Cherokee/Consonants

The Cherokee language has 13 main consonants. Most sonorant consonants also have one (or in the case of [ʥ], two) devoiced form which occurs when adjacent to h.

Stops

[ʔ], often used to separate adjacent vowel sounds; often used between the syllables in the English interjection “uh-oh”

[g] which is also aspirated to make [kʰ]; resembles the sounds used in the English “get” and “kit”

[gʷ], a labialized velar stop which is also devoiced as [kʷʰ]; for many speakers, especially in modern-day Oklahoma Cherokee, the articulation of this consonant is weakened and pronounced as [ɣʷ ~ w]. This consonant is usually pronounced like the sounds in the English words “iguana” and “question,” but sometimes is pronounced more closely to the sound in the English word “wear.”

[d], a voiced alveolar stop, can also be aspirated as the devoiced [tʰ]. This sound can be pronounced like the sounds in the English words “dam” and “taboo.”

Nasals

[n] and its voiceless allophone [ʰn̥]; pronounced like the sound in the sound in the English word “no,” though there isn’t an English example of the devoiced form of this consonant.

[m], which is rarely used outside of loan words; pronounced like the sound in the English word “moon.”

Fricatives

[h]; resembles the sound in the English word “hair”

[s], more commonly pronounced [ʂ ~ ʃ] in the Eastern dialect; pronounced like the sounds in the English words “silent” and “shook”

Affricates

[ʥ], a voiced alveolo-palatal affricate, which has two voiceless equivalents in Oklahoma Cherokee: [ʨ] or a voiceless alveolar affricate [ʦ]. Occasionally, [ʥ] may be pronounced as [ʣ], a voiced alveolar affricate, though this is uncommon in Oklahoma Cherokee. This sound is more common in some communities in North Carolina Cherokee, along with the voiceless [ʦ]. However, in the Snowbird community, [ʥ] and [ʨ] are retained. These sounds are pronounced like those in the English words “jaguar,” “cheat,” “tsunami,” and “dead zone,” respectively.

[dɮ], a voiced lateral affricate, which may be devoiced as [tɬ], commonly pronounced simply as a lateral fricative [ɬ]. In the Eastern dialect, this consonant is merged with the alveolar affricate. There is no English equivalent to this sound, which is formed by pressing the tip of the tongue against the roof of one's mouth and letting air pass over the sides of the tongue, making a “slurpy” version of the sound one might hear in English words like “beetle.”

Approximants

[l] with a voiceless allophone [l̥], often pronounced as a lateral fricative /ɬ/; an extinct dialect of Cherokee used an alveolar tap [ɾ] resembling the Spanish r. This sound pronounced like the sound in the English word “letter”

[w ~ ɰ] and devoiced as [ʍ]; pronounced like the sounds in the English word “wait” and “whip”

[j] and its devoiced equivalent [j̥ ~ ç]; pronounced like the sounds in the English word “you” and the interjection “hyah!”