Visual Cherokee Lexicon

Of our 400,000 citizens detailing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, a mere 0.005 percent are first-language speakers, most of whom are over the age of 55. This alarming statistic highlights the imminent danger our language faces.

English has permeated every aspect of our lives, and as a consequence, our people have been subjected to heinous acts of violence -- physically, socio-emotionally, and psychologically. The systemic imposition of an american-like identity upon of our people has resulted in the massive loss of our language, which we are currently attempting to counteract.

Time is of the essence as we are race the clock, with approximately 10 years to create solutions, structures, and frameworks to address this issue. While necessary work and previous efforts have been made by many first-language speakers and second-language learners, the lack of consistent production and intellectual exploration to the Cherokee language has hindered the creation of new first-language Cherokee speakers.

This project seeks to document the Cherokee language in an innovative way — based on the morphemes of a given word or phrase. 

The Cherokee language is polysynthetic, meaning it is made up of a ton of different morphemes, or the smallest meaningful unit of language. I like to explain it like we have a bunch of lego blocks and in order to create meaning in the language, we must attach the blocks that fit together in the correct order and place. Words in Cherokee are sort of like sentences in english, in the way that they can contain information like who, what, when, where, how, and why, all dependent on what types of morphemes are attached together. 

A given word in Cherokee is really like a bunch of words within one word — which is a lot to take in a second-language learner. Which leads to the importance of creating an educational resource that is both accessible and accurate to how Cherokee functions. An english lexicon is defined by its words, the core information the language functions by. However, a Cherokee lexicon must be defined by how meaning is created specific to how the language itself functions. The Visual Cherokee Lexicon seeks to define and map all the types of morphemes that appear in the language — both free and bound such as affixes, like prefixes, roots, and suffixes.

We are proposing a visual lexicon of the Cherokee language that would display a map of free and bound morphemes, outline their definitions and explanations, and offer tone-pronunciation. 

A user can enter in a word and the tool would provide the definition, as well as highlight what morphemes appear. The Lexicon would use color to denote the differences and illustrate how they are used together to form the complete meaning of the word. From there, the journey really begins — once an individual morpheme is selected, the viewer can read the explanation, as well as the tone guide for the syllable(s), and can choose to explore where the same morpheme appears in other words and how the concepts are related. 

Along with these features, the Visual Cherokee Lexicon would define what parts of speech a word belongs to, such as in/animate noun, verb, adjective, or adverb, through a color-coordinated system that is marked by the line that connects the morpheme map. 

The Lexicon will also contain conjugation sets to allow a viewer to make a selection based on mood, tense, voice, number, or person.

This user-friendly platform would be an accessible approach to learning and using Cherokee words and phrases. By enabling an audience’s ability to learn, comprehend, and utilize Cherokee concepts at a greater magnitude, the tool will create an efficient and culturally-minded way towards understanding and accuracy in the language.

Our solution will benefit all three bands of the Cherokee people; the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The Visual Cherokee Lexicon will allow for teachers and students alike, to use the tool for learning, teaching, and studying purposes. 

Generations of Cherokee language learners will be able to access and gaze upon our language in a way that has never been possible before. It will harness the wells of knowledge our speakers have shared and passed down into a living archive of information. Viewers will be able to travel down paths and routes between morphemes, where our tool will display connections and relativity, and learners can see how these blocks information work together to create meaning.

The National Consortium for Cherokee Language and Education works with first-language speakers and second-language learners to ensure our work is representative of our shared culture, history, and legacy. By combining both an innate understanding of the language with an approach to how second-language learners are able to understand the language, we are able to locate and address the nuances and intricacies of the spoken word itself, as well as the difficulties and challenges that are present when learning.

The concept stage was selected because the tool is currently in its development and research stage. Source wordlists and dictionaries are being analyzed and annotated for the purpose of creating datasets for the program that would run the Lexicon. However, the program/software that would serve as the engine for the online platform has not been written, or located.

Our team is applying to Solve to counteract centuries of erasure and silence. We are committed to the belief that Cherokee homes will have the language spoken in every room, in quiet hours and at times of fellowship. Selection would not only raise awareness of the work that is necessary for the revitalization of the Cherokee language, but would ensure fiscal, technical, legal, and marketing support for the manifestation of this project. 

Our team lead is a citizen of the Cherokee Nations and is a student currently enrolled in the Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program in Tahlequah, OK. As a second-language learner of Cherokee, our team lead is able to connect understanding and approach, both in Cherokee and english, to inform functionality, usage, methodology, and praxis.

The Visual Cherokee Lexicon project seeks to utilize software to visualize how Cherokee morphemes relate to one another, across all words and phrases. Other lexicons have been created before, but our approach will outline the foundation of the Cherokee language, enabling viewers to have a better understanding of core meanings, as well as how to use them, and respectively, how to pronounce a given word or phrase.

As Cherokee is polysynthetic, morphemes make the entirety of our language. By mapping out how the same concepts exist across words and phrases, viewers are able to travel through how the language functions. This technology will be the first of its kind for the Cherokee language and will be a milestone in our educational resources.

The Visual Cherokee Lexicon will enable all learners of the language to engage with Cherokee linguistic study, without having to dig into any of the heady terminology. By creating a tool that outlines all linguistic components of the language, the Visual Cherokee Lexicon will be able to serve as the meta center of reference and understanding. It will allow teachers and learners, alike, to draw connections and witness the breadth and relativity of the language.

1. Cherokee Living Language Preservation
   1. Preserve the Cherokee language as it exists in nature, tone, and function.
2. Cultural Revitalization
   1. Understanding of how the language exists and how to understand not just words, but meaning, will assist in the resurgence of Cherokee culture, through our language.
3. Education
   1. Equip teachers and students with accurate and expansive linguistic information that will exponentially benefit curriculum, lessons, and approach to teaching and learning.

We will measure success of these goals through feedback about the software, analyze assessments of the students who have used the Lexicon, and speak with community members and stakeholders about the interaction with the project.

The Lexicon will exist on a digital platform, suitable for desktop and mobile use. It will contain a database management system to code all information for time, audio files will be encoded into the platform, and visualization tools will be utilized to allow for viewers to journey through the meaning of the Cherokee language.

Tahlequah, OK