About the Cherokee language

A Native American tribe that in the 19th century was more literate than the Europeans, a nation that fought for their land against the Americans but helped them during WWI and WWII, a language with its own unique writing system invented by one man in just 12 years. Cherokee language has a rich an sometimes turbulent history, with only 0,5% of the community speaking the language on a native level. At the same time, a lot of effort is put into language revitalisation, and the bold plan is to bring Cherokee back to everyday use by 2050. Check out the video if you want to learn more about this fascinating language, its history and its unique characteristics.

#nativeamerican #americanlanguage #nativelanguage

[UndyingResolve]

I love this video, I am Cherokee diaspora and I'm trying to begin learning the language. I want to say one thing, the translation of Ani Yun-Wiya, I am unfamiliar with "Yun" so I will assume that is translated correctly but the more common word that I have heard is Anigiduwagi which translates to "Principal People". I won't tell the tale here but Cherokee Oral History places our origins from not this planet, they actually have a name for Earth: Elohi, and it specifies exactly which star system we came from. That is the reason they refer to themselves that way, according to them they are the first humans on the planet. For anyone interested especially if you are Cherokee I highly recommend the book Cherokee Earth Dwellers, it is primarily a book on the Cherokee Language but also includes many stories and actual Oral history from Cherokee Elders. ANYWAYS, I just wanted to say I don't think the Cherokee thought of outsiders or people who didn't speak their language as 'barely human' in any way at all. You even follow that sentence with saying they are the ones who established relations with the colonizers, which is true. Cherokee have always been diplomatic in pre-colonial Turtle Island and many tribes communicated in other ways besides verbal or written language, even with people of other tribes.

If anyone replies with anyone about ancient aliens I'll block you or whatever idk its youtube. That show is extremely racist and has NOTHING to do with what I mentioned above.

[watchyourlanguage]

This couldn’t have been better timed, I’m currently trying to learn Cherokee. Great video!

[raifkolbjornson]

Thanks! In the day I spent a year or so trying to learn Cherokee; it was fun but doomed to failure. I don't regret a minute of it; very interesting. (And for anybody who complains about Slavic languages being difficult, well, NatAm languages set the bar a lot higher.)

[WerazotheLankster]

One little correction/clarification, you said the Eastern pronunciation of Cherokee was 'jaragi, ' but the use of the R is from the exctinct dialect of Cherokee. Some people refer the the extinct dialect as Eastern (because of the original geographic distribution of the dialects), so it's an easy mistake to make and can technically be true, but no living speakers use the R.

The J is also a western dialect feature (not sure about the extinct dialect). In modern Eastern Cherokee the word is 'tsalagi, ' but the 'ts' is pronounced voiced, like 'dz'

[johnw]

Osiyo Julie, Thanks for sharing your knowledge in this video. Our great grandfather John McHugh, born in 1832, walked to Oklahoma from N Carolina when he was very young. He refused to sign the Dawes Role and only spoke Cherokee during his annual 2 weeks working in Tahlequah. My brother got his mother's Cherokee brown eyes. I enjoy the annual Labor Day Cherokee festival in Tahlequah.

[haroldhughes]

thank you for this video. i am Cherokee and have always wanted to speak the language. i can only say my name in Cherokee. i don't live near a lot of Cherokee speakers. However i speak english, french, portuguese, spanish, hebrew, and german! love all your videos, Julie ciao!

[NathanBrooks-nq]

Julie, I'm cherokee (well my grandmother was), thank you❤

[thomaszaccone]

NO language should EVER be allowed to die out. First Nations languages should be recorded, saved and taught with Federal support. They are national treasures. Artistry of the mind and tongue.

[MatthewTheWanderer]

The problem with the Trail of Tears isn't that they were sent to a terrible place (Oklahoma is actually just as good if not better than where they came from), it's that they were forced to do it against their will and by walking the entire way without proper equipment and clothing and supplies or even enough food. I drove from Oklahoma to Florida and back a few years ago, and it still took me several days each way and my journey was plagued by multiple problems. I couldn't imagine walking 1300 miles in the worst conditions!

