Cheyenne (Tsėhesenėstsestotse / Tsisinstsistots)

There are about 11,000 Cheyenne people, 3,000 of whom speak the Cheyenne language, a member of the Algonquian family. The Cheyenne population is divided between the Northern Cheyenne, who live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana and number about 8,000, and the Southern Cheyenne, who live in western Oklahoma and number about 3,000.

The Cheyenne name for their language is Tsėhesenėstsestotse or Tsisinstsistots and the Cheyenne people call themselves Tsitsistas. The Cheyenne alphabet consists of only 14 letters which can be combined together to make some very long words.

Cheyenne alphabet

Cheyenne is a tonal language and tones are marked as follows:

á, é, ó = high pitch or tone
ȧ, ė, ȯ or â, ê, ô = voiceless (whispered)

Some examples of Cheyenne

Nétsêhésenêstsehe = Do you speak Cheyenne?

Náohkėsáa'oné'seómpėhévetsėhésto'anéhe = I truly do not pronounce Cheyenne well

Náno'ee'ėha'onȯtse vóóhe = I put my shoes on with the morning star (I got up really early)

Mȧxhevéesevȯhtse ooȧhé'e = when frogs have teeth (i.e. never)

Tower of Babel in Cheyenne

Links

The Cheyenne Language (pronunciation and basic vocabulary)
http://icemaid.virtualave.net/cheyenne2.html

Let's Listen to Cheyenne - a site featuring recordings of Cheyenne speech
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/song/1147/

Related languages

Abenaki, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Delaware, Massachusett, Miami, Míkmaq, Montagnais, Naskapi, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Shawnee

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

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