Cherokee Transliteration
With Java or Groovy
Compile Javascript

Transliteration of Cherokee can be difficult. Some projects use delimiters, such as spaces and hyphens, to delineate syllables in order to provide the display. This project uses a "natural" transliteration to parse single words (with or without hyphenation) and sentences (with or without hyphenation).

At this time, there is source code available (in Groovy and javascript) and a jar distribution.

There are two ways to run the transliteration code: 1) deploy a jar 2) include the javascript file.

A compiled jar is provided for download, however, if you would like to build yourself the following instructions should help you.

• Download and install Gradle (http://gradle.org)
• Download the source for the project
• Open a CLI to the location of the build.gradle
• Type: 'gradle jar' to run the build and produce a compiled jar (the jar will be in the build\libs directory)
• Type: 'gradle test' to run the tests
• Type: 'gradle check' to run the codenarc tests (the report will be placed in the build\reports\codenarc)
• Type: 'gradle srcZip' to run the task that zips up the source (the zip will be in the build\distributions directory)

To use with Java or Groovy:

def su = new SyllabaryUtil();
def value = su.tsalagiToSyllabary("tsalagi");

With every transliteration from Tsalagi (the roman alphabet version) to Syllabary you simply run tsalagiToSyllabary, as presented above, with your Tsalagi word that you would like to see in Syllabary.

In the test folder there is a test.html file that you can play with these settings. The test.html file allows you to transliterate from Tsalagi to Syllabary and from Syllabary to Tsalagi at the click of a button.

def su = new SyllabaryUtil();
def value = su.parseSyllabary("ᏓᏩᏙᎠ")

The parseSyllabary method will take the Syllabary and return Tsalagi.

In order to parse hyphenated values:

def su = new SyllabaryUtil();
def value = parseHyphen("do-na-da-go-hv-i");

In order to parse a sentence:

def su = new SyllabaryUtil();
def value = tsalagiToSyllabary("osiyo, magi.  donadagohvi")

Different ways to parse

The parser supports three different sets of input:

• hyphenated syllables (do-na-da-go-hv-i)
• no hyphens (donadagohvi)
• full sentences, some punctuation (osiyo, magi. donadagohvi.)

Acceptable punctuation marks (,-.:;?/) - other punctuation marks simply have not been added at this time.

When you run the 'tsalagiToSyllabary' (or open the index.html file in your browser) there are certain values that are "normalized" i.e. agwaduliha will be "normalized" to aquaduliha before the transliteration process begins. The use of "normalized" simply means "conversion of one form to another for ease of use."

Here are the values that are replaced:

gwa - qua
gwe - que
gwi - qui
gwo - quo
gwu - quu
gwv - quv
ja - tsa
je - tse
ji - tsi
jo - tso
ju - tsu
jv - tsv
dle - tle
dli - tli
dlo - tlo
dlu - tlu
dlv - tlv
hla - tla
hli - tli
hyah - ya
hya - ya
hyeh - ye
htsv - tsv
ki - gi
hga - ga
hgi - gi
hgo - go
hgu - gu
hgv - gv
hwi - wi
wh - wv
hdi - di
hje - je
hta - ta
ks - gis

Correct representation of 'do' and 'to' are done through the mapping of the syllabary to the pronunciation of the syllables. e.g. to = Ꮩ and do = Ꮩ

This representation is unidirectional - if you entered Dohiju then the transliterated value would be ᏙᎯᏧ - as would tohiju, tohitsu, and dohitsu. However, when you transliterate ᏙᎯᏧ from Syllabary to the romanized version you will always get tohitsu.

At some point in the future I may write a version of this program (the index.html transliteration portion) that the user may select preferences for "do vs to," "ju vs tsu," "gwa vs qua," etc. At this time only the one romanized transliteration is available.

Transliteration is fallible. If you enter sukta and expect ᏑᎦᏔ - you will be disappointed. If you enter sukata and expect ᏑᎦᏔ - you will also be disappointed. In order to use the transliteration process provided you will need to know how to "spell" the Tsalagi (romanized) version to view the Syllabary transliteration.

To generate the javascript version of the transliteration code run: gradle convert

you'll need to have the latest javascript files from: https://github.com/chiquitinxx/grooscript/tree/master/src/main/resources/META-INF/resources The current version included here is from "Apr 27, 2020"

To use with Javascript

The code in test/javascript/test.html will give you insight into how to include this on your page.

If you want to run the javascript tests to make sure they all work simply uncomment this line:

<!--<script src="javascriptTest.js"></script>-->

inside test.html and open the page in your browser.

Include the javascript file SyllabaryUtil.js in your HTML.

SyllabaryUtil.tsalagiToSyllabary("tsalagi")

SyllabaryUtil.parseSyllabary("ᏓᏩᏙᎠ")

If you would like to run the tests with the javascript file - simply uncomment the javascriptTest.js line in the test.html file.

The Groovy and Javascript SyllabaryUtil files are licensed under MIT - do what you want with them. We're not responsible for anything.

The Grooscript files are licensed under:
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.\