A Reference Grammar of Oklahoma Cherokee

Abstract

The majority of Native American Languages are threatened with extinction within the next 100 years, a loss that will entail the destruction of the unique cultural identity of the peoples that speak them. This dissertation is a reference grammar of one such language, the Cherokee language of Oklahoma. Cherokee is the sole member of the southern branch of the Iroquoian language family. If current trends continue, it will cease to exist as a living language in two generations. Among the three federally-recognized tribes there is a strong commitment to language revitalization; furthermore, there is a large number of active speakers compared to other Native American languages. This current work aims to serve as a reference work for Cherokees interested in learning about the grammar of their language as well as for educators who are developing language materials. This dissertation also offers the academic community a comprehensive descriptive presentation of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language. Cherokee has a relatively small inventory of sounds, and vowels are distinguished by length and tone. One of the goals of this work is to allow the reader a better understanding of complex phonological rules involving vowel deletion, metathesis, and aspiration by using contextualized examples of these phenomena throughout this work. To this end an emphasis is based on using stem forms rather than natural citation forms. The use of tone as a syntactic device for creating subordinate clauses is also stressed throughout this work. The four parts of speech are verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Cherokee is a polysynthetic language and has complex verbal morphology. Verbs are complete utterances as they always carry pronominal prefixes indicating their subject and object. Prepronominal prefixes as well as clitics add considerably to the expressive range of the Cherokee verb. Nouns and adjectives, many of which are derived from verbs, often have these prefixes as well. All of the affixes and clitics are methodically described; throughout the grammar their usage is demonstrated by numerous everyday examples accompanied by an underlying morpheme breakdown and a morpheme-by-morpheme gloss. This grammar also contains a description of the rich variety of valency-adjusting operations, including Causative, Applicative and Middle voice affixes. This dissertation uses a Romanized writing system that marks tone and vowel length; all words and sentences are also written in the Cherokee Syllabary in order that the information can be useful to those already literate or those who wish to become literate in the traditional writing system. The inclusion of both systems reflects the need to serve the linguistic community as well as the Cherokee community, for whom use of the syllabary is a powerful cultural symbol. This dissertation includes three texts in the final chapter. Two are traditional narratives involving a race between two animals; the third is a short historical narrative. Excerpts from these narratives, as well as examples from the New Testament and newspaper articles, are given throughout the grammar to underline the importance of the context is establishing word order and grammatical relations.