Cherokee/Lesson 1

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Note: You must be using Cherokee Unicode Supported Fonts to view this site. Information on obtaining and installing Cherokee Unicode Fonts for Windows 2000 and Windows XP is available on the Cherokee Unicode page. Mac OS X from version 10.3 (Panther), Windows Vista and some Linux Operating System's include default support for displaying the Cherokee Language in syllabary.


Lesson 1: Basic Greeting[edit | edit source]

Perhaps this lesson should be expanded.

Dialogue[edit | edit source]

Jane: ᎣᏏᏲ, ᏙᎯᏧ? o-si-yo, to-hi-tsu? (English: hello, how are you?)
John: ᎣᏍᏓ, ᏂᎯᎾ? o-s-da, ni-hi-na? (English: good, and you?)
Jane: ᎣᏍᏓᏛ o-s-da-dv (English: good)
John: ᎰᏩ! ho-wa! (English: alright!)
Jane: ᎦᏙ ᏕᏣᏙᎠ? Ga-do de-tsa-do-a? (English: What is your name?)
John: ᏣᏂ ᏓᏆᏙᎠ tsa-ni da-gwa-do-a (English: I am called John)
Jane: ᎭᏢ ᎯᏁᎳ? ha-tlv hi-ne-la? (English: Where do you live?)
John: ᏓᎵᏆ ᏥᏁᎳ. da-li-gwa tsi-ne-la (English: I live in Tahlequa)

Exercise[edit | edit source]

Unless you have printed this out, get a clean piece of paper. Without looking at the top, fill in the Cherokee words. (In syllabary as far as you remember, and in Latin)

Jane: (1)_______________ (hello, how are you?)
John: (2)_________________ (good, and you?)
Jane: (3)________ (fine) (in reply to the second person)
John: (4)_______ (alright!)

Answers: Here are the answers for questions 1-4: (1) ᎣᏏᏲ, ᏙᎯᏧ? o-si-yo, to-hi-tsu (2) ᎣᏍᏓ, ᏂᎯᎾ? o-s-da, ni-hi-na? (3) ᎣᏍᏓᏛ o-s-da-dv (4)ᎰᏩ! ho-wa!

Notes for those who correct the book[edit | edit source]

  • ᎣᏏᏧ (O-si-tsu) mean "I am fine"
  • ᏂᎾ (ni-na) or ᏂᎯᎾ (ni-hi-na) for And You?
  • ᏓᏆᏙᎠ da-gwa-to-a or ᏓᏆᏙ 'da-gwa-do