ᎧᏬᏄ
kawonu/kʰa.ɰo.nu/
The Cherokee word for duck is ᎧᏬᏄ (kawonu).
ᎧᏬᏄ is a noun used to refer to an aquatic bird of the family Anatidae.
Meaning: aquatic bird of the family Anatidae (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
The word is pronounced /kʰa.ɰo.nu/ and has three syllables.
Did you know?
- Because Cherokee is a highly polysynthetic language, a single word can often encompass an entire sentence. A speaker could theoretically attach prefixes or suffixes to a root to describe a specific duck's action, like 'the duck is swimming'.
- The Cherokee syllabary used to write ᎧᏬᏄ was created by Sequoyah in the early 1820s. Unlike the English alphabet, each character represents a whole syllable rather than a single letter.
- While ᎧᏬᏄ refers to the bird, Cherokee uses entirely different root words for the action of 'ducking' or crouching down to avoid something.
Example sentences for Cherokee are not verified yet.
Example conversation
Two people are looking at a pond.
- AᎧᏬᏄ ᎢᏳᏓᏓᏅᏓ!kawonu iyudadanvda!Look, a duck!
- BᎥᎥ, ᎧᏬᏄ ᎢᎩ ᎤᏓᏓᏅᏓ.Vv, kawonu igi udadanvda.Yes, those are ducks.
- AᎧᏬᏄ ᎢᎦ ᎤᏓᏓᏅᏓ ᎤᏓᏅᏓ?kawonu iga udadanvda udadanvda?Is this duck swimming?
- BᎥᎥ, ᎧᏬᏄ ᎢᎦ ᎤᏓᏓᏅᏓ.Vv, kawonu iga udadanvda.Yes, this duck is.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “duck” translations and entries ᎧᏬᏄ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
