ᎪᎸᏅᏱ ᏣᎳᎩ-ᏲᏁᎦ ᏗᏕᎶᏆᏍᏙᏗ – Raven Rock Cherokee-English Dictionary

Alternate Language Names

Tsalagi (ᏣᎳᎩ), ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ, Tsalagi Gawonihisdi, Giduwa.

Region

North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, and California, United States.

Who

Michael Joyner, TommyLee Whitlock.

Others Involved

This dictionary doesn’t provide any information on others who may have been involved.

Publishing Information

This resource was self-published by the authors in 2015.

How People are Cited

The authors are cited on the external and internal covers of the dictionary.

How Information is Cited

Information is cited in the dictionary’s abstract, in the Preface, and on the back cover of the dictionary.

Where is Information Coming from

Information in this dictionary comes from Duane King’s Ph.D. thesis entitled A Grammar and Dictionary of the Cherokee Language (1975). Joyner and Whitlock re-structured the information in King’s resource to make it more user-friendly, aligning the format with that found in Durbin Feeling’s Cherokee-English Dictionary (1975), which has become a familiar format for Cherokee language students.

Tools and Framework used

This dictionary is available as a digital book. It was previously available as a physical book, but it is no longer in print (as of mid-2025).

Access

The digital version is open access online through the CultureEvolution website. It may also be available to purchase from several major websites, which are listed and hyperlinked on the first page of the open access version. The physical version was available for purchase from several major online websites, which are also hyperlinked on the second page of the version housed on CultureEvolution. However, as of mid-2025, the physical version is no longer in print.

Included Languages and Directionality

Cherokee to English; English to Cherokee (index).

Dialects Included

This dictionary contains information from the Qualla Boundary, the federally-recognized territory of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Therefore, this dictionary contains information from the Eastern (i.e., Middle, Kituhwa, or ᎩᏚᏩ) dialect of Cherokee.

Type of Dictionary

This is a bilingual, bidirectional dictionary.

How are Entries Organised

Entries in the Cherokee to English dictionary are organized alphabetically by Cherokee syllabary. Entries include the Cherokee head word in the syllabary, the romanized representation of the Cherokee, the part of speech, and the English translation. Entries containing more than one English translation are separated by a semicolon, and many entries include an example sentence (or a Cherokee form that translates to a sentence in English) written first in the Cherokee syllabary followed by the English translation. Some entries include inflected forms (i.e., forms of the Cherokee word indicating relationship, ownership, plural forms, and several other forms of inflection). These inflected forms are listed by bullet point below the main entry, written first in the Cherokee syllabary followed by romanized representation. Verb entries include the five core forms listed below the main entry in the Cherokee syllabary followed by the romanized representation.

Entries are organized alphabetically by English in the English to Cherokee index. These entries only include the English head word, the Cherokee translation in the syllabary, the romanized representation of the Cherokee, and the page number of the related entry in the Cherokee to English dictionary. Entries that relate to more than one Cherokee term are separated by a comma.

Following the description of the dictionary in the Introduction, there is information included about the Cherokee sound system and a brief description about the two major Cherokee dialects: the Western (i.e., Overhill, Otali, or ᎣᏔᎵ) dialect common in Oklahoma and the Eastern (i.e., Middle, Kituhwa, or ᎩᏚᏩ) dialect common in North Carolina.

Other Features

Other Notes

This dictionary is a reformatted version of Duane King’s 1975 thesis, A Grammar and Dictionary of the Cherokee Language.

This dictionary was included in the Cherokee-English Dictionary Online Database created by the CED-Online Project Development Team.