[13] The dire situation regarding the future of the two remaining dialects prompted the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes to declare a state of emergency in June 2019, with a call to enhance revitalization efforts.

[14] The largest remaining group of Cherokee speakers is centered around Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where the Western (Overhill or Otali) dialect predominates.

The Cherokee Immersion School (Tsalagi Tsunadeloquasdi) in Tahlequah serves children in federally recognized tribes from pre-school up to grade 6.

[15] Cherokee, a polysynthetic language,[16] is also the only member of the Southern Iroquoian family,[17] and it uses a unique syllabary writing system.

[20] Such publications include a Cherokee dictionary and grammar, as well as several editions of the New Testament and Psalms of the Bible[21] and the Cherokee Phoenix (ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ, Tsalagi Tsulehisanvhi), the first newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and the first published in a Native American language.

Linguists believe that the Cherokee people migrated to the southeast from the Great Lakes region[24] about three thousand years ago, bringing with them their language.

Whyte contends, based on linguistic and molecular studies, that proto-Iroquoian speakers participated in cultural and economic exchanges along the north–south axis of the Appalachian Mountains.

[citation needed] The divergence of Southern Iroquoian (which Cherokee is the only known branch of) from the Northern Iroquoian languages occurred approximately 4,000–3,000 years ago as Late Archaic proto-Iroquoian speaking peoples became more sedentary with the advent of horticulture, advancement of lithic technologies and the emergence of social complexity in the Eastern Woodlands.

In the subsequent millennia, the Northern Iroquoian and Southern Iroquoian would be separated by various Algonquin and Siouan speaking peoples as linguistic, religious, social and technological practices from the Algonquin to the north and east and the Siouans to the west from the Ohio Valley would come to be practiced by peoples in the Chesapeake region, as well as parts of the Carolinas.

Sequoyah had some contact with English literacy and the Roman alphabet through his proximity to Fort Loudoun, where he engaged in trade with Europeans.

His limited understanding of the Latin alphabet, including the ability to recognize the letters of his name, may have aided him in the creation of the Cherokee syllabary.

[30] By 1825, the Bible and numerous religious hymns and pamphlets, educational materials, legal documents, and books were translated into the Cherokee language.

Eastern Band Principal Chief Richard Sneed, who along with other Cherokee leaders worked with Motorola on the development, considered this an effort to preserve the language.

The Otali dialect has drifted significantly from Sequoyah's syllabary in the past 150 years, and many contracted and borrowed words have been adopted into the language.

In 2019, the Tri-Council of Cherokee tribes declared a state of emergency for the language due to the threat of it going extinct, calling for the enhancement of revitalization programs.

[11][additional citation(s) needed] In 1986, the literacy rate for first language speakers was 15–20% who could read and 5% who could write, according to the 1986 Cherokee Heritage Center.

They have accomplished: "Curriculum development, teaching materials and teacher training for a total immersion program for children, beginning when they are preschoolers, that enables them to learn Cherokee as their first language.

[46] Situated in the largest area of Cherokee speakers in the world, the opportunity for that campus is for students to spend the day in an immersion school and then return to a Cherokee-speaking home.

[66] Spellings working from the syllabary rather than from the sounds often behave similarly, /t͡s/ and /kʷ/ being the only two stop series not having separate letters for plain and aspirated before any vowel in Sequoyah script.

There are four strategies depending on the phonological and morphological environments:[71] These make the identification of each individual morpheme often a difficult task: dee-DIST-ii-ITER-uu-3B-adaa(d)-REFL-nv́vneelgive:PFV-vv́ʔi-EXPdee- ii- uu- adaa(d)- nv́vneel -vv́ʔiDIST- ITER- 3B- REFL- give:PFV -EXP"he gave them right back to him"dee-DIST-iinii-1A.DU-asuúléésgwash.hands:IPFV-o-HABdee- iinii- asuúléésg -oDIST- 1A.DU- wash.hands:IPFV -HAB"you and I always wash our hands"Cherokee distinguishes six pitch patterns or tones, using four pitch levels.

While the tonal system is undergoing a gradual simplification in many areas, it remains important in meaning and is still held strongly by many, especially older, speakers.

The syllabary displays neither tone nor vowel length, but as stated earlier regarding the paucity of minimal pairs, real cases of ambiguity are rare.

