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.
Cherokee, the sole member of the southern branch of Iroquoian languages, is considered severely endangered language on the UNESCO Language Vitality Scale of Intergenerational Language Transmission. Although Cherokee is no longer being learned by children as a first language in the home, there are highly fluent speakers of Cherokee in northeast Oklahoma who serve as a great source of Cherokee linguistic knowledge. The overall goal of the 2-year Documenting Cherokee Tone and Vowel Length project was to train native speakers and advanced language learners of Cherokee to accurately represent both tone and vowel length for each entry in the 9,000-entry digital Cherokee Electronic Dictionary (CED), and we accomplished this goal through a series of workshops held over two years, starting in 2012. We view this as a vitally important project because it involves the accurate documentation of the Cherokee language – something that will allow for a more successful language revitalization and preservation program for the Cherokee Language. The documentation work is also crucial to the field of linguistics and has already played a role in shaping linguists' understanding of how tone, stress, and pitch accent languages differ from one another. Augmenting the Cherokee Electronic Dictionary is viewed as important because it is actively supported within the Cherokee community and is currently the largest, single source for Cherokee words in citation form and in sentential contexts. Additional outcomes for this project include: training Cherokee speakers in documentary linguistics, the recording of additional Cherokee words (by different speakers) for several thousand entries in the CED, and the development and pilot testing of training materials and lessons to teach tone in actual Cherokee language classrooms. These outcomes are important precisely because tone is crucial in Cherokee and can be the only way to distinguish one word from another. The duration that a vowel is pronounced is similarly of crucial importance. Making this distinction even more important is the fact that tone and vowel length are closely related. For example, contour tones appear only on long vowels. Functioning together, tone and vowel length provide the only acoustic cues that distinguish large sets of words. For example, the Cherokee expressions for ‘food/groceries’ and ‘time to eat’ differ only in the initial tone on the first and last vowel. This is the case with the words for ‘water’ and 'salt' as well, which differ only with respect to the tone and vowel lenghth on the initial vowel. Finally, and of utmost importance, the project required broad collaboration among linguists, language education specialists, fluent speakers, Cherokee teachers, and second language learners. It gave Cherokee speakers, teachers and learners from Cherokee Nation access to language researchers from the University of Kansas, University of Oklahoma, and Northeastern State University and Cherokee Nation. Likewise, it gave researchers access to a speakers and advanced language learners of Cherokee. This arrangement has worked to the mutual benefit of all parties involved. Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts The Documenting Cherokee Tone and Vowel Length project has made a contribution to linguistic scholarship on the nature of tone and vowel length, language change, Cherokee phonetics, and second language acquisition and pedagogy. The project trained speakers to augment and improve the largest searchable dataset on Cherokee prosody in existence. The electronic dictionary, consisting of thousands of isolated citation forms and forms in sentential contexts, is in its Beta-testing stages (www.cherokeenationfoundation.org/dictionary/), but when completed, it will provide Cherokee language access to anyone with internet capability (including community members, language teachers and learners, and researchers). The educational component of this project has contributed to second language learners’ knowledge of the linguistic character of Cherokee, as well as addressing critical research questions regarding the role of discrete phonological skills in the development of overall second language proficiency. Finally, the project offers others interested in documenting endangered languages a blueprint for teaching Indigenous community members how to document their heritage language.
