Collaborative Research: Documenting Cherokee (CHR) Tone and Vowel Length

Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah OK

Investigators

Abstract

Cherokee, a severely endangered language according to the UNESCO Language Vitality Scale of Intergenerational Language Transmission, is unique among Iroquoian languages in that it alone exhibits lexical tone. Functioning together, tone and vowel length in Cherokee provide the only acoustic cues that distinguish large sets of words. Yet, there are no available resources of corresponding audio and written examples of Cherokee tone and related vowel length for language learners, teachers, or researchers to refer to. The overall goal of this project is to represent both tone and vowel length for each of 9,000 entries in the existing Cherokee Electronic Dictionary on three writing systems: the International Phonetic Alphabet, the historic Sequoyah Cherokee Syllabary, and a commonly used "Near Phonemic Alphabet." Other outcomes include: recorded recitations of each entry by different speakers to present a range of gender and phonetic detail, training for Cherokee speakers and advanced second language learners in documentary linguistics, and the development and pilot testing of materials and lessons that use the electronic dictionary to teach tone in Cherokee language classrooms. The project will make available the largest searchable dataset on Cherokee prosody in existence, aiding researchers in measuring phonetic characteristics, describing distribution patterns, and testing theories of tone while providing Cherokee language learners a tool for improving their pronunciation and knowledge of the linguistic character of Cherokee. The resulting product may serve as a model for the creation of a documentary linguistics rooted in the expression of an Indigenous community's language and culture, illustrating that language work does not necessarily have to be framed through English.