Vocabulary
These are handouts and study-guides of vocabulary words to study, organized by word type and topic. Verbs won't be included here. For those, you should go to the "Verb Tables" section. Individual Morphemes, which you can and should study similarly to how you would usually study vocabulary words, are also in their own section. These handouts present fully-formed words without extensive discussion of their morphology or etymology. I tend to make these in the form of word lists--I don't include a lot of images, diagrams, or pictures unfortunately (at least for now). I'd like to try making a wider variety of materials in the future. For now I mostly make these for my own study, and I tend to prefer word lists over pictures, diagrams, and illustrations because I'm not a particularly visual learner.
Please Remember: I am not a fluent speaker, I am not a certified instructor, I am not an academic linguist or language education specialist, and I am not Cherokee. All the writings here are the product of my own language learning process, and may contain mistakes. None of this is original research, and I should never be cited (in the academic sense) for the information contained in these writings. Feel free to print, distribute, repost, or share anything posted here.
Beginner Verb List (BVL)
The BVL is a list of around 150 verbs, each chosen with the goal of giving new learners a curated list of the most "useful" verbs I could think of. If you're looking for something to help guide your language study and help you learn more verbs, you can start here. The verbs are organized by theme and separated into groups to try and keep each "section" relatively small to avoid overwhelming students. The BVL mostly focuses on studying and memorizing the verbs using a "Stem-First" approach, meaning you'll mostly be studying and memorizing distinct Stem Forms instead of fully conjugated Index Forms. The Materials also include a Word (docx) file formatted for the Noji (Anki) app, which you can copy/paste to make digital flash cards.
Beginner Vocabulary (Non-Verbs)
Numbers (1-1000)
This handout will teach you how to count in Cherokee all the way to 1000. It covers both cardinal and ordinal numbers.
Work in progress.
Basic Colors and Shapes
This covers the most basic colors and shapes, like we teach to Kindergartners. Only includes the color words most commonly taught in Cherokee language curriculums.
Work in progress.
Days of the Week, Months of the Year, Seasons
Covers all seven days of the week (including some alternative words), months of the year, and all four seasons. Also includes some basic vocabulary like "today," "tomorrow," "yesterday," and so on.
Work in progress.
Classroom Vocabulary
Objects commonly seen in a classroom--including some verbs and phrases that may be heard or said in a classroom.
Work in progress.
Nouns: Anatomy
Body Parts I
Basic body parts, including the head and parts of the face, limbs, and major areas of the torso/trunk of the body.
Body Parts II
More specific body parts--parts of the face, limbs, and torso not covered by Body Parts I.
Work in progress.
Body Parts III
More advanced body part words referring to more specific areas of the body, including some high-use words for internal body parts.
Work in progress.
Body Parts IV: Organs
Much more advanced Body Part vocabulary mostly addressing internal organs.
Work in progress.
Nouns: Clothes
Clothes I
A short list of the most basic items of clothing. Shirts, pants, shoes, and so on. Things the average person wears every day.
Work in progress.
Clothes II
A short list of slightly more specific items of clothing, things that you don't wear every single day. Gloves, aprons, jewelry, etc.
Work in progress.
Clothes III - Extra Inflection Examples
A longer list of examples of clothing items inflected with various combinations of Pronomial choice and Pluralizer Prefixes. Meant to provide ample illustrations of the ways Pronomials and Pluralizers work together to inflect clothing words--and other inflectable nouns, for that matter.
Includes example forms and sentences with strange meanings and translations, for fun.
Work in progress.
Nouns: People, Relationships, and Professions
Work in progress.
Nouns: Nature, Animals, Plants
Work in progress.
Nouns: Around the House
Work in progress.
Adjectives
Colors In-Depth
This the most thorough collection of color words and notes I could come up with. This covers more color words than the "Basic Colors and Shapes" document, and includes some lite usage and etymological notes.
Work in progress.
Adjectives I
I intended this list to gather together extremely high-use Adjectives. These are the first Adjectives I think any learner should commit to memory.
Work in progress.
Adjectives II
These are less common Adjectives than those covered in Adjectives I. You should move on to this list once you know Adjectives I by heart and feel comfortable using them.
Work in progress.