The Cherokee Language

One of the more striking experiences of my first week in Tahlequah occurred during a free lunch break. I went with Walker to eat at Sam and Ella’s and we happened to sit near an older couple. They noticed that we were from North Carolina and asked us about what we were doing in Tahlequah. We found out that the husband, Dennis, was Cherokee. He had learned Cherokee as his first language and was retired but had worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a long time. We talked about our itinerary, Tahlequah, Creeks, and a few other things while we were all waiting for our food. The most interesting topic was the Cherokee language. Dennis told us his opinion as a native speaker of what was happening to the Cherokee language. He had a very pessimistic view of the future of the language, saying that only the older generation is using the language as a natural means of communication because it is simply not useful for younger generations. He told us a story about when he went to a conference for Cherokee speakers. He said that out of a room of more than a hundred people, only three or four understood him when he told them to stand up. With an experience like that, it’s not surprising to me that he believes the Cherokee language is in a dire situation. His opinion of the immersion school was also very different than I expected of a native speaker. His opinion was that learning Cherokee at school is not enough if it is not reinforced at home. I thought a lot about what he said, especially since it was such a differing opinion from the views of others involved with the language. I have seen many arguments like these about dying languages from studying linguistics and the Romanian language. All of Dennis’s arguments hold up completely. They are the reasons that languages like Low German and many American Indian languages are dying and the reasons that Romania is quickly losing many of its regional dialects and standardizing. The difference, though, with Cherokee is that there aren’t below 100 living speakers, like with Low German, or one 90 year old speaker, like with many other American Indian languages. That being said, there is still reason to worry. The main problem, as Dennis said, is that the language does not seem to be as useful anymore. The immersion school is a start at solving that problem – the bigger the population of speakers, the more useful the language. But it’s not enough. The school’s program ends at 4th grade currently. If children stop at that age and are not repeatedly made to speak the language for an extended period of time, they will forget how. I know because it happened to me when I first came to the United States. My parents made me speak English back to them so I would learn faster. In a year, I could still understand Romanian, but I had forgotten how to speak it. I had to reteach it to myself in second grade, and that’s why, though I’m fluent and my comprehension is about where it would be if I had lived in Romania all my life, my accent is obvious and I make pretty awful grammatical mistakes all the time. I think having a bilingual middle school would help, since there is Cherokee in high schools already. I feel that you just can’t keep the kids away from the language for several years if you want them to be speakers. Then the nation should continue to make progress in making the language as prominent as possible. This is, of course, all limited by resources, and I know these may be unrealistic suggestions. I’m glad Dennis put these thoughts in my head. Without his opinion, I feel like I would have just gotten the optimistic, rosy view of the future of the Cherokee language without seeing any of the dangers the language faces. That being said, I think the nation, if it continues to pursue education in Cherokee and making the language prominent, will be successful in preserving the Cherokee language.