A Clearer Way to Understand Cherokee: How SBP Builds on Our Linguistic Foundations

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If you’re exploring Cherokee language, pronunciation, or writing systems, this page will help you understand how the language has been documented over time and how the Standard Bickerdike Phonetic (SBP) system fits into that history.

Cherokee has a remarkable written tradition. In the early 1800s, Sequoyah created the Cherokee syllabary (completed around 1821), giving Cherokee people a powerful and culturally unique writing system. The syllabary was officially adopted by the Cherokee Nation around 1825, and it led to rapid literacy, newspapers, and widespread printing. This is well documented by the Cherokee Nation, the Cherokee Phoenix, and ethnographers such as James Mooney.

Throughout the 19th century, the syllabary remained the primary writing system used by Cherokee people. Missionaries and English‑speaking officials sometimes wrote Cherokee words using English letters, but these spellings were not standardized, not widely adopted, and not used by Cherokee speakers for literacy. This is consistent with Mooney’s observations and with Cherokee Nation historical materials.

In the 20th century, modern linguistic work began to formalize Romanized Cherokee for dictionaries, teaching materials, and academic study. The most influential figure in this development was Cherokee linguist Durbin Feeling, whose Cherokee-English Dictionary (1975) established the tone numbers, vowel spellings, and transliteration conventions that many Cherokee programs still use today. His work is widely recognized by the Cherokee Nation as foundational to contemporary Cherokee language revitalization.

However, the Standard Transliteration (ST) system was never intended to capture every detail of spoken Cherokee. Some tone movements were implied rather than written, final‑syllable falls were not marked, and the dot‑beneath‑the‑syllable used for short duration is difficult to type and often disappears on modern platforms.

To help learners see the full sound of Cherokee more clearly, I developed the Standard Bickerdike Phonetic (SBP) system and the Cherokee Bickerdike 05 “3‑in‑1” font. These tools are designed to work alongside both the syllabary and ST, not replace them, by making the spoken features of Cherokee more visible, teachable, and platform‑resilient.

Here’s what SBP adds:

✅ 1. Fully Explicit Tone Contours

The Romanized SBP system shows tones using numbers inside parentheses, such as:

• (4--), (3--), (2--), (1--)

• (23--), (32--), (34--), (21--)

Durbin Feeling documented rising and falling tones using combined numbers (23, 34, 32), except for final syllables, whose falling contours were understood rather than written. He wrote the 21 fall simply as “1.”

SBP makes all contours explicit, including final‑syllable falls, so learners can see exactly what they are hearing.

✅ 2. Duration That Works on Every Platform

Instead of a dot beneath the syllable, SBP uses:

• - short

• -- long

• --- extended (rare; referenced by Durbin)

These marks are easy to type and survive copy‑and‑paste across devices.

✅ 3. Syllable Origin and Consonant Shifts

SBP shows where each sound comes from, helping learners understand how Cherokee syllables transform in fluent speech:

• (qu)gwooh ← derived from the ST form “quu,” corresponding to the SBP form “quooh.”

• (d)toh ← alternate consonant derived from the ST form “do,” which corresponds to the SBP form “doh.”

This makes the system fully reversible and transparent.

✅ 4. Emphasis and Rhythm

Different Cherokee speakers emphasize syllables differently.
SBP attempts to document these variations using:

• ALL CAPS

• ^caret

• underline (in the 3‑in‑1 font)

These tools help learners understand the “music” of Cherokee speech.

✅ 5. Dialect Support

SBP includes Eastern Cherokee forms by referencing "E:" prefix, allowing both dialects to be represented clearly.

✅ 6. The 3‑in‑1 Font

Each character in the font displays:

1. the Cherokee syllabary

2. the Standard Transliteration

3. the SBP phonetic value

This potentially helps learners understand the relationship between writing and sound more quickly because all three layers are visible at once.

 

Why This Matters for Learners

SBP is designed to document the speaking styles of Native Cherokee Speakers and to serve as an aid for anyone who wants to speak more naturally and confidently. Whether you’re brand new to Cherokee or already familiar with the syllabary or ST, SBP gives you tools to understand:

• tone

• contour

• duration

• emphasis

• rhythm

• dialect

• syllable origin

All of these features are part of real Cherokee speech, and seeing them clearly can make your learning experience more intuitive and rewarding.

If you’re curious to learn more, explore the examples on this page, try out the 3‑in‑1 font, or reach out with questions. I’m always happy to help people learn more about Cherokee and discover techniques that make the language come alive.