The Cherokee (Tsa-la-gi) words are spelled like they are pronounced and likewise, words are pronounced as they are spelled. The word "syllabary" is used to describe a system to develop words into writing. Cherokee (Tsa-la-gi) is written syllabary form because each letter in a word represents for a whole syllable (such as "ga") instead of a single letter (such as "g"). Cherokee is a complete syllabary, with the exception of the letter 's'.
The language has 6 vowels and 17 consonants. The vowels are "a, e, i, o, u, v." The vowels are pronounced as:
a = as in bark
e = as in late
i = as the e in beat
o = as the o in wrote
u = as the double o in boot
v = as the u in nut. V is always nasalized.
All words begin with a consonant and end with a long or short vowel except the 'S' sound. Often, a word will appear to end with a consonant and not a vowel.
Syllables qua, que, quo, quu and quv are pronounced with a "kw" sound before each vowel.
Syllables beginning with the letter "d" are pronounced as in the English, but approach a "t" sound; do, du, and dv sound like to, tu and tv in some words.
"ti" syllables are sometimes pronounced "di." The syllables "do, du and dv" are sometimes pronounced as "to, tu and tv." The syllables tsa, tse, tso, tsu and tsv are pronounced differently in South Carolina and Oklahoma. The Western Cherokee usually pronounce words with a soft "j" sound by keeping the tongue at the bottom of the mouth.
Cherokee uses the English consonants: d g h k l m n q s t w. The Kituwah middle dialect of Cherokee does not use the English consonants: b f p r t v x z.
Cherokee is spoken with the lips still, mouth barely opened and the tongue pressed lightly against the lower teeth. Some words are pronounced through the nose and partly in the throat. (Information From Manakaka.org )
