*** Welcome to piglix ***

Cherokee Language

Cherokee
ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ
Tsalagi Gawonihisdi
Cherokee-syllabary small.svg
Tsa-la-gi written in the Cherokee syllabary
Pronunciation [dʒalaˈɡî ɡawónihisˈdî]
(Oklahoma dialect)
Native to United States
Region east Oklahoma; Great Smoky Mountains and Qualla Boundary in North Carolina Also in Arkansas.
Ethnicity Cherokee
Native speakers
11,000–13,500 (2006–2008)
Cherokee syllabary, Latin script
Official status
Official language in
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina
Cherokee Nation
of Oklahoma
Regulated by United Keetoowah Band Department of Language, History, & Culture
Council of the Cherokee Nation
Language codes
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog cher1273
Linguasphere 63-AB
Cherokee lang.png
Pre-contact Distribution of the Cherokee Language
Cherokee Speaking Areas Within The USA.png
Current geographic distribution of the Cherokee language
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Cherokee (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ Tsalagi Gawonihisdi) is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people. It is the only Southern Iroquoian language and differs significantly from the other Iroquoian languages. Cherokee is a polysynthetic language and uses a unique syllabary writing system.

Today, Cherokee is one of North America's healthiest indigenous languages because extensive documentation of the language exists; it is the Native American language in which the most literature has been published. Such publications include a Cherokee dictionary and grammar as well as translated portions of the New Testament of the Bible from 1850–1951, and the Cherokee Phoenix (ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ, Tsalagi Tsulehisanvhi), the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language. Significant numbers of Cherokee speakers of all ages still populate the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina and several counties within the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, significantly Cherokee, Sequoyah, Mayes, Adair, and Delaware. Increasing numbers of Cherokee youth are renewing interest in the traditions, history, and language of their ancestors.


...
Wikipedia

...