” in “pīt”.
- o - as (ō) in hellō.
- u - as (ū) in tūba.
- v - as (ū) in rūng and is always nasalized (sounded through the nose).
Each Cherokee vowel is pronounced “long” or “short”. A long vowel is a vowel held for a normal length of time. A short vowel is a vowel sound out about half as long as a long vowel. Other than for the amount of time a vowel is spoken, the long and short vowels sound the same. Long vowels will be marked in the pronunciation guide with a colon.
Examples (the diacritics will be explained shortly):
niga̋:da short “i”, long “a”, short “a”This means “all”.
ahwi short “a”, short “i”This means “deer”.
nohji short “o”, short “i”This means “pine” or “pine tree”.
All of the consonants in Cherokee sound the same as their English versions, with the following few exceptions:
- g: Sounds like either the “g” in “gaff” or the “k” in “kite”. When in doubt, use the “g” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using both the “g” and “k”.
- qu: Sounds like the “qu” in “question” or the “gw” in “Gwen”. When in doubt, use the “gw” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using “kw” and “gw”.
- s: Sounds like the “s” in “sight” for Otali Cherokee or the “sh” in “shell” for Kituhwa Cherokee. The pronunciation guide will be using the Otali pronunciation for the “s” sound.
- tl: This non-English sound is made by combining a “t” or “h” with the “l” sound while keeping the tongue's tip against the lower front teeth then dropping the tongue straight down. Those new to the language will many times think they are hearing the “cl” sound as found in “clack” or “clock”. With a little practice, you will be able to tell the “tl”, “hl”, and “kl” sounds apart. When in doubt, use the “hl” sound. The pronunciation guide will be using “hl” and “tl”.
- ts: Sounds like either the “j” in “John”, the “ch” in “chair”, the “ds” in “best buds”, or the “tz” in “spritzer”. In Otali Cherokee the “j” and “ch” soundings are more common. In Kituwah Cherokee, the “ds” and “tz” soundings are more common. As this material is primarily Otali based, when in doubt, try and use a mixture between the “j” and “ch” sounds. The pronunciation guide will be using “j”, “ch”, “dz”, and “tz”. ☞ Some books and speakers of the language will strictly use the letter combination “ts” and not any of the “j”, “ch”, or other combinations when using the English alphabet.
- You will also see trailing and leading “h” sound indicators. These are not silent like they are in English, they are always sounded out.
The following describes the different symbols used in the pronunciation guide.
a:, e:, i:, o:, u:, v: - These are long vowels.
a, e, i, o, u, v - These are short vowels.
ʔ - A dotless question mark indicates a brief pause in speaking. This is called a glottal stop.Examples of this brief pause can be found in the middle of the English words: “kitten”, “mitten”, “uh-oh”, “stoplight”, and “workload”.⚠ Glottal stops are important.
, - This will be used to indicate alternate pronunciations and spellings. Examples:
Ꮭ [tla, hla] “No” - Here the pronunciation guide shows “Ꮭ” is pronounced as either “tla” or “hla”.
ᎪᎱᏍᏗ, ᎪᏍᏗ [go:hű:sdi, gő:sdi] “Something. A thing.” - Here the pronunciation guide shows two different ways of spelling and saying the same word.
In the CED and other source materials you will see references to pitch or tone.
What is pitch or tone? Pitch or tone, when dealing with languages, refers to shifting the tone of the voice up or down. An example of this in English is the shifting of the tone upwards towards the end of a sentence when asking a question. In Cherokee shifts in tone are actually considered parts of words and can also be used to indicate things like “happened in the past” or “let it happen in the future”. ☞ The tones used in words or phrases can change their meaning, sometimes dramatically.
In this material, the MCO diacritic system is being used, where:
- No marking (a, e, i, o, u, v) or a macron marking (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, v̄) indicates a tone with a normal pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “normal”, “low”, or “neutral” tone.
- An acute accent marking (á, é, í, ó, ú, v́) indicates a tone with a higher pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “high” tone.
- A grave accent marking (à, è, ì, ò, ù, v̀) indicates a tone that starts with a normal pitch and then is glided downwards. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra low fall” or “low fall” tone.
- A caron marking (ǎ, ě, ǐ, ǒ, ǔ, v̌) indicates a tone that starts out at a normal pitch and then is glided higher in pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “rising” tone.
- A circumflex accent marking (â, ê, î, ô, û, v̂) indicates a tone that starts out at a higher pitch and then is glided down to a normal pitch. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “falling” tone.
- A double accute accent marking (a̋, e̋, i̋, ő, ű, v̋) indicates a tone that starts out usually at either “normal” or “high”, the closest matching the preceding syllable, and then is glided upwards in pitch to end higher than the “high” tone. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra high rise” or “high rise” tone.
There is one special gliding tone that has no marking at all:
- At the end of every word, unless otherwise marked, there is always a special gliding tone which starts out with a very high pitch and then is glided down very far. Because this is at the end of most words it is never marked. ☞ This tone is commonly referred to as the “extra high fall” or “high fall” tone.
Example pronunciation guide entries, including entries that change meaning based on tone or cadence:
ᎠᏓ [ada] Wood.
ᎠᏓ [a̋ʔda] Young animal.
ᎠᎹ [ama] Water.
ᎠᎹ [á:ma] Salt.
ᎬᏍᎦᎳᏗᎠ [gv:sgaládíʔa] He is hiding a long object.
ᎬᏍᎦᎳᏗᎠ [gv̀:sgaládíʔa] I am hiding a long object.
Unlike English, where you stress different syllables in words with loudness you should try and keep all the syllables in your Cherokee words held at an equal volume. As a general rule, one should only stress an ending vowel that has the high fall tone when speaking Cherokee. You will find some material that claims you should stress different parts of Cherokee words and confuse cadence and tone together to create vocabulary entries with stress marks without tone or cadence marks. You should not rely on such materials for pronunciation, you will be led astray. ☞ Speaking with this different way of using stress takes a bit of practice. It is second nature for English speakers to stress certain parts of words without realizing they are doing so.
When speaking Cherokee, the “v” vowel is always nasalized. (Sending the sound through the nose). Additionally, the ending sound on each word is also nasalized. The English word “huh”, contains an example of a nasalized “v”.
Michael Conrad
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