Your Name in Cherokee: Tips for Transliteration: Translation - by Knave from Raleigh, North Carolina

There are many sites and books out there that have overused the consonant Q as a default replacement for any foreign consonant that has no direct analogue with the Cherokee syllabary. The references out there were somewhat misinformed and apparently forgot about the plethora of already-transliterated names in the Bible which used several different letter combinations to replicate English sounds, instead of relying only on the Q.

Let’s begin…

*Note: Letters within slashes are the IPA symbols. Transliterations from the Bible will follow the Cherokee letter in parentheses.

Rhotic Vowels

Unstressed -er /ɚ/ (as in dinner) = A (sometimes E, depending on preference)

Stressed -er, -ur /ɝ/ (as in turkey) = V

Stressed -ar /ɑ˞/ (as in star) = A

Stressed -or /ɔ˞/ (as in north) = O


B, Br = Qu (Bernice = ᏆᏂᏏ “Quanisi”)

Bl = Tl (Publius = ᏆᏟᏯ “Quatliya”)

C /k/ (hard) = K / G (Corinth = ᎪᎵᏂᏗᏱ “Golinidiyi”)

C /s/ (soft) = S (Cilicia = ᏏᎵᏏᏱ “Silisiyi”)

Ch // (as in cheese) = Ts (Rachel = ᎴᏥᎵ “Letsili”)

Cl, Cr = Tl (Claudius = ᏠᏗᏯ “Tlodiya”, Crete = ᏟᏗ “Tlidi”)

F, Ph = Qu / W (Felix = ᏈᎵᏏ “Quilisi”, Nephthali = ᏁᏩᏔᎵ “Newatali”)

J = Ts (Jesus = ᏥᏌ “Tsisa”)

K = K / G

P, Pr = Qu (Priscilla = ᏈᏏᎳ “Quisila”)

Pl = Tl

R = L / W (Rachel = ᎴᏥᎵ “Letsili”)

Sh /ʃ/ (as in sheep) = S

T, Th = T / D (Matthew = ᎹᏚ “Madu”)

Tr = Tl (Troas = ᏠᎠᏏ “Tloasi”)

V = W

X = Gi-S (Usually just transliterated with the S syllables, but if the /ks/ sound needs to be stressed like in Maxwell = ᎺᎩᏍᏪᎵ “Megisweli” / Max = ᎺᎩᏏ “Megisi”

Z = Ts / S (Zabulon = ᏤᏆᎳᏂ “Tsequalani”, Nazareth = ᎾᏎᎵᏗ “Naselidi”)

Zh /ʒ/ = Ts

These analogues are not always 100% correct, but it is the standard in transliterating from English to Cherokee. Use this as a base guide and note that vowels will be transliterated more at random and you must listen to what sound it makes to replicate it properly in the Cherokee syllabary.

I hope this helps! Good luck, transliterators! Feel free to ask me (Knave) if you have any questions!