English / Cherokee Dictionary

Book excerpt: 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. 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. Cherokees are the only Native American People who possess a writing system equivalent to the European alphabet. The Cherokee syllabary is the only alphabet in history attributed to be the work of one man, George Gist, known to the world as Sequoyah. Although he did not speak or read the English language, he understood the power of the written word. At first Sequoyah experimented with a writing system based on logograms, but found this cumbersome and unsuitable for Cherokee. He later developed a syllabary which was originally cursive and hand-written, but it was too difficult and expensive to produce a printed version, so he devised a new version with symbols based on letters from the Latin alphabet and Western numerals. After twelve years of dedicated work, Sequoyah finished the Cherokee syllabary in 1821. He spent the rest of his life teaching his people how to read and spell. By 1820 thousands of Cherokees had learned the syllabary, and by 1830, 90% were literate in their own language. Books, religious texts, almanacs and newspapers were all published using the syllabary, which was widely used for over 100 years. Today the syllabary is still used; efforts are being made to revive both the Cherokee language and Syllabary. Increasing numbers of Cherokee descendants are renewing their ties with their traditions, history and language. With this renewal comes the understanding that their Cherokee heritage must be preserved and passed on to the next generation. Cherokee courses are offered at a number of schools, colleges and universities. This dictionary contains over 5,000 English terms with their Cherokee translation and transliteration. It also includes a Cherokee / English index. We also publish a Spanish / Cherokee Dictionary and an English / Cherokee Phrasebook. Check our website for availability. http: //www.wordsrus.info/chr/index.php