Cherokee words | Your Grandmother's Cherokee

Cherokee Words--How Many?

Bullet Standingdeer as Cherokee Emissary at Colonial Williamsburg

Apr 10, 2016

Cherokee Words – How Many? Part 1

A student asked last week “How many different words are there in Cherokee language? Do they have different words for hungry and starving? Or do they just say really hungry?”

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Feb 20, 2016

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HAPPY is an active verb--WORRY is not

Feb 2, 2016

In Cherokee language, HAPPY is an active verb. The form of it means that someone is doing an action. Galieliga = I am happy (right now). Its meaning also includes the feeling of being thankful.

Gvgisdi - Watermelon

By Kumon (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Jun 7, 2015

Native to Africa, this fruit (Citrullis lanatus) has spread around the world. It was cultivated by ancient Egyptians more than three thousand years ago, and watermelon seeds were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

Spring--Gogeyi

Red Maples in the Great Smoky Mountains. Photo by Barbara R. Duncan

Apr 2, 2015

Gohi iga
This day
(Today)

Kawoni taline
April 2nd

Uganawa
It’s warm outside

Atse tsogesi
Green fields
(Fields are green)

Anatsilvsga
Flowers are blooming

Happy New Year -- Ulihelisdi Atse Udetiyvsv'i

Fireworks in Cherokee, photo by Kristy Maney Herron

Jan 1, 2015

Ulihelisdi = it to be happy

Atse = new

Udetiyvsv'i = it was a year

Udetiyvsv'i is the same word as "He, she, or it had a birthday," meaning in English, that it has been a year.

Ditsaliheligi! = You all be happy!

Thanksgiving--Words for Eating

Nov 27, 2014

Some Cherokee words specify whether the action is happening to a solid, liquid, flexible thing, long thing, or living thing. This is another way that Cherokee language differs from English. Talking about eating is very specific.