[johndavidnew]

I live in the cherokee nation(north eastern oklahoma). Its imtetesting to go to the Tahlequah area and see the sigm written in the cherokee syllabrary. My sons are part cherokee.

[agilvntisgi]

As someone who has been learning the language for a few years now and is familiar with the linguistic literature, this is a surprisingly solid overview of the language. (The Internet is full of inaccurate information on the language, so it is nice to see a video that presents the language with correct information.) A few minor corrections:

As I think another comment has mentioned the /r/ in Cherokee is from the extinct lower dialect, not the Eastern/North Carolina dialect.

The word "aniyunwiya" is mispronounced. The word is often spelled that way due to a historical phonetic spelling convention among 19th century American linguists to use the letter <n> to indicate nasalization of the vowel before it. In fact the word is ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ, or aniyvwiya, with the <v> (or the historical spelling <un>) representing the sound [ʌ̃]. It is also worth noting that while this word was originally what the Cherokees called themselves, modern day Cherokees use the word to refer to Native Americans broadly.

While the categorization of the Cherokee language into two dialects -- North Carolina and Oklahoma -- is often how the language is discussed, the reality is a bit more...complicated. Notably, North Carolina has a community of about 50 Cherokee speakers called Snowbird, who speak a dialect distinct from the rest of the Cherokees in North Carolina, with an admixture of traits from both North Carolina and Oklahoma Cherokee. This dialect is often left out of discussion simply because linguists have not actually studied it yet. Additionally, some Cherokee speakers have claimed that Oklahoma Cherokee could be split into as many as seven distinct dialects, though those proposed dialects, barring the occasional mention of unique characteristics in some communities like Stilwell, have not really been clearly identified and described.

Overall, solid work! The Cherokee language is in need of attention. In fact, the 200 number you site for NC Cherokee, is outdated, I believe the EBCI very recently estimated the number to now be 150.

[dartharaneus]

Native American languages sound so beautiful!

[ema-idiomas-musica]

I can't help but think of Asian languages when listening to Cherokee being spoken. Sorry if I sound ignorant, but it reminds me of an interesting mix between Thai or Vietnamese and Japanese due to some linguistic features.

[williambranch]

I have a little Cherokee. A distant ancestor was half-Cherokee, he fought for General Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836.

[kiasax]

I'm an Eastern Band Cherokee and my grandfather began teaching me our language when I was 4.
The problem was that my father was a racist, especially about having Cherokee children. At the time we Cherokees were called "colored" in our state and that drove my father crazy.
It took many years for him to calm down about it, but he eventually did, however by then our family was moving all over the place, this time no longer as an Army brat, but now a corporate brat.
So, I was far away from my Cherokee grandfather and my Pikuni Blackfoot/Cherokee grandmother.
The only chance I had was to spend summers with my Native grandparents. Still, Cherokee is not the easiest language to learn.
In the beginning, when I was so young, that was one thing since I was learning English and Cherokee simultaneously. As I grew older, it became increasingly more difficult.
In any case, sgi for your channel, perhaps through resources like yours and WCU's Cherokee resources, I might get back to the level I was at when I was 8.
Again, sgi for your efforts!
❤️🪶🪶❤️

[MatthewTheWanderer]

I took one semester of Cherokee as an elective when I was a student at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (I was studying to become a high school social studies teacher). Tahlequah is the capital of the Cherokee Nation and has street signs written in English and Cherokee. Unfortunately I didn't retain much knowledge of the language and only remember two or three words now.

[leoschultheiss]

Julie, love watching your videos. From Bern, Switzerland. 🇨🇭

[nypala]

Please do more indigenous languages, they're immensely interesting!

[frankb]

I grew up in Oklahoma and heard often about the Cherokee written language.

[super]

big fan of your videos Julie. I always learn a lot from your work, and am impressed by your ability as a polyglot. I especially love the episodes where endangered or dead languages are given the attention. Thank you!!