diacritics:

vowel deletion (vd), alternate consonants (ac), tones (tn), vowel length (vl), & transliteration

Diacritic marks for vowel deletion, aspirated “voiceless” and unaspirated “voiced” consonant derivations, tones “pitch”, and vowel length are primarily based on the 1975 “CED” (“Cherokee-English Dictionary”) by Durbin Feeling and the Cherokee Nation Dictionary app. Diacritic marks for transliterated words, aspiration, and glottal stops will also be used. Diacritic marks will only be found in the advanced learner resources on this website. Diacritic marks display best on mobile operating systems and may not display correctly depending on operating system. Examples of each possible diacritic mark used on this website include:

(vd) vowel deletion

· vowel deletion is notated with an ’ apostophe. the ’ apostophe will follow a syllabogram (most symbols in a syllabary) to show when the vowel sound of a syllabogram is omitted. uncommonly an ’ apostophe will follow the 1st syllabogram of a word when only the consonant of the 1st syllabogram in a word is pronounced. For example: ᎤᏬ́́Ꮅ︩’Ꮧ [uwoh︩l̋di] [uwoh︩l⁴di] (funny)

(ac) alternate consonants: aspirated “voiceless” and unaspirated “voiced” derivations

· aspirated “voiceless” consonant derivation, like the Ꮩ︩ in Ꭰ̀Ꭶ’Ꮩ︩̌ᏍᏗ [àk’t︩ǒsdi] [ak’¹t︩o²³sdi] (s/he's looking at him/it)

· unaspirated “voiced” consonant derivation, like the Ꮰ︩ in Ꭰ̀Ꮣ́Ꮰ︩Ꭿ́Ꭽ [àdád︩lohíha] [a¹da³d︩lo²hi³ha] (s/he's putting on a belt)

below is a list of syllabograms with consonants that can undergo an aspirated or unaspirated consonant derivation. the syllabograms are listed with their “alternate” consonant equivalent beside them in [brackets]. it may be worthwhile to take notice that only the consonant sound found in the syllabograms ᏢᏠᏟᏡᏞ can have the unaspirated “voiced” consonant derivation.

Ꮼ [Ꮼ︩] Ꮰ [Ꮰ︩] Ᏺ [Ᏺ︩] Ꭺ [Ꭺ︩] Ꮓ [Ꮓ︩] Ꮩ [Ꮩ︩] Ꮶ [Ꮶ︩] Ꮙ [Ꮙ︩] Ꮆ [Ꮆ︩]

wo [h︩wo] tlo [d︩lo] yo [h︩yo] go [k︩o] no [h︩no] do [t︩o] tso [c︩ho] gwo [k︩wo] lo [h︩lo]

(tn) tones

· low fall tone : a grave accent (Ꭴ̀) will mark a low fall tone, written as (Ꭴ¹) in the CED. Like Ꭴ̀ in Ꭴ̀:Ꮧ̂Ꮻ:’ᏍᎦ [ùdîw’sga] [u¹diw’³²sga] (s/he's getting well)

· low tone : written as (_²) in the CED, will not be marked on syllabary on this website. This is following “Cherokee Narratives” by Durbin Feeling and the Cherokee Nation Dictionary app

· rising tone : a caron (Ꭾ̌) will mark a rising tone, written as (Ꭾ²³) in the CED. Like Ꭾ̌ in Ꭰ̀ᎵᎮ̌Ꮅ̂Ꭶ [à:li:hě:lî:ga] [a¹li²he²³li³²ga] (s/he is happy, he/she is thankful)

· high tone : an accute accent (Ᏻ́) will mark a high tone, written as (Ᏻ³) in the CED. Like Ᏻ́ in Ꭴ̀ᏓᎨᏳ́Ꭽ [ù:da:ge:yú.ha] [u¹da²ge²yu³ha] (s/he loves)

· falling tone : a circumflex (Ꮼ̂) will mark a falling tone, written as (Ꮼ³²) in the CED. Like Ꮼ̂ in ᏅᏬ̂Ꮨ [nvwôt] [nv²wo³²t] (medicine)

· extra high tone : a double accute accent ( Ꭼ︩́́ ) will mark an extra high tone, written as (Ꭼ︩́́) in the CED. Like Ꭼ︩́́ in Ꮒ.Ꭼ︩́́:ʔᎢ [ni.k︩v̋:Ɂi] [ni²k︩v⁴Ɂi] (all over, everywhere)

· high fall tone : a high fall tone only occurs on the final vowel of a word on the same vowel that is usually dropped in common speech, high fall will also not be marked.

