ᎠᏆᏤᎵ
agwatseli
The English word "my" is translated into Cherokee as ᎠᏆᏤᎵ (agwatseli).
ᎠᏆᏤᎵ is a determiner used to indicate that something belongs to the speaker.
Meaning: belonging to me (det)
How do you pronounce it?
agwatseli
Did you know?
- The Cherokee writing system, used to write ᎠᏆᏤᎵ, was invented by Sequoyah in the 1820s, making it one of the few writing systems created by a single person.
- Many Cherokee words for family members are inherently possessive, meaning you cannot say 'mother' without essentially saying 'my mother'.
- Because Cherokee is an agglutinative language, the word for 'my' can change its form depending on whether you are talking about a person, an animal, or an inanimate object.
Example conversation
Two people are looking at a bag on a table.
- AᎠᏆᏤᎵ 👜 ᎢᎾ?aguatseli tshe ina?Is that my bag?
- BᎥᏝ, ᎾᏍᎩ Ꮭ ᎥᏝ ᎠᏆᏤᎵ.vtla, nasgi tla vtla aguatseli.No, that is not mine.
- AᎠᏆᏤᎵ 👜 ᎢᎬᏯᏓ.aguatseli tshe igyada.This is my bag.
- BᎠᎾ ᎢᎬᏯᏓ.ana igyada.It is here.
