MultiTree:

Name: Cherokee Type: Language Alternate Names: Iroquois; Tsalagi; Tslagi; Rickohockan; Rechahecrian; Southern Iroquoian Spoken in: USA Number of speakers: 16,400 (2000 census). 130 monolinguals. 14,000 on Oklahoma rolls (1986 D. Feeling), 1,000 in North Carolina (1997 R. Sabino). Ethnic population: 308,132 (1990 census) including 70,000 on Oklahoma rolls (1986 D. Feeling), 9,800 in Eastern Band (1997 R. Sabino) (Ethnologue) Number of speakers: 11000 (UNESCO) Number of speakers: 20000 (World Oral Literature Project) Code: chr Code Standard: ISO 639-3 Documentation: SIL Families: Iroquoian Parent Subgroup: Southern Iroquoian; Southern Iroquoian Subfamily (siro) Child Dialects: Western Cherokee (chr-wes) Eastern Cherokee (chr-eas) Brief Description: "Cherokee is an Iroquoian language spoken in three divergent dialects by up to 10,000 of the more than 122,000 members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and about 1,000 of the approximately 10,000 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina. In addition, an undetermined - but relatively high - percentage of the 7,500 members of the United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma and Arkansas are speakers of the Oklahoma variety. A number of the speakers reported for the Cherokee Nation may in fact be Keetoowahs; the political independence of the Keetoowahs is in dispute and the membership rolls of the two tribes overlap. The Keetoowah population is largely rural and culturally conservative, and at least a few children are reported to be fluent speakers. There were three major dialects of Cherokee spoken in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century: Lower (Elati), Middle (Kituhwa), and Western or Overhill (Otali). The Lower dialect, which had /r/ where the others have /l/, ceased to be spoken by the end of the nineteenth century. The Overhill dialect, from the upper Tennessee Valley, is the variety spoken today in northeastern Oklahoma, where most Cherokees were forced to relocate in the late 1830s. The Middle dialect is used on the Qualla Boundary reservation, North Carolina, by descendants of Cherokees who resisted removal. The third modern dialect, spoken in the Snowbird community near Robbinsville, North Carolina, combines features of the Western and Middle dialects. Cherokee is written in a traditional syllabic orthography, devised by George Guest (Sequoyah) in the 1820s and later promoted by missionaries and progressives in the Cherokee Nation both before and after removal. The Sequoyah syllabary remains a badge of Cherokee tribal identity, both in Oklahoma and North Carolina, but is no longer in active use for general literacy." Victor Golla, Atlas of the World's Languages 2007 pg. 12

Endangerment Status

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UNESCO Status: Definitely endangered Ethnologue Status: Not listed Sutherland's Red List: Not listed