ᏂᎯ
nihi
The Cherokee word for 'you' (the person being addressed) is ᏂᎯ (nihi).
ᏂᎯ is used as a subject pronoun to refer to the person being addressed.
Meaning: subject pronoun: the person being addressed (pron)
How do you pronounce it?
nihi
Did you know?
- When addressing someone, Cherokee speakers may use kinship terms instead of a pronoun to show respect. Calling someone 'aunt' or 'uncle' is common even if they are not a biological relative.
- The Cherokee writing system, created by Sequoyah, uses a syllabary where each character represents a syllable rather than a single letter. This means the sounds in ᏂᎯ are represented by two distinct symbols.
- Because Cherokee is an polysynthetic language, the pronoun for 'you' is often part of a much larger, single-word sentence.
Example conversation
Two friends are discussing a shared memory.
- AᏂᎯ ᎪᏪᎵ ᏗᏣᏓᏓᏓᏅᏖᎢ?nihi goweli ditsadadanvte-i?Are you thinking about the book?
- BᎥᎥ, ᏂᎯ ᎪᏪᎵ ᏗᏣᏓᏓᏓᏅᏖᎢ.vnv, nihi goweli ditsadadanvte-i.Yes, you are thinking about the book too.
- AᎢᏳᏍᎩ ᏗᏣᏓᏓᏅᏖᎢ.iyusgi ditsadadanvte-i.That is what you are thinking about.
