ᎠᏯ
aya
The phrase "me" in Cherokee is translated as ᎠᏯ (aya).
ᎠᏯ is a pronoun used by a speaker to refer to themselves when they are the object of a verb or a preposition.
How do you pronounce it?
aya
Did you know?
- The Cherokee writing system, created by Sequoyah, uses a syllabary where the character Ꭰ represents a consonant-vowel sound rather than a single letter.
- Cherokee distinguishes between 'me' as an individual and 'us' as a group in ways that vary depending on whether the group includes the person being spoken to.
- Cherokee is a polysynthetic language, meaning a single long word can express a thought that would require an entire sentence in English including 'I' and 'me'.
Example conversation
Two friends are talking about a phone call.
- AᎠᏯ ᏓᏓᏓᏓᏍᏓᎢ.aya dadadasdai.He is calling me.
- BᏓᏓᏓᏓᏍᏓᎢ?dadadasdai?Is he calling?
- AᎤᏙᎯ ᏓᏓᏓᏓᏍᏓᎢ ᎠᏯ.udohi dadadasdai aya.Yes, he is calling me.
- BᎠᏓᏓᏓᏍᏓᎢ.adadasdai.He is calling.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry ᎠᏯ, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