(vl) vowel length

· short vowel length ( _ ) is marked with an _ underline, like Ꭶ. in Ꭶ.Ꮕ:Ꭶ.Ꮅ́.Ꭽ [ga.nv:ga.lí.ha] [ga.²nv:²ga.²li.³ha] (s/he is cleaning him/her, s/he is cleaning it). long vowel length is unmarked. alternatively, long vowel length could be marked with ː or also : . periods and commas could also be vowel length, or periods and colons.

aspiration & glottal stops

· when a word has aspiration that may not otherwise be understood from syllabary alone, a standalone ( ʰ ) aspiration marker will be present. Like the ʰ aspiration that occurs in between Ꮠ and Ꮧ in the word ᎤᏲ̀Ꮟ̌Ꮠ́.ʰᏗ [u:yò:sǐ:só.hdi] [u²yo¹si²³so.³hdi] (to be hungry)

· glottal stop ( ˀ )written in phonetics only

transliteration

there isn’t a spelling standard in written cherokee, and there certainly isn’t a spelling standard for transliterating from english or any other language when writing in cherokee syllabary. there are some frequent concessions when transliterating into written cherokee: Ꮅ for “ree” or Ꮃ for “rah”, Ꮖ for “bah” or “pah”, Ꮳ for “jah”. this kind of practice is often used when transliterating a name into written cherokee.

transliterations will be uncommon on this website but there will be a standard whenever transliterated words are present. transliterated words will have ｢brackets｣ around them, and any foreign consonant sounds will be marked with a ̧ cedilla. in english alphabetical order with traditional cherokee phonetic vowel spelling, these syllabograms marked with a ̧ cedilla will represent foreign consonant spellings in transliterations on this website:

Ꮖ̧ Ꮗ̧ Ꮘ̧ Ꮙ̧ Ꮚ̧ Ꮛ̧ ba be bi bo bu bv

Ꮭ̧ Ꮮ̧ Ꮯ̧ Ꮰ̧ Ꮱ̧ Ꮲ̧ fa fe fi fo fu fv

Ꭽ̧ Ꭾ̧ Ꭿ̧ Ꮀ̧ Ꮁ̧ Ꮂ̧ pa pe pi po pu pv

Ꮃ̧ Ꮄ̧ Ꮅ̧ Ꮆ̧ Ꮇ̧ Ꮈ̧ ra re ri ro ru rv

Ꮹ̧ Ꮺ̧ Ꮻ̧ Ꮼ̧ Ꮽ̧ Ꮾ̧ v̧a v̧e v̧i v̧o v̧u v̧v (the “v” consonant is marked “v̧” to differentiate from the vowel “Ꭵ”)

Ꮜ̧ Ꮞ̧ Ꮟ̧ Ꮠ̧ Ꮡ̧ Ꮢ̧ za ze zi zo zu zv

1ᎬᏱᎢ example: ｢ᏣᎭ̧ᏁᏏ｣ ᎠᎵ’ᏍᏓᏴ’Ꮧ Ꮵ’ᏈᏍᏗ ᎠᏂᏴᏫ ᎤᏂᎸᏉ’Ꮧ. ｢tsapanes｣ al’sday’hdi ts’gwisdi aniyvwi unilvkw’di. many people like ｢japanese｣ food.

2ᏁᎢ example: ｢Ꮮ̧ᏱᏘ’Ꮻ̧Ꮅ｣ ᏗᎦᏚᎲ ᏫᏥᎦᏘ. ｢feyit’v̧il｣ digaduhv witsigati. I’m heading for the town of ｢fayetteville｣.

3ᏁᎢ example: ｢ᎡᎵ Ꮹ̧Ꭸ︩Ꮆ̧｣ ᏧᎾᎵ’ᏍᏓᏴ’ᏗᎢ ᏫᏤᏙᎴᏍ ᏒᎯ ᏥᎨᏒ? ｢el v̧akero｣ tsunal’sday’hdii witsedoles svhi tsigesv? did you go to the restaurant ｢el vaquero｣ yesterday?

***alt diacritics like ᎦᎵ,ᏦᏕ - Ꭺ.Ꭶ - ᎤᎦ,ᏖᎾ - ᎦᏇᎾ,Ꮫ looks better in handwriting than computer

(ap) alternate phonetics:

a note on combining unicode characters: most don’t work on non roman alphabet characters so concessions are made. extra high would be a double accute accent ̋ , underdot would be used instead of period for short vowel. voiceless and voiced combining.