Thoughts on the Udugi Language

It is said that "you don't speak Cherokee unless you speak it from the cradle." It seems to be true. I can speak half a dozen languages, but Cherokee is not one of them. I've studied many languages, and Cherokee is the most complex. It is now believed that there are not more than two thousand people who can speak Cherokee fluently. In one or two generations, there will be none. Since I care about the language, this struck me as very sad. I came to the conclusion that it would be better to save what can be saved (the vocabulary), rather than see it all disappear. So, in 2017 and 2018 I created the Udugi language.

Udugi is a constructed language that is based on Cherokee vocabulary and a subset of Esperanto grammar. I chose Esperanto, not only because I speak it, but also because it is very logical, and the grammar has only sixteen rules, with no exceptions. It is also extremely expressive, one of the most expressive languages I know.

The project was even more successful than I had anticipated. I soon had a language that could preserve all of Cherokee's vocabulary, but was relatively simple and easy to learn. I could also express things in it that I would not be able to express in Cherokee.

Since the vocabulary is Cherokee, I was also able to preserve the use of the Cherokee syllabary, invented by Sequoia. But if one prefers, one can write it in the Roman alphabet.

I published (in this blog) an Udugi dictionary, with a simple grammar, on May 26, 2020. I am no longer developing the language, so I will not be adding anything further to the dictionary, but others can, if they wish.

The reason I am writing this at this time is because the other day I published something in Udugi, and realized that one of the words I used was not in the dictionary. That word was "yeliquetsodine," which means "possibilities." Cherokee, like other North American indigenous languages, is not strong on abstractions, but they can be constructed, just as they can in Esperanto. If we search the dictionary, the nearest thing we can find is "yeliquu," which means "possible." But if we take the word apart, we can determine it's meaning. The root is "yeliqu," which has do do with "being able," or "possible." The "-etso" means it's an abstract noun, the "-di" means it's plural, and the final "-ne" means it's accusative (object) case. The whole phrase I published, "atsvyai gowatase itse yeliquetsodine." means "He sees new possibilities." The "-ase" at the end of the verb makes it present tense. Simple, no?

This morning I wanted to test Udugi's ability to express abstractions. I came up with this phrase: "The autonomic nervous system is a law unto itself." I translated it into Udugi as "vsa-gotlvhisdodi odanadv-iyadvnelidasdi gesvase saquu dikahnawadvsdi nasgvsa didla." In the Cherokee syllabary this would be:

 ᎥᏌ-ᎪᏢᎯᏍᏙᏗ ᎣᏓᎾᏛ-ᎢᏯᏛᏁᎵᏓᏍᏗ ᎨᏒᎠᏎ ᏌᏊ ᏗᎧᎿᏩᏛᏍᏗ ᎾᏍᎬᏌ ᏗᏜ.

Here is another phrase that I published the other day:

vlenidohv gesvase galvquodi. In the syllabary: ᎥᎴᏂᏙᎲ ᎨᏒᎠᏎ ᎦᎸᏉᏗ. See if you can figure it out, using the dictionary.

Text and image Copyright © 2021 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, ꮨᏺꭽꮅ.