Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey (1907–2000)

review of
Mary Ulmer Chiltoskey's Cherokee Words With Pictures
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 14, 2017

I was excited to find this book because I've been researching endangered languages & consider most Native American languages to be in that category. Especially endangered are those languages that exist entirely in a spoken form, languages that aren't written. Almost all Native American languages were only oral when the cultures became endangered by European invaders. The author writes by way of introduction:

"Many people helped make this book. The great Cherokee man Sequoyah by 1821 had invented a syllabary—something like an alphabet—so that his people could write their way of talking. His syllabary is in this book.

"Years ago many Cherokee could read, write and speak their language. Now only a few can. About 25 years ago Will West Long, who lived in Big Cove, began writing down words, phrases and sentences. He passed away before he made a book." - p 4

Chiltoskey's attempt to carry on this work was published in Asheville, North Carolina, a city that I'm constantly reminded of the existence of despite my never having been there. It was published in 1972, 151 years after Sequoyah's beginnings.

There's a neatly designed chart on p 3 of the Cherokee Alphabet reproduced from the Bureau of American Ethnology's Nineteenth Annual Report, plate V. This presents what might be 78 letters. I write "might be" b/c in 7 of these instances what appear to be multiple letters seem to be presented as representing one letter.

However, Will West Long's Cherokee Alphabet (1947) is presented on p 53 & there appear to be 88 letters . Only 3 of those appear to constructed out of more than 1 symbol but it's difficult for me to be sure because the list is hand-written & what I'm reading as 2 symbols might just be one elaborate one.

Reading this didn't make me literate in Cherokee. I'd have to be surrounded by Cherokee speakers to even attempt that. I will, however, at least try to use it somehow in my 'opera' in progress entitled "Endangered Languages, Endangered Cultures, Endangered Ideas" (3 movies about that can be seen here: https://youtu.be/fiAVrCNtKvQ , https://archive.org/details/ELIPabridged, &https://youtu.be/XuoZopfS4CQ?t=54m59s ).

1st, I find it phenomenal that one man, Sequoyah, wd've been visionary enuf to undertake the project of creating a written version of his people's language; 2nd, it interests me that this language was created phonetically, that each letter represents ONE SOUND & that with a knowledge of the alphabet & how to pronounce each letter one can read the words as groupings of those sounds &, therefore, recognize the word (if one knows it already). That seems like a very basic & sensible way to proceed.

Pp 5-27 present Cherokee Words: 1st in English, then spelled out using the Cherokee Alphabet with a pronunciation guide under each letter. To the right are illustrations of some of the words. As I was reading this I mentally pronounced each of the Cherokee words. hence, I pronounced:

tsa-la-gi di-ka-ne-i-s-di to mean Cherokee Words

That, in itself was an interesting exercise. I decided to put a pencilled arrow next to all plant names to remind me to use them in "Endangered Languages".

acorn = gu-le
apple = sv-ga-ta
bean = du-ya
branch (tree) = u-s-di u-wa-ni-ga-lv

Whether I was even pronouncing them correctly is unknown to me. I pronounce "u-s-di u-wa-ni-ga-lv" "oo-ss-d oo-wa-knee-ga-llvv".

After the single words section there's a middle spread called "How This Book Came To Be" followed by a phrases section from p 32 to p 42. THAT was followed by a People section etc. I was at least paying attn enuf to note that on p 36 the Cherokee version of the phrase "no good" was incompletely phoneticized. The 3 Cherokee letters only had 2 phonetic correlatives: u-yo". It shd be "u-yo-i".

I found the people names interesting: "Charley", a name I presume to have an English origin, is pronounced in Cherokee as "tsa-li" - not that different. "Kanuga", being, presumably of Cherokee origin, is pronounced as one wd expect: "ka-nu-ga". But then "Oocumma" & "Oosowi" are slightly different: "u-ga-ma" & "u-sa-wi" - so why not just Anglicize them as "Ugama" (instead of "Oocumma") & "Usawi" (instead of "Oosowi")? Maybe the pronunciation differed when they were 1st Anglicized.

Then there's "Richard": "u-we-na-i". Is that b/c the appropriate sounds aren't in the Cherokee alphabet? That seems to be the case. That brings up an interesting problem: even though most, or all, English names probably have an etymological history that might be translatable, most people using the names only know them as designators of a person. As such, "Richard" might be most easily left untranslated & just pronounced as best as possible by the non-English speaker. However, that's not always so easy. I remember being in Germany & trying to pronounce someone's name & having that person become exasperated at my poor pronunciation even tho it sounded fine to me.

In the case of names that are translatable such as "Running-Bear" & "Running-Wolf" the pronunciation changes from "yo-nv a-di-si" & "wa-ya a-di-si" are irrelevant. Note that what I presume to be the "running" part is the 2nd word in the pairings.

Then we get back to an English name for wch Cherokee sounds exist: "Sallie" = "sa-li". Then there's a different "Tsali", a man's name, "tsa-li", in wch the Anglicized version is a direct pronunciation.

On p 52:

"Above is a sample page of the dictionary started by Will West Long for book publisher George Stephens in the 1940s. First comes the English word in the scholar's own handwriting, then Sequoyah's Cherokee word in characters each representing a syllable, then pronunciation in international phonetic symbols."

These "international phonetic symbols" use diacritical marks that most people wdn't be familiar w/. The question of who Tsali was is partially answered on p 54:

"Today the Cherokee people who live on the Qualla Boundary (also called the Cherokee Indian Reservation) are the descendants of the few who hid out in the Great Smoky Mountains until they were permitted to stay there after Tsali gave his life for his people."… (altro)