Critical to the continuing revitalization of the Cherokee language is the need for the development of a “Cherokee Dictionary” of all Cherokee stems, affixes, words and phrases in an easy-to-access electronic computer database.
The most important reason for creating an electronic database instead of the typical print dictionary is an electronic version can more readily serve different types of users. An electronic database also allows users who are not accustomed to seeing the stem form of word to also access the more common words, users with different ways of writing Cherokee can be served, it will be easily searchable for developing lesson plans, will have many different examples of words such as synonyms, antonyms, and most importantly an electronic database can be easily maintained and updated. Further the electronic database allows for the use of the Cherokee syllabary, different spellings of words, represent all (audio) dialects including the Eastern Band, and will be linguistically accurate which serve linguists and anyone interested in learning the Cherokee language.