[76] ᎨᎦ (ge-ga)géégaᎨᎦ (ge-ga)géégaI'm goingᎣᏍᏕᎦ (o-s-de-ga)oòsdéégaᎣᏍᏕᎦ (o-s-de-ga)oòsdéégaWe two (not you) are goingᎣᏤᎦ (o-tse-ga)oòjéégaᎣᏤᎦ (o-tse-ga)oòjéégaWe're (not you) all goingᎢᏁᎦ (i-ne-ga)iìnéégaᎢᏁᎦ (i-ne-ga)iìnéégaYou & I are goingᎢᏕᎦ (i-de-ga)iìdéégaᎢᏕᎦ (i-de-ga)iìdéégaWe're (& you) all goingᎮᎦ (he-ga)héégaᎮᎦ (he-ga)héégaYou're goingᏍᏕᎦ (s-de-ga)sdéégaᏍᏕᎦ (s-de-ga)sdéégaYou two are goingᎢᏤᎦ (i-tse-ga)iìjéégaᎢᏤᎦ (i-tse-ga)iìjéégaYou're all goingᎡᎦ (e-ga)éégaᎡᎦ (e-ga)éégaShe/he/it's goingᎠᏁᎦ (a-ne-ga)aànéégaᎠᏁᎦ (a-ne-ga)aànéégaThey are goingThe translation uses the present progressive ('at this time I am going').

ᎨᎪᎢ (ge-go-i)géégóóʼiᎨᎪᎢ (ge-go-i)géégóóʼiI often/usually goᎣᏍᏕᎪᎢ (o-s-de-go-i)oòsdéégóóʼiᎣᏍᏕᎪᎢ (o-s-de-go-i)oòsdéégóóʼiWe two (not you) often/usually goᎣᏤᎪᎢ (o-tse-go-i)oòjéégóóʼiᎣᏤᎪᎢ (o-tse-go-i)oòjéégóóʼiWe (not you) often/usually goᎢᏁᎪᎢ (i-ne-go-i)iìnéégóóʼiᎢᏁᎪᎢ (i-ne-go-i)iìnéégóóʼiYou & I often/usually goᎢᏕᎪᎢ (i-de-go-i)iìdéégóóʼiᎢᏕᎪᎢ (i-de-go-i)iìdéégóóʼiWe (& you) often/usually goᎮᎪᎢ (he-go-i)héégóóʼiᎮᎪᎢ (he-go-i)héégóóʼiYou often/usually goᏍᏕᎪᎢ (s-de-go-i)sdéégóóʼiᏍᏕᎪᎢ (s-de-go-i)sdéégóóʼiYou two often/usually goᎢᏤᎪᎢ (i-tse-go-i)iìjéégóóʼiᎢᏤᎪᎢ (i-tse-go-i)iìjéégóóʼiYou often/usually goᎡᎪᎢ (e-go-i)éégóóʼiᎡᎪᎢ (e-go-i)éégóóʼiShe/he/it often/usually goesᎠᏁᎪᎢ (a-ne-go-i)aànéégóóʼiᎠᏁᎪᎢ (a-ne-go-i)aànéégóóʼiThey often/usually goLike many Native American languages, Cherokee has many pronominal prefixes that can index both subject and object.

The classifiers can be grouped into five categories: Example: There have been reports that the youngest speakers of Cherokee are using only the indefinite forms, suggesting a decline in usage or full acquisition of the system of shape classification.

[83] In affirmative present tense sentences, no verb is required to express a copular, predicative relationship between two noun phrases.

Adjectives can also be used predicatively with a noun phrase subject, as in ᎠᎩᏙᏓ ᎤᏔᎾ agidoda utana ('my father is big').

[89] Two other scripts used to write Cherokee are a simple Latin transliteration and a more precise system with Diacritical marks.

[91][page needed] Not all phonemic distinctions of the spoken language are represented: As with some other underspecified writing systems, such as Arabic, adult speakers can distinguish words by context.

[100] From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ᏂᎦᏓ ᎠᏂᏴᏫ ᏂᎨᎫᏓᎸᎾ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏂᎶᏱ ᎤᎾᏕᎿ ᏚᏳᎧᏛ ᎨᏒᎢ.Nigada aniyvwi nigeguda'lvna ale unihloyi unadehna duyukdv gesv'i.ᏂᎦᏓ ᎠᏂᏴᏫ ᏂᎨᎫᏓᎸᎾ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏂᎶᏱ ᎤᎾᏕᎿ ᏚᏳᎧᏛ ᎨᏒᎢ.Nigada aniyvwi nigeguda'lvna ale unihloyi unadehna duyukdv gesv'i.All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.ᎨᏥᏁᎳ ᎤᎾᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏃᎵᏍᏗGejinela unadanvtehdi ale unohlisdiᎨᏥᏁᎳ ᎤᎾᏓᏅᏖᏗ ᎠᎴ ᎤᏃᎵᏍᏗGejinela unadanvtehdi ale unohlisdiThey are endowed with reason and conscienceᎠᎴ ᏌᏊ ᎨᏒ ᏧᏂᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᏗ ᎠᎾᏟᏅᏢ ᎠᏓᏅᏙ ᎬᏗ.ale sagwu gesv junilvwisdanedi anahldinvdlv adanvdo gvhdi.ᎠᎴ ᏌᏊ ᎨᏒ ᏧᏂᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᏗ ᎠᎾᏟᏅᏢ ᎠᏓᏅᏙ ᎬᏗ.ale sagwu gesv junilvwisdanedi anahldinvdlv adanvdo gvhdi.and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.