Thread: Native American Languages

Does anyone know if there's like...books being published, websites, etc. to learn Native American languages? I just realized I would really like to learn Cherokee (I'm like...part Cherokee) and I was just wondering. I dunno. Lol...

I dont know about books but I do know a man that used to teach Lakota or Dakota at the University of Minnesota. So I think you should be able find some infomation on this with a search engine.

I found some info on Cherokee. Their alphabet is hella weird.

It looks like it'd be hard to write. O_o

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyJack

Does anyone know if there's like...books being published, websites, etc. to learn Native American languages? I just realized I would really like to learn Cherokee (I'm like...part Cherokee) and I was just wondering. I dunno. Lol...

Like Cher

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyJack

I found some info on Cherokee. Their alphabet is hella weird.

There is that word again hella.
I never heard this word before. Is this some modern day idiom?
I have heard of helluva.

"Hella" is very common amongst the American Indians I worked with. I just assumed that they invented it and it is spreading because it has already spread into the cowboy culture.

Cartman: You guys are hella stupid.

Stan: Why do you keep saying 'hella", Cartman?

Cartman: 'Cuz I'm hella cool, that's why.

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyJack

I found some info on Cherokee. Their alphabet is hella weird.

It looks like it'd be hard to write. O_o

Is this a native American language? Most of the letters look like Latin Greek and Cyrrilic letters.

Who are Cartman and Stan?

hella means "extremely" or "very". It's a word that started in Northern California specifically around the bay area and spread north into Oregon. Some dumb valley girls say it but for the most part of the country it's confined to Northern California. It's teenager slang. Southpark had one of the characters say hella all the time but it was being used in the Bay Area long before the show was aired.

This is the first time I've ever heard it being spoken by people not from the west coast

How do you know it started there in N California? Do you know personally the first person to use it or is this just hearsay. I mean I know a guy that claims responsibilty for a slang term but even that means nothing. So how do you know that it (being "hella") wasn't stolen from some big bronc riding Shoshone Indian? Hmmm? Hmmmmmm?

Here's a link to some info on the Cherokee alphabet and its inventor, Sequoyah. There's also a 'Speak Cherokee' link on that page.

http://www.manataka.org/page81.html

Hope this helps,

Joe

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyJack

Does anyone know if there's like...books being published, websites, etc. to learn Native American languages? I just realized I would really like to learn Cherokee (I'm like...part Cherokee) and I was just wondering. I dunno. Lol...

Like Cher

Hella yeah! :P

Yeah, I heard it on South Park. 'Cause I'm hella coo.
I say weird slang all the time yo.

But hell yeah like Cher.
Gypsies tramps and thieves! ances:

Originally Posted by TriggerHappyJack

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Yeah, I heard it on South Park.

South Park? That's probably where the big Indian got it from.

Totally. The natives love their comedy central.

Hee! I jsut remembered this! Ooh! I bet I can say it in Russian! Когда я сказал слова снег думал что сказал Cher! I want that to say, "When I saw that word снег I thought that it said Cher!" Lol, I was all CHER!!! WHERE! Anyhoo, how would I make it, "When I first saw the word снег I thought it said Cher?"

Когда я читал слово "снег", я думал что слово было "Cher".

Maybe that is better?

Oi. Yeah.

Когда я первый раз видел слово "снег" я думал, что это было "Cher"

Originally Posted by Geoduck

Когда я читал слово "снег", я думал что слово было "Cher".

Maybe that is better?

Should get rid of that было? Reported speech is in the tense it was said in... But I don't know about reported thoughts.

Когда я читал слово "снег" я думал, что слово "Cher".

?