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Number of speakers Cherokee is classified as Critically Endangered by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Cherokee or Tsalagi (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, romanized: Tsalagi Gawonihisdi, IPA: [dʒalaˈɡî ɡawónihisˈdî]) is an endangered-to-moribund [a] Iroquoian language [4] and the native language of the Cherokee people.
Pre-contact Distribution of the Cherokee Language. The Cherokee language is the indigenous American Iroquoian language native to the Cherokee people. In 2019, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes declared a state of emergency for the language due to the threat of it going extinct, calling for the enhancement of revitalization programs.
Cherokee is a polysynthetic verb-heavy nominative–accusative language [citation needed] with a non-productive incorporation system. Verbs may be inflected with a large number of suffixes and prefixes that express a range of properties, including subject and/or object agreement, tense and aspect, and evidentiality.
A Cherokee language name for Cherokee people is Aniyvwiya (ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯ, translating as "Principal People"). [16] Another endonym is Anigiduwagi (ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ, translating as "People from Kituwah"). [17] Tsalagi Gawonihisdi (ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ) is the Cherokee name for the Cherokee language. [18] [19]
The Cherokee language has 2,000 first-language speakers and thousands more at a beginner or proficient level. Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, other languages in danger of extinction.
The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate until its creation. [3] He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed into the syllabary.
Sequoyah (/ s ə ˈ k w ɔɪ ə / sə-QUOY-yə; Cherokee: ᏍᏏᏉᏯ, Ssiquoya, [a] or ᏎᏉᏯ, Sequoya, [b] pronounced; c. 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and neographer of the Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee people have a long and rich history in the Great Smoky Mountains, but at many points throughout the last 300 years, that cultural tradition has been threatened.